Humanoids Beyond the Demo: A Conversation with Nic Radford, Founder & CEO of Persona AI

​Humanoids are everywhere in demos. The harder question is whether they can do skilled, economically valuable work — reliably, safely, and at scale.

​Few teams are better positioned to answer that than Persona AI, arguably the deepest founding team in humanoid robotics:

• ​Nic Radford (Founder & CEO) — 14 years at NASA, where he helped develop Robonaut 2 and led the team behind Valkyrie, NASA's first full-size humanoid. He later founded Nauticus Robotics, leading it to a $600M Nasdaq listing.

• ​Jerry Pratt (CTO) — former CTO of Figure AI and a 20-year pioneer of humanoid locomotion at IHMC. Few people alive have shipped more walking robots.

• ​Jide Akinyode (COO) — former VP of Engineering at Nauticus, with deep experience scaling industrial robotics teams and operations.

​Today, Persona is putting industrial humanoids to work in shipyards, construction sites, and energy infrastructure — environments where traditional automation falls short.

​Join Savant for an intimate fireside with Nic about his journey from NASA roboticist to repeat founder, and his vision for humanoids in the physical economy.

​We'll explore:

• ​Why industrial environments may be the first meaningful market for humanoids

• ​What it takes to move from an impressive prototype to a dependable worker

• ​How Persona is approaching dexterity, autonomy, safety, and real-world deployment

• ​Lessons from building robots for space, subsea, and now heavy industry

​A Strategic Opportunity to Invest in Persona AI

​Persona has secured a lead investor for its current $100M seed round, and Savant has reserved a limited allocation for a select group of strategic operators and investors.

​Beyond capital, we're looking for people who can meaningfully support Persona through industrial expertise, customer access, technical insight, or talent. Please indicate your interest when registering.

​Space is limited, and attendance will be curated.

​About Nic Radford

​Nic Radford is the Founder & CEO of Persona AI, which is developing industrial-grade humanoid robots for skilled work in complex, demanding environments. Before Persona, Nic led the development of NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot and co-founded Houston Mechatronics, later renamed Nauticus Robotics, where he served as CEO and brought the company to the public markets.

​Agenda:

• ​5:30 PM — Doors Open + Light Bites

• ​6:15 PM — Welcome Remarks

• ​6:30 PM — Fireside Chat

• ​7:00 PM — Audience Q&A

• ​7:25 PM — Closing Remarks

• ​7:30 PM — Networking

• ​9:00 PM — End of event

​About the Host:

Savant is a community of technologists embarking on good quests, ideas that are hard, consequential and civilizational-defining. We help top founders explore & start new companies in Physical AI through a powerful network of peers, a dedicated hardware lab, and founder-led support – often before we ever write a check. Together, let's move civilization forward!

​Nebius is a full-stack AI cloud built for teams training, deploying, and scaling advanced AI systems. Its infrastructure supports large-scale GPU workloads across training, inference, synthetic data, and Physical AI — making it especially relevant for builders working on simulation, robotics, and real-world deployment.

​Cooley is a global law firm that works with startups to launch dynamic new ventures and take them forward. Our work often begins prior to a startup’s formation and progresses through the full evolution of the company. Cooley represents 7,000+ innovative, high-growth private company clients, including 30% of US-based unicorns – making Cooley the #1 law firm representing VC-backed companies going public for the last 20 years. With an equal split of investor and company clients, Cooley understands both sides of the table and landscape of current market terms. We also offer unparalleled access to the largest and most influential network of venture capital investors in the world.

​Lighthouse: Lighthouse is the fastest immigration solution for the world's brightest technologists. Our goal is to help you navigate U.S. immigration with speed and ease. In the last year, we've supported 400+ applicants across 150+ ambitious companies including Cursor, Ramp, Together AI, Notion and more.

​Rho: Rho is the all-in-one banking platform for startups and the accountants supporting them. With banking setup in minutes, 2% cashback cards, and powerful tools for managing spend, paying bills, and closing the books, Rho helps high-growth startups move fast and stay focused, backed by support that goes to the end of the earth to help you win.