CRAFTED. The Roboticist Using AI to Fix How We Pick Startups — Live from Web Summit with Chris Coomes
Nov 21, 2025
Join Chris Coomes, founder and CEO of X1 Pipeline and former robotics lead at Google and Amazon, as he dives into the world of AI-powered startup evaluation. He shares his motivation for creating X1 Pipeline and explains how it mimics his personal review process but at lightning speed. Chris critiques the hype around 'agents' in tech, noting many won't survive, and discusses humanoid robots at Web Summit. He insightfuly argues that while AI is powerful, it still needs human creativity for true innovation.
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Automate Repetitive Due Diligence
- Use AI to standardize repetitive startup evaluations and save time reviewing pitch decks.
- Recreate your manual due-diligence steps as automated prompts and connected APIs so AI fetches needed data for you.
Do Homework Before The First Pitch
- Early investor work is mostly gathering public signals about problem, market and team before the call.
- With that data pre-collected an investor can ask far more pointed questions in a short meeting.
Where AI Excels And Falls Short
- AI is strong at validating product-market-fit signals, competitors, and team background from public data.
- It struggles to invent entirely novel solutions or reason like a human about personality-driven decisions.