Robot Pioneers: Helen Greiner on Building Robots That Matter

In this special Morning p!ng Coffee Chat, we sit down with robotics pioneer Helen Greiner, Cofounder of iRobot, alongside longtime collaborator Chris Norman and Rob Whitten.

From the early PackBot days to the global success of Roomba, Helen shares what it really took to bring robots out of the lab and into everyday life.

We talk about:

• Why most founders start with the wrong problem
• The 12-year road to product-market fit at iRobot
• Why robotics is harder than it looks
• The real future of humanoids (and why today isn’t the day)
• How robots can transform elderly care and daily life
• What startup founders consistently get wrong

We also reflect on the iRobot legacy, the products, the people, and the companies it inspired (Boston Dynamics, Kiva Systems, and beyond).

This episode is especially meaningful for us at p!ng, as we officially announce the public launch of our Wefunder community round.

If you care about robotics, startups, product-market fit, and building technology that actually improves daily life, this one’s for you.