Simone Giertz
Simone Giertz is the founder of YETCH Studio, an independent product and creative company where invention, design and art meet. She first became known as the "Queen of Shitty Robots," building intentionally impractical machines and sharing the messy process with millions of people online. What began as playful experiments in her workshop has grown into a business that turns those ideas into physical products, objects and art.
At YETCH Studio, Simone has built two sides of the company that feed each other: her videos and audience act as a kind of research and development lab, while the product business gives her inventions a life beyond the screen. Her Youtube channel has 2.86 Million subscribers. It is an unusual founder story, built around curiosity and creative freedom rather than a conventional startup playbook.
Her work is now much broader than technology. It is for anyone who wants to look at the world as something malleable: something they can question, remake and improve. Through humor, candid storytelling and hands-on demonstrations, Simone shows how resilience, iteration and permission to experiment can turn a strange idea into a project, a product or even a company.
Simone has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and in Wired, and her TED talk, "Why You Should Make Useless Things," has been viewed millions of times. Her central question is simple: is this a better use of my time than scrolling on my phone?
Topics
From Shitty Robots to YETCH Studio: Building a Life-Driven Business
Simone's career began with deliberately useless robots and grew into YETCH Studio, an independent company spanning media, invention, products and art. She shares how her audience became an R&D engine for the product business, why she chose to build around creative freedom instead of investor expectations, and what she has learned about turning curiosity into a company that supports the life she wants to live.
Why You Should Make Useless Things
In this joyful talk, featuring demonstrations of her wonderfully strange creations, Simone shares what she has learned from making useless robots. Her inventions rarely succeed, and that's the point. Building without a predetermined outcome creates room to experiment, quiets the pressure to have the right answer and makes failure useful. A toothbrush helmet may not be the answer, but it can lead you to a better question.
The talks can work in a straightforward slides-and-video format, or as a more ambitious version with live machines, product demonstrations and physical pieces on display.
Human Creativity in an AI World
In a world where AI can generate almost anything, the most valuable advantage is still human: curiosity, imagination, experimentation and the willingness to build something that doesn't exist yet. Drawing on her path from YouTube maker to YETCH Studio founder, Simone shows why creative permission and hands-on problem solving matter more than ever. The goal is not to compete with machines, but to see the world as malleable and remember that we can shape it.
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