Sankalp Arora, CEO of Gather AI, discusses his journey from a PhD in Robotics to founding a successful AI startup, detailing how they secured funding.
Sankalp Arora, CEO of Gather AI, discusses his journey from a PhD in Robotics to founding a successful AI startup, detailing how they secured funding and thrived through the challenges of COVID-19 by revolutionizing warehouse logistics with AI robots. He also offers advice for aspiring founders.
Let's say I'm able to bring you back to that to that moment in time. And to that moment where you are also able to tell that younger self and give that younger self one piece of advice before launching the business. What would that be and why given what you know now? I think the first and most important would be just the confidence that if the mission is right people will align with you and join you in the journey. Uh since I worked just by myself in most most of the times, even as a PhD your thesis has to be your own. Even if a large team contribute towards it. Uh it was very hard for me to picture how people will come along on this journey and how people will feel feel other people's pain. Second is make sure that early hires are really well vetted. >> [snorts] >> Cuz I think we made some initial hires that I feel like we could have done better. Uh so just knowing that out
the front and third >> [laughter] >> is uh upfront knowing that the money that investors invest is not for keeping in the bank but to be deployed. I think in early days I was too stingy with with deploying that money and that costed the company a bit of moment.