Boulder, CO — Hardware & Robotics

Ian
Bernstein

I take hardware from napkin sketch to mass manufacturing. Robots, IoT, smart devices — if it needs to ship at scale, that's my thing.

Founder of Maidenrun — hardware consulting · Co-founder of Sphero · Founder of Misty Robotics · Building Hackerbot Industries

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01. About

I've been building robots since I was 12 years old, when I attended the BEAM International Robotics Games in New Mexico and fell into a mentorship with robotics pioneer Mark Tilden. I spent my teens building robots for university research, international competitions, and the Space Center Houston Science Center.


I'm a generalist. I do electronics and embedded board design, firmware, mechanical engineering, software, and manufacturing. Over 15 years I've taken consumer hardware products from first prototype to millions of units shipped — spanning robotics, IoT, smart home, children's safety products, and space tech.


These days I run Maidenrun — my hardware consulting practice. If you have a rough prototype and a plan to ship, that's where I come in. Fifteen-plus years of consumer hardware, applied to your product and your timeline. On the side, I'm still building Hackerbot Industries and shipping units — an open-source home robot platform with no cloud dependencies.

15+
Years Shipping
M+
Units Shipped
$150M+
Raised
8+
US Patents
git log --oneline career

02. Career

2022 — Present
Maidenrun
Founder — Hardware consulting
Hardware consulting practice helping startups take products from napkin sketch into mass production. Fifteen-plus years of consumer hardware experience applied client-side — on your product, on your timeline. If you've got a prototype and need to ship, this is what I do.
consulting hardware manufacturing mass production sketch → ship
2024 — Present
Hackerbot Industries
Founder & CEO — side project, shipping
Side project. Building an open-source home robotics platform. Three modular components: mobile SLAM base with LiDAR, interactive head with LCD eyes, and 6-DOF robotic arm. Powered by Raspberry Pi 5. All hardware and software fully open source. Shipping units now.
side project open source robotics
2025 — 2026
OPALIN
Head of Hardware
Led hardware at OPALIN — a robotics company building physical intelligence for real-world operations. Their platform targets environments where reliability matters.
robotics physical intelligence ai
2024
Cubby Beds
Contract Engineering
Contracted to help the Cubby Beds team bring their Dream Hub — a smart sensory sleep system for children with special needs — into mass production. Contributed to the hardware engineering effort alongside their team.
iot contract manufacturing design
2022 — 2023
Titan Space Technologies
Head of Product & Engineering
Led product and engineering for space technology. Designed and deployed an electromechanical payload running computer vision ML models on a Blue Origin rocket flight.
space ml computer vision blue origin
2017 — 2022
Misty Robotics
Founder & Head of Product
Spun out of Sphero with $11.5M Series A from Venrock and Foundry Group. Built Misty I and Misty II — a personal robot platform designed so any developer could build robotics applications without robotics experience. Shipped robots to 500+ developers. Acquired by Furhat Robotics in 2022.
robotics platform slam computer vision
2010 — 2017
Sphero
Co-Founder & CTO
Co-founded the company that became famous for bringing Star Wars' BB-8 droid to life as a consumer toy. From Techstars Boulder to Disney's accelerator to Bob Iger's office — then shipped 1M+ BB-8 units in the first year. Built the original Sphero, Ollie, SPRK, and education products. Raised $140M+ total. Shipped millions of robots worldwide.
robotics bb-8 disney techstars education
ls -la ~/products/

03. Products I've Built

2024
Hackerbot
Open-source modular home robot. SLAM base, LCD head, 6-DOF arm. From $249.
Open source · No cloud
2025
Dream Hub
Contracted to help Cubby Beds bring their smart sleep system into mass production.
Contract engineering
2018
Misty II
Personal robot developer platform. SLAM navigation, computer vision, voice, touch.
$11.5M Series A
2015
BB-8 by Sphero
The official Star Wars droid toy. App-controlled with holographic messaging.
1M+ units year one
2013
Sphero Ollie
Self-propelled cylindrical robot. High-speed tricks and stunts via smartphone.
Global retail
2011
Sphero
The original app-controlled robotic ball. Where it all started.
Millions shipped
grep -r "ian bernstein" /var/log/press/

04. Press & Media