Getting from working prototype to real-world product is the harder challenge—here's how three founders did it

While artificial intelligence has made it cheaper and faster to build working prototypes, the jump to production-ready technology is an entirely different obstacle. When a promising innovation leaves the controlled environment of the lab and enters the real world, manufacturing bottlenecks, infrastructure demands, and reliability requirements become inseparable from the product itself.

The gap between proof-of-concept and scale#

A functioning prototype answers one fundamental question: is it technically possible? Moving to production demands answers to dozens more. The specifics vary wildly—optical communication hardware faces entirely different challenges than autonomous vehicles or construction equipment—but all three must operate consistently in unpredictable real-world conditions where reliability, durability, and reproducibility define success.

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 this October in San Francisco, a panel called "From Prototype to Production: Can It Scale in Reality?" on the Real World AI Stage brings together three founders who have each solved this puzzle in radically different ways.

Three paths from innovation to market#

Manufacturing at scale: The space communications story

John Mackey, CEO of MBRYONICS, started with photonics research and built a company that now manufactures optical communications systems for space networks. His transition involved creating manufacturing capabilities alongside technological innovation—a dual challenge that forced the company to evolve beyond pure R&D into operations, supply chain management, and production engineering.

Autonomous systems in the real world: Lessons from trucking and robotics

Boris Sofman brings experience from Waymo, where he oversaw autonomous trucking development and helped log over 100 million self-driven miles. He's now co-founder of Bedrock Robotics, where the pressure for consistency and safety in live deployments shapes every engineering decision. Moving from testing to production meant building systems that could operate reliably outside controlled conditions.

The invisible infrastructure behind breakthrough tech