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

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Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu

Ilir Aliu

86 episodes

6 days ago

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu

55 minutes

2 months 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.