Panel discussion at the SRC | Robotics from Sim to Scale: Challenges in Data & Go-to-Market

The SRC hosted last week’s panel “Robotics from Sim to Scale: Challenges in Data & Go-to-Market.” Our moderator Cercilia Cheng fielded topics ranging from humanoids to specialized systems, and panelists explored what it really takes to build and scale robotics in the real world. We debated whether humanoids will dominate the future (and whether it’ll take 5 or 9 years ), if synthetic data works better for edge cases or daily tasks, how to navigate data privacy, and how to land your first major client.

A special thank you to our speakers, who generously shared not just insights but also their time—joining early for pre-session and staying late to connect with students, founders, and fellow builders.

Key takeaways:
Eric Jang: “Building humanoids like ChatGPT.” "The key for robotics data is not which path you choose, but how you execute it."

Akash Gupta: “Founders can’t outsource customer insight—if you’re not in the trenches, you’re flying blind. GTM starts with your own shoes on the ground.”

 Nag Murty: “Your GTM strategy must align with your funding strategy—it’s how you survive the long game.”

 Anand Gopalan: “There’s no shortcut in robotics. Find your lighthouse customer early, and co-design with them relentlessly.”

Thank you to the student committee for organizing this event: Cercilia Cheng, Ina Natseva, Shantanu Prakash, Yalcin Tur. 

Photography by Daria Korkuna! Check out more photos of this event here.

Cercilia is pursuing a Business Master's at Stanford, focusing on AI, cloud, and robotics.