Bringing advanced technologies to life since 1995 in Silicon Valley and Europe.
Execution is everything.
Building the future is fraught with challenge and uncertainties. CEOs and venture capitalists know this well – when bold ideas meet the hard realities of execution.
Robot Futures Can Help.
Led by Nino Walker – a seasoned veteran of Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem and a former technology director at Adobe – Robot Futures helps nascent and growing teams reach their potential, guiding them away from common pitfalls and wasteful efforts, toward lean, incisive execution. Robot Futures offers more than just technology advice; we offer strong methodologies, tested and nuanced principles, and organizational insights. We don’t augment your bench: we strengthen it.
We know intimately the cost of bad decisions for seed and Series A and B companies. Each decision, each innovation, each strategic pivot is an existential opportunity or threat. Robot Futures is dedicated to ensuring that your enterprise or investment not only navigates these decisions smartly, cutting through the fog, but also building internal capacity to handle future challenges.
Our approach is holistic and tailored. While the focus always starts with product development, we will partner with other industry experts on the business side to bring needed clarity on go-to-market and product strategy.
From AI to cloud systems, from robotics to the next disruptive technology, we can help you crack the innovation code.
Want to know more? Read on.
Contact
Experience matters.
There are many lessons one will only learn through experience. Can your business afford the luxury of time and missteps?
My name is Nino Walker. I can help your teams build great software and great products and help your business succeed.
I have been building production software systems since 1995. I’ve learned a few things along the way.
In my career, I have worked with hundreds of engineers, product managers, marketers, and AI practitioners across all the spectrums: from tiny startups to multi-billion dollar divisions at Fortune 500 companies; from fresh graduates to vice presidents and CXOs. I have taken numerous products to launch from B2C products used by hundreds of millions, B2B products powering public companies, and core technologies automating factory floors. I pioneered foundational technology behind Adobe’s next generation content management platform, enabling the multibillion dollar ARR unit to go fully cloud-native.
Being both hands-on and a core part of leadership through diverse enterprises - I’ve learned from great successes - and harder learnings along the way from collaborators, reports, and world class mentors, to build up a rare tool belt of experience.
Whether deep in technology, driving teams through milestones, or strategizing with peers in executive management, I align the low level details - down to the code - with the highest levels of strategic thinking. I create architectures: the foundations for innovation, growth, and scale - which align to your current capacity and future states.
What about AI?
Today’s hype factories and influencer grifters drive FOMO and flashy demos portraying bleeding-edge AI as consumer-ready. Reality is different: building AI-enabled products remains incredibly difficult with “almost 99.9% there” solutions struggling for years to get to market.
The reality is, and remains, that AI is not fool-proof and 100% accurate. What do you do about that 0.1% or even 30% where it isn’t?
Bringing AI-enabled products to market is an art.
Since before Y2K, I have been at the forefront of applying emerging AI technologies: deploying speech recognition into call centers; remote sensing with neural networks; graph search and analysis; building trust and safety systems for user generated content; enabling vision-powered industrial robots; and leveraging generative AI for intelligent agents. It’s never easy.
I work with AI practitioners, product managers, and executives to craft strategy and navigate research and development through the uncertain road through to launch.
“There's no question: I want Nino on my team. He connects the lowest details with the highest: business strategy, users, value. He will define, plan, manage, and deliver entire systems with minimal oversight.
You rarely see all these skills in one person, and it's a killer combination for startups. Having him in your corner is like a secret superpower.”
Ruddick Lawrence, Founder & CTO @Rapid Robotics
“I look to Nino to cut through confusion, get to the heart of sticky problems, and figure out what to do. He knows his stuff and brings a wealth of experience and insight to the table which proves invaluable in sorting through the complexity of tech, organization, and process.”
John Dunne, CPO @Healios, former Founder & C{E,T}O @Intune Networks
What do you need?
Scaling for the future
Will it scale? Is the architecture viable? Am I building for the future of my business? There is a first for everything: from your first to your 100 millionth customer, and you need to constantly reassess your system's design and viability. Many teams have a hard time providing clear answers and are clouded by optimism and misconceptions. Methodology and experience are paramount here.
With decades of experience building software and scaling up for hundreds of millions of users through innumerable architectural and operational bottlenecks, we can help you out of a quagmire or help you plan for the future.
Applied Artificial Intelligence
What does it take to make science-fiction reality? The road from demo to production for AI systems is hazardous - unrealistic product strategy and expectations doom countless projects and launches.
It's never easy, and mistakes can be shockingly expensive. Robot Futures can help you negotiate the strategies and tactics to getting better results and products that work: collaborating with research, product, design, and engineering to align milestones, tool chains, and user experience to increase your chances of success.
Level Up
Can my engineering team deliver better? Can I close gaps with the team I have?
Robot Futures can help: Nino has worked with hundreds of engineers across disciplines, from fresh graduates to CTOs and VPs of multi-billion dollar product lines. Figuring out where your team is at and what is holding them back from their next level is the easy part: helping them through that transition – that’s the hard part.
More Horsepower
We don't just offer consultation or guidance – we can roll up our sleeves and dive into the trenches with you to lead your teams of engineers, product managers, and designer. Consider us as high-octane fuel that can propel your initiatives forward rapidly.
Whether it's accelerating a product launch, streamlining an existing project, or embarking on a brand-new innovation journey, Robot Futures can help.
Engagements
Product & Architecture Review
A valuable for gaining external perspective, improving products: analyze structure, features, development methods; thoroughly examine systems, discuss goals; spot mistakes, identify areas for improvement, provide recommendations.
This takes about 10 days to get to know your goals, your team, your product, and your processes.
Tactical Ops
We'll help you deliver. We'll provide technical direction and leadership to both management and individual contributors throughout the project lifecycle. Hands in design, requirements, the code, as necessary.
In mission critical cases we can lay the foundation for implementation and design. These are longer term, typically of a few days per week & 3-9 months.
Fractional Architect
Architecture is a different discipline than software development, as it considers a much broader set of goals and optimizes across the life of your project.
As fractional architect, Nino will develop a masterplan which you can afford today, and a path to grow into tomorrow. After an initial deep engagement, periodic checkins serve to course-correct.
Mentor
Everyone starts from zero.
Mentorship aims to offer different perspectives, build confidence, boost careers, and solve problems at an individual level. First time managers and directors benefit greatly, shifting from technical truths to currencies and human realities.
This is a few hours a few times a month.
Fractional or Interim CTO
A fractional CTO is a cost-efficient way to bring experienced leadership to your enterprise. They align technical strategy with business strategy and engage periodically based on your needs.
As an interim CTO, Nino will ensure continuity between the business and engineering while you search for a permanent solution.
Advisor
Searching for product, market, technology fit? Figuring out what processes to implement as you scale your organization? Invest or not invest? Buy vs. build?
Lots of questions, lots of risk, few answers. Experience on-tap can give you additional datapoints and tune your decision making.
Depending on your stage, this is a few hours to few days a month.
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
– the genius behind general relativity, Al
