Oliver Mitchell

Oliver Mitchell is a partner at Arkenstone Venture Partners, a dual-use venture firm investing in defense technology, cybersecurity, automation, and AI-driven enterprise software, born out of Israel’s elite military units. Oliver is also a partner at ff Venture Capital, where he leads investments in robotics, artificial intelligence, drones, industrial automation, and climate tech, and builds strategic alliances with limited partners and corporate venture groups. A seasoned investor, Oliver boasts a proven track record of successful exits, including two IPOs (Novocure and Ekso Bionics), a $1.4 billion private equity sale of TripleLift, and high returns from recent transactions, including the acquisition of Scite.ai by Research Solutions (RSSS) and CardFlight’s growth equity round led by WestView Capital Partners. He currently serves on the boards of CivRobotics, Cambrian Robotics, and Paraspot, leveraging his deep tech expertise to scale transformative companies. Previously, he built and exited ventures such as Holmes Protection, AmeriCash, and RobotGalaxy, a national STEM-focused brand. As an Adjunct Professor at Sy Syms School of Business and the author of A Startup Field Guide in the Age of Robots and AI, he continues to shape innovation, sharing insights on his blog as the “Robot Rabbi.“

Universal Income vs. Robot Tax

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At next week’s RobotLab event in New York City, the topic will be The Societal Impact of Robotics. The first speaker, David Rose of Singularity University, plans to address automation’s job disruption. While this subject matter has been featured in practically every article about robotics, what is lacking are real solutions to preventing seismic shifts in the economy. There are … Read more

Autonomous Boats By 2020

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My twitter feed was abuzz this week with news of a Russian spy boat miles off the coast of Connecticut’s US Naval Submarine Base in Groton. This would’ve been a good time to test the Navy’s newest weapon – the Sea Hunter – an autonomous marine defense system (shown below). The concept of an encounter between autonomous and manual vessels waging battle is a good metaphor for future conflicts … Read more

The Mechanical Silent Spring

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Trump’s Chinese hoax had quite a week with temperatures plummeting over 40 degrees overnight followed by a foot of snow. I write this post buried in a blizzard, as the wind is whipping around my windows. The rattling of glass is a reminder of how often we humans ignore the reality of science. Thankfully, roboticists are hard at work … Read more

Cashiers Go To The Bots: The Loss Of The Entry Level Job

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Yesterday, Amazon reported a record  fourth-quarter earnings with a profit of $749 million on $43.7 billion of revenue. Amazon is in so many businesses beyond books and e-commerce, from shipping & logistics (and eventually drones) to cloud hosting services. In the spirit of our upcoming event on The Societal Impact of Robotics on March 2nd, I would like to analyze its … Read more