Being an Engineer S6E2 Derek Pietz | Industrial Automation, Losing A Million Dollars, & Successful Startups
This episode is a re-run.
Derek Pietz shares his journey into engineering, his experiences founding and leading a startup called Lab to Fab, and the challenges and successes he's faced in the automation industry. He discusses the importance of teamwork, communication, and adaptability in engineering. Derek also provides insights into the trends and future of automation, as well as advice for aspiring engineers.
Main Topics:
- Derek's path to becoming an engineer and his early entrepreneurial ventures
- The founding and growth of Lab to Fab, including a dramatic week of highs and lows
- Balancing career and personal life during the startup phase
- Insights on engineering processes, teamwork, and overcoming challenges
- Derek's current role at Intuitive and the world of robotic-assisted surgery
- Trends and future of automation, including the impact of AI-powered vision-guided robots
- Sharing success stories and lessons learned from failures in engineering
About the guest: Derek Pietz is the Director of Automation Equipment and Test Engineering at Intuitive, a trailblazing company at the forefront of robotic-assisted surgery. Prior to his role at Intuitive, Derek has been a part of four start-up ventures including one as a co-founder. He has built and led engineering and operations teams, designed machines, run a P/L, pitched investors, obsessed over supply chain, developed sales strategies, taught robots to make pizza and fixed customer problems.
Links:
Derek Pietz LinkedIn
Intuitive - Website
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About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us