Houston innovator bets on humanoid robotics with new startup

For his next move, Houston entrepreneur Nicolaus Radford has launched — in what he describes as an “anti-stealth” capability — a new company that hopes to take humanoid robotics out of science fiction novels and onto manufacturing floors.

Radford, who saw his last company, Nauticus Robotics, from inception to IPO, left the company in January. He tells InnovationMap that he started receiving interesting offers from other robotics companies, but none of them were a good fit for him. However, he just couldn’t get the idea of ​​advancing humanoid robotics out of his head.

“Humanoids are the holy grail of all robotics,” Radford says. “It’s what every science fiction writer has ever dreamed of.”

“That’s the future,” he continues. “And now, with this generative AI moment of 2022, where these machines seem to be much more capable, flexible, and reprogrammable – they can reason in real time. That’s a huge deal.”

Radford says he got a call from his friend Jerry Pratt, who was the CTO of humanoid robotics company Figure AI. Both Pratt and Radford worked in robotics at NASA and each have decades of experience in the tech world. That conversation really sealed the deal for Radford, and the two officially launched Persona AI in a LinkedIn post that Radford says shocked him by the community’s interest in the company.

Radford says that with all this interest, he wants to open the company up to more co-founders than just himself and Pratt, who is based in Florida.

“We’re going to give a significant portion of the business to newcomers, more than is probably usual,” says Radford. “And that’s because we know it takes a village and we want to emphasize that to everyone.” »

“We’re trying to crowdsource the business,” he continues. “We have declared that we are against stealth. »

Specifically, Radford says he plans to grow the team to about 25 people over the next year, while raising early funds. It seeks individuals with diverse technology backgrounds and well-rounded experience.

“Robotics and humanoids in particular are simply multidisciplinary,” says Radford. “Humanoids are a puzzle of a hundred thousand pieces, and you’re trying to put that puzzle together. »

And for Radford, putting that puzzle together in Houston is of the utmost importance. The company is headquartered here, and Radford is currently working with The Ion to set up an office there.

“We’re particularly excited about locating our company in Houston,” he says. “It would be great for the city, which has a lot of industrial manufacturing and warehousing. (…) I always want to shine a light on the Houston tech scene, because I think it’s underrated, underappreciated and very capable.”

The potential for this technology is enormous – Radford estimates it to be a $3 trillion market – but the first sector he sees tackling is automotive, but he also sees promise in the medical, energy and household sectors.

“We think the automotive industry will be the first to get into the market. There are a lot of publicly announced partnerships between advanced robotics companies, humanoid companies, and the automotive industry,” he says. “These companies are willing to put out in the press information that they’re developing a humanoid or that they’re piloting a humanoid. That’s huge.”

With this expressed interest, technological advancements and the significant labor shortage, Radford is convinced that the time is right to embrace humanoid robotics – and Persona AI.

“We’re at a technological tipping point where it makes sense that these machines can do this, and there’s an investor community willing to fund it,” Radford said. “I think this is the first time in the history of robotics that we’re closer than ever to making this a reality.”