, a Pittsburgh-based startup he'd launched right out of college with wall-climbing robots that scanned infrastructure like power plants and nuclear missile silos for structural issues. So when a customer offered him $500,000 to buy the company, seemingly out of nowhere, the "transformative" offer stopped him dead in his tracks, he says.
Gecko got accepted, receiving Y Combinator's standard $125,000 investment in exchange for a 7% equity stake in the business — resulting in an initial valuation of nearly $1.8 million and access to the accelerator's network of bigger investors. Within months, Loosararian turned down another investment offer, from a "very renowned" billionaire investor that would've valued Gecko at $10 million, he says.
"I just fundamentally could not agree with that, as it relates to how you build robotics. You've got to build it close to the customers out in the field," says Loosararian, who's seen robotics startups "die, time and time again" by assembling and testing solely in labs.
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Source: NBCLA - 🏆 319. / 59 Read more »