Portrait of an Entrepreneur: Alexis Maslyczyk

For some entrepreneurs, it all starts with an idea. For others, it’s a lifelong passion that, through experience, eventually turns into something tangible.

That’s the case for Alexis Maslyczyk, co-founder and CEO of H4 Lab. An electronics engineer by training, he has made his passion for robotics the driving force behind his career, taking him from France to Montréal, with a stop at a humanoid robotics research centre in the United States.

With H4 Lab, he and his two co-founders are developing electronic modules designed to be integrated into humanoid and mobile robots. Their expertise addresses the needs of a rapidly evolving industry where technologies are advancing at an incredible pace.

In this interview, Alexis reflects on the journey that led him to entrepreneurship, the challenges of growing a business in a highly competitive field like robotics, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and what motivates him every day to bring his own ideas to life.

My name is Alexis, but my friends usually call me Alec. I founded my startup H4 Lab because I wanted to work on my own ideas. As a child, I wanted to be an architect and I was a huge fan of robots. My favourite meal is lasagna, and if you ran into me on a Sunday, I’d probably be playing tennis.

🎙️ Let’s go back a little: what was your journey before starting your business?

I studied electronics engineering in France. From the beginning, I knew I didn’t want to stay there. I had already travelled quite a bit, and I wanted to keep exploring the world after graduating.

I had the opportunity to pursue a dual degree and came to Montréal in 2014 to complete a research-based master’s degree in robotics. I worked on developing tactile sensors for robotic grippers. The idea was to give robots a sense of touch so they could manipulate objects and detect what they were holding.

I finished my master’s in 2017 and started working in the industry, particularly in the automotive sector, just as electric vehicles were gaining momentum.

During COVID, I felt like I needed a change. I was tired of spending my days staring at Excel spreadsheets. I came across an opportunity at a humanoid robotics research centre in the United States. I applied, and after a few months without hearing back, everything happened very quickly: an interview, a job offer, and a move to Florida.

I spent three years there and learned an incredible amount. That’s also where I started identifying gaps in the market. Humanoid robotics was still a relatively new field, and there was a real lack of electronic products designed specifically for these systems.

When I returned to Montréal, I already had several ideas in mind. My two co-founders, Chandra and Jean-Baptiste, and I had incorporated H4 back in 2018, without really knowing what we would do with it yet.

I started working as a supplier for my former employer, and we gradually began developing our own products. As humanoid robotics gained momentum, demand increased, our team grew, and H4 started to take off.

Did you always know you wanted to become an entrepreneur?

I think so.

I met Chandra, one of my co-founders, when we were studying at an IUT (University Institute of Technology) in France, right after high school. We were already building robots in student clubs and talking about starting a company together someday. That was over 15 years ago! Our paths eventually went in different directions. I moved to Montréal, and Chandra later joined me to pursue his PhD. We reconnected here and eventually started our company.

So yes, I think that was always part of the plan. And I’m happy to see that we’re still making it happen today.

When did you tell yourself, “I’m ready, I’m going for it”?

I don’t think there was one big turning point. I see entrepreneurship more as a marathon, with lots of small milestones along the way. But there was one particularly memorable moment...

We had developed an electronic design, and even though we weren’t entirely sure about it, we decided to publish it on GitHub to showcase our expertise. And then someone asked if they could buy it! We took the design off GitHub, had it manufactured, and it became the first product we ever sold.

That made us realize that what we were developing had real value, that there was a genuine need, and that people were willing to pay for our solutions. That’s when we thought: why not see how far we can take this?

I also think my industry experience played a big role. I had the opportunity to understand the market, see the challenges firsthand, and identify what was missing. That opened doors for us.

Where does the name H4 Lab come from?

Originally, we were working on an idea for a magnetic gripper. In electronics, the magnetic field is represented by the letter H.

We were looking for a name and a logo. At one point, we simply flipped the letter H, and it looked like a 4. That’s how we came up with H4, even though there are three of us co-founders!

We also wanted something simple that would be easy to pronounce in English.

Did you go through an incubator?

Yes, we joined Centech’s acceleration program when I returned to Montréal. But by that point, we were already starting to get our first customers and gain some traction. We knew our market well and had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted to achieve.

So it was difficult for us to spend time in training sessions when we already had products to develop and sell. We eventually decided to leave the program and focus our time on moving the company forward.

If you had to give another entrepreneur one piece of advice?

Find someone who shares your vision and interests, and who you can truly rely on. Entrepreneurship comes with a lot of ups and downs. Having a co-founder to share the responsibilities, stress, and mental load makes a huge difference.

It helps you keep moving forward, even when things get tough. I would have a really hard time imagining succeeding on my own.

If we look five years ahead, where do you see your startup?

