How to Mass Produce Humanoid Robots (The Neo @1X Blueprint) - w/ Ritwik

I don't even want to call it a evil moment. I want to call it an iPhone moment. moment. Today, we're talking about a problem that has quite simply never been solved before in human history. The supply chain problem of enabling production of 10 million Neos at scale. I don't want to exaggerate, but we are probably creating history at this point. Joining us on the show today we have Ritwick a hardware sourcing specialist at 1X who takes us through his incredible career journey that actually started with helping farmers in his hometown of Jabalpur. He shares how his masters in supply chain propelled him straight to the most cuttingedge hard tech companies in Silicon Valley. When I'm sleeping is Neo looking at me through a camera and is like a person seven oceans away staring at me while I sleep. Here at

staring at me while I sleep. Here at Ready Set 2, we know that the only way to learn is to do. Therefore, my goal with this episode is to highlight how a career in supply chain can put you at the knife's edge of the world's most challenging problems and how you can deal with them. Subscribe on YouTube and follow on Spotify for weekly episodes. And now, without any further ado, here's Ritwick.

further ado, here's Ritwick. Welcome to the only podcast in the world featuring stories of high agency individuals who are just a few steps ahead of us. Ryik, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Naman. Thank you for this opportunity. Very excited to speak. speak. Likewise, man. And I know you are currently in the middle of what seems like just a complete storm in terms of just the virality that Neo has, you know, gotten over the past week such.

know, gotten over the past week such. So, I guess I want to begin with what is that like? Like what is it like to be a part of a company that is so, you know, huge in the news cycle as of now? I mean definitely I would say like the term is exciting and uh I am very pumped up about what's happening around u Neo at 1x like every day when I go to the office you meet engineers you meet u people working on software you meet people working on mechanical structures then I have my own supply chain team and the one thing that is extremely common that I think is passed down from the CEO

that I think is passed down from the CEO and leadership level is we love Neo and it's like you see Neo walking around the office and you know oh yeah I mean it's it's totally like science fiction I mean first day in my off first day at office when I joined uh back in October and I entered the office and I was like damn I just walked into science fiction I think and not being a technical person like I'm not an engineer by default I'm more into the business side of things I'm more like in supply chain. It was pretty exciting like it was it gave me a very broad vision of what we're trying to do what we're trying to achieve how we are trying to almost create a human as like a companion to people and to the consumer market

consumer market and obviously we'll be covering a lot of NEO and 1X but I want to take a step back and like almost focus on your journey here right so for our listeners can you walk us through kind of a brief snapshot of like your career trajectory I know you were involved in your past with working with farmers in in grassroots organizations in India and then obviously you've come such a long way and so far from home both figuratively and you know citrally.

figuratively and you know citrally. So yeah a brief snapshot would be really uh helpful. Yeah, I think uh naman words what's um it's like how it started happening was when I was literally like 17 16 years old. Uh I used to live amidst like a farmers market back in India and I used to hear every morning like farmers are like you know arguing over prices and uh stocks are getting wasted and on top of that my mother uh she's a basically a professor in botney.

she's a basically a professor in botney. So I always yeah around like plants and agriculture and where I come from is also like an agricultural town. Where is that? Sorry where is your hometown? hometown? It's right in the central India. It's called Jabalpur. It's in the state of Maria. Yeah. Yeah. So uh I come from Jabalpur. I love that place. I love that city. It's it has my heart. Um but again um so I was uh at the back of my mind I was always like thinking like what what are the problems that farmers face in day-to-day lives and I kept questioning that and that just grew my interest into agriculture and uh more into the business side of things. So I uh did my undergrad in

things. So I uh did my undergrad in agriculture and I knew from the start as soon as I was like under I didn't even graduate and I started my own company and I told my parents that uh uh you know like that's this is what I want to do like money is something that not very attractive to me as in like um um of course it's a necessity but I what I want to focus is on continuous learning like I I just want to ask questions and um um you know just ask a lot of questions that gives me the answers that I want and just try to solve problems that can somehow impact farmers um ease their lives in some small manner. That's

their lives in some small manner. That's that's that was my goal. And um I never knew how startups work. I never had uh access to external funding. I never had a technical team. I just so what I did was I was trying to sell farmers seeds and pesticides and machineries. machineries. Okay, got it. directly uh procuring them from manufacturers eliminating the middleman and then I implemented tech like I I built the team uh we had an app I used to do consultancy so four five years of my life I spent in like fields farmers like helping them I I even taught farmers how to use phone how to use internet that's crazy pretty exciting yeah wow

wow it was pretty exciting and I did I did some great things I as in like great things not in like I would not say like economically or financially but impactfully socially impactful. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely man. Yeah. It's a huge deal. Totally it is. And it's it's also fun looking when I look back right now u when I used to go visit farmers and teach them how to use phones. The amount of interest from the second generation of farmers that I used to get who understand tech who understand that okay u this is going to make my father's or my uncles or my mom's life easy. So that's impactful and that gave them a vision. So how the journey was like I

vision. So how the journey was like I was doing what I was doing and you know how lockdown happened and we suffered like yeah uh the two lockdowns were pretty hard but I still had like a 40 member team that I had to take care of and uh yeah so yeah a lot of uh a lot of struggles went there a lot of uh planning went there a lot of ups and downs but again at the when when when I was looking I think near I think end of 2022. Um um I was questioning like what now? Like things are at a full stop because I do not have external funding.

