Our Favorite Deployment? The Next One.

Ever wonder what makes some robotics startups thrive while others falter? This candid conversation with the OSARO leadership team offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a successful automation company that's been steadily growing for nearly a decade.

Recorded at OSARO's San Francisco headquarters, host Mandy Dwight sits down with Adi Dalvi (VP of Sales), Gemma Ross (VP of Operations), and Matt Churchill (Principal Sales Engineer) to unpack their journey and the strategies that have helped them stand out in the competitive warehouse robotics space.

The team shares refreshingly honest insights about their path to success, beginning with their foundational approach: "We're just a bunch of people who really like to watch robots pick stuff up and put it back down again," as Gemma playfully puts it. But beneath this lighthearted description lies a serious commitment to solid technology and, more importantly, to the people who build and support it.

Whether you're fascinated by warehouse automation, curious about robotics-as-a-service business models, or simply interested in what makes tech startups successful, this conversation offers valuable insights into building customer-centric technology companies where everyone—not just the sales team—contributes to business growth.

Subscribe to hear more conversations with innovators who are transforming the world of automation and robotics. Visit dwightco.com to learn more about solutions for your business.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:09

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for joining. I'm Mandy Dwight at Dwight Co. We're a boutique sales and marketing agency specifically for automation and robotics companies. I'm also the host of this podcast that you're watching, ross Goss. I'd like to welcome our guest today from Osaro Banner right behind, in case you forget. So I'm sitting here today with some really awesome people Adi Dalvi, who is the VP of sales over here at Osaro, gemma Ross, who's VP of operations over at Osaro, and Matt Churchill, who is the principal sales engineer over here at Osaro. So thank you guys. So much for coming, or actually, not coming.

Speaker 2 0:50

Thank you for coming.

Speaker 3 0:52

Honestly, I'm not going to miss a chance to come and see you guys.

Speaker 1 0:54

It's really exciting. So you know, osaro, you have been around for I don't know a decade now, I think, at this point, which is a really long time for a startup. You know, and you've grown so much and this is really exciting because I've never actually been to your headquarters before. So this is a really fun experience to come and walk around. I've seen some amazing robots. Thanks to Gemma for an amazing tour earlier in which I saw a lot of the applications that you're solving for clients.

Speaker 2 1:23

What was your favorite one?

The OSARO Story: People Before Technology

Speaker 1 1:24

I saw a lot of the applications that you're solving for clients. What was your favorite one? Oh, I liked the last one I saw. I don't know how much to say, but I saw a cell in which the robot was picking an item and then packing it, very exact in an outbound location.

Speaker 2 1:39

Okay, like a kidding application.

Speaker 1 1:41

A kidding, yeah, I mean when I think about that. It's really important because, as a consumer a heavy consumer if things aren't packed in the box appropriately, it's not a good customer experience. Well, I wanted to sit with you guys today because you've had successes in sales, marketing, landing customers, keeping them here. So what is the Osaro story Like? If you had to tell Osaro story in your own words and I know you've been here for varying amounts of years, so the story may be different. But, gemma, have you been here?

Speaker 3 2:17

the longest. Yeah, so I joined in 2019, and the story is always like it depends on who I'm talking to, right? But frankly, I think we're just like a bunch of people who really like to watch robots pick stuff up and put it back down again. But I think the most important part of the story is the people that we have at the company. It's everyone who we work with who actually makes this a success, and so, while the technology is a huge part of what enables what we do, it's everyone who we work with who actually makes this a success, and so, while the technology is a huge part of what enables what we do, it's still the people who built it, um, and that's why we're still here and that's why we have had the commercial successes that we've had um, yeah, I think.

Speaker 2 2:57

I think another piece of that story is we. You've seen a lot of startups in this industry a lot of startups. That take investment dollars and then all of a sudden, as soon as that happens, there is a big rush to get that product out of the market. Yeah, before the product is hardened.

Speaker 1 3:17

Oh, yeah, that happens a lot.

Speaker 2 3:20

Osaro took the time to get their product to a point where they were comfortable deploying it in production environments, and I think that has led to a lot of the success that we've had over the last few years.

Speaker 1 3:35

Yeah, no, I think so too. And Matt, you're very much on the customer side, like you're with the deployments. I mean, what would you say? The Osaro story is?

