Interviewee
Chris Ziomek, Founder & CEO at Build With Robots, a technology company simplifying work to the push of a button. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the high-tech industry as a company founder, business unit general manager, engineering manager, and electrical engineer.
Transcript
Chris Ziomek: I'm an electrical engineer by training and I've, over the last few decades, been starting and running companies. So my previous company was bought by the largest semiconductor test company in the World Paradigm. And while I was at dy, we started, Dyne started buying robotics companies. It's 2015. And that prior to that I knew about robotics, but the CTO of a company called Universal Robots, I met at a corporate retreat in Boston in 2016, late December, 2016. And he essentially got me on the path that we're on today. I left Dyne in, for good in 2019 and, and have been working and built with robots ever since. And our mission is to bring robotics into new industries. There's a tremendous technological change happening all around us and it's changing the nature of work and, and we really wanna be part of that and develop solutions that really bring the worker into the equation. We think it's a good business, but also good for our workforce.
Elisa Muñoz: That is indeed an interesting background. Actually, I was reading an article about the company and I know that you guys recently released Breezy Blue and I've never heard of a smart automated disinfection robot before!
Chris Ziomek: Yeah, well good, good. Yeah, so we, when the pandemic hit in early 2020, we were doing autonomous painting robots. So we, when the pandemic hit, saw a need and, and an opportunity for us to help get our essential workers in essential workspaces open and, and people back to work. So we pivoted quickly, developed an initial product, an MVP for an autonomous disinfecting robot, and then brought that to market and, production and fully engineered production units in early 2021. So we, that product was called Breezy one and we still have it and it's in facilities and airports and schools and arenas throughout the southwest doing nightly autonomous disinfection. So it kind of does all by itself. Navigates uses a relatively safe hydrogen peroxide based chemistry and aerosolized it, so you can cover a large space very quickly. So think of a, you know, a whole wing of an airport, a few hundred thousand square feet disinfected in less than an hour. So that's, that's Breezy One. And we learned pretty quickly that there's a lot more small spaces, things like ambulances and school buses and even conference rooms, classrooms that we needed, a smaller, more portable device. And that, that's what you saw as breezy blue that's just been introduced. We're in mass production and it's all certified FCC safety, all the things you need to do to get it into mass production. And we are delivering those to our first over a hundred units that are being delivered to customers right now.
Elisa Muñoz: Okay. So talking about the pandemic, that was actually an opportunity for you guys, an opportunity to transit from one industry to another. I mean now you're in this infection in healthcare, and talking about other disinfection methods, why would you say Breezy is the best choice?
Chris Ziomek: Yeah, so really good. So there's a number of facets that we look at when we're looking at different industries to automate in. And one was, is it something that is really difficult for people to do? It's really laborious or dangerous and disinfection hits cuz people doing it by hand typically have to wear ppe, you know, respirators, goggles, they're carrying heavy backpacks. It's really not a good job typically done in the middle of the night. So third shift work, so it hits that it's not a great job for people. The next one is, is it something where the economics makes sense, where automation can do it 10 times faster, cheaper, better than people? And it also does automation because of the way we've done it through aerosolized hydrogen peroxide, we can actually cover really large spaces with a lot less time and labor and cost. So, those are the kind of things we look for. And so what, what do, what are the alternative solutions? You know, so they, the biggest alternative solution in fact is doing nothing. We all have covid fatigue. I'll get back to, you know, why, why that's important, but, but there are lot of backpack electrostatic, sprayers, foggers that people use and it just, if people are doing that today, we give them a solution that's 10 times cheaper, takes the labor out, everybody likes it, the custodians like it cuz it frees them up to, you know, do the other things they need to do. Keep 'em out of the, out of the disease infected areas, keep 'em out, the chemicals or you know, UV light or whatever it is.
All those things are hazardous. So it's, you know, a win-win for everybody. But getting back to doing nothing, that's really the biggest issue is that disease spread is invisible, disinfection is invisible. You often don't know if you're doing the right thing. So that's another piece of what automation brings. And what we're doing is we're trying to make disinfection reliable and visible. So providing, you know, through data and science, the ability to disinfect thoroughly every time to have a dashboard that shows you that, and even the instruments themselves on site, you can see them, they talk and they have lights and things that tell you what's going on. And all of that makes the disinfection a lot more apparent and visible to the people doing it and to the people occupying those spaces.
