CES 2025's Dark Horse From China: A Deep Dive Into the Founder Mindset | A Conversation with Jiabin He, Founder/CEO of AI Pet Robot Ropet

Since launching Crossroads, this is one of the interviews I consider most ideal — because it's genuinely useful and relatable to founders, while still being pretty fun.

After starting three companies — Jiepang, The Fair, and Tangdao — I can practically "smell" that distinctive founder energy: the sweat of grinding it out, the dark cloud of anxiety, the dopamine rush of excitement. The room was thick with great stories.

So when Jiabin He's product, Ropet — an AI companion robot — was named one of the biggest dark horses at CES 2025, we immediately invited him onto Crossroads. I had a feeling he was right in the thick of one of those story-rich phases of building.

This week, Jiabin shares his entrepreneurship methodology with us, along with the moments that fire him up, the self-doubting reviews, and one instant of love after another.

Jiabin is sharing extensive details about Ropet's product and tech for the first time. I couldn't help but ask him, "Why are you willing to share so much?" He said: "There's nothing that needs to be kept secret."

🚥 Part 1. Ropet and AI Companion Robots

Jiabin He says: "I want to build a company that creates 'love' and 'moments of love.'" He and his colleagues are working together to find the "truth of user experience" for companion robots — an open question with no standard answer, and also an extraordinarily meaningful mission.

02:03 Who is Jiabin He?

03:42 Note: Ropet is an AI cute companion robot. The cute part matters.

05:24 Why would people raise a Ropet instead of a cat or dog?

11:00 How many Ropets have sold, and how much money has it made?

13:26 What kind of bond has the founder developed with his own Ropet?

14:48 What are the "truths of user experience" for companion robots?

22:39 "Silent companionship is the hardest thing to pull off"

33:12 "Showing vulnerability is important" — "We all want to care for the vulnerable"

38:15 What Ropet aims to create: "moments of love"

40:39 What role does AI actually play?

🚥 Part 2. The Founding Story

Ropet is a founding story that's at once familiar and strange: a little abstract, a little crazy, full of ambition. "There was a day I felt like the whole world was rejecting me" — but still chose to get up the next morning and keep going. He chose to start Ropet because he saw a future where companion robots become everyday companions in people's lives, and was determined to create that future with his own hands. That future may never arrive, but if it ever does, he has to be the one who makes it real.

36:22 What's the biggest doubt you've heard this time around?

39:45 Why did you publicly share so many product and technical details about Ropet on this podcast?

45:31 The giants are coming — what then? Disney and Pop Mart don't mess around!

53:49 "I feel like I've started a 'tread carefully' kind of company"

55:31 What's it like being CEO for the first time in your life?

56:31 What's your most recent moment of sudden clarity?

58:32 Sometimes it feels like "the whole world is rejecting me" — "but investors aren't the whole world."

01:00:00 What counts as success?

🚥 Part 3. The Companion Robot Industry

42:43 Two defining characteristics of the industry

44:12 Three types of players in the space

48:21 Two points of consensus & one major point of disagreement

49:09 What is Lovot, the $10,000 robot?

52:34 The barbarians at the gate: When Huaqiangbei and Pinduoduo come for you, what do you do?

01:02:00 Final question: "Who are you? Who do you want to become?"

---

Subscribe to the Crossroads podcast 🚦 We track the industry shifts and new entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the wave of next-generation AI technology. Crossroads is Steve Jobs's metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and bring together the "active doers" of the AI era, exploring and embracing the new changes and new possibilities alongside them.

👦🏻 Host Koji: Co-founder of The Fair and Tangdao. I believe technology, especially AI, will fundamentally reshape society and empower humanity. Welcome to reach out, exchange ideas, and connect on what's next. Koji on Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: Works at a tech VC, former Silicon Valley correspondent for Yicai Weekly. Ronghui on Jike

🎄 This podcast is supported by The Fair Sound Forest Podcast Initiative.