Robotics is booming in Massachusetts, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to build and scale a robotics business. It’s a well-known fact amongst robotics CEOs that “you have to be more right when building a hardware business.” Software companies are easier to pivot. Making a mistake when building physical things can cost you the business. That’s why it’s so important for robotics company executives to learn from those who have gone before them.
A recent MassTLC Executive Dinner focused on challenges and insights of growing your robotics business. Burlington’s Tuscan Kitchen was the venue for CEOs and other c-level executives from over a dozen robotics companies, representing a diversity of stages and industres, including: Artaic, Ascend Robotics, Boston Engineering, iRobot, Locus Robotics, MassRobotics, Myomo, ORI Systems, Rethink Robotics, Riptide Solutions, SoftRobotics, and Symbotic.
The conversation was a frank, off the record, opportunity for these executives to share both ubiquitous and unique lessons learned from a diverse array of robotics applications, ranging across healthcare, marine, consumer, supply chain, defense, creative industries, and more. Variations on rapid talent acquisition across the organization, the evolution of leadership at the management and board levels, and issues unique to various types of boards and at different stages of the business were major topics of conversation.
MassTLC believes that innovation happens at the boundaries and that getting small numbers of CEOs together from companies of different stages around key issues relating to growth and innovation further develops executive networks and sharing of insights, partners, vendors, etc. MassTLC has been convening and leading the Massachusetts Robotics Cluster for over a decade and is working on multiple levels to ensure that Massachusetts remains the global leader in the future of robotics and automation as we enter the Fourth Industrial Age.
A special thanks JP Morgan for sponsoring this executive dinner.
