The art of automation: original mistakes with robotics innovator Jorge Heraud

Mistakes are inevitable when building a company, especially in the industries we intersect — where founders are building novel technologies and tackling ambitious problems that not long ago were considered unsolvable. But after years of supporting companies through the early stages of growth, we’ve found that not all mistakes are created equal. Many mistakes and pitfalls are common and possible to avoid with the right insights and industry expertise. We strive to understand and learn from the original and surprising mistakes. An original mistake is not only unique to a particular company or situation but, sometimes, wholly new to an industry. These mistakes may evolve with an industry, surprising even the most seasoned entrepreneurs.

In this series, we’ve invited industry disruptors and entrepreneurs to share their original mistakes — the stories behind them, the lessons learned, and the wisdom gained. By sharing these experiences, we hope to provide insights for current and future founders, entrepreneurs, and technologists.

This week’s guest is Jorge Heraud. Jorge served as the CEO of Blue River Technology and deftly navigated John Deere’s acquisition of Blue River. He then served as the VP of Automation and Autonomy at John Deere.

Jorge, what originally piqued your fascination with robotics?

I’m originally from Peru. My dad is an entrepreneur who got a PhD from Stanford and returned to Peru to start a company focused on industrial automation processes. My grandfather was a farmer with a tomato farm one block away from the beach. Growing up, it was a sweet deal to go and pick tomatoes for my grandfather and then spend the afternoons on the beach in this beautiful place with all my cousins. So, that’s what really inspired me: this weird combination of doing manual labor on a farm and being exposed to automation and robotics from an early age. And that combination of agriculture and automation is what I’ve been doing all my life. It just worked out that way.

It sounds like your career was destined from a young age. With all this experience, did you ever have a pivotal moment in your career where you experienced a lesson learned or an original mistake that truly surprised you?

I like the word mistake because there’s no sugarcoating in it. We all make mistakes. And they are learning opportunities. There’s simply no other way to become good at something.

One mistake occurred at Blue River Technology when we tried to select our market. At one point, we pursued a business very similar to what we wound up doing, and I thought it was a really good business, but it was a distraction — not because the idea was bad, but because of the dynamics.

The problem with this business was that the product we were selling had three major buyers, and they had a lot of “buying power.” We started trying to sell to all three. The first one began to copy what we were doing and develop it internally. We lost traction on the second due to personnel changes at the company, and the third company didn’t engage because they had their own internal efforts.

There’s a lot of risk in a market with such a concentration of buyers. You take on that risk before fully realizing what has happened. It’s one thing to have a billion-dollar market with a hundred different buyers, as opposed to a billion-dollar market divided into three buyers.

So, If you’re in robotics, be aware that large manufacturers may have internal efforts. Depending on the team you work with, these could complement your work and lead to a fruitful partnership or be seen as competitive. I’ve seen both dynamics.

Another learning was how things change when an acquisition offer comes through. I loved my board and how supportive they were, but when money is on the table, interests can pull in different directions. Having the right advisors is crucial. I remember having a call with Dror about our acquisition process and the various nuances and interests at stake, and his comment was, “What you’re going through is not uncommon, but you are the person that is closest to this. If you say yes to this acquisition, we will back you and say yes.” I thought that was a great way of approaching it.

What piece of advice would you give to a young entrepreneur grappling with buyer power or tricky acquisition negotiations?

The biggest advice I have is to make sure you have good advisors in your camp. That includes your board members, shareholders, and even your employees. Your team has interesting thoughts, too. So it’s good to have people who are impartial, who see what’s best for the company, and who can help you advise. And it’s not easy to find those people. I had two or three people who helped me quite a bit.

One incredible advisor I contracted was a professor from HBS who had helped a number of companies navigate through negotiations. He was phenomenal. I also brought in an investment banker for the acquisition. Having somebody like that who was unbiased and trusted by advisors was really helpful.

Having worked at the intersection of agriculture and robotics at such a young age, do you have any additional advice you would give your younger self?

There are two types of people. People who jump out of a plane and figure out their parachutes as they come down (they are incredible people) and people who plan, de-risk, and develop significant expertise before jumping. I’m someone who has to develop my expertise first and de-risk. I know that I have my parachute because I packed it, I put it there, and I know how it works. At the end of the day, starting a company is a bit like jumping from a plane. There’s a lot of risk.

To me, entrepreneurship is about managing your risk, especially in robotics, where you compete with big incumbents and very smart people. One of the big things you can do is develop expertise before really understanding the customer problem, then you can understand where the value is, the market, the technology, and all the aspects of your work. Do that early; don’t delay.