By Segun Adeyanju
Jake Loosararian, co-founder and CEO of Gecko Robotics, has turned a once-struggling school project into a billion-dollar enterprise.
A decade after nearly giving up on his startup, Gecko is now valued at $1.25 billion following a $125 million funding round led by Cox Enterprises.
Gecko, founded in 2012, began when Loosararian and fellow engineering students built a robot to inspect power plant walls.
After graduating, he chose to pursue the venture full-time despite skepticism from family and professors.
For nearly three years, Loosararian bootstrapped the company, working 100-hour weeks and sleeping on friends’ couches.
He resisted multiple offers to sell, including a $500,000 bid in 2015 before gaining traction in 2016 with admission to Y Combinator.
Today, Gecko builds AI-powered robots that inspect critical infrastructure for clients like the U.S. Navy and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
Reflecting on the journey, Loosararian said, “Those scars allow you to act with confidence, courage and a will to make your goals become reality.”
