So here’s a bit of a puzzler for you. Michigan-based Intermode is in the delivery robot business, but it’s not in the robot delivery business. The startup is focused on building and leasing robot hardware and… that’s pretty much it. Basically it’s building robots so other delivery startups don’t have to.

“FedEx doesn’t make their own vans,” Intermode Co-Founder and CEO of Intermode, Arnold Kadiu told me via video chat last week. “We want to be enabler of a robotics company. Delivery robot companines just starting up don't have funding. They're going to spend a millon just making a prototype.”

Prior to founding Intermode, Kadiu and his co-founders worked at Ford. Kadiu worked on electric vehicle structures and was also a part of Ford X’s incubator (he also helped build a solar-powered car that raced across Australia). Kadiu and co. are bringing that automotive mindset to Intermode’s robot.