Betting on Robots Over Hype: ‘Viral Videos Don’t Pack Boxes’
From fashion design to robotics CEO, Kimberley Losey’s journey defies convention. But it’s her relentless focus on solving real problems that’s redefining automation and reshaping warehouse robotics, one human-footprint robot at a time.
Initially, I went to school for fashion design. But I’ve always loved building businesses—and I didn’t have famous parents or a giant trust fund—so I thought I’d better get a business degree.
Although I shifted course, my design background helped make my journey possible. Like many creative fields, fashion design is cutthroat and requires long hours, persistence, and the ability to handle criticism. My background also honed my ability to identify patterns in data that aren’t immediately obvious but can inform new directions. It also taught me how to tackle problems. In my role, I rally a group of smart people to innovate and solve those problems.
I’ve been at Rapid Robotics for three years, starting as chief marketing officer before taking on responsibility for the sales organization. About a year ago, I became CEO. I love the sales side of my job, where I get to interact with heads of supply chains at various companies. They’re creative problem solvers, and it’s energizing.
IL: What has been at the top of your agenda as CEO?
From our start in 2019, Rapid Robotics has had a vision of building a robotic workforce to complement the human workforce and eliminate labor shortages. We’re pursuing this goal a bit differently from many other companies. I try to approach everything from a customer-first mindset: What does the customer actually need? How can we offer a solution in a way that helps the customer quickly adopt it?
As we were figuring this out, I visited warehouse after warehouse, where I’d see a line of people doing monotonous, repetitive work. Sometimes, the lines were down simply because there weren’t enough people to do the work.
These observations helped lead to the latest evolution in the Rapid Robotics story. In our experience, units per hour is the metric that matters in much of the warehouse industry. Our robot is designed to stand at a line and pick, pack, and palletize with the speed of a human.
IL: What was behind the decision to create a stationary robot?
Given today’s technology, we needed to eliminate some of the variables to create a robot that could quickly pick and pack, as ours does. In this first phase, we chose to restrict mobility—though our robot is repositionable. It has the footprint of a human and can pack with speed comparable to a human.
It also has some special super-human features like on-board air so it can work anywhere.
IL: This meant changing the trajectory of the company. How did you decide to make this shift?
Until about a year ago, we used off-the-shelf robots. We used computer vision and AI to enable them to identify objects and determine how to put them in boxes, so they could handle the variability of ecommerce fulfillment.
Yet the sales cycle wasn’t moving as quickly as I thought it could, given the challenge we were addressing, and how our solution was better than others on the market.
Also at this time, I visited a brownfield facility. I soon recognized that even a compact work cell wasn’t going to work. There was too much existing infrastructure to work around. The thing that does work is a robot with the footprint of a human. Yet, it does not need to walk. Warehouses already have autonomous forklifts, AMRs and other moving equipment. More moving equipment would just add to the risk and disruption.
Plus, the current battery life of mobile robots means you have to stop and recharge them every few hours. That makes it hard to hit throughput goals.
Reinventing a robot with the footprint of a human, while maintaining high productivity and the ability to move from one task to the next, would eliminate these risks. We eliminated barriers and made it less disruptive for the customer. That helps accelerate adoption.
IL: How did you get your investors to buy in?
It was scary as a relatively new CEO to say to our board, ‘I need a few million more dollars.’ Rapid has undergone a few pivots, and it took time to convince them this was the right move. Plus, there’s so much hype in the humanoid market. Investors were skeptical about whether we could compete with other companies that are raising billions or hundreds of millions of dollars. But as I sometimes joke, ‘Some robots are built for viral videos—but viral videos don’t pack boxes.’
IL: How did you get employees on board?
It was easy to get buy-in because they now have a clear direction of what needs to happen. Then it becomes: ‘How do you make the impossible possible—and create a new robot within a reasonable timeframe?’ This led to minimizing phase one mobility and using some off the shelf components, rather than reinventing every wheel.
I keep employees informed about what our customers need. Keeping the customer front and center helps everybody remain focused and understand that what they’re doing matters.
IL: How do you lead a company that’s growing and changing so quickly?
It’s important to have a mix of experience. More experienced people know how big companies run, while our startup experience gives us the freedom to pursue the future and imagine what could be possible.
The team still adapts, moves quickly, and is willing to break the rules, without going too far. I tell them, ‘Anything’s on the table—just nothing illegal. No one’s going to jail or getting hurt.’
IL: What qualities do you look for when hiring people?
I ask for examples of how they took responsibility and corrected when things went wrong. There’s no room in a startup for blaming others. I even rewarded an employee who admitted he had rushed and ordered the wrong part. We all make mistakes. You recognize it and then course-correct.
IL: Who do you look up to?
People who can rally others to do brave things. Greta Thunberg, for instance, is impressive—so young, with bold ideas and the conviction to act on them.
IL: Who would you trade places with?
A famous inventor. I would love to be in their heads at that moment of despair; the moment when you don’t know how you’ll pull something off. Then, almost suddenly, it shifts to: ‘Now I know what to do.’
No “I” in Team
When I was a relatively new manager, I had a weekly meeting with my boss. I started going through my list of what I’d accomplished. I remember vividly how she stood up and closed her office door. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. What’s happening?’
She sat back down and said, ‘You are now running a team. I don’t want to hear again about what you are doing. This is about the impact of your team.’
That was about 25 years ago, but today I still intentionally think about the team—how is the team being productive and effective? It’s not so much about what I’m doing; it’s about knocking down barriers for what the team can do.