Sources with Alex Heath
00:17:35 · S3, S4, S5, Ellis Hamburger
[00:17:35] S3: This episode is brought to [00:17:37] S4: you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com slash Spotify. [00:18:06] S5: This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini in Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup required, compatibility, and availability varies 18 [00:18:38] S1: How are things going in in Roboworld since I saw you last? I feel like you've gone through a couple company names at this point since I last saw you when we worked together, like, I think it was September 2024. I mean, I feel like so much has changed.
00:18:38 · Ellis Hamburger, Tony Zhao
[00:18:38] S1: How are things going in in Roboworld since I saw you last? I feel like you've gone through a couple company names at this point since I last saw you when we worked together, like, I think it was September 2024. I mean, I feel like so much has changed. [00:18:51] S0: Yeah. Yeah. It it was good. I think the the naming thing is kinda funny that we've went through, like, I would say, like, three to four names. Like, a week before we announced other stuff, we're across Saturday. And then that's when we already have all the marketing materials, all the website, all the logos, everything ready. And then we realized we made a very dumb mistake of, like, hey. There's this other company also called Saturday Robotics, and they have this trademark there. And we realized that, hey. We should probably not be doing it. And, like, I think everybody was like, like, it's all hands on deck. Let's change our names. We have like seven days left, change all the swags, change all the websites, and I think we did it. Yeah, and I actually think that Sunday might be a slightly better name than Saturday. [00:19:38] S1: Wait, so do you need a lawyer or do you need a new lawyer? [00:19:42] S0: Yeah, Like, it's a fun journey.
00:19:42 · Tony Zhao, Ellis Hamburger, Alex Heath
[00:19:42] S0: Yeah, Like, it's a fun journey. [00:19:45] S1: Yeah. Well, I feel like you netted out with something kind of perfect. I mean, my favorite brands and taglines are always subverting something unexpected. And Sunday is like the day of the week people hate the most. And I think there are a lot of people who would say, oh, we wanna avoid the negativity. And it's like, well, not if you're gonna solve it, you know? And I think it worked out well. I mean, was that the intention behind the name? [00:20:14] S0: You think about, like, laundry and you think about, like, Monday. Right? And it's it's actually bad if you are worried about Monday while at the same time you need to do all your chores. So, yeah, I think our goal is to give the Sundays back to people, so they can they can actually enjoy it just like Saturday. [00:20:32] S1: At fuckmonday.com. We're preempting with sunday.com. [00:20:36] S2: Tony, was was Ellis's idea Saturday, or what did he contribute? Was... Did he have you on Friday at one point? [00:20:44] S0: Well, Ellis has been really helpful. I think we... We've been talking to each other, like, way before we are, even planning to be out of stealth. Right? Remember I we were having this early conversation about how we should position ourselves as a company, what kind of vibes, like, our brand should have, and why we should not be building another Terminator robot and try to put it in people's homes. I think we align very well on this on this front.
00:20:44 · Tony Zhao, Ellis Hamburger
[00:20:44] S0: Well, Ellis has been really helpful. I think we... We've been talking to each other, like, way before we are, even planning to be out of stealth. Right? Remember I we were having this early conversation about how we should position ourselves as a company, what kind of vibes, like, our brand should have, and why we should not be building another Terminator robot and try to put it in people's homes. I think we align very well on this on this front. [00:21:08] S1: Yeah. We were talking about helpers, not Terminators. But, I mean, that was honestly just, like, full trust at that point because Tony had no robot and no brand at that point. And I was just like, if it's gonna look like a helper, then, yeah, let's let's do that. And I feel like it it turned out to be so cute. And I've been playing so many, like, Nintendo games with my four year old. I've come to realize that, like, iconic oval shaped Kirby eye shape that you're kind of borrowing from a little bit or, like, the eyes on all of... I mean, Nintendo puts those eyes on everything, whether in Mario Wonder it's like a pipe or a star or anything else. How did arrive at that? Who who designed the the face?
00:21:51 · Tony Zhao
[00:21:51] S0: Yeah. So we we have an industrial designer in house that did, like, all the designs. But I I think the funny thing here is, like, it almost feels, slightly controversial that now the robot has a face because most of the human robots actually does not have a face. If I saw the g one unitary robot, it's it's hollow. There's nothing. Or it's like a fake... Like a black mask. Right? So I think we're we're almost doing the obvious thing that, like, if there's going to be robots everywhere, then you talk to them. They should have a face so that you can actually make eye contact. And... But, again, like, you know, all the great work coming from Shai, our industrial designer, and he kind of, like, I saw the evolution of this whole design kind of starting from the hand, from the gloves that we're making that we probably should talk, like, a lot more about in this podcast as well. But kind of seeing it... Kind of design style propagated to the arms, which are also, like, kind of rectangular and and smooth, and to the to the body and eventually the face and and the hats.
00:22:56 · Ellis Hamburger, Tony Zhao, Alex Heath
[00:22:56] S1: The other thing that jumped out at me from our collab, which feels like a million years ago at this point, was that your emphasis on time, I think was a little different than a lot of folks in tech. I mean, I don't wanna like throw anybody under the bus, but it's like, I've just worked with so many AI productivity apps that talk about saving you time. And for the most part, when you're at work saving time, you're just gonna do more work, right? Whereas when you're saving time at home, it's almost like, oh, I could just go do something else now. It's like almost a completely different paradigm that tech isn't usually touching with that proposition. [00:23:34] S0: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's kind of the thing that actually people don't want to do. Nobody want to do their chores. And, yeah, I think they are just... It would be kind of ridiculous if the doctors, Autumn, I'm a journalist or, like, scientists are replaced by AIs, and we are left with all the chores. It just doesn't make sense. [00:23:59] S2: Hey. Hey. Hey. Journalist replaced by AI. Oh god. [00:24:04] S1: Alex, you're gonna be you're gonna be stuck doing laundry. That's gonna be your full time profession. It's gonna be a subscription service. [00:24:11] S2: My wife makes me do laundry, so it's, you know, it's nothing new. I'll happily do it. It's fine.