We Built a Pizza Drone. Now We Defend Ukraine.

Kenneth Richard Geipel (co-founder of Robotto) started his career not in a lab or a startup — but in the Danish Armed Forces, where he served three combat deployments. When he left the military, he went back to university to study robotics. His thesis project? A drone to deliver pizza from 500 meters away, because he and his classmates were too lazy to walk.What nobody expected is what happened next. A summer of record wildfires across Europe pulled that pizza drone into something more serious — autonomous wildfire detection software built with real firefighters in the field. Then COVID hit, nearly killing the company four days before their first major demo abroad. Then in 2022, a phone call from a former fellow veteran whose wife was Ukrainian changed everything. Kenneth had spent years turning down requests to weaponize his technology — but when a fellow soldier asks for help, you say yes.In this episode, Kenneth shares how Robotto went from a pizza drone thesis to deploying GPS-free autonomous software on Ukrainian frontlines daily, how they got selected for NATO's DIANA accelerator out of 3,500 applicants across 24 nations, and why he thinks the entire European defence industry is getting one thing catastrophically wrong.Get in touch with Kenneth:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-richard-geipel-081309186/-----------------------------------------------Chapters:(00:00) Introduction(00:33) Who Is Kenneth and What Does Robotto Do(01:37) Why a Soldier Became a Robotics Founder(03:50) What Deployments Taught Him That No Startup Book Will(08:27) The Pizza Drone Thesis That Started Everything(09:18) Pivoting from Pizza to Wildfire Detection(10:48) How Two Students Got a Meeting With a Government Agency(11:59) Incorporating Robotto — With Just a POC and Two Papers(16:33) COVID Hits Four Days Before Their First Major Demo(24:15) Fundraising After Near-Bankruptcy — and Why Radical Honesty Won(29:05) The Phone Call From a Veteran That Pulled Them Into Defence(31:17) The Ethical Conversations They Had Before Saying Yes(33:17) How They Got Their First Ukrainian Partner and Built in Two Weeks(35:44) Tracking Elephants in Thailand and Fighting Fires — at the Same Time(41:23) How Product Iteration Works When Your Customer Is on the Frontline(47:21) How Civilians Get It Catastrophically Wrong Selling to Military(49:49) What NATO's DIANA Gives You That Money Can't Buy(51:02) Robotto UA — Planting a Flag in Ukraine(54:25) Is the Future of War Fully Autonomous?(57:50) The Most Overrated Thing in the Drone Industry Right Now-----------------------------------------------You will learn:- Why building with end users is non-negotiable in defence — and what happens when you don't- How to get your first meeting with a government agency when you have nothing but a thesis and stubbornness- Why nearly going bankrupt made Kenneth a better fundraiser and what he told investors that most founders never would- How Robotto built and shipped their first frontline prototype in 2 weeks — and what brutal feedback from Ukrainian soldiers actually sounds like- Why civilians get it catastrophically wrong when they try to sell to the military- How to find the non-obvious accelerator programs you actually qualify for- What NATO's DIANA programme gives you that money simply cannot buy — and what it doesn't- Why Kenneth voluntarily gave up his CEO title — and why most founders should think harder about theirs- Why AI is the most overrated word in the drone industry right now- What Kenneth would do differently in the first 12 months if he started Robotto again tomorrow-----------------------------------------------Follow Martin Majercin on X:https://www.x.com/monsfrostFollow Martin Majercin on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/monsfrost/Follow Robotto on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/robottoai/