When I first started working with the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people, I thought I had it figured out. I was dead wrong.
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The Reality Nobody Talks About
Most people approach the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people with assumptions that made sense five years ago. The world has moved on. When I look at my portfolio companies, the ones that succeed are doing something fundamentally different.
The first thing to understand is that you need to move fast and break things. I've seen this play out across dozens of companies. The pattern is unmistakable.
At RemoteTeam, we learned this the hard way. We spent months going down the wrong path before realizing that your team matters more than your technology. Once we made the switch, everything changed.
What I've Learned From 51 Companies
After investing in 200+ startups and running two companies to successful exits, I've developed a pretty clear picture of what works with the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people.
The biggest misconception is that you need to the best solutions are often the simplest ones. That's backwards. The companies that win are the ones that timing is everything in this game.
I remember sitting with the Anthropic team early on and discussing how they thought about the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people. Their approach was counterintuitive but brilliant.
The Numbers Don't Lie
I've tracked the performance of companies in my portfolio that take the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people seriously versus those that don't. The difference is stark.
Companies that invest early in the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people see, on average, 2-3x better outcomes within 18 months. That's not a small edge. That's the difference between raising your next round and running out of runway.
One of my portfolio companies went from struggling to profitable in under a year after they finally got serious about this. The founder told me later that they wished they'd started sooner.
This connects to broader themes around Figure AI, autonomous vehicles, surgical robots that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
The Bottom Line
Look, the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people isn't rocket science. But it does require intentionality, consistency, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: start now, start small, and iterate. The founders who win at the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people aren't the ones with the best strategy on paper. They're the ones who execute, learn, and adapt faster than everyone else.
I've been doing this for over a decade. The patterns are clear. The companies that take the unseen heroes of warehouse automation: the people seriously outperform the ones that don't. Every single time.
If you're working on something interesting in this space, I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a line.
Frequently Asked Questions
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.