Q. Please introduce yourself.
A. My name is Choi Jae-won, CEO of Watt Company. I develop logistics delivery infrastructure in various complexes. Our logistics delivery infrastructure automatizes all logistics delivery using robots, in various places such as apartment complexes. Our main goal is to create robots that work better than humans. Through this, we want to advance the automatization of physical services.
Q. What made you establish a delivery robot startup company?
A. Actually, delivery robots were not our main product at first. When we first established our company, we started with a different item, and changed it after multiple external meetings and feedback. We began with an initial investment with an accelerator called Future Play. Ryu Jung-hee, CEO of Future Play, gave us a lot of feedback on our product and we modified it to our current item, based on his feedback.
Q. Were there any difficulties in establishing the company?
A. Establishing the company itself wasn't very difficult. In order to get involved in the process of logistics delivery, four members of our team decided to get a part-time job in the industry. We worked for about a month, trying to understand the entire flow of the delivery service and looked for any problems that may occur during the process. We worked until 9 p.m. after which we had Zoom meetings to discuss our discoveries. Looking back, it was more fun, rather than difficult. Other than that, the hardest part about the business in general would probably be the hiring process.
Q. What part of the delivery industry did you think an automatized robot would be most effective in?
A. The problem we found was in the logistics warehouse, what we call the “first mile”. Big logistics warehouses already have automatic robots, so there aren’t any problems. However, in small warehouses with no automatic robots, humans have to do the work. The second problem was in the last mile: the process of delivering packages to individual houses. We found that navigating the way through small openings, elevators, parking lots to the front door took a lot of time for delivery workers, despite the short distance.
Q. Can you explain the functions of the robot?
A. We have two main products which are the W-Station and James, a robot product. The W-Station is a place that stores packages before they are delivered to individual complexes. Originally, there was much expense in the last mile because the economy of scale occurred when workers went through complicated steps in delivering the packages. The W-Station takes the packages, goes through invoice recognition, categorizes, and stores the packages. Secondly, we made an automatic driving robot, James. After receiving a package from the station, it places the item on the doorstep, and moves on to deliver other packages. It can also ride elevators at a fast speed, using it's arm to press the elevator.
