Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
At Together Montreal, Nipun Sharma, CEO of Appetronix, joins Alex Norman, Partner at N49P and co-founder of TechTO, for a fireside on what it actually took to build a fully autonomous restaurant from scratch - and commercialize it for $1.2M in 14 months while Zoom Pizza burned through $400M and never launched. A fourth-generation food family turned investment banker turned food-tech founder, Nipun breaks down why first-generation robotics companies got it completely wrong, how a partnership with Donatos (and 750M social media impressions in their first week) changed everything, and why Appetronix is positioning itself as the world's first trillion-dollar QSR company. This talk is essential viewing for founders in hardware, food tech, and anyone building a capital-efficient company in a space where everyone else raised hundreds of millions and failed.
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📅 Explore upcoming TechTO events: techto.org/eventsSonnet 4.6 Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
At Together Montreal, Nipun Sharma, CEO of Appetronix, joins Alex Norman, Partner at N49P and co-founder of TechTO, for a fireside on what it actually took to build a fully autonomous restaurant from scratch - and commercialize it for $1.2M in 14 months while Zoom Pizza burned through $400M and never launched. A fourth-generation food family turned investment banker turned food-tech founder, Nipun breaks down why first-generation robotics companies got it completely wrong, how a partnership with Donatos (and 750M social media impressions in their first week) changed everything, and why Appetronix is positioning itself as the world's first trillion-dollar QSR company. This talk is essential viewing for founders in hardware, food tech, and anyone building a capital-efficient company in a space where everyone else raised hundreds of millions and failed.
🔔 Subscribe for more real founder stories from TechTO
📅 Explore upcoming TechTO events: techto.org/eventsSonnet 4.6 Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
