He Ran a Rocket Launch Company. Now He Is Building Autocomplete for Hardware Design.

He Ran a Rocket Launch Company. Now He Is Building Autocomplete for Hardware Design.

This week we sat down with Sohrab Haghighat, CEO and co-founder of Hestus, to demo the AI layer that sits on top of your existing CAD software and autocompletes your next design move. Rob spent years as an aerospace engineer, ran a rocket launch company, and built Hestus to eliminate the manual clicks that slow hardware engineers down and introduce errors into designs.We also covered Anthropic 5.5, GPT-6, and a new Grok model all dropping in the same week — and why intelligence getting cheaper is good news for everyone building right now.

We cover:

• What Hestus is and how AI autocomplete works inside CAD software
• Live demo — AI suggesting the next design step before you click
• Why Hestus plugs into your existing CAD tool instead of replacing it
• How Hestus learns your preferences within a design session
• Who the target customer is — mechanical, aerospace, and robotics engineers
• The gap between a flashy 3D model and one that is actually ready for manufacturing
• Rob's long term vision — doing for hardware what Claude Code did for software
• Anthropic 5.5, GPT-6, and Grok all dropping the same week — intelligence is getting cheaper
• Why LLM improvements do not directly translate to improvements in hardware AI

If you are building hardware, working in engineering, or want to understand where AI is going beyond software, this episode is for you.

Find Rob and Hestus:

Website: hestus.co

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sohrabhaghighat

Twitter: x.com/s_haghigh

New episodes every Friday at BuiltThisWeek.com

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00] Intro

[01:12] Meet Rob — CEO and co-founder of Hestus

[01:33] Aerospace engineer, rocket launch company, and the pain that led to Hestus

[02:29] Live demo — AI autocomplete inside CAD software

[03:50] How Hestus sits on top of your existing CAD tool

[04:16] Meeting engineers where they are — no new workflow

[05:02] How Hestus learns your preferences within a session

[06:32] Available on Autodesk Fusion now, SolidWorks coming soon

[07:20] Who is using Hestus — mechanical, aerospace, robotics engineers

[08:30] Bottom-up approach — sketch to 3D to manufacturing readiness

[10:25] Long term vision — Claude Code for hardware design

[11:15] The gap between a flashy model and one ready for manufacturing

[12:00] News — Anthropic 5.5, GPT-6, and Grok released same week

[13:18] Jordan tests the new Opus — cheaper and competitive with Fable

[14:41] Intelligence is getting cheaper — what that means for builders

[15:06] Why LLM improvements do not directly improve Hestus

[16:08] Where to find Rob and Hestus

[16:31] Wrap up

#AI #CAD #HardwareDesign #Engineering #Hestus #BuildWithAI #BuiltThisWeek #Anthropic #OpenAI #Aerospace