Grove City College Students Create Gecko Robotics Out of Their Dorm

In college, Jake Loosararian toured a nuclear power plant and he realized there was a massive problem within the industry of boiler inspections. When a plant would need a boiler inspection, they would have to shut the entire plant down for days, a million dollars an hour, and send a man down with a rope. This way of inspecting these boilers was inefficient and dangerous. Loosararian decided he wanted to innovate in the industry and revolutionize boiler inspecting. He started working on the robot while still in college balancing his school work with building his new prototype. After graduating college in 2013, he officially launched Gecko Robotics. By 2015, he was bankrupt as he had invested all of his savings into the creation of the product. Around this time, he got an acquisition offer, but Loosararian turned it down, as he had a strong belief in his product. Soon after, he decided to join YC which turned startups into mass operations. Shortly after this, he brought his college roommate, Troy Demmer, on to become his Chief Product Officer. Now, his company is a billion dollar operation and the leader company in the industry. This story is so amazing because of how young Loosararian was when he thought of this incredible product. He was also just an electrical engineer major; not an entrepreneur or business major. He just found an unmet need and fulfilled that need.