<p>They say the American dream begins in a garage. For Ali Leylavi Shoushtari, the journey behind Wageningen Robotics began in a Dutch attic. It was there that he sketched the first ideas, built the first prototypes and started shaping his vision for the company. Wageningen Robotics develops next-generation soft robotic technologies for handling delicate, irregular and highly variable biological products. Unlike conventional robots, these technologies are designed to operate safely in complex environments and interact with products that naturally vary in shape and size.</p><p>Ali chose agriculture as the company’s first market because it is one of the most challenging environments for robotics. Success in agriculture creates opportunities far beyond agriculture itself. The first mission: tackling one of the Dutch horticultural sector’s biggest automation challenges – robotic mushroom harvesting.</p><p>Mushrooms grow densely together and differ in size and orientation. Harvesting them requires precision without damaging neighboring mushrooms or compromising product quality. Wageningen Robotics saw an opportunity to contribute a Dutch solution by combining Dutch horticultural expertise with innovative soft robotics and artificial intelligence.</p><h2>Turning technology into a business</h2><p>The technological foundation was there. Wageningen Robotics had developed promising prototypes, filed intellectual property and established a clear technological vision. But for Ali, who comes from an engineering and research background, the next challenge was less familiar. “Our biggest challenge was not the technology – it was transforming strong engineering into a scalable business.”</p><p>Questions around commercialization became increasingly important. Which market should Wageningen Robotics enter first? Who are its first customers? How should the company position itself? And how do you communicate the potential of technology that can be used for much more than a single application?</p><p>While looking for support to strengthen this business side of Wageningen Robotics, Ali learned about De Startversneller through Oost NL. Through a coaching voucher, he was matched with Brilliant Work. The coaching offered a valuable complement to his technical background. Rather than focusing solely on a business plan, the conversations centred on strategy, market opportunities and the long-term positioning of the company.</p><h2>Looking at the technology from a different perspective</h2><p>A key part of the coaching was challenging assumptions. With an engineering background, it can be tempting to focus primarily on making the technology work. The coach encouraged Ali to approach the business from another direction: who benefits from the technology, which problem should be solved first and which market offers the strongest starting point? These conversations created greater clarity around what Wageningen Robotics was actually building.</p><p>The bigger opportunity was to position Wageningen Robotics as a soft robotics technology platform, with agriculture as its first market rather than its only market. That distinction became an important step in the development of the company. “At Wageningen Robotics, we don't start with the question 'What robot should we build?' We start with the question 'What problem is worth solving?' Soft robotics is simply the technology that allows us to solve problems conventional robots cannot.” &nbsp;</p><h2>A technology platform with broader potential</h2><p>Wageningen Robotics is developing several technologies that support this broader vision. One example is an origami-inspired deployable robotic arm, for which the company has filed a patent application. The arm can extend and bend around plants instead of requiring large free spaces to manoeuvre. This creates possibilities for harvesting, crop inspection, spot spraying and leaf removal. The company is also developing adaptive soft robotic grippers that conform to the irregular shapes of crops, enabling delicate products to be handled without compromising their quality.</p><p>While agriculture remains the beachhead market, the underlying technologies could eventually be applied in other areas, including food processing, warehouse automation, logistics, recycling, healthcare and assistive robotics. During the coaching process, Ali and Brilliant Work translated this broader perspective into concrete business development. They refined the value proposition, strengthened the pitch deck, further developed the business plan and explored additional applications for the technology.</p><h2>From technical feasibility to commercial opportunity</h2><p>The coaching through De Startversneller also complemented the technical development of Wageningen Robotics. Through an earlier MIT Feasibility Project, Ali investigated both the technical feasibility and commercial potential of AI-enabled soft robotic mushroom harvesting. The project allowed him to explore the market, speak with growers and industry stakeholders, develop prototypes and validate the business opportunity.</p><p>Building on those results, Wageningen Robotics recently secured funding through the MIT AI R&amp;D programme to further develop an AI-enabled robotic mushroom harvesting system. The project combines artificial intelligence with soft robotics and aims to contribute to addressing labour shortages and improving automation within the Dutch mushroom industry.</p><p>For Ali, the two forms of support complemented each other particularly well. The feasibility project helped answer whether the technology could be built. The coaching helped to find out how to build a company around it. Together, they helped turn the initial technological concept into a clearer commercial opportunity.</p><h2>Growing as an entrepreneur</h2><p>The impact of the coaching is also visible in Ali’s own way of working. He now spends more time looking at developments from the customer’s perspective rather than solely from a technology perspective. Alongside the question of whether something can technically be built, considerations such as who benefits from it, which problem it solves and how it creates value have become much more prominent. For Ali, this is one of the most important lessons from the process: technology and entrepreneurship need to develop together.</p><p>His advice to other entrepreneurs is therefore to seek perspectives outside their own expertise. A coach can help challenge assumptions and create greater clarity around customers, markets, partnerships and growth. Looking back at his own journey, there is one thing Ali would have done earlier: “Start talking to customers much earlier.” Innovation, he has learned, is a sequence of validated steps: first the problem, then the technology, the business model and ultimately the market. Understanding the problems customers face is what allows promising technology to develop into solutions that create lasting value.</p>

Wageningen Robotics: from strong engineering to a scalable business