Startup Spotlight: Strive Robotics builds a verification layer between factory software and machines
Craig Cheney's MIT-trained team is connecting robotic work and verification directly to manufacturers' production systems.
By Ryan Merket · Published
Why it matters
Strive is testing whether robotics can become the verified execution layer between factory software and physical production without requiring large upfront automation projects.
Craig Cheney's Strive Robotics has begun deploying a manufacturing automation platform that executes factory work, checks the result and sends verified production data back into enterprise software. Its first deployment handles overnight CNC machine tending at Sjogren Industries under a robot-as-a-service contract, according to company materials reviewed by RuntimeWire.
The approach targets a persistent gap between factory software and the factory floor. Enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution, quality management and warehouse management systems can schedule jobs, track inventory and record quality events. Those systems still depend on machines, operators and other equipment to report what physically occurred. Strive is building the robotic layer that performs a task and produces evidence that the task was completed.
Cheney brings a career spent building machines that combine sensing, control and physical feedback. His public professional history lists bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from MIT, followed by work at Impact Biosystems and the Robotics and AI Institute. At Impact, Cheney helped develop hardware that measured tissue properties and adjusted treatment using force feedback. Impact raised a $4.5 million seed round in 2021.
That earlier work points to Strive's core technical thesis: a useful industrial robot needs to sense and verify the physical result, rather than simply complete a programmed movement. Cheney and Strive CTO Geehoon Park were both named as inventors on an Impact Biosystems patent application covering force-controlled devices with sensor feedback.
Park, another MIT-trained roboticist, previously worked at Boston Dynamics and Impact Biosystems, according to his public profile. Chief Revenue Officer Paul Guiloff supplies the commercial counterweight to the technical founders. Company materials say Guiloff previously co-founded Blass and helped build the business past $10 million in revenue.
Starting with work manufacturers already need
Strive combines robotic arms, integrated sensors, application-specific end-effectors and software connectors for factory systems. A deployment can receive production instructions, manipulate a part or machine, inspect the outcome and update the manufacturer's existing records. The goal is a closed operational loop in which enterprise systems receive data captured from the work itself.
At Worcester, Massachusetts-based Sjogren Industries, Strive's robot unloads finished CNC parts during unattended overnight production. Sjogren manufactures wire tooling and precision components and already operates multi-axis CNC equipment, robotic part handling and lights-out processes. Strive's initial job therefore sits inside an established manufacturing operation where downtime, setup time and handling errors have direct economic costs.
The robot-as-a-service structure shifts the initial capital burden away from Sjogren and ties Strive's economics to a working deployment. That model can shorten a manufacturer's purchasing cycle, though it also leaves Strive responsible for maintaining uptime and supporting hardware in production environments.
Strive is also working with Associated Environmental Systems, a Massachusetts manufacturer of environmental test chambers and battery testing equipment. The two customer relationships give Strive access to different production settings: precision CNC machining at Sjogren and the assembly of configurable industrial equipment at Associated Environmental Systems.
Company materials reviewed by RuntimeWire say Strive plans to launch three paid manufacturing pilots by August 2027. The roadmap also includes integrations with computer-aided design, ERP and digital work-instruction systems, plus two end-effectors designed for specific manufacturing applications.
The integration is the product
Industrial robots have spent decades performing repetitive, carefully engineered tasks. Strive is betting that smaller and high-mix manufacturers will buy automation that can be reconfigured across changing jobs while preserving traceability. That puts software integration, sensing and end-effector design on the same critical path as robotic motion.
The customer does not need another dashboard that reports a scheduled operation. It needs a machine that can complete the operation, determine whether it succeeded and update the systems used to run the plant. Strive's first CNC deployment is a narrow entry point, but it tests the full commercial premise: whether a young robotics vendor can install, operate and support verified physical work at a price that makes sense for a mid-sized manufacturer.
Strive now has to turn that deployment into a repeatable system. Each new end-effector, software connector and paid pilot should reduce the engineering required for the next installation. If that reuse fails to materialize, Strive risks becoming a custom automation shop. If it works, Cheney's team can sell manufacturers a common control and verification layer across machines, work cells and enterprise systems.