Jerry Pratt and Viger quietly split last month. The MIT research scientist spent just under two years with the Bay Area-based robotics company. In 2022, he left Boardwalk Robotics, a human-powered startup he founded and led, and joined Figure’s well-funded ranks as CTO months before it emerged from stealth.
But just last week Pratt publicly announced his exit. The news has arrived via linkedin, announcing the establishment of another entry into the increasingly crowded world of humans. Persona AI is currently in as early stage as it gets, having only been officially founded last month.
The startup is the brainchild of Pratt and his longtime colleague Nick Radford, an industry veteran with an impressive resume including seven years working as part of NASA’s robotics team before founding Nauticus Robotics and Jacobi Motors.
“We wanted to get some early indications from both people who wanted to work with us and investors that if we did something like this on LinkedIn, it wouldn’t fall flat on its face,” Radford told TechCrunch.
The news was as much a hiring announcement as it was a brand unveiling. “Hey LinkedIn!” Pratt noted excitedly On the business website. “Have you ever dreamed of making your own Iron Man suit but without playing the billionaire playboy?”
Radford and Pratt say they want to hire 10 to 20 more “founders” (their rates) to help shape the company. “Obviously Jerry and I are a pivotal part of this, but the next 18 people are also coming on board as well,” Radford said. “We really want to show them the esprit de corps of the company.”
At this early stage, Persona isn’t too far removed from the various human-powered companies it’s set to compete with. The introductory text on its website is largely a celebration of those technological breakthroughs that underlie this unique moment in robotics.
The founders write,
Now is the time to market human-like robots. Computer vision and perception algorithms are now able to detect motion, identify and segment objects, and estimate poses at frame rates; The size of electronics and computing has also decreased and their performance has increased, so that they are able to operate completely on board robots without draining the energy budget. Motion and manipulation algorithms are now able to maneuver in rooms and perform commercially useful actions; Machine learning techniques also increase the capabilities of robots while reducing programming burdens. Investors began to believe in the potential of human-like robots; Business entities are requesting human-like robots in various applications where they can add real value.
This is the same depth the pitch currently goes to outside of investor groups and employee interviews. Whatever advantage Persona thinks it will eventually have over Agility, Boston Dynamics, Figure, and the rest isn’t clear at this very early stage.
“In some ways it will be very similar, and in other ways it will be different,” Radford replied vaguely. “It’s like the way GM feels against Ford or Toyota or any car company. Each company feels, deep down, that they have certain competitive advantages. And then, deep down, each company is commoditized and distilled down to the same things. They all provide transportation. Do we have our version of the Dodge Hemi? We’d like to think so.”
For example, Pratt felt confident enough in Persona’s vision to leave a top position at one of the most prominent and best-funded humanoid robotics companies, Figure. Pratt says the split was amicable, and when I spoke with Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock last week about his new venture, Cover, he praised his former CTO. Pratt says the decision was partly geographical.
“I was going between Pensacola [Florida] “And California every two weeks,” Pratt said. “Initially, when I joined Figure, I thought… [Pratt and his wife] He could move to California in about two years. I had planned to do that, but it didn’t really work out. It was a mutual parting of ways, to some extent.
Instead of setting up shop in a traditional robotics stronghold like Boston or Pittsburgh, Persona will split its operations between Pratt’s home in Pensacola, along with Houston. The latter will serve as the company’s headquarters, eventually accommodating about two-thirds of Persona’s employees.