Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 13, 2026

Evan Beard

Evan Beard is an American entrepreneur and engineer. He is a co-founder, chief executive officer, and chief engineer of Standard Bots, an industrial robotics company headquartered in Glen Cove, New York that has raised more than $260 million from investors including General Catalyst and Amazon and reached a valuation of $1 billion in 2026. Earlier in his career, Beard co-founded the contact-management startup Etacts, which was acquired by Salesforce, and the web-security startup ArmorHub, which was acquired by Spirent Communications; he later co-founded the media company A Plus with Ashton Kutcher.

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Evan Beard
Born (1986-12-03) December 3, 1986
Annapolis, Maryland, US
Alma materDuke University1

Evan Beard (born December 3, 1986) is an American entrepreneur and engineer. He is a co-founder, chief executive officer, and chief engineer of Standard Bots, an industrial robotics company headquartered in Glen Cove, New York that has raised more than $260 million from investors including General Catalyst and Amazon and reached a valuation of $1 billion in 2026.234 Earlier in his career, Beard co-founded the contact-management startup Etacts, which was acquired by Salesforce, and the web-security startup ArmorHub, which was acquired by Spirent Communications; he later co-founded the media company A Plus with Ashton Kutcher.56

Beard was an early participant in the Y Combinator accelerator.7 He has been named to Forbes's "30 Under 30" list, which the magazine describes as featuring "the brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents and change agents," and to Business Insider's "Silicon Alley 100" list of "the most inspiring and influential people in New York tech."89 He has testified repeatedly before the United States Congress, including the Joint Economic Committee and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, on robotics and domestic manufacturing.1011 He was named to the National Security Commission on Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing.12 Beard has discussed robotics in broadcast media and at industry events, including the BBC documentary series Panorama and Nvidia's GTC conference, and he and Standard Bots' robots appear in the 2024 A24 film Babygirl.131415

Early life

Beard attended Duke University,16 where he studied computer science and graduated with distinction in economics in 2009.17 While finishing school he wrote a widely distributed iOS app, “Girlfriend Keeper”, which attracted attention from international media, including Good Morning America, the LA Times, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and local news and radio stations.1819 The app asked for details about one's significant other and sent automated emails and text messages expressing affection, such as "it's only 67 days until your birthday, I might get you something green like your eyes".

Career

Etacts

In 2009, shortly after graduating college, Beard co-founded Etacts and was admitted to the Y-Combinator seed accelerator.20 Etacts was a relationship management app that provided a unified view of one's contacts and all emails, calls, and texts with them.21 It allowed setting reminders on one’s contacts to remember to stay in touch with them.2223 It also provided a contextual widget within Gmail that automatically showed biographical details next to emails, such as the education and work history of your correspondents.24 The company raised $700,000 from prominent angel investors, including Ron Conway and Ashton Kutcher.25 In 2010, Etacts was acquired by Salesforce.com,262728 where Beard subsequently worked in engineering as a Senior Member of Technical Staff.

ArmorHub

In 2011, Beard co-founded Gridtech Inc which created ArmorHub.com.29Meg Rayford (2012-11-18). "Secure Your Website Easily, but Thoroughly with ArmorHub". Tech.co.</ref> ArmorHub is an app that allows businesses to quickly scan their websites for application-level security vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting. ArmorHub was acquired by Spirent Communications, a publicly traded British company.30

A Plus

In 2013, Beard moved to Los Angeles to co-found A Plus with Ashton Kutcher and Kendall Dabaghi.313233 A Plus is a technology-focused media company that creates positive journalism for millennials and uses its own technology for content creation, optimization and distribution. After a soft launch in early 2014, A Plus grew to 50 million unique visitors per month and six months after launch was the fastest growing site in comScore’s Mobile Metrix database.3334 The site raised $3.5m from investors in 2015 and expects $8 million in revenue in 2016.35 A Plus started in Kutcher’s living room and moved to New York City in 2014.33

Standard Bots

Beard is a co-founder, chief executive officer and chief engineer of Standard Bots, a Glen Cove, New York–based company that develops collaborative robot arms and related software for industrial automation.236 In July 2024, the company raised a $63 million Series B round led by General Catalyst.237 In June 2026, Standard Bots raised a $200 million Series C round at a valuation of $1 billion.338439 Around the time of the round, Beard discussed the company and U.S. manufacturing on Bloomberg Tech.40

Beard has testified before Congress on robotics and domestic manufacturing. At a November 2025 hearing of the Joint Economic Committee titled "Frontier Technologies, Industrial Efficiency, and Pro-Innovation Policies," he argued that the United States must rebuild its industrial capacity to lead in robotics; he stated that U.S. robot quotes were roughly ten times higher than those from Chinese suppliers, and recommended measures including a national network of manufacturing centers, a manufacturing loan program, and addressing the industry's talent shortage.104142 At an April 2026 hearing of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Research and Technology, chaired by Representative Jay Obernolte, Beard recommended establishing a center of robotics and manufacturing excellence in every state—modeled on the federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership but offering more technical assistance and training—to help U.S. manufacturers adopt robotics.1143 At the hearing, Obernolte described Standard Bots as "America's largest industrial robot manufacturer."44 In 2026 he was named to the National Security Commission on Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing, established by the Special Competitive Studies Project.12 Beard and Standard Bots' robots appear in the 2024 A24 film Babygirl.15

