At a high level, my sweet spot is digitizing the physical world, treating atoms like bits. In the bits world, a computer's CPU manipulates bits, storage stores bits, and the network moves bits from point A to point B. When treating atoms like bits, manufacturing manipulates atoms, real estate stores atoms, and transport logistics move atoms. These are the core computing resources in an atoms-based computer. My last gig focused on the network for the physical world, but there's a huge amount of innovation left in compute and storage for the physical world, also known as digitized manufacturing and digitized real estate. Our company is building atoms-based computers, and our first computer is a food computer.

In our lab, we do everything in-house. Once the dispensers are full of food, nobody touches it, and what comes out on a conveyor belt are bags of food that get delivered. The process is amazing: LED bag sealed, and you get the general idea. Now, you have a restaurant that can asynchronously produce for consumers from what labor is doing, with the labor primarily on the prep side of things. There are vessels with ingredients in them; the bowl goes by, stuff gets dropped in, organized, covered, put in a bag, and labeled. The human has no part in that except for preparing and filling prep. This machine can run for hours without anybody there, making it a more efficient system.

To revolutionize the kitchen like Uber did to the car, two things need to happen. First, the logistics and movement of food need to go to zero cost, akin to autonomous vehicles. Second, the production of food must be roboticized and mechanized. When these two things happen, cooking can become a choice rather than a necessity. This allows for higher quality food at a lower cost and gives people back the most precious commodity: time.

The key was ensuring that the problems being solved were greater than the problems being created. When the latter began to outweigh the former, it was time to pull back, regroup, and then push forward again.

Despite the hardships, I want to emphasize that I loved every minute of it. When you fall in love again, you don't think about the ex very much. Cloud Kitchen is the ex, and you've moved on.

You inspired a generation to operate in the real world, build impactful things, and fight with an entrepreneurial spirit.