What NexoBot learned in Boston
Propel-AIR winner Dominic Lindsay on pitching in Silicon Valley: diagnose the problem, not the technology.
AI Adopt Centre's inaugural Propel-AIR sprint winner and NexoBot CEO Dominic Lindsay has completed his second week of a one-month US residency based out of Boston's MassRobotics. The residency includes time with experts in robotics, as well as leaders in marketing, start-up manufacturing and investor pipelines.
On 15 October Dominic was invited to pitch at the annual RoboBusiness event held in Santa Clara.
Speaking with the team at the AI Adopt Centre, Dominic said his experience with Propel-AIR was valuable preparation for pitching in front of a commercial audience.
Just hearing, for example, how the team at SwarmFarm present their products, is a really helpful insight into how to present a product to somebody.
Dominic Lindsay, CEO and Founder, NexoBot
One insight he shared was the idea of diagnosing the challenge, rather than focusing on the technology.
I think it comes down to how you come up with the problem. The solution is almost the least important bit. It's more about understanding the problem that you've got and how to solve that problem, because robotics and technology has to be in support of a problem. It can't be tech first, problem second.
Dominic Lindsay
Particularly well received were the practicalities of the NexoBot system, which mean businesses can move from decision to implementation in as little as 90 days.
Small to medium sized operations don't have the scale to spend six to twelve months contemplating whether they want to install a solution. The key benefit is that the customer doesn't have to spend three months of analytics to make a decision.
Dominic Lindsay
The simplicity of the system not only offers speed to deployment, but lower overall costs.
Another thing people really liked was simply the lack of complex mechanical systems in the robot. They were interested in the barrier system to unload cartons and just how straightforward that is. A lot of companies pitch highly complicated and precise motors, which also come with an enormous price tag. But not needing that level of complexity is quite a unique feature of NexoBot.
Dominic Lindsay