Jake Loosararian, Gecko Robotics | All-In Summit 2024

Gecko Robotics Mission and Market Opportunity

• Gecko Robotics develops wall-climbing robots and enterprise software to diagnose the health of critical infrastructure, having managed over 500,000 assets globally since its inception.
• The company addresses a $4.59 trillion domestic infrastructure maintenance problem where structures are reaching their useful life, with the issue accelerating.
• The military currently spends $400 billion annually (40% of its budget) on maintenance rather than new acquisitions.
• Fortune 500 companies incur $1.5 trillion in annual losses due to unpredictable catastrophic infrastructure failures.
• Current inspection methods rely on humans ("Joe on a rope"), a practice that yields insufficient data for modern software optimization and poses significant safety risks.

Financial Performance and Business Model

• The company achieved profitability in 2017, shortly after its 2016 Y Combinator launch.
• Gecko shifted from direct equipment sales to a software-centric model where customers purchase the "Cantilever" platform and software licenses, with implementation provided via robotic data collection.
• A major deal with the 12th largest oil and gas company represents a $30 million initial contract projected to expand to $100 million.
• This oil and gas contract targets 100,000 tanks, estimating $122,000 of ROI per tank.
• Customer outcomes from testing 50 assets included a 10-year extension of useful life, $105 million in total value creation (via safety, environmental, and CapEx reductions), and a 4% impact on profit margins.
• The company maintains 7- to 8-year retention cycles with major clients including Exxon and BP.

Technological Capabilities and Platform Strategy

• The "Cantilever" platform aggregates first-party data collected by autonomous robots (flying, swimming, crawling, climbing) to create a digital twin of assets.
• The API platform "Fulcrum" allows external robotic partners, such as Anybotics, to deploy sensors on Gecko's infrastructure and stream data directly to the customer.
• The system utilizes ultrasonic, electromagnetic, laser, thermal, and photogrammetric sensors to detect defects like corrosion, cracks, and deformation.
• Data collection formerly requiring a month of shutdown time can now be completed in 12 hours while assets remain operational.
• In one manufacturing facility case, data-driven optimizations allowed a 5% increase in throughput with only a 2-month equivalent of accelerated asset damage.

Government and Defense Contracts

• The U.S. Air Force engaged Gecko for a $130 billion modernization program involving the assessment of 400 nuclear missile silos, replacing manual hammer-tapping inspections.
• The U.S. Navy utilizes Gecko robots to reduce labor by 85% and improve flight deck turnaround times by one month; total contracts with the Navy are in the tens of millions.
• Gecko is assisting the Columbia-class nuclear submarine program (valued at $132 billion) by establishing digital threads to replace paper-based contracting among 5,000 contractors.
• The company has signed a contract with Governor Shapiro to modernize bridge maintenance and budget prioritization for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Future Outlook and Strategic Positioning

• Jake Prins argues that first-order data companies will dominate the next 10–20 years of software, as commoditized software alone is no longer a sufficient moat.
• The company views generalized humanoid robots (e.g., Tesla Optimus) as future customers for data collection rather than competitors, envisioning them working in dangerous industrial environments.
• Jake Prins believes hardware adoption is highly sticky, as moving from paper records to a digital system makes reverting operationally difficult.
• The technology aims to reduce US emissions by 18% by 2030 through the prevention of oil pipeline explosions and leaks.
• The company acknowledges challenges in public infrastructure safety, noting that when infrastructure becomes privately owned, the profit motive may supersede safety without external checks.
• The founder expressed openness to "founder mode" pressures, citing a need to prioritize long-term infrastructure security over short-term ease.