because I do not have external funding. No one's like putting capital in a city like Jabalpur right now and it sucks. It sucks. It's it's pretty bad. I I went I knocked like on thousands of doors like give me some money and I'm doing this and it's impactful and I could do much better because I understand the grassroot problems. But sadly that didn't happen. So I had to take a pivot for my own self. Got it. And uh yeah. Is that what brought you to the the United States? Yeah. Um that's what like basically I was I wanted to be more technically sound I would say in terms of supply chain. Uh I wanted to learn more but what I was doing was basically just based off Excel and very bad spreadsheets. spreadsheets. We had no ERP software. It was just us

We had no ERP software. It was just us like four people who know nothing about supply chain trying to figure out supply chain. So it's it's chaotic. It's chaotic. chaotic. So yeah, that's what I wanted to learn. And um um I thought like you know the best place to learn in this world I believe the education system that United States offers, the opportunities that it offers, the comprehensive learning that you get here outpowers everything like it's it's I agree. Yeah. There's nothing like it. Y Y nothing like it. The difference is astronomical. Even though I love my education that I've got in India but the difference of uh uh the comprehensiveness that you get in US is astronomical I believe. So uh yeah so took the decision came to us packed my bags uh being a student again after

bags uh being a student again after running the own thing. So it was a difference but the type of people you meet here in your class your faculty uh uh the people you meet at the college campus or or the college bar it's it's very impressive. It's like you learned so much and I'm like wow uh that's all I wanted. wanted. Yeah. No, that makes sense. So where did you go for your masters in supply chain?

you go for your masters in supply chain? I did it from University of Houston that is based out of Houston, Texas. Yeah. Got it. And what was that experience like? Like like for our listeners that aren't the most well verssed fit what that curriculum entails. Can you go over roughly you know what they teach, what's the structure like and maybe you could also touch on like who is it for? like what type of career opportunities can one look at uh once they graduate from this domain. Okay, so I would say supply chain is if you have a bird's eye view, supply chain is just balancing uh supply and demand.

is just balancing uh supply and demand. But if you go more into the granularity, supply chain is procurement, supply chain is demand planning, supply chain is warehousing, logistics, u delivery, uh distribution. So it has branches of its own. So they one who is interested in any of these use cases should pursue a masters in supply chain management. If you are interested in yeah if you're interested in demand planning if you're interested in procurement if you're interested in distribution just figuring out like how organizations that are maybe $50 billion or hundred billion dollar how do they manage their distributions? If you have questions in your mind that you ask yourself like for example I was working with SLR Luxortica they are the makers of Rayban and Oaklay sunglasses sunglasses big hundred billion dollar company

big hundred billion dollar company so that's the when when when I was working with them the question that I used to ask like how do you even manage million SKUs going million places like it's if you ask these type of questions and you want to understand that I think supply chain is is is again the I think one of the most underlooked courses or curriculum uh right now and also in terms of if you're interested in manufacturing if you are interested in sourcing and procurement that I was y y I wanted to study how manufacturing can be scaled how how uh how procurement is done how how you become a strategic sourcer like right now at 1x I handle mechanical components and hardwares so go so h how do to source that from all

go so h how do to source that from all around the world so that there's not there's no line down situation, how can you increase your manufacturing? How can you scale it? So yeah, if uh if you want to have answers to these to if you want to have answers to these types of questions, supply chain management is the course for you. Got it. That's super helpful man. Yeah, I really appreciate that deep dive. And then also to touch on the curriculum itself like I guess what are some flagship subjects maybe a couple that you really enjoyed and maybe one that you did not enjoy that much during your time at Houston. Yeah. So I u I come from a non-technical background. So uh my first day uh first class was quant analysis for business

class was quant analysis for business decisions and I'm like okay this is some other language that I'm I don't know this language. What what is this? So that was hard but it was very fun. Like I again I never did it for the grades or never did it for you know like you know never did it for you know like I want to be like the topper of the class. It's always a mindset that okay I just want to figure this out even if I'm bad at it. It's okay. And um so subjects like quant analysis for business decisions you learn u how companies run on ERP software. So we have a very strong prehensive training for ERP softwares like SAP. We have very good

softwares like SAP. We have very good curriculums when it comes to demand and supply integration like how there is a demand for your product and you have this x amount of supply how are you integrating these two and there's a lot of data that goes behind it so that strategic sourcing like how do you maintain supplier relationships how do you build supplier scorecards uh I think all these subjects that I've studied or the curriculum that I was part of still actively I used on a daily basis like Got it. Wow. Yeah. Like we were a part of like we had some great uh case studies from Harvard and how Volkswagen did their they developed their supplier scorecard. So I think but now when I work at 1x I can relate to that story on their case study and

and super actionable like they they built it out of very actionable industry focused case studies sounds like for the most part. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I remember like one of my final case studies was on Mahindra and Mahindra tractors is because I was working with tractors back in India at my own dealership. So I had the sometimes like there are case studies where where where where where you cannot come to conclusion just based on data.

