When I think of robot lizards, I tend to think of something rather futuristic, sci-fi, and scary. An alien army, a science experiment gone wrong, the next blockbuster dystopian movie, etc. But when Gecko Robotics thinks of lizard robots, they think of something entirely different. Jake Loosararian first came up with his idea whilst visiting a power plant during his college experience at Grove City College. Robots that could crawl up the side of infrastructure (providing the lizard inspiration) and inspect key infrastructure without risking human life and while limiting the amount of time plants and other infrastructure have to shut down. 

After graduating from college, Jake launched his company, Gecko Robotics, with the help of his co-founder Troy Demmer in 2013. While at first it was a difficult proposition, with Lossararian and Demmer bootstrapping it up from the ground, Gecko Robotics began to find its legs after participating in YCombinators incubator class of 2016. Due to this, Loosararian received much needed support, including publicity, connections, and an acquisition offer. However, they turned this offer down in favor of continuing to build their company themselves. 

Today, Gecko Robotics is worth 600 million dollars, develops robots providing thousands of times more data than past processes, and improves safety in many key infrastructure plants. Loosarar

Jake Loosararian, found of Gecko Robotics

ian put together two seemingly unrelated things into a process that made him a star in the tech world. He is a fantastic example of how a network of ideas, combined with a single moment of inspiration, can launch a robotic lizard empire.