🤖 This week on BitBuilders - tl;dr

• Gecko Robotics is revolutionizing infrastructure inspection with robotics and AI
• The company started by solving power plant inspection problems and expanded to critical infrastructure
• Gecko's unique value lies in data scale, efficiency, and actionable health maps of assets
• Public sector contracts, especially with the US Navy, have become a significant focus
• Advice for hardware startups: compress feedback cycles and prioritize solving customer problems

"We were selling data. No one thought the robot was cool, of course. And some people wanted to, you know, have a video of them driving the robot for the most part. It was, they only really cared about what was that health map that we created at the end of the day."

🎧 Listen To This BitBuilders Episode

From Power Plants to the Pentagon: Gecko Robotics' Journey

When Troy Demmer and Jake Loosararian founded Gecko Robotics, they didn't set out to create just another robotics company. They saw a glaring problem in the world of infrastructure inspection and decided to tackle it head-on. The result? A company that's not only changing how we inspect and maintain critical infrastructure but also making waves in both the private and public sectors.

The Genesis: A Power Plant's Pain Point

It all started with a power plant manager in Oil City, PA. This guy was trying to run a full-scale power plant and struggling with reactive maintenance and uncertainty about his equipment's status. He was open to modern tools and technologies, which gave Gecko access to a real-world problem that needed solving.

Troy recalls the eye-opening moment: "Seeing a boiler that was 40 foot wide by 60 foot long and 150 foot tall... The state-of-the-art was a human on a rope or a human on a scaffold with a single point measurement tool. That's how they're trying to gather the vulnerabilities or defects that are going to take them offline, costing many millions of dollars every time that happens."

This revelation sparked the idea for Gecko Robotics. They realized this wasn't just an isolated issue but an industry-wide, multi-sector problem. The scale? Corrosion alone costs the world 3.5% of GDP or $3.5 trillion a year.

Building the Solution: Robots, Data, and Trust

Gecko's approach wasn't just about building cool robots. It was about delivering a service that provided clarity on asset health. Their robots can capture 50 readings per sensor every second, with 32 sensors on each robot. That's a jump from about 10,000 readings over a week to 10 million readings in a day.

But getting there wasn't easy. Troy emphasizes the importance of finding the right early customers: "We needed individuals that thought ahead of their time, but also understood and appreciated the stage that we were at." These partners allowed Gecko to iterate rapidly, improving their robots about ten times in the first six to seven years.

The Gecko Advantage: More Than Just Robotics

What sets Gecko apart isn't just their robots - it's their approach to data and decision-making. Troy explains: "We're capturing 50 readings per sensor every second, having a plurality of 32 sensors on a robot. So you're talking data scale of maybe 10,000 readings over a week versus 10 million readings in a day."

This massive data scale allows Gecko to create detailed health maps of assets, providing insights that were previously impossible. But they didn't stop there. The company has evolved to offer not just inspections, but long-term asset management solutions.

"We provide a pathway to use our entire tech stack - robotics with sensor data and AI - to give them the ability to be more thoughtful about what the future looks like, give and present options," Troy says. This approach allows their clients to plan five years ahead, balancing runtime, production time, throughput, and asset sustainment costs.

Entering the Public Sector: A New Frontier

Four years ago, Gecko made a strategic decision to enter the public sector, starting with the US Air Force. This move opened up new opportunities, especially with the Department of Defense.

Troy shares an exciting development: "We're working a lot with the US Navy around helping them get ships, surface ships, classes like destroyers, frigates out of dry dock more quickly." Gecko's technology can increase throughput for some suppliers by 50%, a game-changer in an industry struggling to meet production needs.

But entering the public sector came with its own challenges. Troy highlights the importance of understanding the unique dynamics of government contracts: "It's not like a commercial customer that has budget, that has sort of the implementation, the decision making around that. It's like who you're selling to, who's the beneficiary recipient of the capability versus who pays for it, two different groups of people."

Manufacturing Robotics: Lessons Learned

When it comes to manufacturing robotics, Troy emphasizes the importance of supply chain resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic taught them a painful lesson about component sourcing and backward compatibility. "I think that's one of the things from a design and manufacturing standpoint is to have some redundancy and have no single threat," Troy advises.

Advice for Hardware Startups

For founders in the built world tackling hard problems, Troy offers this advice: "Compress that feedback cycle, to figure out who your customers are and be totally radically prioritized to solving their problem. And sometimes you have to do things that don't feel like they're going to scale in hardware. And I think lean into that. Embrace that."

The Future of Infrastructure Inspection

As Gecko Robotics continues to grow and innovate, they're not just changing how we inspect and maintain infrastructure - they're reshaping entire industries. From power plants to naval ships, their technology is providing unprecedented insights and efficiencies.

The journey of Gecko Robotics is a testament to the power of identifying a real-world problem, building a solution with close customer feedback, and continually evolving to meet industry needs. As our infrastructure ages and the need for efficient, data-driven maintenance grows, companies like Gecko will play an increasingly crucial role in shaping our built world.

Key Takeaways

• Identify real-world problems and work closely with early customers to iterate and improve your solution
• Focus on delivering value beyond just technology - in Gecko's case, it's about providing actionable data and insights
• Be prepared to adapt your business model and operations when entering new sectors, especially the public sector
• Prioritize supply chain resilience in hardware manufacturing
• Compress feedback cycles and stay radically focused on solving customer problems

#RoboticsStartup #InfrastructureInspection #HardwareTech #PublicSectorInnovation #ArtificialIntelligence #DataDrivenDecisions #StartupAdvice #CriticalInfrastructure

‍