Why Robots Might Get MORE Valuable Over Time (Not Less)

Brief

Tony Zhao, co-founder and CEO of Sunday Robotics, gave an interview to Hardware Nation (published 2026-04-28) describing a data-first workflow: deploy sensor-equipped gloves to capture how people actually do dishes, laundry, and cleaning, then use that dataset to train Memo, the home robot. The company raised $165M and reached about a $1B pre-launch valuation while focusing on real-home robustness.

Key details

Sunday achieved roughly a $1B pre-launch valuation; the team emphasizes solving real-world variability in home chores as the core engineering challenge and frames launch success around reliably completing tasks across diverse homes (interview timestamps: Memo 4:54, valuation 6:29–8:12).

Sunday Robotics raised $165M to deploy their home robot Memo, but the more interesting story is how they got here.

Instead of starting with a robot, they started by putting sensor-equipped gloves into real homes to capture how people actually do chores like dishes, laundry, and cleaning. That data now powers Memo.

Here’s my conversation with Co-founder & CEO Tony Zhao.

Timestamps

0:00 Intro
1:34 Why does the world need Sunday?
2:07 What does Sunday get right?
2:37 Hardest part of building a home robot?
3:12 What does the future of robotics look like?
4:54 What is Memo?
5:23 Biggest misconception about robotics?
5:54 What does a successful launch look like?
6:29 $1B valuation pre-launch. How do you handle it?
8:12 What do people underestimate about Sunday?
10:34 Favorite consumer hardware product

Channel: Hardware Nation
Published: 2026-04-28
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4bpI2m9iZs

Why Robots Might Get MORE Valuable Over Time (Not Less) | Tony Zhao

Brief

Why it matters

Key details