Diaspora NZ with David Booth 
About Adrian Macneil
Adrian Macneil is co-founder and CEO of Foxglove, which builds developer tools and an agentic data platform for robotics engineers, aiming to speed up how teams bring robots to market. Before Foxglove, he was Director of Infrastructure at self-driving car company Cruise and the first Director of Engineering at Coinbase, and earlier led engineering at Roomz. He founded and sold Exp:resso, an e-commerce tool for the ExpressionEngine content management system, in 2014. Macneil holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Massey University. On Diaspora NZ with David Booth, he discussed developer tools for robotics and why ambitious Kiwis should go overseas and come home smarter.
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- Deep Tech & Science, Going Global, Product
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Diaspora NZ with David Booth Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from 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.
- 3:30When an internal tool became a startup idea
- 7:42Cruise vs GM: Startup chaos inside a legacy giant
- 12:47Foxglove’s customer base: From tractors to warehouses
- 16:15Why Foxglove won’t build robots — and what they’re building instead
- 21:54The “1980s PC” moment for robotics
- 27:41If not Foxglove — what robotics startup would Adrian build?
- 30:15From kiwifruit packhouses to automation inspiration
- 36:35Why ambitious builders still need to go to Silicon Valley
- 41:36The 10-year mindset needed to build a real company
- 47:50How the Kiwi diaspora can supercharge the next generation
In their own words.
“Don't start a startup unless it is something that you're ready to work on for 10 years.”
The path so far.
- Now
Co-Founder & CEO · Foxglove
- Earlier · Scale-up
Director of Infrastructure Engineering · Cruise
- Earlier · Scale-up
Director of Engineering · Coinbase
- Until 2014 · Startup
Founder · Expresso
Sources: councils.forbes.com
Foxglove on Day One
Foxglove is a San Francisco-based data platform for robotics and physical AI teams.
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