# Sarjoun Skaff

> Sarjoun Skaff is a robotics engineer and Bossa Nova co-founder who served as its CTO and later CEO. His work spans research robots, more than half a million commercialized toy robots, and shelf-scanning systems deployed in 600 Walmart Supercenters. He now appears as Head of Product at Cartesian Kinetics and shares hardware-business lessons and reusable Bossa Nova documents with other founders.

- **Role:** Head of Product at Cartesian Kinetics
- **Organizations:** Cartesian Kinetics, Bossa Nova Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University
- **Education:** Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, American University of Beirut, Master’s in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, PhD in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Bossa Nova and helped commercialize more than half a million robotic toys., Bossa Nova reports shelf-scanning robot deployment in 600 Walmart Supercenters., Company biography reports $120 million of venture funding, more than $90 million of revenue and a 230-person operation across a seven-year effort; these are historical company totals, not personal wealth.

## Career timeline

- **1999** — Moved from Beirut to Pittsburgh to study robotics at Carnegie Mellon.
- **2001** — Co-authored Skyworker research on robotic assembly, inspection and maintenance of large space facilities.
- **2003** — Co-authored research on inertial navigation and visual line following for the RHex hexapod robot.
- **2005** — Co-founded Bossa Nova Robotics.
- **2009** — Bossa Nova introduced Prime-8 and Penbo robot toys.
- **2011** — Received the regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award and the AUB FEA Distinguished Young Alumni award.
- **2012** — Bossa Nova shifted from toys toward a business-to-business model after selling more than half a million toy robots, according to Skaff.
- **2014** — Published a series of essays for first-time hardware entrepreneurs.
- **2020-02** — Delivered a Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute seminar about robots operating in grocery stores.
- **2020-10** — Became Bossa Nova CEO after serving as co-founder and CTO; start month appears in Crunchbase.
- **2020-11** — Walmart’s termination of the Bossa Nova shelf-scanning contract became public.
- **2026-01** — Invited founders to reuse anonymized Bossa Nova business documents in a LinkedIn post.
- **2026-10** — Research-date observation: Cartesian Kinetics leadership page lists Skaff as Head of Product.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Bossa Nova and helped commercialize more than half a million robotic toys.
- Bossa Nova reports shelf-scanning robot deployment in 600 Walmart Supercenters.
- Company biography reports $120 million of venture funding, more than $90 million of revenue and a 230-person operation across a seven-year effort; these are historical company totals, not personal wealth.
- Named among Business Insider’s ten people transforming retail in 2019, as recorded by Carnegie Mellon.
- Regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award, Western Pennsylvania, 2011.
- American University of Beirut FEA Distinguished Young Alumni award, 2011.
- Inventor of more than ten patents, according to Bossa Nova’s biography.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Invited first-time founders to copy anonymized Bossa Nova documents and explore a video museum. The post creation date is January 13, 2026, decoded from the LinkedIn activity identifier (Unix milliseconds = activity ID shifted right by 22 bits).
- **2026-10** — As checked October 26, 2026, Cartesian Kinetics publicly lists Skaff as Head of Product; this is an observation date, not an appointment date.

## Links

- Website: https://sarjoun.svbtle.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarjoun
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/sarjoun

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sarjoun-skaff
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26