Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu

Ilir Aliu
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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. 4D AGO

    Ep 78 | Don't Start With A Whiteboard, Talk To Customers (w/Brennand Pierce)

    I talked with Brennand Pierce, founder and CEO of Kinisi Robotics, where he’s building one-armed mobile manipulators: Designed to automate warehouse tasks like picking, palletizing, and labeling and many more. After nearly two decades in robotics, Bren brings a rare mix of academic depth, startup experience, and hands-on engineering to the conversation. We talk about growing up fascinated by sci-fi and Japanese hobby robots, studying computer science at Exeter, earning a Master’s at the Bristol Robotics Lab, and completing his PhD in humanoid robotics at the Technical University of Munich. Bren shares what he learned building humanoids, founding three robotics companies; including co-founding Bear Robotics, which shipped over 25,000 service robots, and why he now believes the future belongs to practical, task-optimized robots rather than overpromised humanoids. We also look into Kinisi’s approach to solving real-world deployment challenges, lessons from past robotics booms, and what it takes to move from flashy demos to robots that actually work in production.

    55 min

  2. 5D AGO

    Ep 77 | If Other People Can Do It, Why Not Us? (w/ Aaron Tan)

    In this episode, I talk with Aaron Tan, PhD, Co-founder of Syncere, where he’s reimagining domestic robotics: A robotic lamp capable of folding laundry! One single video of the concept went viral, pulling in over 4 million views and sparking thousands of conversations online. We talk about growing up in Taiwan, immigrating to Canada as a teenager, and how a Lego Mindstorms kit from his father kicked off a lifelong obsession with robots. Aaron walks me through his path from a Bachelor’s and Master’s at Ontario Tech University, to a PhD at the University of Toronto, and a postdoc at Stanford... and why he chose the Bay Area to build Syncere. He also shares the story behind Lume’s design, inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and explains why he believes the future of home robotics shouldn’t look like humanoids. We talk about building in public, customer psychology, and what it’s like creating a product people can’t wait to have in their homes.

    49 min

  3. AUG 21

    Ep 76 | Fear and Pressure Fade When Joy Takes Over (w/ Brendah Njiru)

    In this episode, I talk with Brendah Njiru, founder of HOMY Robotics, where she’s building emotionally intelligent humanoid robots for senior living: With a background in neuroscience and Alzheimer’s research at Cornell, Brendah brings a rare scientific depth to robotics. We talk about her upbringing in Kenya, her early obsession with medicine, and what pulled her into AI and hardware. She shares how she transitioned from labs to startups, why senior care is the perfect proving ground for home robotics, and how her work is grounded in real-world deployment. Brendah also opens up about pressure, ambition, and how she's building HOMY to solve deep human problems, not just automate tasks.

    1h 14m

  4. AUG 13

    Ep 75 | We Should Scale It Up Ourselves (w/ Lerrel Pinto)

    In this episode, I talk with Lerrel Pinto, Assistant Professor at NYU and one of the most cited researchers in robotics today: His work spans everything from self-supervised learning to robot dexterity, and he's on a mission to make robots generalize the way humans do. We talk about growing up in India, building his own education at IIT, and what led him to Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, and now New York. Lerrel explains how his lab at NYU, GRAIL, tackles robot learning at scale (from representation learning to reinforcement learning) and why open-source, affordable robots are core to his approach. He also shares what it’s like launching his new stealth-mode startup, Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), while running one of the top research labs in the country. We talk about how his teaching, mentoring, and outreach are shaping the next generation of roboticists.

    51 min

  5. AUG 7

    Ep 74 | Why Early Corporate Experience Is Valuable for Entrepreneurs (w/ Benji Barash)

    I sit down with Benji Barash, CEO of Roboto AI, to talk Amazon, robotics, and why knowing what to do with your data is key to scaling: Benji spent years at Amazon working on drone delivery, but started to see a growing problem in robotics, the data was piling up faster than teams could make sense of it. He left Amazon to build a solution. Today, Roboto AI helps robotics companies analyze massive amounts of sensor logs and time-series data. It’s like a copilot for engineers trying to figure out why something broke, how to improve it, and what to do next. We talk about growing up in the UK, getting into programming way before school even taught it, and what it takes to go from big tech to a lean startup. Benji shares what surprised him about building in the real world, how he works across time zones with his co-founder in Zurich, and what it means to build tools that help others scale.

    1h 6m

  6. JUL 31

    Ep 73 | Learn It Yourself Before Hiring for Expertise (w/ Madison Maxey)

    In this episode, I talk with Madison Maxey, founder of LOOMIA, a company building soft, flexible electronics for everything: Everything? Everything! From robotics to automotive interiors. Maddie’s journey spans fashion school, a Thiel Fellowship, a return to Stanford in her mid-20s to study material science, and a decade of turning prototypes into real-world tech. We talk about growing up with a soldering iron and a sewing machine, how she designed a smart jacket for Zac Posen and Google, and why building a company means more than building a product. Maddie shares what it took to land early customers like Airbus, how she balances long timelines with fast-moving industries, and why her goal is to build something meaningful over 30 years, not just raise another round. We talk about early wins, hard lessons, the beauty of tactile sensing, and why confidence comes from doing hard things until they start to feel normal.

    51 min

  7. JUL 10

    Ep 72 | Found the perfect track, combining science and design (w/ Matthieu Lapeyre)

    Yesterday, they launched a $299 robot. It looks like a toy, but it opens up a world of AI. Today, I talk to the person who made it real. Matthieu Lapeyre is the founder of Pollen Robotics and one of the most quietly influential roboticists in Europe. He’s been building open-source humanoids long before it was cool, from Poppy to Reachy to Reachy Mini. We talk about how growing up without a tech background shaped him, why he left research to ship hardware, and how he kept going through years of bootstrapping with barely enough to pay the team. He shares what it’s really like to live on the edge for years, and how joining Hugging Face gave them the launchpad they needed. We also get into the making of Reachy Mini, why it's designed to be unbreakable, what inspired the egg-shaped head, and how it could become the iPhone moment for robotics.

    53 min

  8. JUL 3

    Ep 71 | The Team Ends Up Like Charting the Path Too (w/ Kaan Dogrusoz)

    In this episode, I talk with Kaan Dogrusoz, Co-Founder and CEO of Weave Robotics, a YC-backed team building Isaac, a personal home robot: Kaan grew up in Istanbul, chased curiosity across physics, art, and engineering, and eventually made his way to Carnegie Mellon, then Apple, where he spent nearly a decade working on robotics and shipping features like Double Tap on the Apple Watch. But something kept pulling at him. He didn’t want to be part of a massive machine anymore. He wanted to build something real, something personal, a robot he’d want in his own home. That’s how Isaac was born. A home robot built not for factories or labs, but for laundry piles and living rooms. We talk about leaving comfort behind, learning by doing, what it’s like to live with your own prototype, and why he thinks shipping a robot (not just dreaming one) is the hardest and most honest thing a founder can do.

    55 min
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About

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.

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