Most robotics companies start in a lab.
Ours started with a client meeting in Cairo, back in 2013.
Michael walked into Mitch Designs as a client. He walked out as a friend. Twelve years later, we are building a CNC automation company together in San Diego.
This is the story of how two software engineers ended up building robots. And why we think it was always going to happen.
We are both software people. Between us, more than 50 years of writing code, shipping products, and fixing other people's problems.
Michael came to us for a software project. What stuck was the conversations after the work was done.
Every time I flew to America, we talked about technology. Every time he came to Egypt, same thing. New tools, new ideas, what's next.
We never planned to start a company. We just never stopped talking.
Around 2022, something changed in our visits.
Michael was no longer just talking about code. He was learning mechanical engineering. Automation. Robotics. 3D printing.
Every trip, he had gone further. New machines on the bench. New prototypes. Bigger ideas.
He kept saying the same thing. "This is the future."
I kept agreeing. But I wasn't acting on it yet.
I started building software in the late 90s. I founded Mitch Designs in 2005.
It's a good company. But around 2022, I felt it. Software automation alone was not where the next 20 years were going.
The future was physical. Machines that sense, move, and decide. The Internet of Things leaving the screen and walking onto the shop floor.
Then AI went public in 2023.
That changed everything. Problems that used to take years of engineering suddenly looked small and doable.
That's when I started taking Mike's words seriously.
A year ago, we stopped talking and decided.
We would build a company together. Not any company.
A company that solves real problems. Not one that makes shiny products.
We met in Egypt. We met in America. I spent long stretches in California. Whiteboards, shop visits, late nights.
We agreed on one rule. Pick one problem. Solve it properly. Then move to the next.
The first problem was clear. CNC machine tending.
Small job shops, medium shops, and big factories all face the same wall. Skilled machine tenders are expensive, hard to hire, and harder to keep. Spindles sit idle while owners hunt for people.
Our goal is not to take jobs away. Automation is coming either way. We want shop owners, engineers, and operators to come out on top of it, not under it.
So I went back to school. Michael became my mentor. Robotics, Industry 4.0, CNC operations, manufacturing automation. He showed me what to learn and how to learn it.
I loved every minute. And my eyes opened to problems these shops live with every single day.
We split the company the way builders do.
Michael owns R&D. He designs, prototypes, breaks things, and rebuilds them better.
I build everything around the machine. Operations, workflows, and marketing that actually sells.
But we are both builders at heart. That matters more than any org chart. A partner who loves to build will never confuse a slide deck with progress.
Michael even chose the name. Axton Robotics.
Before Axton Robotics, Michael founded Devonics, a robotics and automation integrator. Great team. Projects across many industries.
He learned a lot there. Mostly that spreading across every niche makes it hard to master any of them.
So with Axton Robotics, we chose focus. Solve one big problem in manufacturing automation first. Earn the right to the next one.
Devonics also gave him something else. Access to great vendors and genuinely innovative products. That became part of our plan too.
California was the obvious place to start. A huge manufacturing market. Real opportunity. Great engineers and integrators everywhere you look.
And San Diego is a beautiful city to build in.
Our headquarters there will also run its own CNC machining. Automated, of course. We will use what we sell.
Michael works from the US. I work from Egypt. Together we can offer serious solutions at prices shops can actually afford.
1. Plug-and-play CNC automation. A machine tending station you roll up to your CNC and run. No months-long integrator project that may or may not work. We can prototype and test with you first, so it's proven on your parts before you commit.
2. CNC machining with instant quotes. Upload your part on our website and get a price in seconds. We machine it in our own shop, run by the same robotic machine tending we build for our customers. That means fast turnaround, precise parts, and affordable pricing.
3. A store for builders. The best automation and robotics products we know, in one place. For engineers, integrators, and dreamers solving their own problems.
We start with a dream. We turn it into a design. The design becomes a prototype.
Then we test it. It fails. We fix it. We test again.
That loop is not a setback. It's the job. Challenges are the fuel this company runs on.
We believe every shop, every lab, and one day every home will work alongside robotic arms and humanoids. AI is just making that day arrive faster.
A product is easy to ship. A solution that keeps working is harder.
We want customers who stay because the service is better than they expected. Not because a contract says so.
Money is a result. Success is the goal. And we are here to stay.
This is chapter one.
From here, we will share the real build. The redesigns, the parts that didn't fit, the shows we made and the ones we missed. What shop owners tell us. What we get wrong and how we fix it.
No filler. Just the story of building Axton Robotics, 1% better every day.
Follow along. Or better, come build with us.
Axton Robotics was founded in 2025 by Malak Mitch and Michael Nessim, two software engineers who met in Cairo in 2013. Malak founded the software company Mitch Designs in 2005. Michael founded Devonics, a robotics and automation integrator.
Axton Robotics is headquartered in San Diego, California. Michael works from the US and Malak works from Egypt.
Axton Robotics builds plug-and-play CNC automation: a robotic machine tending station that rolls up to a CNC machine. It also offers CNC machining with instant online quotes, and runs a store for automation and robotics products.
Shops of every size struggle to hire and keep skilled machine tenders, so spindles sit idle. The founders chose to solve that one problem properly before moving to the next.
It means a machine tending station you roll up to your CNC and run, instead of a months-long integration project. Axton Robotics can prototype and test it on your parts before you commit.
Upload a STEP file and get a CNC machining price in seconds. Pick material, quantity, finish and lead time, then send it to purchasing or pay online.
Malak Mitch
Oct 8, 2026 — 5 min read
We skipped Chicago to build the right machine. Now it's ready to meet you. Find us at FABTECH 2026 in Las Vegas.
Michael Nessim & Malak Mitch
Sep 30, 2026 — 2 min read
