Canvas

Two decades of groundwork has set the stage. The next ten years in robotics will make the last twenty look slow. When I entered the field in 2004, keeping a robot on-task in a real world environment felt like a groundbreaking leap forward. Vision was grainy. Sensors cost a fortune. Today, robots navigate hospitals, finish drywall, and work on farms affordably and at scale. Here’s why robotics will grow even faster in the next decade: 1. The labor math is upside-down. In 1990, the U.S. had 5.7 working-age adults for every retiree. By 2000 it was ~ 4. Today it’s 2.1. The question has switched from “Can we deploy robots?” to “Can we afford not to?” 2. A generation of vertical robots is field-proven. A mid-2010’s capital surge birthed a new wave of vertical robotics companies (think Path, Locus, Dusty, etc). After a decade of hardware cycles and customer feedback, these systems are finally reaching maturity enabling them to operate reliably in real world environments. 3.Sensing got cheaper and better. Whether it’s surface topology at Canvas or mapping at Waymo, sensing precisely and affordably has always been the ceiling of a robot’s potential. Today high resolution vision, advanced LIDAR, and other key sensor technologies cost a tenth of what they did five years ago. What this means for you: - Founders: You can iterate and reach production faster than any generation before you. Leverage what’s already been built and tested to achieve reliability fast. - Investors: Technical risk is shifting to execution risk. The foundations are in place and the world needs robots to start working now. - Everyone: Robots will lower the cost of labor-intensive goods and services. This means better infrastructure, cheaper housing, and more affordable essentials. Soon we’ll stop calling them “robots”, they’ll just be standard equipment. Whether you’re building, backing, or just along for the ride - the future is promising.

Robots weaving through crowds. A packed house of builders, visionaries, and investors. Conversations that reminded us why we started in the first place. That was the energy at yesterday's Robotics on the Rocks Mixer co-hosted by Canvas, Raise Robotics, Cosmic Robotics, Civ Robotics, and Rugged Robotics. More than a mixer, it felt like a glimpse of what the next decade of construction robotics could look like - hands-on, collaborative, and in the wild. Thank you to everyone who showed up, shared ideas, and made it what it was. Photos Below 👇 . If you see yourself (or robot), tag away.

Twelve years ago, I left a dream role building robotic dogs at Boston Dynamics to create a new class of robots that could solve construction’s biggest problems. I didn’t know what to expect as a founder in such a specialized space - how to raise funding, build a prototype, or assemble a team that could bring the vision to life. After eight years leading Canvas, my perspective and priorities have changed drastically. Here are the three biggest things I would tell any new founder in robotics: 1. Quantify Customer Needs Early Everything revolves around understanding and quantifying what your customer needs early and fast. Customers often can’t do this for you. Listen closely, study their workflow, define measurable outcomes, and share those metrics back, including price. Even if you’re off at first, it sparks the right conversation and ensures you know what to build. 2. Build for Reliability Hardware cycles are long, and you only get a few builds - pivoting isn't easy. That makes prioritization critical. Reliability is a critical and often overlooked customer need. It generally requires months of focus beyond the initial design and build to get right. Make it part of your plan from day one. 3. Set a few Clear Goals, then Hyperfocus on Them Your team is most motivated when they have clear, focused goals. Focus creates alignment and momentum. The team’s work is rewarded when customers love what they build — and that’s only possible if they understand what success looks like. Most importantly: hardware is hard. Robots are hard. That’s the reality and the opportunity. Embrace it, roll with it, and you might build something that changes everything.

The future of construction isn't coming - it's here. Join Canvas and our friends at Rugged Robotics, Raise Robotics, Cosmic Robotics, and Civ Robotics for a networking mixer during ENR Futuretech. 📍 May 6th | 7–10 PM at 61 Bluxome St., San Francisco 🤖 Hands-on Robot Demos & Networking with Industry Leaders 🍸 Light Food and Drinks Provided Spots are filling up and limited - RSVP now! Link in comments below.

