This Week in Startups — Episode E2217 Summary

Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Jason Calacanis (joined by Alex)
Guests: Solar (Monumental), Mike Flanagan (SeaSat)
Theme: Autonomous Robots at Work—On Land and Sea

Overview

This episode spotlights startups revolutionizing real-world automation: Monumental, a company automating bricklaying in construction; and SeaSat, building and deploying autonomous maritime drones. The discussion dives into the practicalities, business models, technological challenges, and broader market impacts of automating bricks-and-mortar construction and maritime survey/defense operations. The second half provides actionable founder/VC Q&A on startup life, hiring, and venture capital industry trends.

Segment 1: Monumental – Autonomous Construction Robots

Guest: Solar (Salar), Monumental
Main Focus: How multi-robot systems are making building sites nearly human-free.

1. Robotics Ecosystem and Workflow

(03:24)

• Monumental built three types of rugged, AI-driven robots (on a shared platform):
  • Bricklaying bot
  • Brick supply bot
  • Mortar supply bot
• Automating the on-site supply chain is key: “If you don't include that in your product offering, you haven't achieved anything.” – Solar (04:01)
• Autonomous “wall” construction is the central focus; operator still reloads supplies (~3–4 times per shift).

Memorable Moment

• Alex: “Do they play nice together or do you have to keep them in separate zones so they don’t butt arms?”
• Solar: “They can play together very nicely.” (06:51)

2. Human vs. Robot Productivity

(06:34)

• Robots aim for the productivity of a skilled human mason:
  • Target: 400–500 bricks/day (like human masons)
  • Current record: 850+ bricks/day, “basically double that.” (07:18)

Quote:

• "In the last six months... we’ve really seen this start to work and kind of feel the magic, honestly." – Solar (05:58)

3. Market Need: Labor Shortage, Cost, and Demographics

(08:14)

• Robots aren’t “taking jobs”—there’s a lack of bricklayers, especially in Western Europe and UK.
• Retirements at 50–55 make the gap worse.
• Robot adoption is aligned with demographics and surging housing needs.
  • “The most worried group about this for some reason are journalists... but [contractors] know how bad the problem is.”

4. Why Use Traditional Bricks and Mortar? Business Model

(11:09–13:21)

• Chose conventional bricks to fit into existing, conservative supply chains (not disrupt with new materials).
  • "If you don’t actually plug and play into the supply chain that people have... you haven’t achieved anything." (11:13)
• Monumental acts as a subcontractor—not selling robots, but delivering construction as a service.
• Easier to win big contracts as a project deliverer (“50 or 500k contracts”) than to sell/lease robots.

5. Launch Strategy: Netherlands and UK

(15:54)

• Netherlands: dense, homogeneous building code, easy pilot logistics.
• UK: “Insane inbound” from contractors due to massive bricklayer shortages (25–30,000 missing jobs).

6. Scale & Bottleneck

(18:37)

• Grew from <10 to 25–30 robots in 2025; aiming for ~40 by year’s end, then into the hundreds in 2026.
• Main bottleneck: manufacturing robots to meet demand.

7. The Atrium Software Platform

(20:13)

• “Atrium” integrates: articulation, sensing, construction plan awareness, real-time vision QC, and feeds data into ML for self-improving autonomy.
• Building a massive proprietary dataset on bricklaying/construction.

Quote:

• “We’re likely to be... the company with the most data now on construction sites.” – Solar (21:45)

8. Technical Difficulty: Hardware-Software Calibration

(22:50–25:44)

• Hardest challenge: calibration—sub-millimeter placement, site mapping, thermal camera drift.
• “The joke that we run in the office is that... they become obsessed with the seemingly boring question of calibration… and that’s where these two things come together.”

9. Capital, Economics, and Talent

(26:06)

• “Not as capital intensive as many assume”; labor/salaries are main cost, not robots.
• Global capital accessible; “not hard to raise money” if the business fundamentals are strong.

10. Social Mission: Housing Affordability, Aesthetics, and “Brixel Art”

(27:57, 29:14)

• Reducing construction cost can ease global urban housing crises.
• Emphasis on also improving beauty and variety in housing: “We need more housing, but also... beautiful housing.”
• Robots can do artistic patterns (“brixel art”) just as easily as standard layouts, unlike humans.

