Top of Mind with Brad Porter
He built Amazon’s robot army. Then walked away. Why? To build something bigger. Top of Mind is a weekly 2–5 minute audio drop from Brad Porter—former Amazon VP of Robotics, Scale AI CTO, and now founder of Cobot. Each short episode delivers raw, unfiltered insights on leadership, automation, and the chaos of building at the edge of physical AI. From warehouse floors to the frontier of machine intelligence, this is what it sounds like when a Silicon Valley leader thinks out loud.
Episodes
Rethinking performance management … are you pulling the company ahead?
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Dr Seth Teller was my masters thesis advisor at MIT. His wife wrote a book last year that dives deeper into his life, the context surrounding his decision to end his life, and the impact that had. It’s a deeply vulnerable book and top of mind for me right now. But I do want to put a WARNING that if this isn’t a topic you want to hear about; I won’t be offended if you don’t turn in this week.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/news...
Are we thinking big enough? That’s the question I’m thinking a lot about. It’s really hard to put into proper perspective the pace of the productivity gains we’re going to see from AI and robotics. We’re going to need more capital and more enterpreneurs to really capitalize on this opportunity.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Competition drives innovation… in every arena! Tune in as I talk about how this applies equally to RC F5K competitions and robotics.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
The promise of robotics and AI is that we create a far more abundant future. Sharing my thoughts on what abundance enables and why our future has the potential to be far more peaceful and prosperous.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
The first day in a new building really sets the tone. The best way to honor and thank your employees is to make that a great experience. But you also can’t lose sight of the fact that startups aren’t about nice working spaces… they’re about fighting for your early customers and succeeding with them.
Happy Labor Day everyone!
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Sharing my thoughts on succeeding in robotics transformation by picking partners you’re believe can move the needle for your business and going on the journey with them!
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
More on upgrading your feet! How can you tell if your shoes have enough space? I’ll show you. Video: https://youtu.be/68r6FTRGdmI
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Last in my series from upstate New York. Here I share a lesson I learned at age 5 about how metrics can motivate us.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Bonus content… learning the value of hard work!
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
We don’t always talk about the importance of having an ambitious culture. Ambitious cultures can be tricky to manage. Ambitious people have ambitious expectations. They push you, they challenge you. But ambitious people in ambitious cultures can achieve ambitious things.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
This week I follow up from last week’s post to go deeper into my philosophy on personal finances.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
In this Top of Mind, I'm talking about talent and why it’s critical to our companies, but also our country.
(Recorded in June, 2025)
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Today I’m talking about money and success and drive.
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
I share lessons from my father that shaped how I think about leadership and physical AI.
(Recorded on Father’s Day - 6/15/2025)
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
I talk about finding thermal bubbles that can help you glide into product market fit.
(Recorded in June, 2025)
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
This week, I talk about China robotics and mechanisms for managing blind spots
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, MIT Athena, Netscape, Tellme, Amazon Robotics, Cobot… I cover it all in under 4 minutes.
(Recorded in May, 2025)
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
I share some insights into how we think about solving the headwinds to building a foundation model for physical AI, share a bit about the value of getting into the field and building great partnerships, and just the value of connecting in person in what has become a digital-first world. (Recorded in April, 2025)
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
In this Top of Mind, I talk about humanoids vs cobots, and share a powerful insight on success that I learned from my grandfather.
(Recorded in May, 2025)
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/
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