References

References

  1. Scott Kraft (2010-04-29). "He's start-ups' best friend". LA Times.
  2. "Standard Bots raises $63M to bring cobot arms to market". The Robot Report. 2024-07-13. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  3. "Standard Bots Raises $200 Million to Manufacture Robots in US". Bloomberg News. 2026-06-09. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  4. "Standard Bots raises $200M at $1B valuation to revolutionize AI-native industrial robotics". SiliconANGLE. 2026-06-09. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  5. Rao, Leena (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  6. Hamedy, Saba (2015-01-23). "Ashton Kutcher launches new online platform called A+". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  7. Kincaid, Jason (2010-02-22). "YC-Funded Etacts Makes Sure You Never Fall Out Of Touch With Your Contacts". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  8. "30 Under 30 2016: Media". Forbes. 2016. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  9. Shontell, Alyson (2015). "Silicon Alley 100: The most inspiring and influential people in New York tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  10. Beard, Evan (November 2025). "Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee" (PDF). U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  11. Beard, Evan (2026-04-21). "Testimony: Robots Made in America – Advancing US Leadership in Manufacturing and Automation" (PDF). U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  12. "SCSP Announces Launch of National Security Commission on Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing". Special Competitive Studies Project. March 2026. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  13. "Panorama". BBC. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  14. "GTC 2025 session". Nvidia. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  15. "Evan Beard". IMDb. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  16. Kraft, Scott (2010-04-29). "He's start-ups' best friend". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  17. "Evan Beard | LinkedIn". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  18. Michelle Maltais (2009-09-23). "The Business and Culture of Our Digital Lives". Los Angeles Times.
  19. "Girlfriend App". girlfriendapp.com.
  20. Jason Kincaid (2010-02-22). "YC-Funded Etacts Makes Sure You Never Fall Out Of Touch With Your Contacts". TechCrunch.
  21. Tomio Geron (2010-05-14). "Newly Seeded Etacts Seeking Holy Grail Of The Unified Inbox". Wall Street Journal.
  22. "Startups And Top Investors Unite At Y Combinator's Tenth Demo Day". TechCrunch. 2010-03-23.
  23. Jason Kincaid (2010-03-06). "Etacts Launches First Implementation of oAuth For Gmail IMAP Accounts". TechCrunch.
  24. Whitson Gordon (2010-03-16). "Etacts Adds Contact Info, Social Networking, and Handy Statistics to Your Gmail Sidebar". LifeHacker.
  25. Marshall Kirkpatrick (2010-12-21). "The Acquisition of Etacts and Email as a Platform". ReadWriteWeb.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  26. Jolie O’Dell (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Acquires E-mail Contact Management Startup Etacts". Mashable.
  27. Matthew Lynley (2010-12-21). "Salesforce nabs another Y Combinator startup in email contact manager Etacts". VentureBeat.
  28. Leena Rao (2010-12-21). "Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts". TechCrunch.
  29. "ArmorHub's Web Security Service Scans For Vulnerabilities & Malware". TechCrunch. 2012-11-15. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  30. "Spirent Brings New Vulnerability Scanning and Load Testing on a Cloud-Based Platform for Web and Applications Developers". Reuters. 2014-05-01. Archived from the original on 2014-07-24.
  31. Saba Hamedy (2015-01-23). "Ashton Kutcher launches new online platform called A+". LA Times.
  32. Hope King (2015-02-25). "Ashton Kutcher wants to pay you to write for him". CNN. Archived from the original on March 1, 2015.
  33. Alyson Shontell (2015-03-19). "Last year, a blog called A Plus was created in Ashton Kutcher's living room. Now it has 50 million readers and it just raised $3.5 million". BusinessInsider.
  34. Ventures, Palisades Media. "Palisades Media Ventures Partners With A Plus to Launch New Digital Video Offering". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  35. Shontell, Alyson (2015-03-19). "A blog called A Plus was created in Ashton Kutcher's living room; now it has 50 million readers and just raised $3.5 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  36. Moynihan, Lydia (2024-10-03). "Standard Bots is training robots to 'think' for themselves". New York Post. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  37. "General Catalyst, Amazon Bet $63 Million on AI Robotics Startup". Bloomberg News. 2024-07-12. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  38. "Standard Bots raises $200M to expand U.S. manufacturing footprint". The Robot Report. 2026-06-09. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  39. "Standard Bots hits unicorn status with $200M raise co-led by General Catalyst". Tech Funding News. 2026-06-09. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  40. "Robots Are Critical to US Manufacturing, Says Standard Bots CEO". Bloomberg. 2026-06-09. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  41. "Standard Bots CEO tells Congress that rebuilding America's manufacturing strength is essential". Robotics & Automation News. 2025-11-24. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  42. "US robotics maker urges manufacturing reforms, citing cost concerns". Manufacturing Dive. 2025. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  43. Owens, Nathan (2026-04-24). "Robotics stakeholders urge Congress to 'act now' to regain global leadership". Manufacturing Dive. Retrieved 2026-06-13.
  44. Obernolte, Jay (2026-04-21). Robots Made in America: Advancing U.S. Leadership in Manufacturing and Automation. U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Event occurs at 32:16. Retrieved 2026-06-13 – via YouTube.