Quote:

• “We can do a lot of amazing things at the same speed, at the same cost. And that is exciting.” (29:14)

11. Hiring

(30:12)

• Monumental is hiring for “full-stack” software engineers—React, Rust, not just robotics.

Segment 2: SeaSat – Autonomous Maritime Drone Platforms

Guest: Mike Flanagan, CEO/co-founder, SeaSat
Main Focus: Shrinking the labor and complexity needed to operate robot boats for research, defense, and comms.

1. Origin Story

(33:09)

• SeaSat grew out of “Scout Transatlantic”—a high-school garage project to send an autonomous boat from Rhode Island to Spain.
• “It was just a garage project... pushing the limits of what’s possible with consumer hobby grade tech. And it really went viral.” – Mike (33:32)

2. Making Boat Drones User-Friendly

(35:49)

• “2 days” to fully train users (vs. 2 weeks industry standard).
• Interface: “video game style" controls.
• Human operator sets mission intent; all power management, propulsion, and payloads are autonomous.

3. Fleet Operations

(37:41)

• Fleets of 100+ drones possible with just a handful of operators; launching a boat takes “one every three minutes with two people.”

4. Power & Tech Stack

(38:16–39:27)

• Long endurance is possible via efficient electronics: “watts, tens of watts” to run; addition of methanol fuel cell hybrid generator for multi-recharges (4–10x full charges per mission).
  • “Just turn on the charge button... it's automated.” – Mike (40:44)
• Battery and power tech progressing rapidly, “and in 10 years supercharged by better batteries.”

5. Comms & Autonomy

(43:03)

• High-bandwidth satellite or local mesh; data can be routed among boats ("fleet ops").
• "Extremely good vessel autonomy" emphasized over "swarming.”

6. Use Cases: Beyond Defense

(44:13–45:32)

• Research, survey (e.g., subsea cables, underwater infrastructure), monitoring, environmental sensing, fisheries, algal bloom tracking, etc.

Quote:

• “It’s a very interesting industry. There’s like a gazillion things people are doing with drones.” – Mike (45:24)

7. Manufacturing, Supply Chain, & Domestic Industry

(46:10–49:08)

• In-house production in San Diego; proximity to Scripps, Navy bases, and “mission-driven talent.”
• Balancing “NDAA compliance” (U.S. defense supply chain requirements) vs. component cost. Moving from hobby/Chinese components to U.S. sources can be 8x–15x costlier, but is necessary for resilience.
• Returns to the “Rust Belt” question—paying up to rebuild domestic hard-tech capacity.

Quote:

• “You have to do the whole thing…. Honestly, getting off of Chinese components, it’s a challenge... but it is possible.” – Mike (47:21)

8. Scaling & Industry Trends

(52:41)

• Current capacity: “into the hundreds” of boats/year.
• Small drones (<17 ft) can have disproportionate impact: “The power of small things has changed... the fight was a KO.” – Mike (53:49), referencing Ukraine maritime drones.

9. Dual-Use: Scientific, Civil, and Defense Roles

(55:25–56:49)

• SeaSat serves both commercial (ocean survey, shipping) and defense clients; scalable, positive-ROI civilian use helps keep costs in check.

10. Drone Warfare, Security, & Future Trajectory

(54:41–56:04)

• Drones make small-scale, inexpensive but powerful impacts; “Make it just as big as you need for the specific mission.”
• US catching up with operational models shown in Ukraine: “Ukraine is totally the leader operationalizing USVs in warfare.”

11. Beyond Warfare: Commerce & Everyday Use

(57:29)

• “Could we use fleets of autonomous boats for logistics?”—faster, flexible, small-batch shipping, particularly in lakes/regional seas.
• “We can help you out. We can cut several weeks off shipping time.” – Mike (58:47)

12. Security, Defense, & Emerging Threats

(60:41–62:02)

• Anti-drone and anti-surface applications gaining attention: “You send a little high speed robot first… you can play bumper carts safely.”

13. Hiring

(62:24)

• SeaSat hiring for “great tech-driven people”; see csats.com for careers.

Segment 3: Startup & VC Q&A with Jason Calacanis

Theme: Life advice for founders, operators, and investors.

