On June 20th, 2006 in Palo Alto at Stanford University the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab's (
VLAB) monthly presentation and panel discussion was on "Consumer Robotics --Rise of the Machine". An unusual theme, as most of topics to date have centered around web2.0 type of ventures. The general audience turn out was not as it would ussually be expected. But I guess that is to be expected, given this is a niche topic, and in a sense an acquired topic of interest.
Following are the transcripts and my personal comments.
Speaker:
Bob Christopher, CEO & Co-founder,
UgobeModerator:
Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences; Co-founder,
GuideWire GroupPanelist:Khalid Al-Ali, Director of Robotics,
Carnegie Mellon University - West; CEO, SensetaRobert Capps, Senior Editor,
Wired MagazineJason Morella, Regional Director,
FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and TechnologyWarren Packard, Managing Director,
Draper Fisher JurvetsonThe event was kicked off with the moderator
Chris Shipley outlining the agenda for the evening, which is to explore how far robotics is going in consumer market-Imagination from 20 50 yrs back, and what robots can do for us.
The evening's presentation was given
Bob Christopher who spoke about Ugobe. Immediatly following Bob, the moderator led a provocative panel discuss which ended with a heated Q&A session from the audience.
Bob Christopher Ugobe presentation:(Following are key points from Bob's presentation.)
Tage Line: "If you can imagine it ugobe can create it"
Objective: To bring robots to life and discussed Uogbe's corporate team and advisory
board strategy in doing so.
--Any startup company must have a senior leadership team with experience and vision
--They must know and be able to anticipate any and all potholes.
finances: $7.5M Series B now doing $3M Series A done
Note many vc's have funded robotics companiesVC and robotics not a common relationship
What are we doing and why are we here?
Robotics is an Emotive life forms interactive pets 5.4B S Furby
NinterDogs...Tamafatchi...Simsgrowing to 668B 40M+unitsmarket by 2025 $28+in sales PLEO (This is ugobes space)
Robotic people seem to get the how part right but tend to stumble on why, why are you doing this what is your market
Think robot market will go in interactive pets direction to get widely accepted in consumer market place
Getting a good media response--japan primariily Fascination with robots is amazing, we think its next PC, platform Wire Mag, Discoer, Popular Sc have covered ugobe
As a company we launch life forms, robots that are alive. With sensory arrays, something that is potentially aliveWe are a physical version of pixar which tells story on cgi..We have to get robotics so good that you dont think of robotics, its transparent to you.
Marketing strategy: 1st yr: Pleo 2md yr: launch compelling new life form by 2007
Pro-Forma:$5M 2006$85M 2007$127M 2008
Life form OS (TM) Platform needs to adapt.
need to create different levels of interaction with your consumer. Hacking your robot, making to fun stuff.
Opportunity for robotic industry is large, for us an opportunity is to create relationship with consumers
Panelist discussion:
Quick response from panelists and intros.
Khalid Al Ali--involved with nasa products work with nasa ames. Carnagie Melon labariel vehicles and space vehicles. Has take a company to market out of his lab at Carnagie.
Robert Capps--wired magazine. Sr Editor. Use to be products editor for magazine. People love robot, they tap in to our imagainationimagination has far outstriped what we are able ot do with robotics.
Warren Packard---MD, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Emotional and community...going in to next generation where robots will really impact us at emotional and community level.Revolutionarly b-models will come about. Gaming to practicle robots for helping with our lives. One critical point is how do you cross the casim, how do get to the mass market. How do you make it acessible---move from tinkers to mass market. Execution is key, like to watch ugobe and now there approach.
Jason Morella--Regional Director, FIRST. Show video on what FIRST is. And show robotics is not for education but also consumersDean Kamen, Founder Challengs young ppl to think create and inspireThey program design build robotsPutting the kids in contact with scientists and engineersFIRST is all about conquering the challengs. Larry Page, Google co-founder a proponent of first. Givng kidsa first hand experience with robotics and s&t.www.usfirst.org
Moderator: Consumer robotics. How do we get from big science to the products that will be sucessful in opening up a Billion dollar market?
Asks bob how do you reconcile both cultures:We are about creating a relationship between consumers and robots---there is a signifcant value to our construnt (1) appeal to consumer (2) sensory aspect, and (3) the ability of robots to evolve.
