Jul 17, 2026 · 47 min
Software startups target surgical automation and fractional real estate investing
The dawn of surgery bots + buy a home for $250 (w/ Andromeda & Mogul) | E2313
As software eating the world enters its physical phase, startups are bypassing expensive custom hardware to automate surgery and fractionalize real estate.
- 1Andromeda Surgical uses off-the-shelf hardware and proprietary AI software to automate complex urological procedures.
- 2Surgery presents a more bounded and predictable environment for autonomous systems than self-driving cars.
- 3Mogul utilizes tokenization to let individuals invest in single-family rental homes starting at just two hundred and fifty dollars.
Don't miss
Nick Damiano explains why the structured environment of an operating room makes surgery a much easier problem for AI to solve than autonomous driving.
The brief
The intersection of software and physical systems is transforming legacy industries, as medical technology and real estate undergo massive shifts toward automation and fractional ownership.
Nick Damiano of Andromeda Surgical explains how the company uses off-the-shelf robotic arms and custom software to automate urological procedures, arguing that surgery is a highly bounded environment ideal for AI.
By recruiting talent from autonomous vehicle companies and Neuralink, Andromeda aims to deploy autonomous surgical robots to underserved global regions that lack access to specialist surgeons.
Shifting to real estate, Alex Blackwood of Mogul details how tokenization allows retail investors to buy fractional shares of single-family rental properties for as little as $250.
Whether through autonomous operating rooms or fractional property deeds, software is lowering the barriers to entry for highly specialized and capital-intensive industries.
What was said on this episode
31 statements · 23 positive · 2 negative · 6 neutral
Real estate is the world’s largest wealth generator, producing most millionaires.
“Real estate as we know is the world's largest wealth generator. 90% of millionaires became such through real estate investing.”
Listen at 0:10
Single-family rental assets typically yield 8–12% annually in dividends.
“The assets typically yield between 8 to 12% per year for dividend payout.”
Listen at 0:31
AI will totally transform surgeons’ work during the next decade.
“survival surgeons are going to be totally transformed by AI in the next decade”
Listen at 2:37
Surgery will become mostly autonomous while surgeons retain supervisory roles.
“it's going to be mostly autonomous. Surgeons will still have a job and a role to play, but a lot of it's going to be done by AI.”
Listen at 3:07
Andromeda’s platform may eventually perform most types of surgery.
“we're expanding from there into other urology and then other a lot of other surgical procedures to where this can be a general platform doing most types of surgery eventually.”
Listen at 4:00
Andromeda’s force-minimization feature is expected to reduce surgical damage.
“we automatically minimize that, which we think will reduce the, the incidence of things that are damaging in that space.”
Listen at 6:32
Proprietary surgical data creates a competitive moat for companies in surgical robotics.
“it becomes a moat for any company that operates in this space.”
Listen at 7:44
Andromeda has the world’s only 45-case dataset for this surgical procedure.
“Right now, we've done, I think, the only. We've done 45 cases, and it's the only data set of 45 cases that exist. Like, that's 100% of the world's data”
Listen at 8:14
Andromeda plans to increase new procedures from one or two annually to as many as ten.
“we're planning to scale from maybe one or two new procedures a year now, then up to four or five, hopefully 10 someday.”
Listen at 10:02
Surgical environments are less complex than driving environments because they lack adversarial actors.
“the world is less complex. And most importantly, you don't have these other adversarial actors like other cars or pedestrians.”
Listen at 11:39
Robotics companies building custom hardware will iterate more slowly than Andromeda.
“The companies that choose that game, which is basically every other robotics company that exists so far, will find themselves moving a lot slower and a lot more inertia than what we have.”
Listen at 13:45
Future surgeons may oversee ten simultaneous surgeries instead of one.
“Maybe you're overseeing 10 surgeries instead of one right now”
Listen at 15:35
Andromeda’s clinical iteration cycle is currently under one month.
“we've been basically doing cases, then building new stuff, testing on the bench cadavers, then back into cases in less than a month.”
Listen at 17:04
General-purpose generative AI is not yet reliable enough for Andromeda’s surgical goals.
“I don't think it's quite there yet to be as reliable as we want.”
Listen at 22:12
Andromeda reached robot launch in three years with approximately $15 million, versus industry norms of hundreds of millions.
“We were the fastest robot from zero to launch in three years and we only spent about 15 million total in getting there, whereas the norm is hundreds of millions.”
Listen at 23:28
Andromeda is currently cleared for market deployment only in New Zealand.
“we're only clear to be on the market in New Zealand right now, though we're close in a few other countries as well.”
Listen at 25:36
Existing FDA regulation does not inherently prevent deployment of Andromeda’s system.
“nothing prevents this from happening.”
Listen at 26:14
Andromeda’s system could enable remote surgeons to oversee any procedure worldwide.
“you could have this installed there and then do any procedure with any surgeon anywhere overseeing it.”
Listen at 27:58
Remote robotic surgery could give everyone access to the best available surgical care.
“So you give everybody access to the best possible healthcare.”
Listen at 28:06
Mogul has completed 130 properties containing more than 600 units.
“we've done 130 properties and within those properties we have about 600 plus units”
Listen at 32:49
Mogul’s properties typically cost $500,000 to $2.5 million.
“These properties typically range anywhere from 500k all the way up to 2 1/2 million dollars.”
Listen at 32:57
Mogul requires investor governance votes for property expenses above $1,000.
“Anything above $1,000, it actually triggers a governance vote.”
Listen at 35:24
Mogul projects total returns of 15–20% after rental income, appreciation, and leverage.
“All things told, it's between 15 to 20%.”
Listen at 37:59
Mogul presents investment information to end investors as transparently as possible.
“We convey that to the end investor. So as you can see on the site, everything is completely for right, as transparent as possible.”
Listen at 38:08
Property depreciation may offset rental-income yields for tax purposes.
“even though you're generating that 8 to 12% yield, the depreciation should cover it up and then some.”
Listen at 39:26
Mogul charges investors an upfront platform fee equal to 5% of purchase price.
“So we charge a platform fee up front. It's 5% charge as percentage of purchase price amortize.”
Listen at 39:43
Mogul’s property-insurance approach may lower costs and increase investor cash flow.
“we can lower the property insurance, increase cash flow to our end investors”
Listen at 42:08
Mogul investments typically require five to seven years before exit.
“today it's a five to seven Year typical period.”
Listen at 43:07
Mogul targets launching a secondary market next year.
“we are launching a secondary market target of next year.”
Listen at 43:21
Mogul’s planned secondary market could allow investors to sell the next day.
“if you want to sell, you could sell out tomorrow.”
Listen at 44:20
Austin’s projected net-new housing demand is highly attractive for rental-property investment.
“the net new demand on the horizon for Austin is looking incredibly attractive”
Listen at 45:50
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
Books & mentions
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