Jerry Pratt and Figure quietly parted ways last month. The MIT research scientist spent just under two years at the Bay Area-based robotics company. In 2022, he left Boardwalk Robotics, a humanoid startup he founded and led, and joined Figure’s well-funded ranks as chief technology officer months before it emerged from hiding.
However, it wasn't until last week that Pratt made his departure public. The news arrived via LinkedIn, while announcing the founding of another entry into the increasingly populated world of humanoids. Persona ai is currently in as early a stage as the seed stage as it was officially founded last month.
The startup is the brainchild of Pratt and his associate Nic Radford, an industry veteran with his own impressive resume that includes seven years as part of NASA robotics before founding Nauticus Robotics and Jacobi Motors.
“We wanted to get some early indications from both people who wanted to work with us and investors that if we did something like this on LinkedIn, it wouldn't fail,” Radford told TechCrunch.
The news was both a hiring announcement and a brand presentation. “Hello LinkedIn!” Pratt pointed out enthusiastically on the business site. “Have you ever dreamed of creating your own Iron Man suit but without the role of the billionaire playboy?”
Radford and Pratt say they want to bring on 10 to 20 additional “founders” (quotes of theirs) to help shape the company. “Jerry and I are obviously a critical part of this,” Radford said, “but so will the next 18 people. We really want to illustrate to them the team spirit of the company.”
At this initial stage, Persona's proposal is not far from those of the different humanoid companies with which it intends to compete. The introductory text on their website is largely a celebration of the technological advances that form the basis of this unique moment in robotics.
The founders write:
Now is a good time for humanoid commercialization. Computer vision and perception algorithms can now detect motion, identify and segment objects, and estimate poses at frame rates; electronics and computing have shrunk in size and increased performance, so they can be completely on board a robot and not hog the power budget; mobility and manipulation algorithms are now competent enough to maneuver around rooms and perform commercially useful work; machine learning is increasing the capabilities of robots while reducing the programming burden; investors begin to believe in the potential of humanoids; and commercial entities are requesting humanoid robots in various applications where they can add real value.
That's about as deep as the talk goes these days outside of investor presentations and employee interviews. Whatever advantage Persona thinks it will ultimately have over Agility, Boston Dynamics, Figure and the rest is unclear at this early stage.
“In some ways it will be very similar, in others it will be different,” Radford responded cryptically. “It's like the way GM feels about Ford or Toyota or any car company. All companies feel, deep down, that they have certain competitive advantages. And then, deep down, all companies are commodified and reduced to the same things. They all provide transportation. Do we have our version of the Dodge Hemi? We would like to think so.”
Pratt, for his part, felt confident enough in Persona's vision to leave a first position at one of the most prominent and well-funded humanoid robotics companies, Figure. Pratt says the split was amicable, and when I spoke with Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock last week about his new project, Cover, he spoke highly of his former CTO. Pratt says the decision was, in part, geographic.
“I was going between Pensacola (Florida) and California every two weeks,” Pratt said. “At first, when I joined Figure, I thought (Pratt and his wife) might move to California after about two years. I had planned to do it, but it didn't really work out. “It was a pretty mutual parting of ways.”
Instead of setting up shop in a traditional robotics hotbed like Boston or Pittsburgh, Persona will split its operations between Pratt's home in Pensacola and Houston. The latter will serve as the company's headquarters and will eventually house around two-thirds of Persona's staff.
