World's First Look at Figure | Figure

First off, I can’t believe we made it to episode 20 of S³.

As I explain during the outro of this episode, Figure has been a dream feature in my mind for S³. It’s incredibly meaningful to be wrapping up our 2nd season with them as the finale.

Going forward with my writing, instead of just recapping episodes in text, I'll blend my personal insights and opinions with facts about the companies we cover.

Alright enough celebration, let’s talk about robots.

Humanoids at scale

Brett, the CEO and Founder of Figure, doesn't plan for a niche or hyper specific use case for Figure's robots. Instead, he believes there could realistically be 10 billion humanoids on the planet.

That mindset significantly alters one's approach to building something. You're not only creating a factory bot. It's not just a motorized worker for "dirty jobs." You're aiming to develop a platform capable of performing a wide array of tasks, every task a human can perform.

Brett’s not a new founder. From his $110M exit at Vettery, an AI-based talent marketplace, to founding Archer, an eVTOL companiy that IPOd at $2.7B, he’s got a track record for successfully building hard things.

His experience has left him laser focused on 3 things at Figure:

1. Build a world class team

2. Focus on product

3. Get the robot working for customers

How does that experience specifically translate into building a humanoid robot with Figure?

How to build robots

Figure’s approach:

1. Let’s build a robot with a lot of physical capability

2. Give it a robust AI/ML learning platform

3. Get it into customer facilities ASAP

4. Do all of this really fast

Beyond Brett’s ambitious vision of scale for Figure, his mindset on speed is exciting.

If you scroll through his Twitter the past few months, speed is almost all he’s been talking about. From unblocking engineering to bringing a sushi offsite into the office to not miss out on team building and still hit a weekend sprint goal.

A lot of companies claim to move fast, few actually do. Figure went from a design concept to a walking bipedal robot in under 12 months.

You be the judge.

Labor crisis

Seeing something so high tech come to life so quickly can be concerning. Specifically, there’s a common idea that AI and robotics will take humanity’s jobs away.

People have reasonable concern about AI and robotics changing the way humans live, but that’s another topic for another time. More pressing than a potential future is the labor shortage we face today. Even if all unemployed people in the US found a job today, there would still be over 4 million jobs to fill according to workforce.com.

In a future where robots and automation do take everyone’s jobs, most thought leaders in the space imagine it as a benefit rather than a detriment. “Labor is a choice, you’d be freed up to do more things you love everyday. We think that’s a really exciting and inspiring future,” Brett explains in the episode.

Hardtech founder leadership

Brett shared in the episode that they’re planning to get Figure bots into customer facilities within 12 months… 12 months!!!

It’s going to messy, it’s going to have issues, but front loading the pain of making complex hardware work in the real world with real customers is the most surefire way to get to build a capable humanoid as fast as possible.

“Here we have a saying, ‘the only way out is through,’” Brett explained in the episode.

Brett went on to explain that getting the working prototype they have today resulted in “bring up hell,” an adage commonly heard from hardware founders. Despite the pain, the Figure team has proven successful with their ability to demonstrate an untethered, bipedal humanoid that can walk.

Figure’s next big milestone is getting their robot into customer facilities doing real work and generating revenue. More importantly it’s a real life learning platform. It’s not simulated, it’s not in ideal circumstances, and that’s the point.

The traditional humanoid $$$ problem

There’s an economics problem associated with robotics:

1. You either have cheap stuff that isn’t that robust or helpful

2. You have incredible robots that cost incredible amounts of money

Humanity has never built a commercially viable robot, ever.

There is no established supply chain, the model has never been proven, it’s truly a novel problem. This is something Brett and his team are laser focused on solving.

Why I believe Figure will win

Filming at Figure was an exhilarating experience.

The energy in the facility is both charged up and focused. Open air desks are right next to the robot test cage, electronics benches and the machine shop is connected to the same space. It’s the perfect environment to build a complicated piece of hardware quickly.

Thanks again Brett for having me out to film Figure in what I believe is the first time an external outlet has ever been allowed in the facility, it means a lot.

I can’t wait to head back to Fig

ure HQ to hopefully film a follow up episode after Figure hits their next big milestone…

At their current speed, that doesn’t sound like it will be in much time at all.