At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Los Angeles based CEO’ operating in the Industrial Automation space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected]
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Karan Talati
Co-Founder & CEO of First Resonance
Karan Talati is the CEO and Co-Founder of First Resonance, which has raised $20 million in capital since its founding in 2018. First Resonance builds a Factory OS for the aerospace, automotive, and robotics industries and now powers over 40 leading manufacturers. These companies are leaders in cutting-edge products like eVTOLs (air taxis), rockets, electric boats, and robotic construction products. Karan built his company in collaboration with the world’s best engineers from companies like SpaceX, Tesla, and Apple, and he is saving his clients countless hours and dollars with their innovative, flexible, and data-driven approach to modern manufacturing.
Karan created First Resonance after gaining valuable insight on the future from working at SpaceX. With his team at First Resonance, Karan has created the ION Factory OS, which optimizes manufacturing efficiency by 30% with the ability to build, iterate, and track processes throughout a dynamic factory workflow. Karan strives to make technology faster and more accessible, while revolutionizing the current systems at play. Beyond work, he maintains a witty Twitter presence with thousands of followers and a viral tweet with 12K retweets and 90K likes.
Accomplishments:
- Raising 20 million dollars in venture capital
- Worked at SpaceX to transform technology systems
- Creating a product now in use at over 40 manufacturing companies around the world
- Designing one product with the benefits of many to set the standard in production software
Features:
- PODCAST | Entrepreneur: Action & Ambition: Karan Talati Co-Founder, and CEO of First Resonance, is Transforming The Manufacturing World With The Next-Generation Software Platform ION
- PODCAST | The Roller Coaster Podcast: Karan Talati – CEO of First Resonance
- PODCAST | Agile Hardware Manufacturing: Meeting this Century’s Toughest Challenges with Karan Talati
- PODCAST | Venture Stories: Karan Talati and Keenan Johnson on the Future of Manufacturing
- ARTICLE | Cision: First Resonance Raises $14M Series A to Fuel Development of Factory Operating System to Help Manufacturers Navigate Unprecedented Supply Chain Challenges
- ARTICLE | dot.LA: Former SpaceX Engineer’s Platform for Makers of EV, Rockets and Air Taxis Raises $14M
- ARTICLE | Built In LA: First Resonance Raises $14M Series A, Plans to Triple Its Headcount
- ARTICLE | LA TechWatch: First Resonance $14M for its Operating System for Factories That’s Helping Ease Supple Chain Woes
- ARTICLE | TechCrunch: First Resonance brings its space-scale manufacturing OS to hardware makers with $14M A round
- ARTICLE | VentureBeat: First Resonance snags $14M for an operating system designed for factories
- ARTICLE | LA TechWatch: First Resonance Raises $3.5M to be the Operating System for Factories
- ARTICLE | LA Startups: First Resonance Raises Fresh Round Of Funding To Meet Growing Demand For Factory Operating System
- ARTICLE | Crunchbase News: First Resonance Raises New Round To Make Hardware Manufacturing Easier
- ARTICLE | dot.LA: First Resonance Lands $3.5M as Aerospace and EV Manufacturing Expand
- ARTICLE | LA TechWatch: First Resonance Helps Manufacturing Move to an Operating System Rather Than an Assemble Line
- ARTICLE | Aviation Week: Manufacturing System Aims To Help Hardware Startups Move Faster
- ARTICLE | LA Startups: First Resonance Launches Next-Generation Manufacturing Software Platform For Aerospace, Robotics, And Automotive Industries
- ARTICLE | TechCrunch: Founded by former SpaceX engineers, First Resonance pitches tools to make things the SpaceX way
- ARTICLE | Built In LA: What’s Changed? 6 LA Companies Share How Their Tech Stacks Have Evolved
- ARTICLE | Built In LA: Built In LA’s 50 Startups to Watch
Contact Info:
Email – [email protected]
Website – https://www.firstresonance.io/
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/karan-talati/
Twitter – @karantalati
Facebook – facebook.com/firstresonance.io/
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About First Resonance: First Resonance builds ION, the Factory Operating System that manufacturers trust for speed, collaboration, and visibility.
Erik Palitsch
Co-Founder & CEO of Freeform
Erik Palitsch is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Freeform Future.
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About Freeform: Stealth-mode additive manufacturing company.
Shaun Cooley
President & CEO of Mapped
Shaun Cooley is the Founder and CEO of a Mapped, a Los Angeles based startup in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. In his prior role as VP.CTO for Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) Business, he was responsible for Cisco’s long-term IoT technology strategy. This included shaping product architecture, security, privacy, and technology partnerships, as implemented by Cisco’s IoT business, advising governments on IoT regulation, driving Cisco’s participation in IoT related standards bodies and consortia, and championing innovation to solve existing or anticipated industry needs. Before taking on the role of CTO for IoT, Shaun was a Distinguished Engineer, responsible for the security of Cisco’s collaboration infrastructure, cloud, and endpoint technologies. Shaun is particularly focused on ensuring security is either transparent or extremely usable – something that is typically overlooked in enterprise products. Prior to joining Cisco, Shaun was a Distinguished Engineer for Norton, by Symantec, where he was a driving force in Norton’s shift from utilities to security. Over his 18-year tenure, Shaun contributed to the creation and advancement of offerings in the Norton portfolio, including Norton Internet Security, Norton 360, Norton One, Norton Antispam, Norton’s cloud management platform, and Norton Home, a consumer IoT security offering – a product portfolio that produces over $2 Billion in annual revenue. Shaun has over 25 years of industry experience, holds a master’s degree in computer science from University of Illinois, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He is named inventor on 120 issued United States patents with over 100 more pending. He is an active angel investor and a start-up mentor through Acceleprise SF and advisor for Deep Angels. Shaun was previously a director of the Open Connectivity Foundation and former board member of Attivo Networks.
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About Mapped: Data infrastructure for IoT
Bassem Hamdy
CEO & Co-Founder of Briq
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About Briq: Briq is a financial forecasting and data intelligence platform for the construction industry.