We're trying to make disinfection reliable and visible. With data and science, we are providing the ability to disinfect thoroughly every time thanks to a dashboard that gives you all the information.
Elisa Muñoz: So it's not only re removing can put like that human labor, but it's also simplifying it and having the actual data, which is amazing. Also speaking with different CEOs and founders in industry, most of them said it was a really tough time with procurement and supply chain issues. So how was that like for you?
Chris Ziomek: Yeah, interesting. So we were, because of what we were doing, we were classified as an essential workplace. So we could stay open, our state actually shut down most businesses, but we had an exclusion, so we did stay open, people were still working and we obviously are disinfecting, so we had really good precautions around wearing the masks and disinfecting regularly. All the things that, that we, we do.
But the supply chain, you know, so they're, when the pandemic hit, what we do also became a supply chain issue where the fogging technology was bought out by everybody. You know, the chemicals were bought out by everybody, you know, their schools, facilities, distribution centers, anything that has to stay open was, was buying the equipment that we needed to go into our equipment. So we did lock down some strategic relationships with a chemical supplier that could, could, create our chemistry with a, some, you know, electronics and some of the, the key components that go into our, our products. We were venture backed, so we had capital, we used that to pre-buy a lot of volume for the products. So there, there were a number of, of long-term contracts that we entered, entered into kind of leaning into it. Ob obviously taking on some risk if it didn't work out, we had a lot of inventory. But it, you know, we, I guess that's what you do when you're a startup. You know, you, you're able to take more risks and lean into opportunities.
Elisa Muñoz: Thank you so much for sharing. Now, what do you think is the biggest challenge when it comes to purchasing?
Chris Ziomek: So we've, so this is not the first time that I've run a startup. So we really act like a much bigger company than we are. And we have a leadership team that all of us have grown startups through the stages of, you know, getting a minimum, minimum viable product to market, getting early customers, getting it into mass distribution, getting into supply chain so you can be built in, in high volume and have all the, the certifications you need and contracts, licenses you need to, to distribute nationally and internationally. So I guess that's not that hard. Our perspective, we do that well because we've done it before multiple times and our team all has that expertise. The harder part for us actually is the, you know, and it's for any startup is getting people to pay attention. You know, so, you know, everybody's inundated with things all day long of things that they may or may not be interested in. And how do you get through that? How do you get through that clutter and get people to pay attention ? When we get in front of people with our Breezy blue product, for example, 80% of 'em want it, they get it right away. It's like, I need this. But we can't get their attention to have that conversation with 'em. And that's, you know, so how do you break through all of the masked marketing that everybody is presented every day and get the attention of the people that really couldn't need and use your products. That's the trick. And that's to me has always been the differentiator between a, a successful startup and, and those that are, are struggling.
Elisa Muñoz: Let’s talk about the next steps for the company.
Chris Ziomek: So our breezy product line will continue to add products. We have some that are in development now. So we have the, the autonomous robot, the smart connected device. We also have our breezy biocare chemistry that makes up the product line. We also have some mobile apps and a mobile controller that we sell as part of that. But the dashboards and some of the additional things you can do around smart facilities you'll see here in the next year. And, and it'll be exciting cause it'll really add some of the air quality pieces that may disinfect even that more visible.
Elisa Muñoz: Wow. Super excited to get to know the new products and the new releases. And last but not least, do you have any advice for future entrepreneurs or founders in the industry?
Chris Ziomek: I do. I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs. I try to mentor. I mean, there's always so many things to do. It's so many hasher. My, my sense is the biggest help for me and, and what I would recommend is to find somebody as a mentor that's done it before, that can really guide you and, and help you. And I, I've had great mentors and that probably is the difference along the way that the people that have helped me and, and I see too many entrepreneurs that try to do it all themselves, that feel like it's a solo battle and it's not you, there's plenty of people out there that are willing to help and, and can offer you good advice.
Elisa Muñoz: That was amazing Chris, thank you so much for sharing and for being here today.
Chris Ziomek: Yeah, you're most welcome. Thank you. And thank you to Builder Nation.
