Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu

Ilir Aliu

The show for founders building real deep tech. Each episode features founders, executives, and builders in AI, robotics, and hardware — breaking down how they build, scale, and learn. We talk about systems, mistakes, GTM strategy, funding lessons, and how to move from research to traction. Hosted by Ilir Aliu from 22Astronauts. Whether you’re building now or just curious — tune in.

  1. 4 ΗΜ. ΠΡΙΝ

    Ep 88 | Always a Bit of a Generalist, Never Only One Thing (w/ Jon Miller Schwartz)

    In this episode, I talk with Jon Miller Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of Ultra, about how to actually get robots deployed in warehouses: We walk through Jon’s journey from tearing apart electronics on a tiny New York City workbench to Harvey Mudd, early YC startups in 3D printing, and building one of the first highly automated factories at Voodoo Manufacturing. Jon explains why those painful years with “last generation” robots convinced him to start Ultra and focus on one thing first e commerce order packing as a beachhead for real industrial deployment. He breaks down how Ultra’s robots drop into existing pack stations, learn from examples instead of brittle scripts, and why he believes in multi purpose robots before truly general purpose systems. We talk about force sensitive dexterity, what most people get wrong about warehouse automation, and how a small team in Brooklyn already has robots running live for customers. If you care about turning AI and robotics into shipped systems instead of slideware, this one is for you.

    52 λεπτά

  2. 6 ΝΟΕ

    Ep 87 | Speed Is Objectively the Most Important Thing in Life (w/ Axel Peytavin)

    Axel Peytavin, co-founder & CEO of Innate, shows you how to teach real robots with language and quick demos without being a roboticist. We talk about Axel’s path from France to Stanford and why he is betting on personal robotics you can program with prompts, code, and demonstrations. He explains Mars, Innate’s $2K teachable robot with a Jetson Orin Nano, RGB-D vision, wrist camera, 2D LiDAR, and a 6-DOF arm. We break down BASIC, their open embodied agent that plans, remembers spaces, and chains skills. You will hear how a new skill can be trained in under 30 minutes, runs locally, and can be shared across a fleet. Axel walks through real use cases like chess play with camera understanding, pick and place, tidying, and security patrols. We cover the SDK, the open platform approach on ROS2, and why Innate focuses on accessibility, teachability, and community. If you want an insight into his story, a clear playbook for getting hands-on with embodied AI, and moving from lab demos to working robots, this episode is for you.

    59 λεπτά

  3. 29 ΟΚΤ

    Ep 86 | It’s Not A Hardware Problem. It’s A System Problem (w/ Tom Zhang)

    Tom Zhang, founder and CEO of Daxo Robotics: with over 100 actuators they challenge everything we thought we knew about dexterity.In this episode, we talk about his journey from growing up in a mountain village in China to launching one of the most talked-about robotics startups of 2025. Tom shares how early life on a family orchard shaped his fascination with building and problem-solving, what he learned during his years at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab, and why he believes the robotics industry has been climbing the wrong mountain by chasing simplicity instead of embracing complexity. We explore the story behind Daxo’s “Muscle v0” hand, how it was built in days with 108 tiny motors and off-the-shelf materials, and why redundancy, not minimalism, might hold the key to human-level adaptability. Tom also talks about his earlier success in agricultural robotics, raising over a million dollars in pre-seed funding, and what it takes to pivot from apple orchards to general-purpose robot dexterity. If you’re interested in robotics, entrepreneurship, or the mindset of founders who challenge fundamental assumptions, you’ll want to hear this conversation with Tom.

    54 λεπτά

  4. 24 ΟΚΤ

    Ep 85 | Having A Company Is Maybe The Hardest Way To Get Rich (w/ Maximilian Schilling)

    Maximilian Schilling, co-founder and CEO of warmwind, is building a new kind of browser where AI works like a digital employee: clicking, typing, and navigating apps visually instead of through APIs. In this episode, we talk about his mission to make automation transparent, reliable, and accessible for every business, and how he’s building one of Europe’s most ambitious AI startups from Jena, Germany. We dive into Max’s story, from growing up in a family that both inspired and warned him against entrepreneurship, to starting his first business at 14, and selling his second before launching Warmwind. He shares how financial independence as a teenager shaped his drive, why failure never felt like a real risk, and how curiosity (not comfort) has guided every decision he’s made. Max also explains Warmwind’s approach to building Warmwind OS, a browser-based system where AI agents automate workflows for small and medium businesses by acting on the screen instead of behind closed APIs. We talk about building reliable software, hiring in Europe, retraining vision-first AI models, and why he believes European founders should channel their “rage to compete” into world-class products. If you’re interested in AI, automation, or the mindset behind building bold companies from scratch, you’ll love this conversation with Max.

