Layoffs, Leads, and What Comes Next

Layoffs, Leads, and What Comes Next

If you've opened LinkedIn recently, you already know. Layoffs, restructures, familiar faces back on the market. So instead of scrolling past it, we decided to actually talk about it. Josh Olgin, Managing Partner and Director of Robotics at Direct Recruiters, has spent 14 years inside the robotics and automation job market. He knows what's happening, why it's happening, and where things are quietly turning around. We get into the real drivers behind today's uncertainty: post-COVID overhiring, the warehouse automation slowdown, and how a few big players pulling back creates ripple effects across the whole industry. Then we get to what actually matters if you're in the market. Josh breaks down the roles seeing real demand right now, where integrators and OEMs are still hiring, and how to work the search smarter. We also get into realistic timelines, what a recruiter relationship actually gets you, and why proof beats buzzwords on every resume. If you're hiring, exploring options, or trying to land on your feet after a layoff, this one is worth your time.

Roles and Hats: Building Careers in Robotics

Growth doesn't start with a playbook. It starts with people doing hard work together. Anthony Leo, President of IPR Robotics USA, joins us to unpack what it really takes to build a high-trust organization that wins on clarity, speed, and genuine problem solving. Anthony walks us through the mechanics of a frictionless buying experience: getting engineers the specs they need upfront, knowing when to slow down and dig deeper, and designing processes that eliminate costly mistakes before they happen. He also gets candid about leadership, hiring for trust, giving people a clear sandbox to operate in, and why stepping back is often the most powerful thing a leader can do. Whether you're in sales, building a team culture, or navigating the realities of selling robotics to integrators and OEMs, this episode is packed with frameworks you can put to work immediately.

Robots for Good: A Conversation with Tatum Robotics

Imagine needing another person’s hand just to check the weather, news, or even to listen to a podcast. That’s the everyday reality for many DeafBlind people and the starting point for Samantha Johnson’s bold solution: a soft robotic hand that fingerspells tactile sign language and turns digital text into language you can feel. We sit down with Samantha to trace the journey from a Northeastern University ASL course to founding Tatum Robotics, a social impact startup bringing assistive devices into real homes. She explains how her team engineered an 18-DOF hand that is both precise and gentle, and why co-designing with DeafBlind users consistently beats feature creep. We are also joined by Jaimi Lard of Tatum Q&A for a live demo of the device and firsthand user feedback. If you care about accessibility, human-centered design, and robotics for good, this conversation will recalibrate what meaningful inclusion looks like.

2025 Wrapped, 2026 Loaded, and the Holiday Sweaters No One Asked For

2025. Well, that was really something. From AI hype cycles to real-world deployments, from pilot purgatory to systems that actually shipped, 2025 gave the robotics and automation industry plenty to talk about. Join Mandy Dwight, Forest Lee, and Catherine O’Connor for a year-end ROS Goss recap as they break down the trends that truly shaped the industry this year. What moved the needle, what fell flat, and what lessons founders, operators, and marketers are carrying into the next chapter. And what’s on deck for 2026? We asked some of the smartest voices in the industry to weigh in. Expect predictions, hot takes, and hard-earned insights from Jeff Burnstein of A3, Greg Baer of MHI, Guy Courtin of Tecsys, Matt Bush of KPI, Brent Barcey of DWFritz Automation, and Gemma Ross of OSARO on where robotics and automation are headed next. Add in a few holiday sweaters, a Boston backdrop, and some honest industry talk, and you have a fitting send-off to 2025 and a sneak peak at what is coming in 2026.

Sell the Story, Win the Deal: Marketing 101 for Automation Providers

Every automation company claims to be different. Few can prove it in 10 seconds. In this episode, Daniel Castro Maia, Forest Lee, and Mandy Dwight break down how to stand out in a crowded robotics market through clear storytelling, purposeful design, and adaptive strategy. This episode breaks down brand as a system and shows how storytelling turns complex specs into real outcomes. The discussion covers how design guides decisions, how value should appear in your website and UX, and how messaging changes by audience. End users want proof of throughput and integration, while investors look for momentum. The team then gets tactical with a real multi-channel approach for automation. They explain why LinkedIn alone is not a strategy and how paid search, trade show geo-targeting, retargeting, and education-first content build trust. They highlight the need for agility, A/B testing, and budgeting based on real signals. They also touch on the limits of part-time marketing and the value of outside partners when internal teams are stretched. If you build something great and tell a true story about how it changes work, demand rises and sales cycles shorten. This episode shows you how to cut the noise and drive meaningful growth.