Hearken to this text |

Premier Labs is a brand new enterprise studio with places of work in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. Supply: Premier Labs
Whereas many startups come out of universities and seek for issues to unravel, one other mannequin is the “enterprise studio,” through which an organization creates startups in response to buyer wants. Premier Automation LLC right this moment introduced Premier Labs, a enterprise studio targeted on constructing companies that use confirmed automation, robotics, and synthetic intelligence to deal with trade challenges.
Premier Automation is a programs integrator with greater than three a long time of expertise enhancing productiveness, effectivity, and employee security throughout numerous industries. The firm stated it has labored with a few of the world’s largest producers and main engineering corporations.
Premier Labs will depend on the experience of Premier Automation’s 150 workers in Monroeville, Pa., and Alpharetta, Ga., and its entry to a various vary of consumers.
“Premier Automation has lengthy been devoted to advancing industries by way of progressive automation options,” stated Mike Gunniers, president of Premier Automation. “Premier Labs furthers that dedication by creating industrial options to form the way forward for industrial operations by way of automation, robotics, and AI.”
Enterprise studio mannequin sees speedy progress
Company enterprise studios have seen important progress of practically 625% lately, stated Premier Labs.

Joel Reed, former director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Community, is president of Premier Labs. Supply: LinkedIn
“It’s a comparatively new idea of the previous 5 to 10 years,” stated Joel Reed, president of Premier Labs. “Sometimes, early-stage enterprise corporations pool capital to speculate, however enterprise studios construct startups from the bottom up. They are typically earlier within the life cycle than incubators or accelerators, serving as co-founders with bigger fairness share and management.”
The studio will present start-up capital, in-house residency, and entry to Premier Automation’s community of engineers, traders, and advisors.
“We offer useful assets, past capital, that startups have had hassle accessing — market understanding, trade expertise, and buyer relationships,” Reed instructed The Robotic Report. “We will begin in Premier’s market segments and creating corporations primarily based on the urgent issues we hear from our each day interactions.”
Premier Automation has a historical past in drive programs for industrial motors, conventional industrial automation, and robotics, he famous.
Premier Labs will principally use off-the-shelf parts to keep away from the prolonged analysis and growth occasions which might be a barrier to adoption.
“Integrators have a tendency to construct one-off programs primarily based on a particular buyer’s necessities,” defined Reed. “Premier Labs operates separate from Premier Automation with a options method, permitting us to deal with issues shared throughout buyer and market segments.”
“However we leverage the integrator mindset to make use of proper assets, or confirmed applied sciences, for the proper goal, which is a extra capital-efficient method for us and our prospects,” he added.
“We’re intensely targeted on buyer issues and the quick worth proposition,” Reed stated. “We additionally don’t intention to automate every part in a workflow, permitting us to think about extra sensible options comparable to collaborative robotics.”
Premier Labs has prospects in its pipeline
Premier Labs stated it’s already engaged on industrial alternatives in metals manufacturing, manufacturing controls, and meals service.
“We’re not restricted by trade or software and will contemplate different industries comparable to logistics, retail, or any software that requires industrial-scale robotics,” stated Reed. “We began with a strong pipeline from Premier Automation’s experiences. And we depend on a framework for capturing concepts and shortly validating product-market match, which is a wrestle for a lot of startups..”
Premier Labs is seeking to collaborate with U.S. manufacturing professionals seeking to drive change, innovators looking for to commercialize an idea, and traders targeted on industrial automation.
“Pittsburgh is a pure place for this to emerge from, in my expertise,” Reed famous. “We now have breadth and depth each in our expertise and manufacturing communities.”
“And we’re unified in serving to carry robotics to industries that sometimes wrestle to undertake new options,” he continued. “Whereas we’ve a small workforce right this moment, we are going to increase that nationally by way of stakeholder networks.”
“We’ve constructed an engaged community of advisors, and the passion for our method has exceeded expectations,” said Reed. “We intention to leverage Premier Automation’s connections and collaborate with leaders skilled in addressing trade challenges, specializing in founders and workforce leaders with related experience.”