Silicon Valley Robotics held the first seminar in our Startup Series on Thursday Sept 13 at Counsyl in South San Francisco. More than 40 robot or hardware startup founders attended to get some insight into the manufacturing process specific to a robotics startup. There was a one hour panel followed by a very active discussion and network period.
We had a great lineup of speakers, ably chaired by TerrAvion founder, Robert Morris. The panel consisted of: Nick Pinkston, organizer of the SF Hardware Startup Meetup, the Makers Map project and founder of startups, CloudFab and Plethora, who aims to make digital manufacturing easier; Kyle Lapham, Director of Lab Automation at Counsyl, who is building robots to run all their patient samples and previously worked in Prof Elizabeth Blackburn’s Nobel Prizewinning lab at UCSF; and Frank Moreman, COO of EksoBionics, who brings years of factory manufacturing and China experience with companies like Philips, Hubbell Lighting and Siegal Engineering to bear on EksoBionic’s robotic systems. Finally, Markus Rokitta from PCH International’s new hardware accelerator, Highway 1 introduced some of the benefits that they can bring to startups.
This is a series by startups for startups, where Silicon Valley Robotics members pose the questions they want to see answered and source the answers from more experienced companies and other field experts. Topics over the series include manufacturability, recruitment, founding teams, sales process management, supply chain management, design decisions, investors, intellectual property etc. As well as expert speakers, this meetup brings together robotics entrepreneurs and advisors for peer mentoring and networking. This is an opportunity to share your up to date experiences.
Big thanks to our startup working party for organizing the topic and speakers, Counsyl for hosting the event and PCH International’s new accelerator Highway 1 for providing the food and drink. btw Counsyl are hiring! And for more manufacturability – visit Inside 3D Printing at San Jose Sep 17-18.
