Many Small Steps for Robots, One Giant Leap for Mankind

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Hi friends 👋 ,

Happy Thursday! I am thrilled to bring you not boring world’s first co-written essay (cossay? need something here) with my friend Evan Beard, the co-founder and CEO of Standard Bots.

Evan is the perfect person to kick this off.

I have known Evan for ~20 years, which is crazy. We went to Duke together, worked at the one legitimate startup on campus together (which still exists!), and even won a Lehman Brothers Case Competition together (which won us the opportunity to interview at the investment bank right before it went under).

After school, Evan went right into tech. He was in an early YC cohort, back when those were small. He started a company with Ashton Kutcher. I was interested in tech from the outside and always loved talking to Evan, so we’d catch up at reunions and then go our separate ways. In September 2023, a mutual acquaintance emailed me saying “there’s a company you should have on your radar, Standard Bots,” and I looked it up, and lo and behold, it was founded by Evan Beard!

Since reconnecting, Evan has become one of a small handful of people I ask dumb robot questions to. He’s testified in front of Congress on robotics. Last year he spoke at Nvidia’s GTC on the main stage. He was even featured doing robotic data collection in A24’s movie Babygirl alongside Nicole Kidman! Evan knows robots.

And the questions are very dumb! Robotics as a category has scared me. As valuations have soared, I’ve mostly avoided writing about or investing in robots, because I haven’t felt confident enough that I know what I’m talking about to take a stand.

Which is the whole point of these co-written essays!

Evan has dedicated his career to a specific belief about how to build a robotics company. He’s making a different bet than the more hyped companies in the space1, one that is like a Russian Doll with a supermodel in the middle - not very sexy on the outside but sexier and sexier the more layers you remove until you get to the center and you’re like, “damn.”

So throw on a little Robot Rock…

And let’s get to it.

Today’s ...