If you owned an early Roomba, you know the drill: a vaguely intelligent disc bumping into your furniture until its battery gave out or its laughably small dustbin filled up. And yet, you probably named it. You loved it. This is the strange, beautiful story of how a robot vacuum started a revolution.

On this episode of Version History, The Verge’s David Pierce and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy sit down with iRobot cofounder and former CEO Colin Angle to trace the robovac revolution back to its scrappy origins. The company started as a group of engineers desperate to build a business out of robots - any robots. They spent nearly a decade developing Roomba, nearly fell apart multiple times, and then watched it take off for reasons that were, frankly, a bit surprising. The episode also covers the vast market that grew around Roomba and the ways iRobot failed to keep up.

This is the second episode of Version History’s fourth season. If you missed last week’s season premiere on the Harmony remote, catch up - or don’t, we’re not your mom. Verge subscribers can get the podcast ad-free by visiting their account settings. For those who want the full backstory on Roomba, there are links in the show notes.