Emerging Tech Hubs: LA and Paris

Episode #62 of Building Deep Tech!

With Pedro Milcent, Co-Founder of Deplace AI; data collection & curation for robotics and physical AI:

In this episode, I chat with Pedro Milcent, a French-Brazilian founder building something new in the world of robotics and AI. Pedro’s story starts unconventionally, as he finished high school at 14, went straight to law school, then pivoted to business, earning a full-ride scholarship to USC before diving into the startup world.

Pedro’s first startup, Payby, tackled payments in Brazilian restaurants. Now, he’s co-founded Deplace AI, a company solving one of the hardest problems in robotics: large-scale, low-cost data collection for physical AI. Think human demonstrations, imitation grippers, motion capture, and making it all accessible.

We talk about building a team with deep expertise, landing their first client just months in, and what Pedro sees coming next for physical AI in Europe and beyond. He’s got bold views and clear insights, hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did recording it.