Speaker 4 3:43

I think we listen to our customers and develop technology that they need right. I think that that's a big part of it. That's kind of some of the foundational ideas of bringing reinforcement learning to the marketplace. Understanding what that looks like and how we can deploy it in an effective way that's useful to people right, and that's kind of again some of the founding principles of the company. That's been really successful.

Speaker 1 4:09

Yeah, no, I think that's true. I mean some of the startups that I know that you know maybe are not here anymore. It's they didn't listen to their customers, and I can think of some of the very early startups that I've been at, you know, in my career, right, and it's like trying to build a thing, Like if you build it, they'll come, and that's not like really a thing.

Keys to Sales Success: Trust and Targeting

Speaker 2 4:27

No, no, it's not. That doesn't work. Um, we've been fortunate enough to have the people here to identify the problem in the warehouse and try to solve for that problem. Um, it doesn't really work the other way around. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree, doesn't really work the other way around.

Speaker 1 4:41

Yeah, no, I agree, I agree. I mean, as far as you know, it's one thing to land an account right so wow, that's a loud car San Francisco. Yeah, we are in San Francisco. So you know, it's difficult to land a customer right, like very, very difficult, especially when you're at a startup. You're not a 50 year old company that has a track record of being in business. You know what are some of the keys to your success, like how do you land that customer?

Speaker 3 5:12

Can I start as the non-salesperson here? Oh?

Speaker 1 5:14

I love yeah.

Speaker 3 5:15

Even probably the best answer yeah, in my observation, it's going to be different. Um, I I'm sure what I've seen be successful is relationships, yeah, and so I think that with our sales team, they take that time to really invest in the relationships with the, with the customers. I think that ends up being critical. So, yes, of course we're selling something, but they need that trust from us first, and I think that that's something our sales team has done a really great job cultivating. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 5:47

Now you can. I think that's good. I know I think that's a great answer. I think also you've got to do a really good job in the early stages of identifying who your targets are going to be.

Speaker 2 5:59

Yeah Right, and I think we've talked about this a few times.

Speaker 2 6:02

We've talked about this a few times Osaro is not necessarily focusing on the whales, the huge, huge accounts, and I think you get a lot of startups that are focused on those really big accounts. Those take 12, 18, 24 months to close. At some point we don't have that kind of time Right to close. At some point we don't have that kind of time. So if our strategy is to focus on smaller to medium-sized businesses, companies that still have some opportunity to scale and keep the whales warm and work those in the background, then you're going to have a lot more success because you're able to close deals a lot faster and you're also gaining the experience that's required to now deploy at those whales once you finally close those. So our approach has been a little bit different and it's really nice to be a part of a company that is taking that approach, because all the other startups that I've been a part of you go after the top five ten companies in the space and it takes years and years to finally get some of those opportunities to close.

Speaker 1 7:16

Yeah, that's important.

Speaker 4 7:18

I think it's really important, though, to point out that the most important aspect of a successful sales team is the operation that's behind them, right, yeah, if we can't successfully deploy, that gets out there right. So we have to be able to bring our customers in, show them the technology, with the team that's going to be there holding their hand, making that deployment successful. We have to be able to tell stories about how we've done that with other people. So operations is a huge part of us being successful on the front end of the business.

Teamwork in Deployment: The Handoff Process

Speaker 2 7:49

The sales process here at Osaro and probably a lot of other companies in the warehouse automation space. I think. I mean we haven't figured everything else but we haven't figured everything out. We haven't figured everything out, but I think we take the approach that solutions, sales and operations work very closely together to close these deals.

Speaker 1 8:15

So yeah, that's like a teamwork scenario, it is.

Speaker 2 8:18

Unless you have all three teams working together, it becomes a lot more difficult to not only gain the trust of the customer that you're, that you had referred to, but also when you're deploying right. You need buy-in from from everybody.

Speaker 1 8:35

Yeah, you do. Or else the project's going to fall apart, won't deliver on time.

Speaker 2 8:39

Exactly.

Speaker 1 8:40

So you know what is that like? So yeah, you guys are all talking about teamwork. What does that look like? So I've sent you a PO. I'm getting 10 robots. Yay Right, you're excited, look like.