Moderator: What makes robots appealing, especially when facing the consumer market?
Robert Capps---at pleo they seem to be going a certain level of companionship, I assume like furby, pleo is getting invloved at an emotional level. NintenDogs article by David K, about how these robots engage in kids emotions.
Bob C---robots are the next PC, next thing kids want to hack into to do things. Write scripts, AI, etc.We want to foster this, create a level of SDK for kids to get in and hack, open source it. Ploe is a relationship productyou can tweek and do diff types or relationships. But its not a kit you assemble from ground up. It is a companion like opportunity
Warran Packard---interjects. Objects to Bob's statement of it is the next PC. its more than just PC programming. I am personalizing, dressing it up.
Bob--PC can be a game machine, you can take robots for game playing and interactivablilty, so it is like a PC. We find kids, college kids want to get under the hood.
Moderator: (1) enagage kids (2) toysRus model, have to direction we are trying to drive robotics. Talk about program at carnagie mellon and how are you driving to market? Question was directed to Khalid.
Khalid---resistance to this market, there is always a difficulty to shift from curiousity to practicality. Asked sears sales person who buys these robot sweepers, normally people do buy as gifts during the holiday season. So it is a toughs struggle to take on the hovers of the world.
We at carnagie mellon are big on rebotics. We push robotics, thus creating a community and to find ways to engage kids.
According to Gates this robotic space will dwarf PC industry. Like look at the laptop, a very versatile machine. But if you go to VCs on sandhill road, try to pitch your robotic product as a versatile device, you will find it is a tough job. There is no shortage of talent and the know how. What is needed is to bridge gap between science and tech and pitch to investors and vc's.
Moderator: TO Jason whats your objective.
Jason--we don't have anything to do with robotics. per say. We are trying to make kids work with professionals in the field. Robotics is the carrot. If Ogby needs qualifications, then they will hire some of our kids. We are about creating the work force who will solve alot of the products.
We are not a science fair. We don't want kids to do it on there on. We want professional to get invovled with kids. Creating a professional 2 kids relationship. Want to show that adults dont know everythin, but will find ways to solve problemsWe want to get back to 10-20 yrs ago when kids liked taking things friends apart. We are trying to make kids learn how all these things work.
Khalid: FIRST Is on to something. We ar Carnagie and nasa "learning by doing". But that is not new, Leanordo DeVince was like that. We do a lot of that in our lab, many of the students are involved with NASA projects. Other thing engaging young minds, creating out of the box thinkers. We get a lot of great ideas which perhaps a lot of us haven't thought of. As kids dont have a set mindset--they are very creative.
Moderator: Okay, lets Shift direction and talk about the V of VLAB, ventures. How do you look at robotic investment? Or how do these ppl get you interested?
Warren--I love robotics. Way to approach it is as not robotics, as something instead solving some kind of issue. Look at what the market needs, and target that. What are customer needs, what are the unique business and technology. If you look at ugobe, they have a great product for the toy business. The business model they are pursing is incredibly innovative. On all elements it looks like a great business. Bottom line it is a mix of things, we try to reach out to the customer and figure things out.
Moderator: What makes a great product in this space?
Robert--its a toy and got to survive as a toy and got to be appealing to kids. Consumers can be "fickly" of what they like or dont like. The best way to evaulate is to look at the energy behind the product, and what do you think about it, what do consumers think?
Open to audience: Q&A
(I am posting a few of the highlights from the Q&A session)
--Bob: need to have empaty and emotions for your product. Body langauge is so important to us. Need to create a rich evolving relationship between the product (robot) and its owner.
--ugobe has been approached by enterprise sector. Whats more imp to be sucessful in robotics business, need to start as a tech toy and build up. We think Robots are not robots as we see any more.
-irobot went from defence to consumer product (moderator intejects)
-Bob: creating a property around robot, a story. Telling the story is part of our challenge
Commentary by ARR:
Robotics has been around us for years, in th defence industry, manufacturing and now toys.
We see advance robots in Sci fi, but to reach levels of Sci Fi such as a DATA AI Robot/Anderoid we see in Gene Rodenbury's Star Treck TV serial type of technology is quite a ways from becoming a reality. For now it will continue to find a place in theSciFi space for many years to come.
The key is to watch the robotics industry evolution.
Copyright C. 2006 Rabita Technologies INC