come to conclusion just based on data. You have to recognize customer patterns. You have to recognize production. You have to recognize everything. So it's just balancing everything and making sure that you have the highest yield. I think um if Yeah. So yeah, that's awesome, man. Yeah, that's super cool. And then finally, just on this segment, I guess um because I'm sure you had a fairly big cohort. I'm sure you have peers that were also in your program. program. Just um roughly for us, can you help paint a picture of what are some of the job titles that opens up for you once you graduate from this domain? Like so just for context, right? So I studied engineering management which is you know it's just like a program whatever but there's a few doors that that opens

there's a few doors that that opens right so you can apply for business analyst roles you can apply for product managers roles so I guess my question is for supply chain what would be maybe you know 80% of your cohort is doing probably these three or four or I don't know maybe it could be more but yeah what are those job titles that open the door for you? Got it. Great question. Uh I think u people who want to pursue supply chain management also need to understand like I did not never had this clarity. So I'm very glad to give this clarity to the listeners and who are trying to pursue supply chain. I think walking down through my own career path uh when I came to US my first internship was in SLR that I discussed previously. So I was a supply chain analyst.

analyst. Okay. I assisted the team uh in the distribution planning like how uh so we were launching Rayban meta sunglasses. So my team was behind how the distribution is going to be planned across the world for this uh product. So, so supply chain analyst. Then I joined Matic Robots. Uh, I knew you interview Anuman. Great guy. He's the reason I came to the Bay Area. Big shout out to Matic. Big shout out to Anuman. Great guy. Yeah, he's a great I really enjoyed my Yeah. And I've actually also stayed in touch with him.

actually also stayed in touch with him. So, I agree. Yeah, he's awesome. Yeah, shout out. He's awesome. And man, the work ethic and the discipline and the way his vision his vision is formatic, it's very impressive. and I learned a lot from him. So big shout out to Anuman and Matic Robots, Mahul, Namit, everyone's really great. So when I joined Matic Robots, it's I joined as a GSM like global supply manager. And what a GSM does to be insured is uh uh I just make sure the right parts are at the right place at the right quantity at the right time. Wow. And yeah, that's a lot. Yeah. And if they're not your production line and all the technicians and the people do not have jobs and it's a line down situation. So it's chaos.

down situation. So it's chaos. So supply chain analyst then global supply manager. Uh then at 1x I'm a sourcing specialist. It's same as uh uh as a GSM like a global supply manager. Uh I see. Then I could I could take reference of my friends. What are they doing? So one of my closest friends Sadhart from my university he's uh he's a ERP consultant right now. So as in like he he basically works with a company and solves problems that SAP faces and fixes bugs and plans. Um I see. Um yeah and then other other fields are like you know again distribution planning you can be a warehouse manager you can be you can uh you can do you can go in reverse logistics as in like uh companies who have a lot of returns you can you have to plan that how those

can you have to plan that how those returns are processed. Uh then you can be supply chain planners planning the whole supply chain from the top down and material planners like how and uh yeah I think these are some of the basic um I think basic roles and the these these can branch out very widely makes sense but yeah but roughly these are the big umbrellas they yeah which is super helpful and then just also curious about how does the sphere of like interviewing work with with these type of roles. So I know you've at least interviewed for the analyst as well as global supply chain manager positions. So for folks that are maybe currently, you know, just about to graduate or maybe even current students for these programs, what can they be expecting when it comes to the interviews for these positions? I mean I have a very

these positions? I mean I have a very non um um I would say like my views towards interviews are very like u I would say I don't know word to use but um I have a very different view about interviews. interviews. I love it. We we love different views of podcast. So that's ideal. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So my views about interviews are basically that I always go to interviews being fearless as in I am very nervous.

being fearless as in I am very nervous. I'm not going to lie. like uh I'm very nervous before the interview but I try to go and be as fearless as possible because when I'm fearless I can say what I want um I can absorb what I want and when the interviewers especially in supply chain that I have seen is interviewers basically the managers who have been in supply chain they see that whether this person can thrive in chaos or not because it is always chaotic like you know I'm having like I'm having so when it's 900 p.m. here I'm having calls in China and there are situations going on in with our Chinese vendors. So it's always like you cannot you cannot you cannot fall back. You have to be on your

cannot fall back. You have to be on your toes all the time. So I believe go fearless fearless have a very good sense of urgency like show that you have urgency in you like you cannot be you know it's not you cannot just sit back relax and like just it's not some daily task that you have to perform it is daily challenges that you will have to solve. So have urgency, be fearless, be back your claims with numbers. Of course, that is I think in every job. I think it's it's it's very like and be like yeah and be human as in like just tell them that you do not know everything and but you have the ability and you have the willpower to learn that why you are passionate about it and also think supply chain is a field that you have to be passionate about. You cannot

have to be passionate about. You cannot just you know you cannot just uh uh eyeball it or you cannot just do an interview. Yeah. So yeah I think these are uh my different views. I'm hope it reates helpful. Yeah I'm sure that is yeah very relevant for sure because I think especially what you said around being okay with you know being in chaotic situations. I think it's such a good call out that when you go into an interview just not afraid and you know really confident. I think it I can imagine that signaling to the interviewer that yeah, this person has a stable head on their shoulders. They will probably be okay when there's like fires going on all around them and you know they won't run around like a headless chicken which you don't want that. that. Yes. Yes. You don't want that. Correct.

