Sponsoring the Silicon Slopes AI Lunch & Learn: when AI enters the physical world
A recap of the November 3 Silicon Slopes AI Chapter Lunch & Learn with Arnaud Daurat on robotics and AI in the physical world, plus my short intro to Startup Slipstream.
By Paul Hepworth, author of The Compounding Team
On Tuesday, I got to sponsor lunch at the Silicon Slopes AI Chapter Lunch & Learn, and it was one of my favorite afternoons in a while.
A last-minute yes
About a week and a half ago, I got a call from Heather Nemelka and Michael Malin. A lunch sponsor had cancelled at the last minute. Would I be willing to step in?
It was an easy yes. My wife and I picked up and brought in lunch for the group together, which made it even more fun.
Three minutes on what I do
Heather and Michael gave me a few minutes at the start to introduce Startup Slipstream. Here's the short version:
Companies go through a lot of inflection points: from one engineer to five, to 20, to 40. Nowadays, it's not just headcount, it's agent count. I help founders and their engineering teams get unstuck.
I also shared the story behind why I do this work. About four years ago, a former CEO messaged me from the New York Stock Exchange the day UserTesting went public, thanking me for building a resilient engineering organization. When I joined ten years earlier, there were two engineers and a founder worried about technology that was hard to change and competitors closing in. We grew that team to more than 70 engineers before I left.
I also brought six copies of my book, The Compounding Team. All six found new homes before the afternoon was over.
Beyond the screen
The main event was a fireside chat with Arnaud Daurat, founder of Exxovantage and Astelia Robotics, hosted by Heather, on what happens when AI moves off the screen and into the physical world. He even brought a small humanoid robot.
The conversation covered:
- Humans and robots working together: robotic exoskeletons that reduce injuries, and humanoid robots that take on dangerous work.
- The future of work: whether AI replaces people or makes them more capable.
- Utah's opportunity to become a hub for robotics and embodied AI.
- A bigger question: what if AI's greatest achievement isn't how much money it makes, but how much human suffering it prevents?
That last question stuck with me. It's the same lens I try to bring to teams: technology is only as valuable as what it does for the people using it.
Thank you, Arnaud, for a fascinating session, and Heather for hosting it.
The people
The best part of any Silicon Slopes event is the people. I left with about ten new connections: engineers, founders, consultants, recruiters, and educators, each building something interesting.
A special thank-you to Jonathan Heaton, who jumped up to help me carry food in from the car when I asked. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better.
Grateful
Utah's tech community is generous. People show up, help carry the food in, and make introductions. I'm grateful to Heather, Michael, Arnaud, and Silicon Slopes for the chance to support it, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
If something is holding your team back, send it to me. Every week I answer one.
Questions
- What was the Silicon Slopes AI Chapter Lunch & Learn on November 3?
- A lunch and fireside chat at Silicon Slopes HQ in Lehi called "Beyond the Screen: When AI Enters the Physical World," featuring Arnaud Daurat, founder of Exxovantage and Astelia Robotics, on robotics, exoskeletons, and human-machine collaboration.
- What does Startup Slipstream do?
- Startup Slipstream is Paul Hepworth's consultancy. It helps founders and their engineering teams get unstuck as they move through the inflection points of growth, from one engineer to five, to 20, to 40, and now from headcount to agent count.
Transcript
My name's Paul Hepworth. I'm with Startup Slipstream. It's a consultancy that supports startups from early stage onto later stages through those transition points. I was just talking to someone earlier who asked me, what does that mean? And really what that means for me is, I've worked at 11 different startups. I just moved from Silicon Valley, where I was born and raised, and I'm now here at Silicon Slopes.
What I've learned through my career is that there are a lot of different inflection points that companies go through, where you're going from one engineer to five, to 20, to 40. Nowadays, it's not just headcount, it's agent count, right? Organizations get more complex. Information through organizations gets more complex. So I help founders and their engineering teams get unstuck. Sometimes I'll help a company where the product quality is really low and the team's struggling to figure out why and how to make those systemic improvements. Sometimes it's that the speed of the team doesn't really keep up with the market and what needs to happen.
About four years ago, I got a message from a former CEO who was at the New York Stock Exchange with a company that had just gone public, UserTesting.com. He sent me a message and thanked me for building a resilient engineering organization that was able to help that company be successful. It was one of the most meaningful messages I've ever received in my whole career. But I laughed, because it was so different from the conversation I had with the founder when I first joined the company ten years prior. They were telling me stories about the technology being difficult to change, and about competitors coming out of the woodwork and starting to exceed the offering they had. The pain and struggle that founder had, not knowing exactly how to approach that situation, was something that when I saw it, I thought, I can do something there. There were two engineers, and we grew that organization to over 70 engineers before I left.
Through all those turns and challenges, there are a lot of things founders and leaders in engineering organizations need to do, and it's challenging. So Startup Slipstream is here to support you. I also have a book I just published a few weeks ago called The Compounding Team. I have a few copies. If you work for a startup that's in one of those inflection points, or you just want to get to know me, come back and say hi. I'd love to get to know you. Enjoy your lunch, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the Lunch & Learn today.
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