What are we without our people?
Despite being a robotics company, the one thing we value most is our humans. That’s one of the things Gil kept saying during the interview.
We wanted to shed light on the first employee that joined the team in 2018. So we sat down with Gil to hear what he thinks about Indoor Robotics.
Meet Gil Brudner.
Gil is 34 years old from Rehovot, married +2, going on 3.
So, Gil, what made you join Indoor Robotics?
I know Doron (the CEO) from my previous journey. I had my own idea for an IoT startup. Doron has this open mind and in-depth take on things, so it was only natural he quickly became my go-to person for brainstorming and feedback sessions.
At one point, Doron shared his vision of a fleet of robots that will take over the dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks we humans don’t want to do. He described fleets of various robots moving around us, taking over these mundane tasks. It sounded like science fiction to me. I was completely drawn.
We began meeting at his house to imagine, discuss and draw the system architecture after my day job. Soon after, we started connecting bolts, motors, and propellers, writing some code and actually making robot 1.0 fly. How little did we know back then…. 🙂
When Doron met Amit, they officially established Indoor -Robotics.
To me, joining this journey was a no-brainer.
So now Indoor Robotics is an official company, now what?
Doron, Amit, and I are Software people. However, we all bring different things to the table. Doron is the one with experience in cool fields like rockets and satellites.
At first, our journey was guided mainly by the general direction we wanted to create. We dived into many theories, disciplines, and fields. As the pieces began falling into place, we began to bring people to complement our knowledge. That’s how we brought Doron’s science fiction vision to life.
What does your day-to-day look like as Head of Software?
No dull moments.
The Software group is comprised of several disciplines, including low and high-level Embedded, Fullstack, DevOps teams with high coding standards and a sense of responsibility.
That is actually one of the best things at Indoor Robotics – we get to touch so many exciting disciplines.
That is yet another reason we ended up with so many patents. No wonder. We created an autonomous flying robot that docks on the ceiling!
Talk to me about the inter-team dynamic? What if people from different disciplines want to learn something new?
It’s another benefit of being a small company. I mean, a software developer won’t solder stuff, at least not for the company’s use (it took me a while to get over the disappointment). But yes, everyone learns from each other. Everyone is very open to teaching, explaining, and collaborating.
I love exploring things beyond my field. I learned some new things about electronics that I didn’t know before.
Lastly, one of the things we check for in interviews is how candidates see the big picture. It is great to interview a professional candidate in their field. Still, it’s essential to examine their system-wide stance on how things work—specifically, creative technical out-of-the-box thinking.
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
I think it’s the combination of the super interesting technical challenges and our group of smart people working together to tackle those challenges.
I love that everyone feels comfortable asking questions, suggesting, consulting, collaborating, and finding clever solutions to the most challenging questions. Everyone can and is encouraged to contribute to our quest for finding answers.
The technical challenges at Indoor Robotics are fascinating. We’re designing new hardware, inventing software, and integrating those using cutting-edge technologies and methodologies.
After all, we are making robots fly! What’s not to like?
What’s unique about Indoor Robotics today?
Do you mean except the fact that we actually make flying robots? And change the world paradigms about data collection, security, and indoor inspection and monitoring?
The next thing is the company’s DNA. We managed to combine a group of skilled, creative, curious, driven, passionate, and FUN people!
It sounds like you’re all very close. Do you meet outside of work too?
Yes, after-work beer, weekend with the kids. I find myself hanging out with people I debated with about capacity and ideas during the week at the park with our families on a Saturday.
It can’t all be rainbows and butterflies. Talk to me about the daily challenges at Indoor Robotics.
Like any other startup, we go through intense times.
We’re in the process of installing our robots for some big clients in Israel and North America.
Our team just flew to the other side of the globe to ensure that everything ticks, while the team here provides around-the-clock support.
To me, this shows how devoted our people are. Intense sprints occur, and we expect our people to be fully on board. You can tell by their actions and willingness to do whatever it takes to win. Every member of our team believes in Indoor -Robotics and Tando.
I don’t think we have a software developer that only writes code. Everyone is involved in every step of the process.
Another challenge is market education. Remember that scene from the movie Passengers? When the only people that woke up were sitting in the dining room? Suddenly something breaks, and a few robots come out of their hidden stations to complete their specific tasks, clean, and go back to their stations. It may look like another scene from a sci-fi movie for most people, but for us at Indoor Robotics, it’s how our reality will look like soon.
There are also technical challenges, of course, but we’ll keep that to our next blog post 🙂
What tv show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love?
It’s not that I am ashamed to admit it, but the fact I know the whole transcript of Ace Ventura 2 might look odd to some…
What 3 things will you take with you to an island?
Water, flour and yeast. I can definitely survive with those.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Easy, I want to be the “Covidnator”, which is of course the covid terminator (I’m conducting this interview from my 6th quarantine).
What is one food that you cannot resist?
I would have to go with Krembo, lots of it…
What do you like to do when you aren’t working? (if there is such a thing)
I love hiking with the family.
What’s your message to future Indoor Robotics employees?
In my view, being a highly-skilled full-stack developer or a bright data scientist is excellent, but it’s not always enough.
I’m looking for curious, passionate, creative, and kind people with a broad perspective and understanding of how things work. That’s how you will be not just a great professional but an asset to every company.
