Gecko Robotics lands $71M Navy contract, says wall-climbing robots could add 15-20 GW to US power grid

Soing my work here is done.

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come chat with us. Have a great rest. excited to follow ceramic and we'll talk to you soon.

We'll talk to you soon. Goodbye.

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What's going on? Doing great.

Thanks so much for taking the time. Uh I don't believe we've met, but I I've heard about Gecko for a long time. I think Trey uh introduced me to it when I was at Founders Fund. Uh but since this is the first time on the show, I'd love a little bit backstory like how did you get into the industry? How did you start the company? And then we can kind of get up to speed on what's happening today.

Yeah. Well, Trey's awesome and I'm so glad he he uh originally um spoke so highly of us, I'm sure. Um so, I founded the company about 13 years ago out of a college dorm in Western Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And I was studying electrical engineering. really wanted to figure out uh how things like energy was created. And so I went to a power plant in Franklin City, Pennsylvania. Uh for those history nerds out there, it was like the that was where the first commercial oil rig was drilled and got to see a power plant how it was made. And I dove in head first through this little manhole that I could barely fit through and and got to see what a boiler was. And so that was like a football fieldsiz room that was completely covered wall to-all with these steel tubes. And this whole job of this boiler was just to get really really hot. And so uh you know shot water through it got really hot. Anyway, this boiler kept on having failures. 30% of the year it was shut down because of catastrophic failure that was occurring because the pressure vessels would keep keep exploding and the only way to stop it from exploding was a guy on a rope 100t up in the air, you know, trying to figure out like where the next explosion was going to happen and that just wasn't working. And that guy actually died that a year before doing the job of gathering data sets by hand in the in the real world. Wow. And so I was like, my gosh, like where is where is the tech innovation like for these guys that are making making sure that our homes stay heated and you know just began to look more and more at just like how we understand the health of built the built world and and also what kind of technology exists for these sorts of heroes that are you know hidden behind the scenes if you will whether they're a port engineer uh or they're a boiler uh they're boiler engineer um and folks that are like helping us helping us do all this stuff and Silicon Valley for the most part forgot about them and I decided to build a company that was specifically dedicated to to helping these guys out.

Yeah. So, uh yeah, I'm imagining a big vertical tank sort of like what you might see at a brewery with but instead of filled with beer, it's water that's boiling. Uh why not just fly a drone up and use video camera and and you know just be close? Why did you choose this? Like what what decisions did you make technically uh and why did you make those decisions? So you basically if you're diagnosing the health of built structures whether it's a boiler, a pipeline, a bridge, you know, whatever it is inside of a ship, you got to actually get close to it just like you would for a sonogram. So you use jelly um and then you use ultrasound to see inside of a of a of a belly for for the pregnancy example. Um same kind of idea. Use ultrasonics um is one way of gathering information data sets. In this case, you know, what you're seeing is some of the electromagnetics that we developed sensors and the robots are just the vehicles by which we get sensors around places that are typically hard to reach. And then also localizing and seeing like where you know to track that year to year to year to understand how do you predict into the future. I mean this idea of creating the minority report you know for the built world was kind of this idea of predicting you know what death or catastrophe was going to happen for like built structures before it did and the precogs in this case are these robots you know but all the data is being collected and then like fed into the central source of truth which is which is can lever and then we sell canal lever you know as our way of predicting and preventing catastrophic failures for you know the build world.

Yeah. So, uh, what's the shape of the business? It feels incredibly dual use. I mean, we just saw a video of the the robot, uh, crawling along what looked like an aircraft carrier or battleship. Uh, but I imagine that the oil and gas industry, the industrials industry, like there's huge demand for this. Uh, what's the mix of the business and what's uh, what what are the best practices for working with uh, both the government and uh, private businesses?

