The Working-Class Robotics Revolution
Why the best use of robotics is not replacing workers. It is giving ordinary people industrial power they have never had before.
Keynotes · Podcasts · Media · Panels
NO MOTIVATIONAL
POSTER SHIT.
Real stories. Hard lessons. A useful argument about American work, AI, robotics, and what ordinary people can build next.
Book Vic
TALK TOPICS
IDEAS WITH SOME DIRT UNDER THEIR FINGERNAILS.
America Has to Make Things Again
A builder's case for physical AI, reshoring, small operators, and rebuilding the country's industrial muscle.
From a Trailer Park to Two Exits
A candid founder story about loss, homelessness, bootstrapping, rebuilding, and choosing the next hard problem after winning.
AI Is the Small Operator's Unfair Advantage
How AI distributes expertise, compresses overhead, and lets one focused business compete with companies a hundred times its size.
Build for the Market, Not the Spreadsheet
Lessons from a decade of bootstrapping: sell before polishing, listen to the work, and let real customers decide what matters.
SELECTED STAGES
FOUNDER ROOMS. FACTORY ROOMS. CLASSROOMS.
2025Robotics Pathways & Careers Speaker SeriesUniversity of Michigan Robotics↗2025AI Everything GlobalAbu Dhabi / Dubai↗2023Entrepreneurial JourneysNorthern Illinois University↗2018Four Under 40 Achievement AwardsNaperville Area Chamber of Commerce↗2019NetSuite Sales Acceleration Virtual ConferenceVerenia↗
PRESS KIT
COPY, PHOTO, DONE.
Approved public biography and downloadable 2026 headshots. Original files are high resolution and ready for print.Download 28-second brand reel
Short bio
Vic Pellicano is an American entrepreneur, operator, investor, and speaker building AI and robotics for working people. The son of a Chicago truck driver, he bootstrapped Verenia, whose NetSuite CPQ business was acquired by Oracle, then built Avianna, an AI robotics company acquired by Lucid Bots. Vic is a husband, father of six, and co-founder of the Pellicano Family Foundation.
Full bio
Vic Pellicano grew up in a trailer park outside Chicago, the son of a truck driver who left school in sixth grade. His first job was washing dishes. He became the first in his family to finish high school, earned degrees in computer science and mathematics, and attended Loyola University Chicago School of Law at night.
After both parents died and financial hardship forced him out of law school, Vic rebuilt from homelessness through an entry-level job at a Chicago manufacturer. That experience became Verenia, a bootstrapped manufacturing software company. Oracle acquired Verenia's NetSuite CPQ business in 2022. He later self-funded Avianna, which built natural-language AI for drones and robots and was acquired by Lucid Bots in 2024.
Today, Vic's work centers on American manufacturing, physical AI, and robotics that make working people safer, more capable, and more economically powerful. He is a husband, father of six, and co-founder of the Pellicano Family Foundation.
Fast facts
Based: Greater Chicago AreaFocus: AI, robotics, manufacturing, entrepreneurshipBuilt: Verenia, AviannaFamily: husband and father of sixEducation: computer science, mathematics, law studiesAvailable: worldwide
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