Rocket Roundtable

Rocket Roundtable (2/12/21)

On February 12th, FORGE hosted a public, virtual Rocket Roundtable for Supply Chain Solutions.  Robotics startups pitched their physical product challenges and received live advice from the supply chain expert panelists.

Three startups were featured: Land Maverick, which is building autonomous robots to test the soil conditions of golf courses; Gencores, which is working to innovate a large robotic 3D printer with applications in composite production; and Smoodi, which is creating a fully-automated smoothie machine for offices. The panel featured representatives from Samtec, Bossard, Alpine Bearing, Axis New England, and Kalow Technologies.

All of the startups came to FORGE seeking expertise in automation and robotics, and were provided connections within our network of over 400 regional suppliers. Our panelists were able to not only offer context on their companies’ services, but contribute constructive feedback and expert advice to help solve their product development challenges. A common issue among the startups was reckoning with minimum order quantities from big suppliers while early in the prototyping or manufacturing process. All of FORGE’s supplier partners are vetted for enthusiasm to work with new innovations, and are often willing to endorse early-stage startups to get them what they need at a fair price.