Meet Jake Loosararian, who built $1.25 billion firm battling poverty: 'Was down to last dollar'
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Meet Jake Loosararian, who built $1.25 billion firm battling poverty: 'Was down to last dollar'")
Jake Loosararian completed his graduation in electronics from Grove City College, Pennsylvania. Photograph: (LinkedIn/Jake Loosararian)
Jake Loosararian success story: His firm recently raised $125 million, which elevated his valuation to $1.25 billion.
The story of Jake Loosararian is inspirational. The founder of an AI robotics startup in the US worked for 100 hours every week to run his business. He even almost went bankrupt to keep his business afloat. A decade later, his company is now valued at $1.25 billion.
Jake Loosararian is the founder and chief executive officer of Gecko Robotics, a US-based company, which he started in 2013, after his graduation. Jake Loosararian completed his graduation in electronics from Grove City College, Pennsylvania. Against the advice of his family and teachers at college, he decidedto launch his startup without any external funding. Even after three years, his startup didn't take off, and he had to seek help from his friends as he battledfinancial problems.
He told CNBC that he was down to his last dollar.
"My best friend was living in a crummy basement apartment. There was a section behind his couch, and I was like, 'Can I take that?' I laid the mattress down. That was where I slept for, like, two and a half years," he said.
Gecko Robotics tried making AI-powered robots. His firm was building prototypes that were designed to inspect power plant boilers. They often malfunctioned. Most of the time, he worked in horrible conditions. He kept improving his products. He often sought customer feedback, which encouraged him. "I needed to feel I wasn’t just fooling myself," he said.
His big breakthrough came when his company was accepted into Silicon Valley's prestigious Y Combinator accelerator in 2016, which provided him with investors. His firm now designs advanced AI-powered robots that can perform a host of tasks, including climbing walls, flying, and swimming underwater. These machines can inspect power plants, bridges, and dams.
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His firm recently raised $125 million, which elevated its valuation to $1.25 billion.