[contingencies]

The skills needed to solve these challenges are very different

Indeed. I founded a contactless personalized food production and automation robotics venture in 2016. We tore through specialist and generalist employees alike trying to make progress toward a final prototype. We're now essentially there, but lost the team over COVID, while the investment environment for our technology is currently extremely hot. In taking stock of the situation to move forward, I've realised it's actually a blessing: the skills needed to reach mass-production on a very complex assembly are very different to the skills needed to iterate early and mid-stage prototypes rapidly and effectively. It would have literally been harder - and more expensive - to drag people 'over the line' in to production than to just hire a new team.