Yes. Yes. You don't want that. Correct. Absolutely correct. So next up I want to kind of you know double click on your experience at 1x. So I guess the you know and I was so excited to ask you this question in in particular but how does like how is does it happen that you know Neo is obviously such a groundbreaking product it it's just something that immediately captures the attention of anybody that sees it right I guess my question is why is it just now that the world is hearing about NEO is this a planned thing that 1X was trying to do or does that question even make sense Why did we not hear about Neo maybe January this year or did people know just enough people did not know or you

just enough people did not know or you weren't public about Neo like how does that go on behind the scenes I guess. Got it. I think um the whole humanoid industry right now like every company if you talk about uh 1x if you talk about figure if you talk about Tesla I think all the companies what are trying to they're trying to perfect the product as in like they none none of us none of the companies in the American market have like publicly launched 1X is the first to do it so y I think our thought process is that is like we have we have tried to build a very simplified humanoid robot that can do simplified household chores. If not u if not autonomous we have something that is called as robot operators like if you

is called as robot operators like if you order a neo and uh you say ask it to do a complex task and it's not able to do it it's immediately going to connect itself with a robot operator and it's going to perform the task and it's not something that is going to happen um in the future as well. What we are trying to do is we're trying to train robots and we are trying to gather data as fast as you as we can. Yeah. Yeah. But I believe it was like how so 1X is almost like 10 years old and really we have been Yeah. It's a 10 year old company and I think we the engineers especially like our CEO he has he's engineer himself.

our CEO he has he's engineer himself. He's very passionate about the product and I think since a decade u the they have been trying to build a humanoid robot that feels human that feels a companion I think that's the vision behind it and when that vision was achieved I don't know what the strategy behind that was for the launch because I joined like two days before the launch so okay okay sorry how long have you been at 1x is it a few months now or yeah it's just a couple of month okay yeah yeah I was Matic before this.

yeah I was Matic before this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um yeah. So, again coming back to the launch strategy, I think think I think the answer to that question is just because like when we felt that okay um we've got a companion level product that is you know it's not it's it's it's not just a robot. It it can be human. It can be a companion. It has achieved that. It has I I cannot even tell you man like I have so many people reaching out to me on LinkedIn that okay we want the Neo we want the Mi I think it has it has it has I think it's a EV I don't even want to call it a EV

a EV I don't even want to call it a EV moment I think I want to call it like an iPhone moment I think when people realize how their lives are going to become efficient if you have this amazing product that has been built by amazing engineers one of the best engineers in the world and not only just they're not just engineers they're extremely passionate people like they love the product and so much effort has been gone behind it and I am so proud that I I am in it and obviously and I'm sure you must get these a lot but um to your point around the reception of this obviously as with any new technology there are you know there are people that are excited that view this as like it might not be

view this as like it might not be perfect right out of the gate but as you said neither was the first iPhone right it had a lot of problems that people back then were just like oh like some people some people were even like what do you mean it doesn't have a physical keyboard right like how how is how is that going to work well yeah right and then I think on that same vein like when I was researching for you know talking to you I obviously found like just some concerns that people have which I I realiz realize that you may or may not have answers to these, but I think it would at least make sense to ask you. So, um around what you mentioned about the operator uh assignment, I think naturally that opens

assignment, I think naturally that opens the door to privacy concerns, right? Like when I'm when I'm sleeping, is Neo like looking at me through a camera and is like a person seven oceans away staring at me while I sleep? You know, is that something that can happen? Obviously, I'm exaggerating, but yeah, I know. I know you're concerned like I know you're concerned and what this is one of the reasons that I love Neo is that how if I have Neo in my home I would never be like you know oh my god who's this it's like what it's like uh tell me about that yeah what what why do you say that actually this is so curious to me yeah as in like why do I feel it's like not

as in like why do I feel it's like not like a Terminator robot well not even Terminator but like you almost speak of Neo like it's a warm from almost like a family member of sort, right? Which which is what I'm picking up. But that that is the thing that I'm trying to understand more because when I think of Neo from obviously from the outside looking at all of the ads and such I've seen for me it's much more like a like a companion. I don't know like it's it's it doesn't feel that personal or you know like that I I don't I have no attachment to it. Maybe that's the word that I'm looking for.

