--- title: 'Founding Business Development Representative, Robotics at Yondu AI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-business-development-representative-robotics-yondu-ai-gardena-nn7kxtde6ef8' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-05' --- # Founding Business Development Representative, Robotics at Yondu AI - **Company:** Yondu AI - **Location:** Gardena, CA - **Compensation:** $100k–$150k - **Employment:** contract - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-03-02 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05 - **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/yondu-ai/am9icG9zdDpo8fvZIPgw_YH7KIKl9Q4X ## Job description At Yondu, we’re changing the way the world works- literally. Here, our aim is to build the robotic workforce of the future in a way that augments humans, makes people more productive, and enables anyone to pursue their passions. We are starting by deploying autonomous mobile manipulation robots in logistics settings to do the task of bin picking. Our technology is developing at a rapid pace and our goal is to land major customer pilots. This role will play a major part in finding and executing on those partnerships to develop strong relationships with small and large 3PL companies. If this journey sounds exciting, consider joining us to accelerate our customer acquisition through building on existing connections in the industry, media strategy, marketing, and b2b sales. You’ll work directly with the CEO and communicate with our top stakeholders and customers. Compensation will be partly salary and partly commission based. Listed below is the base salary. You’ll receive a commission on each contract you’re able to secure. You will need several years of experience selling within the logistics space. In the business development role, you will: - C-Suite Customer Relationship Building and Maintenance:- Working directly with executives from the top logistics companies. Build off your existing relationships in the industry. - Lead Generation & Outreach- Research potential medium sized 3PLs warehouses and larger sized logistics companies, use state of the art software tools to create quality lead lists, and do cold outreach. You’ll also go unicorn hunting and try and land us massive paid contracts. - Growth Hacking:- Leverage social media, traditional media, conferences, and gifting to help our company gain exposure and create effective targeted campaigns across platforms and irl - CRM & Sales Support- Maintain/update CRM systems, Track progress of partnerships, follow-ups, etc, Assist in preparing custom pitch decks, newsletters, and sales material - Market Research- Analyze competitors, industry trends, revenue predictions, customer segments- Summarize findings in slide decks or reports - Event Coordination- Help identify relevant conferences, hackathons, or webinars. Coordinate logistics or create supporting material - Partnership Development- Work with robot manufacturing partners and explore potential hardware and software collaborations What we’re looking for: - A strong business background, with the ability to understand robotics concepts and translate them into compelling messaging - Ability to network, make real world connections, and communicate effectively with executives and CEOs of logistics businesses - Previous experience managing content creation for a social media account (personal, professional, or organizational) - A strong writing portfolio and demonstrated ability to craft narratives that resonate with different audiences - Comfortable using tools like Notion, Apollo, Excel, and CRM tools Bonus Points: - If you’ve worked in VC or startup environments before - Video or Image editing experience - Experience with B2B sales, growth strategy, or product marketing is a plus ## About Yondu AI ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Yondu provides drop-in, general-purpose humanoid robots for 3PL warehouses to automate high-turnover labor with a fast, ROI-positive, brownfield deployment. - **Entity Type**: Private (seed stage, Y Combinator W24) - **Headquarters**: Gardena, California, USA - **Founded**: 2023 (Dec 2023 founded at MIT, operational by 2024) - **Founders**: Michael Chen (CEO) and Tahmid Jamal (CTO) ## Core Business - Primary industry: Warehouse automation, logistics robotics, embodied AI. - Target customers: Mid-sized 3PL (third-party logistics) warehouses (B2B, SMB to enterprise). - Mission: Revolutionizing physical labor by building the robot workforce of the future, empowering businesses to lower operating costs, eliminate turnover, and increase efficiency. ## Products & Services - **Humanoid Robots + Teleoperation System (ULTRON)**: A low-latency remote teleoperation system that puts robots to work immediately in customer operations, collecting data for autonomy. - **Warehouse Management Software (WMS) Integration**: Routes orders from the warehouse WMS to Yondu’s platform, instructing robots where to go and what to pick. - **Autonomy Stack (YGM – Yondu General Manipulation)**: A manipulation policy that gradually takes over picking and placing tasks, learning from teleoperation data to drive toward full autonomy. - **Brownfield Bin-Picking Solution**: The first fully automated brownfield bin-picking system that works within existing warehouse layouts without costly infrastructure changes. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – seed round closed in May 2024 after YC W24 cohort; amount undisclosed. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator; design partnership and pilot contract with Shipbots (a major West Coast 3PL). - **Growth Signals**: Founded Dec 2023 at MIT; participated in PROD 3.0 and YC W24 cohorts; opened HQ in Gardena, CA (June 2025); demonstrated comprehensive teleoperated bin-picking system (Sep 2025); landed first pilot contract; headcount growing with multiple founding engineers and robot operators. ## Competitive Advantages - **Brownfield-first approach**: No need for new infrastructure or retrofits – robots adapt to existing warehouse layouts and processes. - **Affordable price point**: Mid-sized warehouses can afford automation; claims to cut labor costs by up to 75%. - **Data flywheel**: Teleoperation (ULTRON) enables immediate value while collecting real-world data to train autonomy (YGM), creating a self-improving system. - **Full-stack robotics**: In-house teleoperation, WMS integration, and manipulation stack – a platform-application model scalable to other tasks (decanting, replenishment, packing). ## Strategic Focus - Current priorities include scaling the Shipbots partnership, proving ROI in live warehouse operations, expanding the robot’s task repertoire beyond bin-picking, and building a foundation model for general-purpose manipulation. - Long-term vision: Become the platform for any brownfield robotics automation, enabling other companies to automate any task with any robot. ## Why Work Here - **Team & Culture**: Led by two MIT co-founders; strong research talent (MIT CSAIL Postdoc, Georgia Tech PhD, industry veterans in RL/teleoperation). Culture emphasizes continuous learning, keeping up with SOTA research, and tackling one of the hardest problems in robot learning. - **Compensation & Benefits**: 401(k) matching (100% of first 3%, 50% of next 2%); comprehensive medical/dental (100% premiums covered for employee and dependents); unlimited PTO plus dedicated sick leave. - **Work Environment**: Based in Los Angeles (Gardena) – hands-on, in-person collaboration with local customers; roles include robotics software, mechatronics, and business development. - **Growth Opportunity**: Early-stage startup with a chance to shape the product and technology from the ground up, working on real-world embodied AI deployments. ## Sources 1. [yondu.ai](https://www.yondu.ai/) 2. [yondu.ai/about](https://www.yondu.ai/about) 3. [yondu.ai/careers](https://www.yondu.ai/careers) 4. [ycombinator.com/companies/yondu](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yondu) 5. [ycombinator.com/companies/yondu/jobs](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yondu/jobs) ## Other roles at Yondu AI - [Summer Robotics Hardware Intern (Copy)](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-robotics-hardware-intern-copy-yondu-ai-gardena-rtmmqv94a38g) — Gardena, CA - [Summer Robotics Hardware Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-robotics-hardware-intern-yondu-ai-gardena-xym7b8rebrb4) — Gardena, CA - [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-yondu-ai-gardena-r9phjzqqd7sg) — Gardena, CA