Episode 31 of the Coworking Chronicles has us traveling back to MassRobotics, Part 3 to meet more robotics builders..
MassRobotics is the largest independent robotics hub dedicated to accelerating innovation and adoption in the field of robotics.
We caught up with Eliot Pirone, Co-Founder & CTO at Canvair and Russell Nickerson, Engagement Liaison at MassRobotics on this segment…
🚁 Eliot Pirone, Co-Founder & CTO at Canvair shares.. 🚁
Canvair is building aerial holographic displays. They deploy massive drones that carry holograms displaying text, video, or anything you can see on a screen but in the sky. Think mobile billboards, but cooler!
Eliot loves building at MassRobotics because we’re surrounded by so many talented startups building robotics across biotech, aerospace, defense, semiconductors, hardware, & software. When you need something, you can always find someone in a relevant field.
He’s watching Cleo Robotics (building inspection drones for oil and gas) and the guys building tools to crack, cook & stir eggs next door.
🔗 Russell Nickerson, Engagement Liaison at MassRobotics shares.. 🔗
Russell helps scale the resident startups by providing physical space, events, and connections as a “connector” inside MassRobotics.
What he loves is working with startups doing “crazy things” and getting the beat on the industry’s reality, not just the hype.
Looking ahead to 2026, he’s helping the team launch the Physical AI Fellowship and the Form & Function Challenge, a deliberately broad academic competition where students can develop any project using two partner technologies. This helps teams get industry exposure and potentially begin working on a startup full time.
Russell is watching Nexterity, Inc. (robots that unscrew pipes for oil rigs and chemical facilities) and Nextera Robotics (robots exploring construction sites). He loves the practical applications where robots handle tedious secondary work.
The winter tour continues with MGMT Boston. Thanks to Rho and Will Panarello for supporting this series!