1. CEO Emails at Night: Red Flag?

(63:12)

• Jason: “Not a place for work-life balance. You’re going to be judged on your response time. …If you want balance, pick a different company.”
• “If you choose this company and you’re seeing it as a red flag already, that to me says original poster does not want to work at this company.” (64:39)

2. Equity Offers — Know the Math!

(67:28)

• “You would want to know your strike price, how many shares are outstanding... ask those questions, be thoughtful.”
• If a company won’t provide denominator info, it’s a red flag.

3. Pink & Red Flags: Credit Card Points as Low-Level Fraud

(70:41)

• Jason: “It is the most modest of pink flags... founder card points for personal travel can torch company cash, and is a ‘small integrity test’.”

4. Innovative Hiring Practices: "Love-Bombing" Candidates

(74:22–78:35)

• Cursor’s “post a name, swarm them” Slack hiring process; treat the person as the atomic unit, not the job spec.
• Jason: “Great strategy... works in sports, VCs, partnerships. If you see a 10x’er free agent? Go recruit them no matter the role.”
• “NBA analogy: always draft the most talented person.”

5. VC Advice: Less Consensus, More Originality

(80:02)

• “Stop going to so many conferences… Instead, throw your own event, curate your own network. Niche/industry events give you a better edge.”

Quote:

• “If you throw the party, people remember you... Dropbox launched at TechCrunch 40; Gary Tan just tweeted me and Mike Arrington interviewing him and Tyler Crowley.” (83:54)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• (04:01) Solar: “If you don't actually include [supply chain automation]... you haven't achieved anything.”
• (07:18) Solar: “You know, we hit a record with over 850 bricks in a single shift... but we target an average of 4 or 500.”
• (21:45) Solar: “I actually think we’re likely to be... the company with the most data now on construction sites...”
• (29:14) Solar: “We can do a lot of amazing things at the same speed, at the same cost. And that is exciting.”
• (41:00) Mike: “Depending on the configuration? Like, four to ten [full battery charges from fuel cell on a mission].”
• (47:21) Mike: "Honestly getting off of Chinese components? It's a challenge. …But it is possible."
• (53:49) Mike: “The power of small things has changed... the fight was a KO.”
• (64:39) Jason: “If you choose this company and you’re seeing it as a red flag already... do not join this company under any circumstances.”
• (70:41) Jason: “It is the most modest of pink flags… It’s a little integrity test.”
• (78:35) Jason: “Always draft the most talented person...”
• (83:54) Jason: “If you throw the party, people remember you… Dropbox launched at that.”

Key Timestamps

• 03:24 – Monumental’s robots and automation workflow
• 06:34 – Robot productivity vs. human masons
• 11:09 – Why Monumental sticks with bricks/mortar; business model
• 15:54 – Launch strategy (Netherlands & UK)
• 18:37 – Growth and bottlenecks in robot production
• 20:13 – Monumental’s Atrium software stack
• 22:50 – Calibration: the big technical headache
• 30:12 – Monumental hiring call out for software engineers
• 35:49 – SeaSat: playful, trainable, “iPhone for the ocean” drones
• 38:16 – Maritime drone power tech: solar, methanol fuel cell
• 43:03 – Fleet ops, data, and communications
• 52:41 – SeaSat’s “hundreds/year” manufacturing, domestic supply issues
• 53:49 – Small USV drones: lessons from Ukraine
• 57:29 – Maritime drones for everyday logistics?
• 60:41 – Security: counter-drone warfare
• 63:12 – Jason on founder emails/night work “red flag” Q&A
• 70:41 – Card points as “pink flag”
• 74:22 – Love-bombing hiring technique (Cursor)
• 80:02 – VC early-career advice
• 83:54 – Why you should “throw the party”

Final Takeaways

• These startups demonstrate how automation, when focused on real-world bottlenecks and embedded in existing (and conservative) industries, can achieve massive impact by working with supply chains and labor realities.
• Both companies show the practical evolution of robotics: not about “eliminating jobs,” but meeting surging market needs that human labor cannot fill.
• Founders should be clear-eyed about work-life expectations, equity, and hiring culture; innovation in hiring and VC networking comes from seeking talent before roles and building unique networks, not just following consensus.

For listeners:
Monumental is hiring full-stack software engineers (React/Rust); SeaSat is hiring for maritime autonomy and robotics—see respective websites for openings.

Prepare for more robots in your world—laying bricks, surveying sea beds, and making the built environment smarter, faster, and more beautiful.