Uh, yes, we started in the energy sector um, in those power plants. was actually bootstrapped for 3 years and then uh was down 100 bucks to the name and uh

I know it was bad. I was like homeless living with my best friend sleeping on the floors really roughing it and uh you know I was out in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania like there's no VCs out here and so then uh then before I got an acquisition offer and then you know uh and then the folks over at YC in 2016 were just like you're going to build a huge trillion dollar company and like this is you're having incredible success come out and do that. So I was like I'm already poor. I want to this is amazing vision. Why not?

I already know what the worst feels like. You know what I mean? So I was like what could what could be worse than this? And so you know just decided to do that. Got went to California and um yeah we're in this YC batch that's like really you know just like black sheep of the batch you know working in energy and robotics based in Pittsburgh first time founder. So you know what I mean it was just like uh it was kind of kind of wild and crazy. Then we came out like the one of the top companies. But you know we started in the energy sector because that was

what was the actual first company because like energy sector could be you know oh meeting with the CEO of Axon or it could be like the local guy who just you know wants to buy these as like a proumer tool almost or something like what was that actual deal like?

It was um it was this group of uh power producers called IPS the independent power producers. So these guys were just like they actually don't have these like massive contracts utilities have that they can just like rest and just like pass all their losses down to me and you to pay more bills if our like if things just like blow up and don't work. And so these these folks like actually have to be making sure that they make stuff. And so in PA there's a lot of them actually in the tri-state area. And so we actually got a lot of access, you know, so the first three years I was bootstrapping, I was every single day at a power plant for the most part, like trying to to build it with a robot like actually in the environment. And that was a really core thesis the thesis and core principle for the company. And we kind of still hold that today of build technology in the in the real world, not in the labs. Actually, one of the most prominent investors in Silicon Valley said, don't don't leave, do this in the lab, make it autonomous, and then launch. I was like, that's [ __ ] stupid. That's so bad. It's a dumb idea. And today's like, you know, top three investor in the world, you know, saying the company's worth, you know, like 10 plus million. I was like me and my

co-eshot it. Don't don't don't iterate. Don't do don't don't don't trial and error. Just one shot it in the lab.

So So anyway, so power man. It was like we we I moved back to Pittsburgh because it was close to these customers. And so that was like the core the core ethos of the company was build tech, you know, for the people in the environments.

And so that's that led us to oil and gas. Next we could apply the same kind of technology to diagnose the health of structures that make the oil and gas um assets go. And then I was mining and metal metal manufacturing. And then I began to get into things like building and manufacturing um for uh building ships or or or submarines um injecting the same kind of tech and robotics and software um you know there because we one of the we have the most data about the health of uh in the material science of the world and so applying it you know for actually building and welding and then then the Navy side you know what we what we're doing there is helping to achieve readiness 80% readiness was the secretary failen's objective and you know right now it's about you know two out five ships are are stuck in dry dock somewhere and that's a global issue. And so our technology allows for us to be able to make up that difference by getting us so much information, you know, in some cases two to, you know, two, three, four months faster to be able to get these ships out of dry dock in time and and then begin to plan it for the future. It's just like idea of if you always had a living, breathing understanding of the health of these these sorts of assets, my goodness, like maybe you'd never have to shut down, you know, that's that's the thing that I'm trying to build. And you know these you can you can see now like some really large energy companies like the ones that we work with are beginning to adopt this like

you know the data doesn't exist. In order for the data to be able to drive uh AI models to actually be impactful, we actually have to go out and gather information and data sets. And oh by the way, maybe one day, maybe not into the distant future, you can actually begin to augment these, you know, these very commoditized sectors and industries that are very capital intensive, you know, with robotics native, AI native approaches and uh operating systems that make commoditized industries less and less commoditized. And so yeah, that's the kind of vision that we're trying to build, you know, at being the company that's, you know, that's very pragmatic in its results and, you know, aren't just promising in five or 10 years all this impact, but like actually delivering the thing today, you know.

