5 Counter-Intuitive Go-to-Market Lessons from a Robotics Startup Founder
Eight months of customer conversations before writing a single line of code sounds like startup suicide. Yet in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Anand Gopalan from Vayu Robotics reveals how this seemingly backwards approach helped triple their customer funnel in just twelve months. Here are five unexpected go-to-market lessons from their journey building a universal nervous system for mobile robots.
- Make the Spreadsheet Before the Product
While most technical founders rush to build, Anand’s team started with unit economics. “The first thing we did was we built a spreadsheet to define what the right unit economics of a solution would look like. And then we live by that spreadsheet,” he explains. This financial blueprint became their north star, ensuring their technology could deliver value while maintaining viable economics across different applications.
- Embrace the Non-Linear Nature of Growth
For engineering founders accustomed to predictable input-output relationships, the irregular nature of business development can be jarring. “The amount of effort that you put in fundraising is absolutely not like that,” Anand notes. “You can have ten conversations with a specific investor trying to convince them, and it will all look great until like, they call you one day and say, oh, I’m sorry, like, you have a great team, but we decided not to invest, and there’ll be another conversation that is literally like 45 minutes and the investor is in.”
- Choose Platform Over Vertical
When faced with the classic startup dilemma of going deep in one vertical versus building a horizontal platform, Vayu Robotics chose the latter. “We always had this tension about do we go horizontal, or do we go vertical and deep?” Anand shares. “And we decided to actually take the platform horizontal approach and approach multiple verticals. That was a pivotal decision.” This strategy positioned them to capitalize on what Anand calls “this moment in the tech world where robotics combined with AI, is having this moment of almost a cambrian explosion of opportunity.”
- Curate Your Early Customers
Rather than chasing every potential deal, Vayu Robotics deliberately curates their early customer base. “We are essentially in that first push into the market where you’re not trying to basically get every single customer,” Anand explains. “You’re trying to actually carefully curate your first group of customers who can truly make you successful and also make your product the best product that it can be.” These early customers create a vital feedback loop, constantly refining the product through real-world implementation.
- Let Engineers Sell to Engineers
Instead of building a traditional marketing operation, Vayu Robotics leverages their technical DNA. “Ultimately, robotics is very much hard tech sell, right? So you’re selling, it’s engineers selling to engineers,” Anand notes. This authentic, technology-led approach resonates with their technical buyers who value deep product understanding over polished marketing.
The success of this strategy is evident in their results. Their customer funnel has tripled in size over the past year, with improving conversion rates from initial interest to design wins. But perhaps more importantly, they’ve built a foundation for long-term growth in the rapidly evolving robotics market.
For technical founders navigating their own go-to-market journey, these lessons challenge conventional wisdom about startup execution. Sometimes the most counterintuitive approaches – like spending months in customer discovery or prioritizing unit economics over rapid product development – can create the strongest foundation for growth.
As Anand summarizes their vision: “Ten years from now, I think you will see robots in all parts of our lives. And if we are that nervous system that enables those robots to see and move through the world, I think that would be a pretty cool achievement to look back on.”
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