that I'm looking for. Correct. Correct. Correct. So I feel I how I can differentiate uh about this is like when you see our competitors that I don't want to like name call or something but when I when you see our competitors competitors their focus is basically industrialization like they're building robots for industries and you know factories and um and and what we are trying to do is we are trying we have built Neo what I feel since like this past couple of months that I'm working what we what I feel is like We are building Neo having old people in mind, having children in mind, having families in mind, having household chores in mind. mind. So I think when you are trying to solve a problem that is inside your house, I

a problem that is inside your house, I think when you look at Neo, you feel warmness of that vision. I think I think you can you can you can feel the vision that the company has that our management and the leadership has that they want to make something that feels you can leave your kids with. You can leave you can you you have old mom and dad and you they can help them around. they can they can be considerate and about the whole privacy thing I think initially it is going to be I I feel initially it's going to feel like um initially it is going to feel a bit uh maybe like some uh you know like how you had that concern but what I feel is

you had that concern but what I feel is like you can give access to the robot operators like it's not going to just take over all like go I mean you have to like request a feature that Okay. I see. I see. It won't auto switch to the operator. Okay. Okay. So, I I don't think it's going to auto switch. And um uh I think you can you can uh u give I think when you request that feature then only it happens. So, okay. Yeah. No, that's super helpful.

okay. Yeah. No, that's super helpful. Yeah. Yes, I think and maybe you were going to touch on this but like while researching another like big thing I saw which I did want to ask you about this because it's such an interesting problem to solve and I honestly don't even know how I would solve it but it's like a chicken and egg right so for Neo to do household tasks really well it has to be trained on household tasks but it can only be trained if there are a lot of neos in the world that are constantly generating training data on household tasks tasks so you know it it's like that classic paradox of chicken and egg and so first of all is that true and if so I guess

of all is that true and if so I guess how is 1x and maybe you specifically as the you know sourcing in charge um how are you planning or maybe I mean you can even extrapolate it away from 1x right like this seems like such an important problem to solve so how do you even go about solving something like this yeah so the thing is like um when when when you see 1x as the company you see a lot of passionate people trying to solve problems that is in their domain as in like what my domain is basically what I am passionate about is how do I scale manufacturing to a level that I could I could I want to see personally new at every house I know every house is

every house I know every house is possible right so I have that passion I don't I don't have like a certain like a very correct answer like how language models work how training data works because it's not my background but I do know that the engineers that we have and who are working behind this problem they have had developed some amazing tech we train uh again as you when you when when I go to the office like Neo is doing things and like I think I think it doing it's doing multiple things and I think that's how they're training it basically we have some uh great team who is working behind it. I don't know what tech happens behind it because it's not my domain. Sorry about that. Makes no total sense. Yeah.

Makes no total sense. Yeah. But yeah, if my my my concern and passion right now is to and especially like u u so you you you have to understand like a fact that there has not been a mass scale humanoid manufacturing that has been established around the world. Yeah. We do not have that example. It's like we are probably creating I don't want to exaggerate or I don't want to sound like you know uh but we are probably creating history at this point because because in California in in in in California made in US you are establishing a manufacturing facility that basically you have envisioned that is going to produce a product that is going to be a that is going to be in a household near you. Yeah.

you. Yeah. So I think that that that feat to achieve that uh scale of manufacturing I think that's we cannot we do not have any historical data. We do not have any case study that we can go okay this company did this when they were they were manufacturing humanoids because none no company manufactured has done it before. Yeah. So I think that is basically right now my my passion and my my uh u what my team is trying to do right now like our focus is just like the how we should have the highest yield we should have the lowest cost and we should scale rapidly. rapidly. So I think what you identified is I think you were spot on right like that is such a huge problem to solve but I think to to like to tie it back to our

think to to like to tie it back to our discussions around supply chain and such. Yeah. If if somebody finds themselves in a similar situation like you are finding yourself in right now. what would be you know like a framework or I think you were beginning to touch on that a little bit but yeah like how do you solve this problem that has just never been solved before. Yeah, I think right now the pro I I would not say the uh so we so we are not taking it as a problem first. We are taking it as a goal and we really have to do interesting interesting and when you it's not a problem for us it's a goal for us and by hook or by

it's a goal for us and by hook or by crook we need to reach that even you know it's a battlefield and we are at war as in we have to again if you're in supply chain if you're in manufacturing the sense of urgency just has to kick in at some point and right now we have some goals we have to establish this manufacturing facility that has never been done before and all the team members are at war and focus to make it happen. Now how do we design frameworks as in like there is it has to be spot on like according to the problems right like even if a single small component like as small as a screw should be there in abundance like if there is it's not present again lying

there is it's not present again lying down situation and you do not want so much that so much capital intensive like a facility that that is so capital intensive to have a day off just because of a screw. Right. So your planning should be really good. I think um what I do and I why I love it is because uh interference of tech and AI is very minimal in what I do as in I interesting. interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Even for stuff like forecasting AI hasn't yet come in and is not helpful with that yet. No no forecasting. Yeah. No forecasting, planning, data analysis, we have a lot of tools. We have amazing Okay. at but what I see like the core core element of my job is very human like I need to be so close with my suppliers I

need to be so close with my suppliers I need need I need to stick my head out for my suppliers because when I need their head they stick that too you know what I mean they are with with me in all the firefights in all the chaos so that is a very human part about my job is like I have hundreds of suppliers all over the world and I need to maintain them as like my business partners. They're not my suppliers.

