Mike Formica, managing director of hardware at Innovation Works Inc.'s AlphaLab Gear startup accelerator and lead of the Robotics Factory initiative, has departed his post at the North Side-based investment organization to pursue his "next big thing."
A self-described serial entrepreneur at heart, Formica stressed that he is leaving IW on his own terms, though he hasn't identified exactly what he'll be doing next in a day-to-day capacity. Any new post will be in addition to his still-existing duties as an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering, where he teaches a class on how to build and grow hardware-based startups.
He has ruled out a few possibilities, however.
Despite knowing them personally and at least some of their plans ahead, Formica said he won't be joining the expected startup venture being launched soon by the co-founders of Argo AI LLC, which went out of business last October after its two main investors — Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG — opted to shutter the company. He also won't be following the same path as Joel Reed, who a few weeks prior also announced that he had stepped down as president of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) to pursue some yet-to-be-announced ventures of his own.
"I'm very aware of [Argo Co-Founder] Bryan [Salesky]'s new company; I'm not joining that," Formica said. "And I'm not looking to take over the PRN."
But like Reed, Formica said he'll be staying in Pittsburgh no matter what it is he does next.
"I'm leaving without knowing what I want because I want the time to think about it," Formica said. "I have done three startups, so I find that if you get immersed in a project for a long time, it's really hard to think about what else is out there."
Prior to joining IW in February 2022, Formica served as CEO of Pittsburgh robotics company Neya Systems LLC. In 2007, Formica founded and served as the CEO of threeRivers 3D, a Pittsburgh company that designs, builds and manufactures standard and custom 3D scanners capable of quickly generating 3D models from real-world objects. He's also had experience serving as the CEO at one of the region's first autonomous vehicle companies, AssistWare Technology, a spinout from CMU that developed the world's first commercial lane departure warning system, which went on to be acquired by Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX) in 2006 and then later by Japan-based Takata Corp. in 2008.
"I love working with startups; I love manufacturing," Formica said. "I want to create a company or I want to work with companies that are going to get a product out there, but then build them here. … I think I can do more and I can do it faster in the private sector again."
In an email statement, IW President and CEO Ven Raju praised Formica for his efforts, which most recently included a strong leadership role in helping to bring in and run the Aviation & Robotics Summit in Pittsburgh this past May. Formica also oversaw the buildout of the Robotics Factory, an endeavor from IW in partnership with the PRN that's looking to incubate and provide space for robotics-based startups in Pittsburgh as a result of funding from the $62.7 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant that the region won last fall from President Joe Biden's administration.
"We would like to express our gratitude to Mike Formica for his invaluable contributions, and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors," Raju said. "With the foundation he and the team have helped to build, the Robotics Factory is well-positioned to continue to advance its programmatic elements designed to help bolster the region’s robotics cluster."