    55 λεπτά

  5. 16 ΟΚΤ

    Ep 84 | Fundamental Improvement Over Incremental Change (w/ Xavier (Tianhao) Chi)

    Robots still need weeks of coding to learn one new task. Xavier (Tianhao) Chi is changing that with Mbodi AI: Mbodi helps industrial robots learn through language and demonstration. No coding, no engineers, just simple instruction. We talk about how his team is closing the gap between advanced AI research and real factory floors, and what that means for the future of automation. Xavier shares his path from growing up in Shenyang to leading Google Public DNS, one of the internet’s core services, and why he left to build Mbodi with his co-founder. He explains why the next wave of robotics will come from adaptable software, not humanoids. We also talk about risk, ambition, and what it takes to move from stable engineering to startup chaos. Xavier breaks down Mbodi’s hybrid AI approach, its sub-0.5 second response times, and how their partnership with ABB is turning it into real deployments. A must-listen for anyone building in robotics, AI, or industrial automation.

    50 λεπτά

  6. 9 ΟΚΤ

    Ep. 83 | You Become Who You Hang Out With (w/ Ashish Kapoor)

    Ashish Kapoor is building General Robotics to solve the biggest deployment problem in robotics: Getting real robots to work in the real world. In this episode, he shares how he’s doing it, and why most robotics stacks aren’t built to scale. We talk about growing up in India, studying at IIT and MIT, and how his mindset shifted from solving hard problems to finding the right ones. Ashish shares why he left research to start General Robotics, the limits of today’s robotics stacks, and how Grid aims to solve the deployment bottleneck, especially for enterprises drowning in PoCs and fragmented software. He also opens up about his background in aviation, building his own airplane, and how he's betting on cloud-first skills infrastructure while others chase edge. This one’s packed with insight from someone who’s worked across every layer of the robotics stack... and is now trying to make it all work in the real world.

    1 ώρα

  7. 2 ΟΚΤ

    Ep 82 | College Is Going to Be Obsolete by the End of This Decade (w/ Brian Walker)

    In this episode, I talk with Brian Walker, founder and CEO of REVEL, the company building the simulation backbone for humanoid robotics. Brian’s journey started far from Silicon Valley: growing up in the Czech Republic and working on Hollywood sets like Avatar and The Mandalorian, where he helped pioneer real-time XR production. We talk about what pulled him from filmmaking into robotics, and how sci-fi inspired him to stop watching the future and start building it. Brian shares why he founded REVEL to create a massive library of digital twins, turning real-world products into high-fidelity simulation assets so robots can train on them before ever touching them. His goal? To make every product “robot-ready” and compress a decade of physical experience into just hours of training. We also dive into his views on self-education, outsider thinking, and why he acquired a startup during a 20-hour hackathon, with a mic-drop and a €20K offer. If you’re into robotics, simulation, or stories of wild career pivots, don’t miss this one.

    1 ώ. 2 λ.

  8. 24 ΣΕΠ

    Ep 81 | Opportunities Only Arise After An Incredible Amount Of Work (w/ Jan Liphardt)

    A Stanford physicist leaves academia to build open-source software for humanoid robots? I talked to OpenMind founder Jan Liphardt: OpenMind a new robotics company building an open-source, AI-native operating system for humanoid robots. We talk about being born in Germany, his upbringing in Michigan, early love for taking things apart, and how his path led from biochemistry at Reed to a PhD at Cambridge, then faculty roles at Berkeley and Stanford. Jan shares why he made the leap from academia to entrepreneurship, how a Nature paper and a Christmas Eve email nudged him out of the lab, and what drives his belief in transparency, modularity, and decentralized control for intelligent machines. We also discuss OpenMind’s strategy, where robots download their rulebooks from Ethereum, and why he thinks humanoids won't fold your laundry... but could teach your kids or assist in hospitals.

    1 ώ. 4 λ.
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Σχετικά με το podcast

The show for founders building real deep tech. Each episode features founders, executives, and builders in AI, robotics, and hardware — breaking down how they build, scale, and learn. We talk about systems, mistakes, GTM strategy, funding lessons, and how to move from research to traction. Hosted by Ilir Aliu from 22Astronauts. Whether you’re building now or just curious — tune in.

Πληροφορίες

  • Δημιουργός
    Ilir Aliu
  • Έτη παρουσίας
    2024 - 2025
  • Επεισόδια
    88
  • Καταλληλότητα
    Κατάλληλο
  • Πνευματικά δικαιώματα
    © Ilir Aliu
  • Ιστότοπος εκπομπής
    Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu

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