partners. They're not my suppliers. They're my strategic partners. And u I think that's the core element of my job that I absolutely love. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. That is so interesting. I had no idea that there was that overlap. It almost sounds and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's almost it almost sounds like there's an element of sales almost like involved here. Is that true?

almost like involved here. Is that true? Would you would you agree with that or not? Really? I would say sales is everywhere, man. Like sales is everywhere. I mean I mean I'm a hardcore hustler on ground hustler and I think sales if you don't know sales yeah sales is everywhere. I think even an engineer does sales in a point. I mean why you're selling that code that you wrote so why not? I mean true but I guess there are exceptions where you know where if your manager comes down and they're like you know you you have to ship this code in two weeks you don't really care about selling that right like that sale was already made when the task was assigned to you I guess by sales what I I was referring to is what you said which is that you have

is what you said which is that you have to be I don't know like in in contact with these people and like they are not obligated to work with you right it's it's like a give and take like you've crashed their back, they scratch yours and like do you ever get to bargain? Is that a thing that happens? I've got like negotiation is a part of my day-to-day as in like um as like I was also hired for because during my interview I remember like you know like uh Anuman asked me like how do you uh how do you I I I really love that question like how do you as a small startup like how will you negotiate like we are not doing that

you negotiate like we are not doing that big numbers like how are you going to negotiate you have to have leverage like when you go through contracts when you go through the go through when you go through the details and the granularity of you know things and you're trying to build a vision not just for your company but for the suppliers that you're working with when you make them imagine like okay that's how that's how that's that's what our forecast is like if you stick to stick with us this is going to happen I'm going to give you this number of business this you know it's always negotiations like negotiations like you have to leverage everything you can can to get a better deal for yourself but you also have to consider that okay those people also are you know running businesses and huge factories and you

businesses and huge factories and you have to be consider considerate about their profit margins so it's a lot of back and forth that happens every day but I think at the end it just uh you have to make it work I think at the end yeah and are you also involved with like reach out or finding suppliers and such because that just feels lowkey impos really like you have to do that as well Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I think I think Yeah. I think uh that is also a very major part of my job and you know like you cannot just uh if you're building a product like uh Neo and if you're building if you're working at a company like 1X like you have to be so

company like 1X like you have to be so aware like your suppliers cannot be you know there should be ethical uh they should be ethical. There should be no like you know non the mal malpractice that's happening at their facility. You have to audit them. You have to check their eels. You have to check their machineries. You have to check their talent. You have to check their capacity. You have to check how much they can increase with you in the future. Are they willing to invest? Are they willing to you know invest? Uh are they willing to like create a team just for you uh you know to support you? Are they going to provide you quality support, engineering support? So a lot of little little factors go inside like sourcing and uh it's a very interesting thing. I love it. like I find it very

thing. I love it. like I find it very interesting. I mean, yeah, that that's so cool. Yeah. I feel like like a lot of questions that I've that I've asked you, I've I thought that that would just not be your responsibility, but you keep saying that, oh yeah, I do that. I also do that. that. I do that. I also do that. So, it's so interesting to me that I did not like realize that this career track um is is is so diverse, right? like it has such a lot of breadth when it comes to your activities. But another thing that comes to mind is I think this is also one of those careers that the longer you're in it I think the like

the longer you're in it I think the like more valuable you become just as a resource irrespective of the company because you in your backlog you already have the contacts of so many of these suppliers right that that that know you that have worked with you before that would probably be okay with being onboarded. So is that something you also do like mindfully? Yeah, that is a well and see like you when you join this uh when you uh when when you join this uh when you start this career it is not like people know like you're not having any background you do not know anyone but after a certain experience if you're joining a new company uh and you have been in this career path for a while and you're not bringing any like you know business partners or like any

you know business partners or like any references it's kind of a weird it's kind of weird as in like why is this person that has been in sourcing for a year does not have partners, right? Is is he is he is he bad? So um uh I got it. Sorry. I have um my uh I would say references and the people that I have worked with in China, in Taiwan, in in Japan, in India, in um every part of the world like I have these references that I have worked with before and I take them as in like so I so not only um other parts of the world in US itself like I I right now my focus is to develop like uh local strategic

develop like uh local strategic suppliers as in and that That's a fun part. And right now I'm building I'm very new in building my US supplier base. So you know what I mean? Yeah. But yeah, once I build it, they should they should basically Yeah. They're there. They're there. They're there. Yeah, they're there. And yeah, it's uh interesting. And as you mentioned, like you're almost like making a roster throughout the world map with little stamps that okay, done that, done that, done that. So um obviously there's a big intersection of my listeners that are you know basically at the intersection of India and the US.