One of the toughest challenges in drywall finishing is the excess of tight and awkward spaces in hallways, corners, and retrofit sites. Anyone who’s been on a jobsite knows these pinch points aren’t just an inconvenience - they disrupt and harm productivity, quality, and safety. Here’s Why: - Manual work drags on and takes its toll. Crews are stuck climbing ladders and twisting into corners for hours. That not only slows schedules but raises the risk of repetitive-strain injuries and fatigue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. - Inconsistent finishes. Limited clearance makes it nearly impossible to maintain uniform pressure and coverage, leading to hours spent on rework and touch-ups. - Most drywall finishing tools were built for wide-open areas. In multifamily housing, hospitals, or retrofit projects, bulky equipment can’t access critical zones. Equipped with all-wheel steer and a compact footprint, the Canvas 1200CX slips through openings as narrow as 30″, empowering drywall teams to boost productivity and enhance safety without spending hours wrestling with equipment. Learn more about 1200CX using the link in the comments below.

The construction industry is facing a critical crossroads. In 2025 alone, we need to attract an estimated 439,000 new workers just to meet demand (ABC News, US Construction Labor Statistics). Despite a younger workforce and wages increasing by 4.4% this past year, nearly 90% of contractors still struggle to fill positions, particularly in skilled trades like drywall installation. A growing training gap and booming sectors like manufacturing and data centers continue to amplify the shortage. The consequences include compromised quality leading to structural failures, escalating inflationary pressures, and critical infrastructure delays of essential services our communities depend on. At Canvas, we believe that technology is the key to addressing our industry’s problems. We’ve engineered our latest drywall machine, the 1200CX, to empower tradespeople —making jobs safer, faster, and more appealing to the next generation. Watch our new 1200CX feature video below (YouTube link in comments).

Back home after an eventful week at AWCI! It was a landmark event for the team at Canvas, debuting our 1200CX drywall machine live to the industry. The response blew us away. Canvas's booth might have been the most popular at the event. The interest confirmed what we've already known: Construction is ready for innovation, and it has to happen now. I talked to hundreds of drywall contractors about their largest problems now, and their comments were all the same. "Finding skilled drywall laborers has never been harder." "Our team is completely overwhelmed with demand." "We need more innovative tools to take strain off our crews." At Canvas, we're building technology like the 1200CX to make job sites twice as efficient, improve worker safety, and bridge the critical labor shortage facing our industry. Thank you to everybody who stopped by the booth and showed enthusiasm for our mission. If you'd like to get a live demo of the 1200CX or learn more about Canvas - feel free to email me ([email protected]) or visit our website. The future is bright, and the future is now. #BUILD25

AWCI Build25 was unforgettable. This event marked the first industry showcase of our 1200CX drywall machine —and the response was incredible. Our booth was buzzing with activity over two busy days as we demonstrated the machine’s latest features live, highlighting productivity gains in high-demand areas like data centers and warehouses. Thank you to everyone who visited our booth, shared your perspectives, and joined us in exploring how technology is moving job site efficiency and worker safety forward. Your enthusiasm continues to inspire us. Until next time! #BUILD25 #ConTech #Robotics

Less Downtime, More Productivity. Introducing Self-Drive on the Canvas 1200CX. Self-Drive frees up to 72% of drywall workers’ time, enabling them to focus on other parallel tasks. Integrated advanced safety features intelligently detect and avoid obstacles, ensuring smooth operation on-site. Watch the 1200CX move between sections - surveying, sanding, and repositioning completely on its own.

Last week I had the privilege of joining fellow female founders Jiayue (Jenny) He (Ergeon), Shaily Garg (GlobalFair), Maria Davidson (Kojo), and Anna Cheniuntai (Apis Cor) for an incredible panel on the intersection of technology and construction.Key takeaways from our conversation: - Technological evolution in construction has to translate to impact. Despite the allure to build a cool new product for a "slow-moving" industry, you need to solve a real problem and understand the constraints that have made it difficult to introduce innovation into the industry. - Understanding your customer's pain is everything. As lifelong engineers with no construction experience prior to Canvas, Kevin Albert and I became a drywall subcontractor for two years to learn directly about problems in the field before iterating our product. - Construction is so much larger than just what happens on-site. I met incredible folks driving innovation in adjacent fields like site law, finance, planning, and design. It was a great audience! Thank you to Female Founders Edge, Hilti Venture, and Women in Construction Tech in Construction for hosting an event that left us all inspired.It was a reminder that ConTech is not the future - it is happening now.