Uh, where are you, uh, are you I'm assuming the same kind of VC that told you to just one-shot the product in the lab, make it autonomous, and then go to market would also ask you, are you doing anything in data centers? Can you can you get any are there any tailwinds there? I can imagine I can imagine one of your robots just crawling around a data center. Uh but uh what are you seeing on that front?

Yeah. Well, it's a it's a good question. You know, what ended up happening was we ended up really putting a lot of effort and energy into customers where when things weren't working, it was extremely painful and expensive. You know, so think of oil and gas. When you're down for a day, could be 30 million bucks you're losing. or if you're down, you know, if your ship isn't uh patrolling, you know, the uh um certain places in the Pacific or Atlantic, you know, that's really expensive and and harmful, too. So, that that's where we focus. But what's happening now is like all this attention on AI infrastructure um is actually put a large attention on how efficient can you run your your power plants in this case a lot of natural gas and then also how reliable are those assets and also the assets that were depreciated not invested in for 10 20 30 years because banks wouldn't fund continuation of um you know putting capital into coal facilities or even natural gas facilities because of you know these these carbon these carbon um uh strangle holds on these companies. and end up creating this really interesting opportunity for companies that are really good at understanding the health and the value of assets and can convert them into something really uh much more valuable. Uh something that we're taking a very close look at. So anyway, power and the ability to make a power plant run more efficiently and also more reliably uh is core competency of Gecko for a long time and so we're putting you know a lot of efforts into that. you'll have a big launch, you know, in the in the middle of uh for the 250th anniversary and uh coming out on July 4th on the power production side. So, it's, you know, we've got something that's uh

you know, if we pull off what our what our, you know, six or or so um trials have have proved, we might be able to in the thermal fleet be able to increase by 15 to 20 gawatt the amount of power in the US without even building a new a new power plant.

Um it's it's this kind of efficiency, man, that like is possible. No.

Yeah, it's all right. 50

said 30 to 50 g.

We have a $71 million.

I know. Let's hit the gong. Let's hit the gong. Let's freaking go.

Where's the mallet?

That's a big number.

Hit hard.

Oh my god. I feel the vibrations over here.

I know. We're feeling it. I wish I wish you were here.

Uh for for a much dumber question, uh how how do you actually stick a robot to the to a vertical surface? I mean gecko I imagine suckers but are magnets involved like I imagine that there's some surfaces where a suction cup won't work because it's maybe it's like stuckco out or something like do you have multiple tools in your toolbox? Like talk me through that.

Yeah, good question. Well, I really was desiring to use nanop fibers just like a gecko we use. Unfortunately, we can't live up to the to the biology and so we we actually use uh neody.

Why not just get hundreds of geck actual geckos?

It's a biotech company actually.

I actually that's a great idea.

So you use rare earth magnets. Is that right?

Yes. So we put them in a in a hallbach array instead of wheels to optimize you know pull force. So magnetic force into the typically like most of our infrastructure is is carbon steel. So it's magnetic. If it's not, if it's concrete or if it's um over stainless, then we'll use the best adhesion is actually suction for non-ferris materials like you were right. Okay. So, it's actually just like creating a really great um a really great um um vacuum. Yeah. And and uh and so that can actually air pump that's sucking in air and and creating that like

Yeah. Literally just a Dyson vacuum like you know head um and and then you create like a nice chamber you know for for uh you know to be able to stick. Unfortunately, it's like it's not great for dusty environments, but like you know, you can

so so it's like it's less applicable, but also there's less less cases like the food and beverage space. A lot of stainless steel.

Um, and so there there's not much dust there either. And so you can actually apply tools there.

Okay, that makes sense.

But it's the same kind of concept, too, which is like you don't want to crack. You don't want a failure to occur.

