Ignoring the sceptics, Ahti Heinla, CEO, Starship Technologies
UKTN | The Podcast
UKTN
5 • 6 Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ahti Heinla, CEO of Starship Technologies and one of the original creators of Skype discusses the surprising truth behind Estonia’s digital transformation over the past three decades, the massive and enduring impact of Skype and why whether its video calls or delivery robots, his businesses have always been the target of sceptics.
Heinla helped create the iconic video conferencing software back in 2003. Today, the Estonian is focusing his efforts on Starship Technologies, which develops autonomous last mile delivery robots.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I did provost with the mindset that there's no establishment. |
| 0:11.0 | Everything has to be created anew and who is there to create it. |
| 0:15.0 | I am. |
| 0:16.0 | Big companies did not exist in Estonia. |
| 0:19.0 | Everything was built from ground up. |
| 0:21.6 | I think we didn't do a lot of mistakes at Skype. |
| 0:27.6 | And sometimes you need to also do mistakes. |
| 0:30.6 | And a lot of startups that various people that were early at Skype, |
| 0:35.6 | a lot of their next startups faint. |
| 0:45.3 | We have also had lots of people in over the history of Starship to say that why this couldn't work. One of the biggest ones, we still get it all the time, |
| 0:49.3 | is that people will steal robots. By now we have done 8 million deliveries. |
| 0:57.0 | During none of them, a robot has been stolen. |
| 1:03.0 | From the first-time founders to the funds that back them, innovation needs different. |
| 1:08.0 | Our episode partner, HSBC Innovation Banking, is proud to accelerate growth for |
| 1:13.8 | tech and life science businesses, creating meaningful connections and opening up a world of |
| 1:18.9 | opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Discover more at www.h.hbcinnovationbanking.com |
| 1:27.2 | slash EN- gb. |
| 1:32.0 | Hello and welcome to the UKTM podcast, a weekly chat with the movers and shakers of the UK |
| 1:37.8 | tech industry and the destination for all things UK tech related. I'm your host, Jane |
| 1:43.3 | Wakefield, and today I am joined by Artie Hainler, |
| 1:46.5 | the co-founder and CEO of Starship Technologies, a firm which develops autonomous delivery robots. |
| 1:53.4 | Welcome, Artie. Hello, good to be here. Thank you for joining me. Now, before we start |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 26 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from UKTN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of UKTN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.