Lior Elazary
Founder / CEO of inVia Robotics
Lior is a serial entrepreneur with several companies under his belt, all with very successful exits. Along with his partners Alex Kazarani and Marc Afsharieh, Lior co-founded HostPro (now Web.com) which grew into a leading hosting provider in the industry with over 70,000 customers. After HostPro, Lior co-founded KnowledgeBase, and EdgeCast with Alex Kazarani, Phil Goldsmith, James Segil and Jay Sakata. At all three companies he has been the chief architect responsible for designing and implementing key patented technologies that are now critical to the backbone of the Internet and are used by many Fortune 500 customers. With more than twenty years of leadership and business experience bringing to market many of the systems that power the Internet, Lior has directed and guided teams developing everything from back-office systems to the core technologies of the business. While working on his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, Lior closely worked with inVia Robotics co-founders Dan and Rand on various robotics and neuroscience projects. These DARPA funded projects ranged from object recognition for drones, implementing the star-wars binoculars used to help soldiers in field, to the latest DARPA Robotic Challenge. Working on strict metrics and deadlines from DARPA, the projects often included implementations of massive parallel grid computing which were used to achieve the required results in real time. The development of these projects led to the Neuromorphic Robotics Toolkit (NRT) which has been designed to outperform the Robotic Operating System (ROS). Currently on a leave of absence from the Ph.D., Lior holds a Masters in Robotics from the University of Southern California and has several publications ranging from neuroscience to robotics.
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About inVia Robotics, Verizon Digital Media Services: InVia Robotics provides next-generation robotics warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce distribution centers and supply chains.

Graham Hooper
President & Chief Executive Officer of Ellison Technologies
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About Ellison Technologies: Ellison Technologies has been a provider of advanced manufacturing solutions to its clients.

Behrokh Khoshnevis
President and CEO of Contour Crafting Corporation
Behrokh Khoshnevis is a professor of industrial and systems engineering, aerospace and mechanical engineering, astronautics engineering, biomedical engineering, and civil and environmental engineering; the Director of the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT); and the director of manufacturing engineering graduate program at University of Southern California. Khoshnevis is an inductee of the National Academy of Inventors, a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellow, a fellow member of the Society for Computer Simulation, and a fellow member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Khoshnevis is active in robotics and mechatronics related research and development projects that include the development of Additive Manufacturing processes called Contour Crafting, and SIS family of 3D Printing technologies as well as development of mechatronics systems for biomedical applications; autonomous mobile and modular robots for fabrication and assembly applications on Earth, in space, and on other planets; planetary construction of human settlements; and energy systems including wind energy and energy storage technologies and automated production equipment for oil and gas industries. He has several major inventions which have been commercialized. He routinely conducts lectures and seminars on the subjects of creativity and invention. He teaches a graduate course on Invention and Technology Development at USC. Behrokh Khoshnevis’ inventions have been featured in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Business Week, Der Spiegel, New Scientist, and numerous national and international television and radio networks.
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About Contour Crafting Corporation, University of Southern California: Contour Crafting Corporation (CC Corp) is an early stage company with the mission to commercialize disruptive construction technologies.
Stephen Gaines
CEO of Obotics
The CEO of Obotics is Stephen Gaines. Stephen spent his last 45 years running high technology and aerospace businesses. One of his companies was part of the manufacturing team that brought the first online SPE processing instrument to market some 28 years ago. He sold his aerospace business two years ago and agreed to invest and dedicate his experience in manufacturing and executive management to Obotics and his long time business associate Lane Yago.
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About Obotics: Obotics is an intelligent robotic lab assistant.
Zigmund Bluvband
President, CEO & Founder of ALD Advanced Logistics Developments
Zigmund Bluvband is the President, CEO, and Founder of ALD Group.
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About ALD Advanced Logistics Developments: ALD is a consulting firm and software company that provides Reliability Engineering, Safety, and Quality Solutions.