Speaker 4 8:50

So I've sent you a PO, I'm getting 10 robots. Yay Right, you're excited. What happens now? Well, I think it's important to say that, uh, we didn't start the process when we got the PO right. I mean, we had involvement with uh engineering and operations, so that by the time we get to that point, it's just uh, we're going through the motions of handing this thing that everybody knows about off to the back end of the organization. I think that without that, you can't be successful.

Speaker 4 9:13

So we have to have those really early touch points with our technology stakeholders and our execution stakeholders as we're starting to evaluate some of these opportunities and when they don't fit we say no. But by the time we get to a purchase order that all that groundwork has been laid, everybody knows there's no surprises and that we can kind of seamlessly transition it into the back end of the business. So I think that that's most critical is what happens prior to the purchase order. Yeah, that just makes everything else after, uh, much easier.

Speaker 1 9:47

Yeah. And then I say to Gemma, oh, by the way, I need my robots in three weeks, and she's like, yeah, no, so it becomes like a delivery thing, right, yeah, exactly, yeah.

Speaker 3 9:56

But because we've kind of involved all teams up front, there's never a three-week scenario that we know we can't deliver on. Yeah so it's always tight, don't get me wrong.

Speaker 3 10:06

Yeah yeah, so it's. It's always tight, don't get me wrong. Yeah, there's always something where we go, oh sure, take all the time you need, yeah, um, but we aren't surprised by it. Our engineering teams who need to do the development aren't surprised by it at that point. So we've, you know, matt audie, I do the work with all of our you know internal teams to make sure there aren't there aren't those surprises by the time. It's like we've made a sale. People are like to. To whom?

Speaker 1 10:28

yeah, plus your supply chain, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, making sure that you have robots in house for deployments and things like that well that and we're not.

Speaker 2 10:36

I mean, I think one of the cool things that we're doing is, I haven't seen a lot of these other companies in the picking space um interface with amrs. So it's not only like I don't see that a lot right, it's. So it's not only like oh yeah, I don't see that a lot Right. It's not like we're only trying to procure articulating arm robots from FANUC. Right, yeah, we are procuring pallet moving AMRs, and that adds another element of complexity. But we're actually kind of we're doing that stuff in the field which is super exciting.

Speaker 1 11:09

I mean that's a worry-free experience for the customer, because all of a sudden the entire solution is coming like as a solution, not as a single thing that works by itself right, there's this old phrase a single throat to choke, right?

Speaker 4 11:22

yes, and it's. It's so critical it's never going away in the space. The investments are too big and it's very difficult to manage one of these projects when you have that many vendors involved, right? So without taking the full solution approach, I don't think you're successful commercially in this space.

Speaker 1 11:40

No, I agree and like with that said, like, you know, how do you maintain like, with a startup, you don't want to sell one robot. Or with a startup, you don't want to sell one robot. Or with any company, you don't want to sell one robot into a client space? Right, Because there's no ROI there. Right, you need to have multiple robots, with one person kind of, you know, just watching the floor making sure that things are good, right? How do you guys think about land and expand, Because that's so critical.

Speaker 2 12:04

So more recently, and probably in the last year or so, we have really tried to build in expansion terms into our initial contracts with customers.

Speaker 1 12:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:21

So you know there's still, you know companies are still going to look at technology as another piece of risk and they do want to do some testing before they fully dive right in. And we have been very successful in negotiating contracts that say, okay, if we hit the metrics hit A, b and C metrics over a period of three, six months or whatever then we then implement the next robots right. So we're already kind of baking that into the contract and a lot of our customers we do educate them early on that you're not going to see the benefit an ROI benefit Until there's multiples.

Speaker 2 13:15

Yeah, absolutely. You're going to have to automate, maybe a full line. Yeah to, to see the benefit. So, um, that's the intent, not only to help us expand within our customers networks, but also to really help our customers realize that roi.

Speaker 1 13:26

Yeah, yeah. And I think, like you know, you guys have another kind of secret sauce here and it's kind of, you know, it's a RAS sale to a client. But you know, if a client says to you, well, I don't need that, why do they need that? Why is that so important?

Speaker 2 13:43

So, um, a couple of things and thank you for teeing that up. A couple of things, Thank you for teeing that up.

Speaker 1 13:49

Honestly, I think when I look at solutions out there it's like you guys can't say I'm using this iPad here on the side. It's like buying this thing without Apple care.

