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10-Minute Tech Talks: How Tech Entrepreneurs Fail & How You Can Avoid It

10-Minute Tech Talks: How Tech Entrepreneurs Fail & How You Can Avoid It

Build First. Raise Later: Titan Robotics' Growth Story

Oct 12, 2026 · 9 min · 9 segments

Can paying customers help fund the technology behind your next stage of growth? Titan Robotics' Stuart Lawrence explains how early seed support, government-funded development and a deliberate push…

Can paying customers help fund the technology behind your next stage of growth? Titan Robotics' Stuart Lawrence explains how early seed support, government-funded development and a deliberate push toward commercial markets helped build the Pittsburgh robotics company. In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, Jonathan Kersting and Audrey Russo explore Titan's financing journey—from Innovation Works and friends-and-family support to repaying that financing during COVID and considering outside investment after building a substantial operating business. Three reasons to listen: • Understand how customer-funded development helped Titan build its capabilities. • Hear why moving from defense work into commercial markets takes sustained effort. • Explore how a track record changes the conversation about raising growth capital. An entrepreneurial lesson in capital efficiency, commercialization and knowing what investment should help you accomplish.

Can paying customers help fund the technology behind your next stage of growth? Titan Robotics' Stuart Lawrence explains how early seed support, government-funded development and a deliberate push…

Spotify Amazon Music Website

Speakers: Jonathan KerstingHostStuart LawrenceGuestAudrey RussoHost

Top entities: Air force×7 Pittsburgh Carnegie Mellon University×3

Show signals: SuitabilitySafeBiasNot politicalAudience≈14k followers

Government Contracts as Capability Building1:24 – 2:26

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:24

And that's the thing that I've been just screaming about forever is that you can use that as an undiluted way of building your capabilities.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:33

You're getting paid.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:34

Exactly.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:34

You're getting paid while you develop this for the government.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:36

And you have use case.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:37

It's not like you're just doing it and it's a contract.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:39

You're actually doing work.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:41

My whole

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:41

theory is if the Air Force says this is good enough for us, I think I'm going to be able to use this in other places where the standards probably aren't quite as exact.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:48

Oh, my goodness.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

1:49

Yeah, aerospace is a difficult place, especially from, like you're saying, the exact qualifications that you have to go through.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

1:55

And it's one of the things that also a lesson that we learned in aerospace, once it gets qualified, it's not changing unless there's a problem that you can't.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:03

So where we would go after certain work that we thought, oh, we have this new way of doing this.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:08

And that's where we learned the hard lesson of.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:10

No, once it's approved for this airframe or whatever,

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:13

that's

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:13

what we're going to do.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:14

Forever.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:15

Yeah,

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:15

exactly.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:15

We're not changing this for anybody.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:17

Yeah, exactly.

A

Audrey RussoHost

2:18

Wow.

A

Audrey RussoHost

2:18

Yeah, that's interesting.

A

Audrey RussoHost

2:19

So that in and of itself gives you continuity.

Air forceEntity
83%7 mentions
PittsburghCityCity in Pennsylvania
50%1 mention
Carnegie Mellon UniversityCollege or UniversityPrivate university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
17%3 mentions

Aviation
Defense procurementGovernment
Startup financingFinance
Physical artificial intelligenceTechnology > Robotics
Seed fundingFinance > Startup financing
Aerospace engineeringAviation
Technology commercializationBusiness > Entrepreneurship
Defense-funded product developmentBusiness > Entrepreneurship > Technology commercialization
U.S. Air Force contractingGovernment > Defense procurement
Aerospace qualification and complianceGovernment > Defense procurement > U.S. Air Force contracting
Manufacturing automationTechnology > Robotics > Physical artificial intelligence
Convertible financing and founder ownershipFinance > Startup financing > Seed funding
Airframe qualificationAviation > Aerospace engineering
Configuration controlAviation > Aerospace engineering > Airframe qualification
Technology
Government
Business
Finance
EntrepreneurshipBusiness
RoboticsTechnology

Government Contracts as Capability Building1:24 – 2:26

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:24

And that's the thing that I've been just screaming about forever is that you can use that as an undiluted way of building your capabilities.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:33

You're getting paid.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:34

Exactly.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:34

You're getting paid while you develop this for the government.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:36

And you have use case.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:37

It's not like you're just doing it and it's a contract.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:39

You're actually doing work.

A

Audrey RussoHost

1:41

My whole

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:41

theory is if the Air Force says this is good enough for us, I think I'm going to be able to use this in other places where the standards probably aren't quite as exact.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

1:48

Oh, my goodness.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

1:49

Yeah, aerospace is a difficult place, especially from, like you're saying, the exact qualifications that you have to go through.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

1:55

And it's one of the things that also a lesson that we learned in aerospace, once it gets qualified, it's not changing unless there's a problem that you can't.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:03

So where we would go after certain work that we thought, oh, we have this new way of doing this.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:08

And that's where we learned the hard lesson of.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:10

No, once it's approved for this airframe or whatever,

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:13

that's

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:13

what we're going to do.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:14

Forever.

S

Stuart LawrenceGuest

2:15

Yeah,

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:15

exactly.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:15

We're not changing this for anybody.

J

Jonathan KerstingHost

2:17

Yeah, exactly.

A

Audrey RussoHost

2:18

Wow.

A

Audrey RussoHost

2:18

Yeah, that's interesting.

A

Audrey RussoHost

2:19

So that in and of itself gives you continuity.

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