06/19/2026
The day after 9/11, a private plane carried prototype robots to Ground Zero to search inside the towers when the city could not afford to lose another firefighter.
Hiten Sonpal was part of that team. That moment set the course for everything that followed.
Over 20 years later, he is the CEO of RISE Robotics, leading a team that built the Beltdraulic system, a patented fluid-free alternative to hydraulics that runs at 75% efficiency versus hydraulics' 25%. They have an Air Force contract, commercial customers in oil and gas, and a growing investor community of over 2,500 people.
In this episode of Test. Optimize. Scale., Jason Fishman sits down with Hiten to cover the technology, the business strategy, and what founders need to know about scaling a deep tech company.
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/JTB2Nh3NMec
Hiten Sonpal is the CEO of RISE Robotics and a robotics industry ve...