Almond is building robots for the era of physical AI.
I sat down with Saba Khalilnaji, Founder & CEO of Almond, inside the company's San Francisco factory to talk about building robots, scaling hardware, factory automation, and why Almond wants to become "America's robot factory."
Saba started building robots as a kid, later spent nearly seven years at DoorDash, and eventually left to work on one of the hardest problems in automation: getting robots to operate reliably in factories where the environment and tasks constantly change.
Today, Almond is building Axol, a dual-arm robot designed for physical AI, data collection, teleoperation and real-world deployment.
We cover why traditional automation struggles in high-mix manufacturing, what Saba learned from DoorDash, the rise of "neo-integrators," why deployments are Almond's North Star, manufacturing robots in San Francisco, and Almond's work on teaching Axol to help build Axol.
Saba Khalilnaji:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saba-khalilnaji/
Almond:
https://www.almond.bot/
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00:00 Inside Almond's San Francisco robot factory
01:02 A first look at Axol
02:12 Building robots as a kid
07:50 Science Olympiad and early robotics
11:56 Studying bioengineering at Berkeley
14:58 From robotics to DoorDash
18:19 What DoorDash taught Saba about moving fast
22:37 Why he left to start a company
25:10 How your environment shapes ambition
29:28 Discovering the automation problem inside factories
31:06 Why traditional factory automation struggles
34:49 What Almond is building
36:03 The rise of the "neo-integrator"
38:36 Why deployments are Almond's North Star
40:17 Building America's robot factory
43:09 Why Almond believes in owning the full stack
44:05 Teaching Axol to help build Axol
46:09 Saba's advice to his younger self
47:25 Why it's called Almond
49:25 Closing
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