Speaker 2 13:58

So not only is it an operational expense for customers that helps them realize the ROI faster, because the way we our our pricing models are very competitive. But I'm going to turn it over to Gemma and talk about hyper care, like you just called it. After care, we've got hyper care yeah and it is it's our support structure through the life of the contract.

Speaker 3 14:27

I love that.

Speaker 2 14:28

So, Gemma, if you want to.

Speaker 3 14:31

Yeah, it is a program we've called HyperCare and really the whole intent of it is that we meet the customer where they are. So, if they don't have a fully fledged maintenance team, but we make sure that whomever is going to interact primarily with the robot still knows how to do the basics. That means giving them the documentation they need, the tools they need, so that if there are small hiccups because there's always going to be something small that happens they're able to handle that in production and then if something large happens, we're there. So we, within that first 30 to 90 days that we deploy, we're actually physically still there because we know that there are going to be edge cases, things that we, you know, even as close as we stay with the customer during development, there's going to be something that happens where we go oh, we did not consider what needs to happen in this situation and so we're there to do that really rapid turnaround. Then on saying, okay, we've implemented a change, now we tested it, we're here to make sure it works, rather than remotely being like, oh, okay, we'll get to that.

Speaker 3 15:27

When we get to that, because then they already start, you'd start to diminish that trust you took all that time to build up front and so you know, during that first 30 to 90 days, which is very intensive care, yeah, but we don't leave at that point. So we have all of our remote support 24-7 whenever they need us. Again, we've trained their team to take care of kind of the small maintenance tasks If they can't resolve an issue themselves and we can't do it remotely. We're on site within 24 hours of knowing that need and I think that when you make that large investment, even as a RAS model, that's a huge investment for a lot of companies.

Speaker 3 16:06

You, the company, have baked that into your ROI. If this machine goes down, if the system isn't working, they're blocked at that point and it's usually internal reputations on the line and we want our customers to be successful. We want our internal advocates to get that win as well, for sure. So you know hypercare is really. I can list all the things that we do do, but it's just about going to the customer where they need us, yeah, so it ends up being pretty customized and it's very much a relationship thing too right and like.

Speaker 1 16:38

If I'm wearing my salesperson's hat, which generally I am most times like, I'm always in that account and I and when they need something else, who are they going to call me? Because I'm talking to them all the time. We're in there and I just love that.

Speaker 2 16:51

Yeah, and honestly that's the operations is sort of the backbone behind a lot of our expansions.

Speaker 4 17:01

Yeah, they're our best salespeople. Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:05

Good job, gemma, you bet team.

Speaker 3 17:10

That's so great.

Speaker 1 17:10

And you know. So you know, gemma gave me the tour, showed me all these cool things, right. So you know talking about some of the times that you've had to really pull together as a team, you know, without oversharing, right, so we're, we're live here. This is airing to everybody Like what's a time that you guys really came together to solve like a very tough challenge. You know it's interesting.

Speaker 4 17:33

Yeah, I mean every time I'm in this office, there's a continuous state of this team pulling together and solving a really hard problem, right? I mean, we talk about we're bringing in customer demos on a regular basis and we will call Gemma and say, hey, we're going to be there on Tuesday, Can we do a demo? And the answer has always been yes, that's a hard thing. So it's great that we have the technology, but it's really the people who come in and execute to make that happen. And it's a super powerful thing when you can have a conversation with a customer and seven days later you're on site with them and they're seeing a demo with their products Super powerful thing. And this team is just doing that on a pretty continual basis. We have 10 robots back there. That that's, that's all they're here for. That's what they do, but but yeah, I mean it, so it's just a continuous stream of that. This is a pretty scrappy team.

Speaker 3 18:28

I mean, I think the, the engineers always want to strangle me when we come to them with this, but then they also really understand the why behind it and say you want what and by when, for who, doing, wait, doing what? At which point they go. Okay, I think we can, and I think it's because we've also taken the time to explain why it's important. And I think it's because we've also taken the time to explain why it's important and that's why you know, you've heard the saying everyone's on the sales team. Sure, you say that and we're like whatever At Osoro, everyone lives it. So we regularly pull engineers into customer meetings when we're kind of getting to that closing point. They're always helping us with the demos operations, helping with the demos. I think it's something that we just couldn't do it if we didn't all work together. There is no version of a siloed successful Osaro.