at the intersection of India and the US. So if there is you know a young person in India right now that's listening that's probably considering either supply chain as a career or maybe even manufacturing for companies like 1X in the US. It doesn't have to be 1X but just any you know like we'll just say hardware based product companies. Yeah. I is there anything that you any advice that you would have for them like is it something that one can get into fairly easily or you know not really how how does that entire like thing work in terms of outreach to you know obviously closing the sale okay so um first like talking about India and manufacturing it it's a painful point for me that India is massively missing out on robotics right

massively missing out on robotics right now I want to say like I want to say that out loud like India should India should keep up with how robotics as a totality is going on universally in the world like manufacturing wise I think India should pick up on that but at the same time a person in India or wherever your listeners are and they're listening to this I believe manufacturing two three decades down the line manufacturing manufacturing is being is I think we we we have not even reached touched the surface level of what manufacturing should be manufacturing is going to solve problems in a way that everything is going to become efficient. You have people like Elon talking about universal basic

Elon talking about universal basic income. You're going to have what you you know you want. Food is not going to be a problem or health is not going to be a problem because automation and manufacturing are going to receive that amount of efficiency extremely soon because right now we are building robots. We will see robots building robots very soon and then yeah we will see fleets of robots being built by robots. We will see food manufacturing scaling up. We will see um we we will see auto automotive manufacturing scaling up.

automotive manufacturing scaling up. We'll see furniture manufacturing scaling up. So I think I am very bullish on manufacturing. I think it has the capacity and the capability to solve world problems at large uh someone who wants to go into this field I really believe just pick any commodity. Okay. Like so let's say like nuts and bolts for instance right let's say somebody manufactures nuts and bolts so then do they like email uh these companies in the US is that how would that would work to get in touch with somebody like you hopefully yeah so basic yeah I get a lot of outreach like that is a simple um that's how I think you know email and LinkedIn's um and I get uh outreaches

LinkedIn's um and I get uh outreaches from um you know from people who are either distributors or like manufacturers. But you have to understand that to work with companies like 1x there should be a certain scale that you should have already achieved, right? You should have already benchmarked quality. You should have already benchmarked scale, capacity. So I would say someone who wants to start manufacturing should really pick a commodity like nuts and bolts and you as you said and just deep dive so much into that commodity. You should know your demand. You should know your how.

demand. You should know your how. Which country is doing what right now? What which country is focusing right now. And if especially I feel like US right now in terms of robotics is doing massive. So it's like the best time to get into small component manufacturing especially if you are like from country like India, China, Taiwan, Indonesia. I think if you achieve certain kind of if you are able to give companies like 1x extremely good engineering support, extremely good manufacturing support and extremely good quality support, I think sky is the limit, man. Like it's it's Yeah, Yeah, that is such helpful and actionable advice, right? Especially around what you said that the soil is fertile right now. Like now is the time now. get into it before the scale really,

scale really, you know, as they say, scales up. Um, one other thing that came to mind through all of this is how much are you expected to stay up to date about just legal stuff like tariffs and all of that, right? Cuz when you talk about all of this exporting, importing business, you then run into the murky waters of just legalities. So, do you have a team that helps you with that or is this also your job? Yeah, I'm going to say I also do this, but you have to be stop. I mean, you have to like, man, like it's crazy how uh it's crazy how again, it's like always on your toes. It's like I'm getting a call from FedEx that in the at

getting a call from FedEx that in the at 9:00 p.m. in the email from FedEx 9:00 p.m. in the night that your shipment is stuck and you cannot do things about it. So, you have to be aware of what is happening. Why is the shipment stuck? Is there a new rule change? What is the new there a new rule change? What is the government demanding? If they want a certificate, what kind of a certificate they want?

what kind of a certificate they want? Like for example, like we like right now there was a rule change on September 19th, I think. uh that um u uh whatever you are exporting or importing that has to be there has to be a certificate of uh uh material I don't know the word but you should have a certificate of each and every material that has gone down into making your product percent wise like you know 1.3% copper 2% aluminium so the heck yeah it's crazy and you have to be on top of it you cannot obby right yeah so I think extremely very important. I think it is important for everybody in supply chain to stay updated about tariffs about uh logistics

updated about tariffs about uh logistics about um um I would say geopolitical situations of what is going on. Um because you know there are wars that affect things. There are there are conflicts that affect things. Then there are uh roots that affect things. There is is there is there is weather that affect things. Natural calamities that affect things. Labor shortages. So everything has a ripple effect if you if you are if has a ripple effect if you if you are you know in this in this field.

