Joel Reed will tell anyone who listens to him that Pittsburgh is the robotics capital of the world, and he’ll happily cite the more than 100 robotics-based companies that make up the Pittsburgh Robotics Network’s membership rolls as proof of that. As the president of the PRN, a nonprofit that works to represent the region’s robotics scene at a global scale, Reed is constantly meeting with those in the community to help forge connections, gather insights and find ways to better promote the work that’s being done in the region. While wearing many hats to fulfill multiple duties, Reed is committed to making sure Pittsburgh’s roboticists become better known for their strengths and abilities.
What has you so enamored about Pittsburgh’s roboticists?
I think in general, across the industry, robotics engineers, they just tackle extremely hard problems. They’re very sincere in trying to improve a particular process or solve something that needs to be solved in society — and the people I’ve come across are extremely sincere. They’re very hardworking, they’re incredibly smart and they’re just very interesting people to be around.
Do you think that’s unique to the profession?
I’m going to say it’s unique to the profession because there is no shortcut to developing a safe and effective robotics solution. And many times it’s very resource intensive and most of these individuals and companies are resource constrained. So they have to be resourceful, creative and inventive. And the other thing I love about them is that they’re also just dreaming up these solutions that we haven’t seen before. There’s a great deal of vision and foresight on how to do it. You don’t have a lot to work with. And they come up with these amazing solutions. And that’s just fascinating to me.
Can you give some insight about what robotics-based stakeholders are in need of most from the PRN right now?
What they’re expecting of us now and going forward, which we’re trying to work on, is just how can we directly impact the growth of their business, whether it’s putting them in a position to get more business development leads or help them solve their talent needs. And there are two sides to that: Many times our companies when they seek talent, they’re probably thinking of technical talent, but one of the side missions of the PRN is to help our companies develop their commercial talent and to do it sooner in their growth. And then we’re also trying to determine how we can more directly impact the increasing need for capital for these businesses. We don’t do that directly. But what we’ve been doing is partnering with organizations in the community, such as Innovation Works and several of the venture capital organizations that are working to always create new capital connections for our innovative companies.
How do you start your day and then how does it usually unfold?
I always start my day with coffee. We’re a mission-driven organization. So while I’m having that coffee, I’m always doing some mental checks of where we are in that overall mission. We go through quite a bit of planning, so if there’s not something pressing that morning such as an event or some type of industry conference or meeting a stakeholder, typically it’s doing that check against our plan and then working to plan. The plans can range across a wide variety of tasks, whether we’re having strategic team meetings or I’m doing outreach with a stakeholder be it a robotics core member or someone else in the industry, and that can be anybody at any place in the world. The day consists of email communications, Zoom meetings and, now more increasingly, in-person meetings out and about in the community. But we’re a nonprofit, and there’s a lot of work in terms of grant applications, building and nurturing partner and stakeholder relationships. And then we still very much have the characteristics of a startup, and so many of us wear many hats. On a typical day, you can find me doing accounting, executing on a marketing campaign, doing direct outreach with our stakeholders and then having team meetings.
And how do you go about ending your day?
From a business perspective, I really enjoy ending my day with a beer, sitting down with someone or unwinding with a family member or a neighbor, having conversations, listening to others, sharing stories and maybe scheming what the next big mission or plan is going to be.
And what’s that beer of choice for you?
You know what, I’m big on pilsners now, I’m over the IPA craze. And that’s actually gotten harder. You go into bars and there’s one pilsner and there are a dozen IPAs, but the lagers and the pilsners are my beer choice.
Do you have a go-to bedtime snack?
We are a dark chocolate family. Just blocks of dark chocolate or dark chocolate-covered almonds.
Has anything been occupying your television recently?
Like almost everyone else, we’re big fans of “Ted Lasso.” Finishing up the series of “Succession.” And I’ll say, with a teenage daughter, we have been thrilled that she took an interest in “M*A*S*H.” We actually worked our way through all 256 episodes of “M*A*S*H” in order.
This is over the period of when?
Over a period of probably a year-and-a-half to two years. It was kind of a post-dinner tradition. And we started with the pilot episode and ran our way all the way to the final one, which is still the most-watched television show in history. I love that at 17, at the time 16, my daughter had a real interest, and it definitely stands up. That’s probably our favorite.
ABOUT JOEL REED:
Title: President, Pittsburgh Robotics Network
Age: 52
First job: Associate, Kmart electronics department; first professional job: Consultant at Ernst & Young Healthcare Management Consulting Practice
Education: Bachelor’s, University of Pittsburgh; MBA, University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business
Residence: Shadyside
Family: Spouse, daughter and a dog
Hobbies: Tennis, triathlons, recreational photography
Causes: Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, entrepreneur education, community litter management