We started without external funding, using our own resources, and so far, it’s been working well. But in our industry, everything moves incredibly fast. You have to be able to innovate, develop new technologies, and regularly bring new products to market.

Today, we can see that we’re capable of growing our revenue and hiring new people. But sometimes I wonder if we could be moving even faster.

In five years, I’d like us to have doubled, or even tripled, the size of our team.

What’s the next major step toward that vision?

That would be raising more capital.

We’re seriously considering a funding round to accelerate our growth and move forward more quickly.

If you could meet one person who could make a real difference, who would it be?

I think every entrepreneur has such a unique journey and vision that there isn’t one person who can give you the recipe for success. But what could really change the game for us would be meeting a major robot manufacturer who decides to integrate our products into their robots.

If we’re thinking big, someone like Brett Adcock, the CEO of Figure, for example. It would be an opportunity to collaborate directly with a major player in our industry.

Since joining Ax.c, has anyone you've met particularly stood out to you?

There isn’t one specific encounter, but rather a series of really valuable conversations. When we first arrived at Ax.c, we had no particular expectations. We were simply looking for a well-located office, accessible by metro and convenient for the whole team. But we ended up discovering so much more.

We’ve met people who have helped us move forward, particularly when it comes to grants, funding, and business development. We now regularly connect with organizations like Québec Tech, Investissement Québec, and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).

Being able to meet the right people face-to-face, rather than just sending emails, makes a real difference.

Is there a story that you particularly enjoy telling?

Yes, there’s one that always makes me laugh. One day, Jean-Baptiste, our third co-founder, was working alone at the office.

Richard Chenier from Québec Tech came by to give a visitor a tour of our space. Jean-Baptiste had absolutely no idea who the visitor was. So he started explaining how skeptical we had been at first, and how our main goal had simply been to find an office for our business. But in the end, we were really happy with everything the space had brought us. Except that the visitor turned out to be a Quebec's former economy minister, Pierre Fitzgibbon, who had actually helped fund the project!

It’s pretty funny because when you don’t know who you’re talking to, you sometimes end up being much more candid than you would have been if you’d known who they were. I think he appreciated our honesty. In any case, it’s a story we love telling within the team.

Looking back, what are you most proud of today?

Today, we work with people we already knew back when we were students, when some of them were pursuing their bachelor’s, master’s, or PhDs. Being able to say to them, “Would you like to come work with us?” and build something together is incredibly rewarding.

Seeing the team grow, creating jobs, and working with people we genuinely like is probably what I’m most proud of.

On the other hand, what has been the most challenging?

I’d say learning to be realistic about what we can accomplish. There are only so many hours in a week, but I always want to do more.

We’ve been working incredibly hard for the past two years, and sometimes it’s difficult to find time to take a break. There’s always that fear of missing out on something or not moving fast enough. I want us to be the first to develop certain technologies, before someone else does.

Maybe I have more time than I think, but I always want to move faster!

Is there a phrase or mantra that guides you?

I’m not a particularly spiritual person. I’m pretty down-to-earth. On my Instagram, I have a quote that says: “Above me, there’s the sun.” That pretty much sums up how I see things.

I know that tomorrow, the Earth will keep spinning. If something doesn’t work out or a customer isn’t happy, that’s just how it goes. I try not to overthink things. I just try to keep moving forward and stay positive

Is there one person who has really made a difference in your journey?

I’d say Chandra, my co-founder. He’s someone I trust completely. I know that if I need him, he’ll be there. If we needed to send him to the United States tomorrow to solve a problem for a customer, I know he’d be ready to go. And the same goes for me.

Having that level of trust is incredibly valuable. It helps me sleep soundly at night because I know the work will get done and that we can always count on each other.

How do you explain what you do to your grandparents?

My grandparents think I build robots for NASA! Whenever they see a robot on the Moon, they tell me, “Hey, I saw your robot!”

I try to explain that it’s not exactly what I do, but getting into the technical details isn’t easy. So sometimes I just tell them, “Yep, that’s mine!”

It always makes me laugh to see the connections they make with my job.

To wrap things up: what motivates you to get up in the morning?

Being able to work on my own ideas. When I worked in the industry, I sometimes felt like I was just one engineer among many. Whether I did my job exceptionally well or just well enough, it didn’t make much difference.

Today, when I wake up in the morning, I know I get to work on my own vision and develop something that’s truly mine. That’s probably what I love most about entrepreneurship. Of course, some days are harder than others. And there’s also all the administrative work I’d happily do without! But we genuinely have a lot of fun doing what we do. Sometimes, it doesn’t even feel like work.

Even on weekends, when I’m at home, I keep thinking about our projects, simply because I’m excited to keep moving them forward.

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