Draft:Sankarshan Murthy
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Comment: Cited sources only discuss Bumblebee Spaces with little to no reference to Mr. Murthy himself. Consider shifting the scope of the draft to Bumblebee Spaces instead. Ca talk to me! 06:30, 18 May 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. Sancartion (talk) 03:04, 3 April 2026 (UTC)
Sankarshan Murthy is an engineer and entrepreneur. He worked in product roles at Apple and Tesla before co-founding Bumblebee Spaces, a company that developed ceiling-mounted robotic furniture and storage systems.[1][2]
Early life and education
[edit]Murthy is from India. While in high school, he assembled and sold computers, and during college he operated a web-design business. He moved to the United States in 2003.[1] He earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a master's degree in technology management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[2][3]
Murthy later credited an organizational-behavior course taught by Adam Grant at Wharton with influencing how he approached management.[2]
Career
[edit]Murthy worked as an innovation lead at the DeWalt division of Black & Decker in Baltimore before joining Apple in 2012. At Apple, he was a product manager for the iPhone 5c and later the Apple Watch. He left in 2016 and joined Tesla as a staff product technologist, where he worked on the Model 3 and Model Y.[1][2][4] Murthy told UMBC that the contrasting working styles he encountered at Apple and Tesla contributed to his decision to become an entrepreneur.[3]
While at Tesla, Murthy began prototyping a system for reconfiguring rooms by moving furniture and stored belongings into the ceiling. In 2017, he co-founded Bumblebee Spaces with Garrett Rayner and Prahlad Athreya.[1] Murthy attributed the idea partly to his family's experience in a small apartment in Mountain View, California, and to the transforming house in the children's television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.[1][5]
In October 2018, the company demonstrated a beta installation in a 514-square-foot apartment at the Cyrene building in Seattle. Murthy compared the design approach to the Apple Watch: complex functions were kept out of sight and presented to the user only when needed.[6]
Bumblebee's system used motorized ceiling modules to raise and lower beds, desks, storage units, and other furnishings. Cameras and software catalogued stored objects, and sensors stopped a module from descending if the space below was obstructed.[7][8][4] The system was later installed in Murthy's own Silicon Valley home, where the family used one room as an office, play area, and guest bedroom.[9] By 2023, the systems had been installed in more than 30 buildings. Bumblebee Spaces closed that year after it was unable to secure another round of financing.[10]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 Buchanan, Leigh (August 29, 2018). "Watch Out, Ikea: This New Furniture Company Is About To Make Your Space 10 Times More Useful". Inc. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Cain, Áine (October 9, 2019). "A founder who worked at Tesla and Apple says one class taught by a legendary Wharton professor inspired how he runs his business". Business Insider. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
- 1 2 Kertscher, Tom (November 19, 2018). "From Apple to Tesla to ... Bumblebee". University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
- 1 2 Brigham, Katie; Black, Erin (October 19, 2018). "A former Apple and Tesla engineer created a robotic home that doubles a room's usable space". CNBC. Retrieved September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Dirksen, Kirsten (April 28, 2019). "Transformer furniture hidden on ceiling deploys by command". faircompanies. Retrieved September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Schlosser, Kurt (October 19, 2018). "In a tiny Seattle apartment, the bed is on the ceiling, and that's part of what makes it a smart home". GeekWire. Retrieved September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Canales, Katie (February 25, 2020). "This robotic voice-activated furniture inspired by Mickey Mouse drops from the ceiling when you ask it to". Business Insider. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
- ↑ Jackson, Candace (September 24, 2018). "Get in Bed With Skynet". The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
- ↑ Dirksen, Kirsten (September 19, 2022). "Apartment furniture rolls into ceiling, it's truck-drag strong". faircompanies. Retrieved September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Marx, Patricia (September 4, 2023). "When Beds Fly". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 20, 2026.
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