you are you know in this in this field. So you should be updated. You should stay updated. Yeah. No, that makes sense because I think you're just way more efficient that way, right? Like you can go and ask somebody every time, but you would have to bug them like 60 times every day. So might as well just you know your own stuff and that might be ideal. And one more thing that I would like to add is like not only you have to be aware about what's happening in the world, you should be extremely learned in terms of language as in terms of minute details as in like when you go through contracts, when you go through agreements, when you go through paperwork, right? In general,

go through paperwork, right? In general, you should develop an eye or a sense that when you read a paragraph, you should understand um the fact that okay, is this beneficial for me and my organization or not? Is this confusing? No or not? And you should question it. Always question it. So that's so very fun fact a fun fact about me is this. when I was do doing agrio like when I was running my own company back in India I had to form a lot of contracts and negotiations by like you know I had to do that uh I was like okay like let's just figure out how to you know have a permanent solution for this and I joined law school for one and a half years learned contracts and negotiations and I quit I'm like okay I just wanted to learn them

learn them wait really like you just dropped out yeah I'm like okay I just wanted to learn contracts I'm man. So yeah. So you don't have that crazy. Yeah. And like you planned this like you knew you were going to do this all along. No, I'm like yeah. I'm like what can I do to solve this problem? And it's like okay I can just uh go to law school, learn learn it and just bye-bye. That's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah. So, just a, you know, like kind of last like rapid fire here before we go. I'm curious to hear your 2-year and 5year predictions when it comes to humanoid robots. Okay. I can u I can twoyear fiveyear is going to is is too I think it's I guess

going to is is too I think it's I guess like a tight timeline to give you a prediction but I would say 2030. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's 5 years. Oh, it's four years, man. Yeah, I would say this decade. Let's just take a 10 year timeline. I think think Sure. Yeah, that was true. Yeah, we are going to see um humanoids being deployed absolutely in factories. Absolutely going to happen. We are going to see humanoids deployed in households.

to see humanoids deployed in households. Absolutely going to happen. And I also see like it's not just human robots getting deployed in factories or households. I can see infrastructural changes happening as in like such as in like hospitals they are going to be built in a way that can be very accessible to humanoids. Schools are going to be built in a way that are that is very accessible to humanoids.

that is very accessible to humanoids. even homes and apartments. I see I can feel that happening as in like because all these infrastructures around us are based and dedicated and addressed towards humans. We I think in the next decade we will see the whole conf the whole the whole like concept of infrastructure infrastructure is going to change and being addressed to robotics. I I I I can say that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that was also one of the things I found where a lot of people were saying about Neo that why do we want to build a humanoid robot, right?

want to build a humanoid robot, right? Like why can't it just be a cylindrical block that does things? And somebody said to that that like our homes are built for humans like they're built for our thumb and fingers, right? Like they're not built for cylinders. And that is that is why it needs to be a humanoid. So correct. So just extrapolating that idea I think does bring us pretty close to what you're saying that you know like the lines will converge basically basically the lines will converge yes between robots and infrastructure correct correct and I also believe like robot when robotics like robotics I is like the peak perfection of mechanical engineering engineering Iglass plus plus software plus software like it's the best combination and I I think technology has brought us here. It has changed civilizations. And I think

changed civilizations. And I think humanoids will lead to a part in time where humans can be way more creative. They can be way more human. You know what I mean? I mean, dip espresso and write poetry all day, right? So, I don't think you and me are going to see that. But okay, we really think I actually think we might. I don't know. We might, bro. We Yeah, we might. Who knows, right? But that that's what's so interesting, right? Like I don't think there is ever been a more exciting time to be alive than 100% 100%. Right. I don't think anybody can doubt or debate that. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm just honestly grateful to be here that also. Yeah, I'm also I'm like I'm like I'm so grateful like you know like our like burnt uh who's our CEO he

like our like burnt uh who's our CEO he always says like you know like we are trying to build companionship we are not trying to build humanoids. So that that really like you know when when you think more about that it's like a very big big I think it's a very big picture. Yeah that's a very yeah love it man. Speaking of gratefulness thanks so much Rituk for taking the time here today. This has been so enjoyable for me. I've learned so much and I'm sure that anybody listening would have taken away so much from your expertise, your incredible journey and truly thank you so so much for taking the time here today and all the best for the launch. I know as you said next year, right, we'll be starting to see just like on the ground footage of Neo.

just like on the ground footage of Neo. So maybe once that happens at a different time probably we can have you back and have you shared the you know before after but thanks thanks so much this has been awesome. Thank you Nam. Thank you. This has been awesome. Uh this was my first time speaking like this but it's just so you made it so easy and you know it's just it's just very good to see that you also come with a very like a learning mindset. you try to learn about things.

mindset. you try to learn about things. That's very impressive and thank you so much. And if you ever are in the Bay Area, happy to, you know, you around 1x and just show you around. That's crazy. I'll I'll sync with you offline. 100%. That would be crazy, man. Thank you. 100% 100%. I'm here this Thank you, Nan. Thank you. I hope I fulfill my promise of walking you through how to fix these challenges that come up in supply chain. If you would like to support me, the easiest way to do that is by subscribing on YouTube and leaving me up to a fivestar rating on Spotify or any of your favorite podcast apps. If you share these with somebody that might benefit from this or your friends and family and tell them that, hey, this is my new favorite podcast, that would really just

favorite podcast, that would really just make my day. Or, you know, feel free to comment something, give me engagement, just help me prove to the algorithm that this actually is worth showing to more people if you'd like. Catch you all in the next one. New episodes every week.