You don't want to damage the material you're inspecting with some crazy, you know, rock climbing shoe with spikes on it. You're not going to be ice climbing up the side of something that's going to

Totally. So, actually funny a really a really like geeky cool like thing that we built for the Navy was you typically have like you know when when Maverick lands his like fighter jet onto the plane onto the onto the um the aircraft carrier he's landing on this like um um this this coating this non-skid is what it's called. It's like really rough and grainy. You have to actually remove all that stuff every like 3 years or so to be able to evaluate how healthy, you know, is the platform is the flight deck itself.

There might be a crack and you got to take all that off. Got it.

Totally. And so you just didn't even know like you know how healthy the structures underneath it. Yeah. So we've developed technology that actually you know uses electromagnetics to excite the surface. You can actually measure how healthy things are underneath the uh the nonskid. Sure. You know, it's like things like this where he's like you just remove this like, you know, this this orthodox way of thinking about how do you figure out like what's wrong, what to fix, how much budget to put to use, and where does the supply chain um you know, how does the supply chain meet my need in terms of what what things I need to fix and get the ship, you know, back back patrolling and deter conflict. Yeah,

it's like this kind of stuff that we we, you know, have just like built, you know, such an expertise and now models around, you know, ensuring we get all this information and data set. It really is like, you know, it's going from like a three to four month process to to now click a button and you know exactly like where to make all the repairs and and the next time you do it, you know, you spend a lot less time in in the in the in the dry dock and you should do the stuff more and more just like as it's as it's like, you know, patrolling and on duty. So like robots, you know, specialized robots that

can be like on these ships. That's like that's that's what we want to work towards

in the in the basic example of like there's a boiler, the gecko robot climbs up, finds the crack, let's say. I don't know exactly what happens, but uh

corrosion corrosion

corrosion corrosion. Are you thinking about an act two where you're actually doing repair as well? Are you already doing repair or is that something where it's like oh that's a too that's a big technological challenge.

It's a great question and and it's something we're working on right now on the manufacturing side. But I think the key was was the first idea was like what if you could own the health data of the world's most critical pieces of infrastructure.

Yeah,

that'd be cool. That seems like a pretty interesting you know thing to do. And then you know then like you begin to get into if you can understand the health of things then you begin you know then like you can just pull in existing information time series data sets like these are kind of things we pull in now and so you know if you're a power if you're a power plant or you're a refinery and you want to you want to really capitalize on the fact that you know oil oil barrels per day is 100 bucks 100 bucks right now and so you want to maybe increase production well you don't know if you can this is where like the consultant with software and AI companies really have a hard time is because you don't know if you push the asset will it like break down and not work and explode. So that's like where the missing data set that never existed before that Adams to bits side of the robots allows for us to be able to make these operational changes now and which is a lot more valuable than actually fixing the problem right then and there. So we're going after these big these big like value propositions. And if you think about the ability to run functional uh finite uh element analyses. So like these like ancysis type of like you know uh models like these are the sorts of things that Gecko is working on because we have this unfair data advantage that we've been collecting for 13 years on you know half a million assets now inside of canal lever. And so

so what we're trying to get to, man, is like

you're you're totally right in like where the where to go. Like you want to find the problem, fix it right then and there using these tools. And so you want to build towards that, but you know, you want to be really smart on like the best techniques, the best kinds of approaches and ways to fix things and solve the most valuable things first then, you know, keep on solving more problems that your customers offer you.

Awesome.

But man, I think the future is really going to be it's going to be interesting because these like capital intensive industries Yeah. you know, that can adopt technology like we're talking about here really, really quickly are going to be so unfairly advantaged. And this is like where you we're like in those rooms creating the strategies, you know, for the top, you know, top 10, top 15, like, you know, large oil and gas companies in the world and helping them with like how do we make and optimize this future because, you know, the future's going to really belong to folks that can figure out how to, you know, run this stuff unfairly.

Yeah.

Well, the chat absolutely loves you, so come back soon. This was really this was really fun. Congrats. Congrats to the whole team on the new contract and uh I'm so glad you started this company 14