Start Here: Building a World-Class Robotics Company

A focused 90-day launch plan to move from ambition to real customer traction.

Core principle: Don’t start with a robot. Start with one painful, expensive workflow and prove ROI fast.

1) Pick your wedge market (one only)

Choose a task with labor shortages, high repetition, and measurable cost.
Prioritize environments where deployment is feasible in under 90 days.
Examples: warehouse unloading, machine tending, pallet handling, repetitive inspection.

2) Define your value in business terms

Primary metric: cost per completed task.
Secondary metrics: uptime, error rate, safety incidents, payback period.
Target: pilot payback under 12 months.

3) Build service-first before full productization

Launch as Robotics-as-a-Service with tight onsite support.
Use teleoperation fallback so reliability beats novelty.
Capture edge-case data every day to improve autonomy weekly.

4) 90-day execution plan

Days 1–14: 25–30 customer interviews in one vertical.
Days 15–30: choose one workflow and sign 1 design partner.
Days 31–60: deploy MVP in real environment (even if partially manual).
Days 61–90: run paid pilot with weekly KPI review and expansion plan.

5) Team to build first

Robotics/controls lead (hardware + autonomy integration).
Full-stack/data lead (teleop, tooling, data loop, deployment software).
GTM operator (customer discovery, pilots, onsite execution).

6) Your immediate next step (today)

Draft a one-page wedge thesis with: customer type, workflow, baseline cost, target ROI, pilot scope, success KPI, and why now.

Version 1.0 — concise founder operating brief.