Diaspora.nz S3 | E8 – Adrian Macneil (Co-Founder & CEO at Foxglove) on Developer Tools for Robotics, and Why Ambitious Kiwis Need to Go — and Come Back Smarter
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May 1, 2025 Adrian Macneil, co-founder and CEO of Foxglove, has a rich background in robotics and engineering, having led teams at Cruise and Coinbase. In this discussion, he reveals how a tool from Cruise sparked the birth of Foxglove, a crucial player in robotics developer tools. Adrian highlights the pivotal moment for robotics akin to the 1980s PC surge, emphasizing the need for simpler, repeatable robot tasks. He also shares his belief that Kiwi founders should gain international experience before returning home, strengthening New Zealand's startup ecosystem.
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Friday Demo That Sparked Foxglove
- Adrian saw an internal Cruise visual debugging demo and realised it was too valuable to stay internal.
- That demo became the genesis of Foxglove after he recognised a broader market need.
Leverage Open Source And Talent Mobility
- Use open source and hiring freedom to build startups from big-company tooling when founders leave.
- California's non-solicit environment lets former colleagues join new startups if they leave voluntarily.
Robotics Interest Rebounded Post-2021
- In 2021 investors asked "what robotics industry?" and pushed crypto/web3 instead.
- Since then AI and reshoring trends revived strong interest in robotics and autonomy.
