It is one of the most seductive pitches in modern venture capital: “We are going to disrupt Intuitive Surgical’s DaVinci.”
For a decade, saying those words with enough confidence was a license to print money.
Medtech investors, desperate to catch the next wave of robotic-assisted surgery, threw hundreds of millions of dollars at anything that promised to shrink incisions, add degrees of freedom, or put virtual reality goggles on surgeons.
But designing a surgical robot is not like building a SaaS platform. You can't "move fast and break things" when "things" are human tissue.
The ultimate case study of this slow-moving trainwreck is Vicarious Surgical (OTCQB: RBOT).
Stock goes to Zero.
Revenue always Zero.
In July 2026, the company’s board of directors effectively called it quits, asking shareholders to liquidate and dissolve the business. They burned through more than $300 million in capital, leaving behind a trail of broken promises, massive losses, and a textbook lesson in startup hubris.
Step 1: Sell an Impossible, Beautiful Dream
To raise the kind of cash required to enter the surgical robotics arena, you need a hook. Vicarious Surgical had a brilliant one: a single-port...