Meeting Challenges and Favorite Deployments

Speaker 1 19:20

Yeah, no, that's fantastic and you know, with that said, what are some of your favorite deployments that you've done. And probably everybody here will have a different answer, but um, it's like asking me to choose a favorite kid as a person who doesn't have a kid, so this is even a favorite cat.

Speaker 3 19:38

Yeah, usually, honestly, it's it's whatever the next one is. Um, I have always loved very much the past one and I'm like now. I'm so excited about what's the next one that we're about to build, and it's usually because there's some new challenge that's associated with it. That's something that's really exciting, like, oh, this is new for us. Even if it's a lot of the same building blocks, there's always something a little new that we're bringing into it, which keeps the job really exciting. I think it's exciting on the development side, on the sales side and on the delivery side when there's always something a little bit new. So for me, the I don't know my favorite deployment is the one I'm doing next. That's such a good answer can you guys top it?

Speaker 2 20:19

I don't think so. No, no, can't, can't top it. But I will say we did have a customer tell us we, we just want a project and we're all super excited about it. And the customer, um, and I spoke and I said so, why did you make that decision? And oh, good, good question, that's good, and you know, it's just curious. Because we, there was competition, yeah, um, some were much bigger companies than us, yeah, and um, the the their answer was you listen to us and you help. You actually allowed us to collaborate with you on the solution side, right? So partner.

Speaker 1 21:02

You're a true partner right.

Speaker 2 21:03

So and and that's probably one of the deployments that jem is referring to, that we're all really excited about because, um, yeah, the base of the application was always there at osaro, but there were certain nuances with this customer that they needed, uh, an amr here or like a tweak here that you know, matt and and the engineering team just built into the solution and that that put us over the edge, so something something too, that that you guys don't know about this team.

Speaker 1 21:32

So you know, this is a fairly new podcast, and we were sitting around, um in Chicago, I believe at ProMat, and I said, hey guys, I think I'm going to do a podcast, and we sat around and we joked and we had such a fun time, you know, thinking about it, cause it was why would we ever do this thing? And now it's here, um, so katie and I. So katie, you know our director of the podcast, you'll see her in a minute but, um, we put something together for you. That's reminiscent of that time when we were sitting around okay, kind of talking.

Speaker 1 22:06

yeah, I know, I know, oh no.

Speaker 3 22:08

Oh my.

Speaker 1 22:08

God.

Speaker 3 22:14

That's fantastic so everyone if you remember this is the.

Speaker 1 22:17

Sipopotamus from Three Dots and a Dash.

Speaker 2 22:21

That is hilarious.

Speaker 1 22:22

They serve theirs with dry ice. The Dwight Co Roscos version is electrolyte powder, so I think it's. Is it Paloma electrolyte powder? Paloma electrolyte powder.

Speaker 3 22:33

That is so it's. Is it Paloma electrolyte? Paloma electrolyte powder.

Speaker 1 22:36

So you guys need to hydrate, we do so. This is the Sipopotamus that we put together for you, but that was actually really cool for me because we get to sit around, talk about a cool idea, laugh about it, and now we're here. Thank you so much for all of your support with the podcast. Like, honestly, we joked about it. We had a fun time but, you know matt churchill laughing about the name of the podcast and collecting roscos as we went around it was great.

Speaker 3 23:01

We had a fun time.

Speaker 1 23:02

So cheers to you guys. Um.

Speaker 3 23:04

This is the sipopotamus, so oh boy, gather in, lean in here, good thing it's not covered anymore.

Speaker 2 23:12

Oh boy, gather in, lean in here, good thing it's not COVID anymore.

Speaker 3 23:16

Well, you know, all friends that's good, that's the Paloma electrolytes.

Speaker 1 23:20

That is good and we work with robots, so Osha couldn't come in any minute. So that is non-alcoholic, so anyway, thank you everyone. Mandy Dwight, host of Ross Goss, dwightcocom. If you found anything interesting here, go to our website, dwightcocom, rossgosscom. And thank you so much. Osaro team.

Speaker 2 23:40

This was really fun to sit with you today, thank you. Thanks for setting this up.

Speaker 1 23:44

Thanks for enjoying the Sipopata. I look forward to the theme song.

Speaker 2 23:48

Yes, I'll be thinking about it tonight, yeah.