Jake Loosararian: Ground-Truth AI for the Physical World
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.
This is an AI-assisted summary of my Fortt Knox 1:1 with Gecko Robotics CEO Jake Loosararian. View the full interview here:
In this Fortt Knox 1:1, Jon Fortt sits down with Gecko Robotics CEO and founder Jake Loosararian to unpack how robotics, sensors, and software are reshaping critical infrastructure – from power plants and refineries to shipyards and defense assets. Loosararian argues that the AI revolution will stall without “ground-truth” data from the physical world, and that decades-old industrial sectors are dangerously under-digitized. Gecko’s robots crawl, fly, and swim across live facilities to collect high-fidelity data that feeds a central operating platform, enabling safer operations, longer asset life and higher production.
The conversation traces Gecko’s evolution from a hardware-first inspection company to a software-centric operating platform, inspired by Amazon’s Kiva robots and driven by the realization that customers ultimately care about production outcomes. Loosararian also shares a deeply personal founder journey, including his Armenian family history and faith, homeschooling, engineering, and a formative cross-country bike ride that cemented his commitment to mission-driven entrepreneurship. The interview culminates in a clear thesis: AI leadership depends on owning the right physical-world data, and the biggest returns will come from transforming the industries that underpin modern life.
Today’s Toughest Problem
Loosararian frames Gecko’s core challenge as closing the gap between AI’s promise and the reality of critical industries that still rely on manual inspection and incomplete data. Energy, manufacturing, and defense assets are aging, complex, and expensive to shut down. But they remain largely invisible to modern software. The risk isn’t just inefficiency; it’s hallucinations, missed signals, and catastrophic failures when AI systems lack reliable inputs. Gecko addresses this by using robots and advanced sensors (including ultrasound-based techniques) to diagnose the “health of the built world” while assets remain online. The goal is not exhaustive data collection, but the right data: timely, high-confidence signals that prevent explosions, reduce downtime, and unlock performance gains. In Loosararian’s view, without this foundation, AI cannot safely or meaningfully transform these sectors.
Origin Story
Gecko began with a visceral safety problem: inspectors climbing 100 feet in the air with handheld tools, sometimes with fatal consequences. As an engineering student, Loosararian became obsessed with replacing dangerous, low-fidelity inspections with robots that could see deeper and more accurately. Early success revealed a harder truth: selling robots alone captured only a fraction of the value created. Customers saved hundreds of millions, yet paid comparatively little, and often ignored warnings until failures forced action. This disconnect pushed Gecko beyond hardware into software, where insights could continuously influence operations. The inspiration came from Amazon’s use of Kiva robots: hardware that enabled an unfairly advantaged operating platform. Gecko adopted the same logic for industrial infrastructure.
Death Valley
The lowest point came during the bootstrapped years. With no knowledge of venture capital, Loosararian poured his savings into the company, dwindling to $100 while carrying the weight of a new engagement and family expectations. His mission of serving overlooked industrial workers and preventing deadly failures kept him going through moments of doubt, including breaking down alone under a desk. Salvation arrived not as an exit, but as a choice: sell early for validation or keep betting on Gecko’s mission. Encouraged by peers and a pivotal introduction to Y Combinator, Loosararian chose the harder path: remaining poor, doubling down, and relocating cross-country to build a platform company.
Core Belief
At the heart of Gecko is a conviction that production—not novelty—drives relevance in industrial markets. Safety, asset longevity, and compliance matter, but customers ultimately care about output: barrels per day, kilowatts produced, ships built faster. Technology must move these needles to endure. Loosararian also believes that who builds matters: industries powering modern life have been ignored by Silicon Valley, despite their centrality to national security and economic growth. His Armenian heritage, faith, and family history reinforce a sense of stewardship. He says he wants to use opportunity responsibly and build tools that honor human dignity by keeping workers safe and productive.
Strategic Imperative
Gecko’s strategy centers on becoming the operating platform for the physical world. Robots and sensors are means to an end: generating proprietary, first-order data that feeds AI systems capable of optimizing real assets in real time. Loosararian argues the AI race will be won by those who control unique physical-world data, not just algorithms. With deep deployments among a core set of customers and growing international relevance, Gecko aims to create a flywheel: better data enables better software, which guides better robots, compounding advantages over time. The payoff, he believes, will be transformative gains in the industries that matter most.
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.