It is easy to think you have surgical robotics figured out early on.
This article looks at surgical robotics: what tends to work, what usually fails, and how to start.
What I've Learned From 64 Companies
A few patterns in surgical robotics come up again and again.
The founders who handle surgical robotics well understand that most founders overthink this and underspend on execution.
The Counterintuitive Truth
In surgical robotics, the best practitioners often do less, not more.
Trying to do everything at once is one of the most common ways to fail: even a team with strong technology and talent can spread itself too thin.
The lesson: simplicity beats complexity every time. It sounds simple. It's incredibly hard to execute.
The Numbers Don't Lie
The gap between companies that take surgical robotics seriously and those that don't is usually clear.
Investing early in surgical robotics can be 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 surgical robots, Figure AI, autonomous vehicles, Tesla Optimus that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
The Bottom Line
None of this is 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 surgical robotics aren't the ones with the best strategy on paper. They're the ones who execute, learn, and adapt faster than everyone else.
Companies that take surgical robotics seriously tend to pull ahead of the ones that don't.
If you're working on something interesting in this space, I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a line.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.
Q: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 234 startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.
Q:How has this view evolved over time?
My thinking on most topics has changed significantly over the years. Early in my career, I held many conventional views that experience proved wrong. I try to update my beliefs when the evidence changes.