I'm trying to remember more, he spoke at a class I was in.
His office was his small apartment with a whiteboard. In the morning he would go out for a cup of coffee, and when he came back it was his office. If he didn't do that, it wouldn't feel like an office.
Previously he had worked with Webvan, and one of their costs that was unexpectedly high was product fulfillment. Kiva was built partly as a solution to that problem (though it was after Webvan went bankrupt).
Their initial prototypes (we saw pictures of them) we're extremely scrappy, and I believe too big to realistically be used. I think they raised money with the prototype and computer simulations?
The robots are talked to wirelessly, and apparently wireless represented a major technical challenge (it was before wifi took off I believe).
The co-founder with robo-soccer experience was targeted. He said something along the lines of "If you can make a robot play soccer, you can definitely make a robot follow a grid and pick up shelving."
I got the impression that he gave up a lot of equity to get co-founders at seemingly late points in the game, but didn't regret it. I think people normally put a ton of effort into maintaining equity, sometimes at the risk of losing a great team member. It looks things worked out.
The great thing about this company is that it's indisputably the best solution available, although high costs mitigate some customers. He told the story of a stress test they did with one major brand name. To simulate high buying season, they held up regular orders for three days, then pushed them through at once without an issue.
Other cool benefits: despite having to power these robots, the power bills with Kiva end up being less expensive because of savings in lighting, heating and AC. Most fulfillment solutions require the entire warehouse to be lit up and heated so a person can comfortably work, while Kiva keeps the main warehouse dark and temperature doesn't matter much.
At the time, they were the fulfillment solution of some companies that Amazon had acquired, but not Amazon itself. I suspect that's going to change.