Episode Details

Gecko Robotics — From College Project to Critical Infrastructure

ABOUT TROY DEMMER

Troy is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gecko Robotics. He started the company 12+ years ago as a college senior project at Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania, alongside co-founder Jake Loosararian. Troy came from a medical background and saw an opportunity to bring diagnostic thinking to industrial infrastructure. He personally led Gecko’s expansion into defense starting four years ago, and the company now manufactures robots in Pittsburgh while deploying them across power plants, refineries, naval vessels, and nuclear facilities.

ABOUT GECKO ROBOTICS

Gecko Robotics builds AI-powered climbing robots that inspect and assess the structural health of critical infrastructure. The company started by serving commercial clients — power plants, refineries, and manufacturing facilities — before expanding into defense. Today, their technology inspects ICBM silos, destroyers, submarines (including SSNs and SSBNs), and is moving into new construction for Columbia-class submarines and naval reactors. Sam Altman wrote their first check during their YC batch, and the company turned down an early acquisition offer from an OEM. Gecko manufactures in Pittsburgh, PA and emphasizes keeping robots “employed” rather than sitting unused.

TIMESTAMPS

[1:10] Origin story: The power plant problem that started it all

[2:35] How a college alumni connection led to Gecko’s first customer

[4:00] “You can’t build this in a lab”

[4:48] Two years in one boiler: Jake’s journey building the first robot

[6:33] Forward deployed engineering and the Palantir inspiration

[8:02] Finding product-market fit: The YC experience and Sam Altman’s first check

[10:00] “Hiding in plain sight”

[11:47] Transition to defense: From power plants to national security

[13:05] AFWERX and SBIR: Building the foundation for defense work

[14:24] What translated from commercial and what required rethinking

[16:21] Working with OEMs: Reverse scanning and the first acquisition offer

[18:35] First defense asset: The path to inspecting ICBM silos

[20:09] Inside the room: Getting robots certified for nuclear environments

[21:33] Current state: Scaling across destroyers, submarines, and new construction

[25:37] Business model: Robots as capability vs. permanent fixtures

[27:00] Manufacturing in Pittsburgh and scaling production

[28:07] “95% of robots are unemployed”

[29:35] Advice for startups: Think integration from day one

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Access to the Problem Is the Unfair Advantage

Gecko’s origin story embodies the ethos of building with not for a customer. A power plant operator came to their college with a specific problem: 70% asset uptime and constant unplanned downtime. He offered access to his facility. Co-founder Jake spent two years inside a single boiler refining the first robot. Troy is emphatic: “I don’t think you could build a technology like this in a lab. That was the unfair advantage — just access to the problem.”

2. Using SBIRs to Build Infrastructure

When Gecko decided to pursue defense, they started with AFWERX and SBIR programs — Phase 1, and a number of Phase 2 contracts. Beyond the funding, the value was in building what Troy calls “the semblance of a defense company”: registrations, certifications, procurement knowledge, and the operational credibility needed to scale. Jake and Troy recognizing Small Business Innovation Research for what it was: scaffolding for the larger business they wanted to build.

3. Target O&M Budgets to Bypass Procurement Timelines

Gecko made a strategic decision to enter defense through operations and maintenance cycles rather