EP #125 - Gianluca Cesari & Gregory Hitz: The Robotics Startup With 8 Co-Founders

Timestamps: 2:24 - Gianluca's international background 4:42 - Gregory's academic background 8:08 - Having 8 co-founders 11:47 - The robotics market 27:15 - Getting support as a startup About Gianluca Cesari, Gregory Hitz and Sevensense Robotics Gregory Hitz and Gianluca Cesari are two of the 8 co-founders of Sevensense Robotics, as well as CEO and Business Development Lead, respectively. Gregory obtained his PhD from ETH Zurich later continued as Postdoc. Gianluca also received his Masters in Robotics, System and Control from ETH Zurich and afterwards continued as Robotics Engineer at the University's Autonomous Systems Lab. The two worked together with their 6 co-founders on an autonomous robotics project together with two industry partners while still at university. Out of this initial research group, Sevensense Robotics was born. Running a business with 8 co-founders would be a challenge for many. Sevensense decided to mitigate the problem by clearly distributing roles. While some members of the founding team took on managerial duties, others stayed with their passion for engineering and have contributed to developing the product. Autonomous robots have applications in various industries: Sevensense currently focuses on logistics. By applying Sevensense’s technology, logistics providers can enable their machines to safely and autonomously navigate in dynamic spaces shared with humans, in- and outdoors. To date, Sevensense has been able to work together with several important customers, such as Jelmoli and Wetork. Memorable Quotes "Many people are actually really willing to help you — you just have to ask." Resources Mentioned Thinking, fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman The Harvard Business Review Venture Kick Wyss Zurich If you would like to listen to more episodes on robotics, check out our conversations with Alex Tyropolis and Mina Kamel. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

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The Swisspreneur Show is a podcast series of in-depth, candid conversations with some of Switzerland’s most successful founders, business leaders and innovators. By getting to the heart of these leaders’ stories - their successes, their failures, their must-have advice and greatest regrets - we hope to both inspire and guide the next generation of Swiss entrepreneurs. Each episode deconstructs and showcases one person’s personal and professional background and provides advice and recommendations for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs in Switzerland.