CANDIDATE OPPORTUNITY:
CRO / VP of Sales
for
Executive Summary
Physical infrastructure — factories, power plants, bridges, etc. — is an important part of our global economy. Given both geopolitical and macroeconomic trends, the importance of investing in that infrastructure has never been higher. But this infrastructure is aging, and building from scratch is massively expensive. The need to maintain and extend the life of these assets, therefore, has never been higher.
Gecko Robotics helps maintain the world’s critical physical infrastructure. Their advanced robotic inspection systems (see video above) allow in-depth inspection of the full surface area of these assets; a dramatic improvement over the current manual inspection processes that assess only a small fraction of the these asset’s surfaces. When combined with their state-of-the-art analytics, Gecko provides companies and governments with an unprecedented understanding of infrastructure asset health.
Growth
Since raising their Series A in 2018, Gecko has grown to about 200 people with offices in Pittsburgh, Houston, NYC, Boston, and Austin. Currently at tens of millions in revenue, expected to rapid accelerate as their sale function matures.
Capitalization
This past March, raised ~$75M from investors including Founders Fund, Joe Lonsdale, and Mark Cuban at a $525M post-money valuation.
Role
An experienced sales leader and organization builder to relentlessly drive growth globally.
Market
The opportunity cost for failed or degraded physical infrastructure assets is currently over $1 trillion. Geopolitical and economic trends are only further increasing the importance and value of maintaining critical infrastructure.
Why You Should Care
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The work matters.
Gecko is helping maintain important national and global infrastructure. You’ll be helping solve a real challenge facing society.
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The technology works.
Gecko’s unique platform allows for far more comprehensive inspections than traditional methods and enables an unprecedented understanding of infrastructure and asset health while reducing risk.
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Real traction with real revenues.
Have achieved product-market fit for several applications with tens of millions in revenues. Now looking for a VP of Sales to build out a sales function and rapidly drive revenue growth globally across verticals and geographies.
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Great team. Great Investors. Money in the bank.
Gecko has raised $80M from top tier investors and there is plenty of money in the bank. Their executive team includes former Palantir and Citadel.
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An IPO-track company.
The company’s leadership, investors, capital base, growth, and traction suggest this is an IPO track company.
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A unique opportunity.
You’ll have an opportunity to build and scale a global sales team from the ground up and be a major influence on company strategy.
About Gecko Robotics
Gecko Robotics is a developer of robotic systems (hardware and software) to automate non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of physical infrastructure in a variety of industries.. Its unique platform allows for far more comprehensive inspections than traditional methods and enables an unprecedented understanding of infrastructure and asset health while reducing risk.
Since its Series A in 2018, Gecko has grown to about 200 people with offices in Pittsburgh, Houston, NYC, Boston, and Austin, with tens of millions in revenue. This past March they raised just shy of $75M from investors including Founders Fund, Joe Lonsdale, and Mark Cuban at at $525M post-money valuation.
Thus far the company’s business has been focused on applications in power generation (coal, hydro, nuclear, etc.), oil and gas (downstream refiners, including a large partnership in Europe), and pulp and paper. At this point, the company has achieved “product-market fit” for their offering in these industries and is looking to both further grow these verticals globally and scale into new applications and verticals as additional products are developed. As examples, other areas where the company is exploring growth include defense, nuclear, and transportation infrastructure (e.g. dams, bridges, tunnels, etc.).
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Part of of the “Palantir Pack”
Gecko is proudly part of the “Palantir Pack”, a set of companies founded or run by Palantir Alumni.
Gecko has developed a proprietary series of robots that can crawl over and scan key industrial infrastructure assets - think oil & gas pipelines, nuclear reactors, water mains, bridges, etc. These robots have a unique array of sensors that scans these assets and can quickly assess their integrity, forecast their remaining life, and make recommendations for repairs. Their IP is in both the robots and the data analytics.
To date, the company has operated in a services-based model, providing inspection services directly to asset owners. These inspections are typically sold at the the plant level and constitute a mid-market sale, with average ticket size ranging from $45K - $300K, depending on the industry and application.
While the short-term intent is to continue to grow revenue using this model, over the next few years company believes that the most profitable model is one where, instead of directly providing a service to asset owners, it instead licenses their platform to other inspection service providers or provides more strategic insight to customers on how to improve asset utilization and/or reduce asset downtime. The CRO/VP Sales role will be instrumental in helping shape and inform this strategy and the company’s transition to it.
Products & Services
Gecko is seeking a CRO / VP of Sales to own three main responsibilities:
Rapidly drive sales growth of its existing offerings across verticals and geographies.
As new offerings are proven out by Gecko’s business and product development teams, take over and drive sales growth of those new offerings.
Be a thought partner with the rest of the executive team in evolving Gecko’s business model and GTM strategy and then building a revenue capability to match.
The ultimate goal is simple: build and lead a revenue function to drive Gecko to IPO.
Org Structure
At Gecko, the commercial teams are broken into 3 conceptual categories:
The exploration teams (forward deployed engineering and business development) are focused on discovering new use cases and developing new products in more industries to expand the revenue base.
The productionalization teams (hardware and software) work on building scalable/repeatable products that enable the scale up of each product.
The distribution teams (marketing, supply chain, and operations) are focused on driving the broadest reach possible on products that have demonstrated customer value and operational scale. These teams turn the crank on proven products to optimize revenue capture for each product/geography.
It is expected that the CRO / VP Sales will be part of the leadership team, reporting to Gecko’s CEO, working closely with the Director of Supply & Sustainment and the Director of Operations, and partnering with finance effectively. Once the exploration and productionalization teams have sufficiently matured new products and demonstrated initial product-market fit and revenue traction, this role will work to manage the ‘hand off’ and take responsibility for further growing revenue for that business line.
As this role gets up to speed, it is expected that they will become a thought partner to the leadership team in evolving Gecko’s business model and GTM strategy and then building and leading a revenue capability to execute on that.
Key Team Members
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Jake Loosarian
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Beyond general overall responsibilities, his primary focus is managing external relationships (key customers, investors, hiring). He floats across the org and dives deep where needed. BASc, Electrical Engineering, Grove City College.
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Bruno Pontes
CHEIF OPERATING OFFICER
Former Palantir, Citadel. Focuses on day-to-day operations. Oversees engineering, sales, marketing, supply, and operations. Much of his time is focused on hiring and goal setting/tracking. PhD, Computer Science. Eindhoven University of Technology.
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Troy Demmer
CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER
Forbes 30 Under 30 for Energy. Oversees exploration teams and new product development. BS Economics, Grove City College. MBA, Carnegie Mellon.
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Rick Ducott
DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING & SOFTWARE
Former Palantir Group Lead. Oversees development of Gecko’s hardware and software platform. BS in computer Science, Cornell University.
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James Atkin
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Former Communications Director, U.S. House of Representatives. Former Palantir Public Affairs Lead. BS, Political Science, Lewis & Clark College.
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David Vignovic
DIRECTOR, HARDWARE SUPPLY & SUSTAINMENT
Former Director of Strategic Sourcing and Manufacturing Operations at Uber; Global Supply Chain at Apple. BA, Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis; MBA University of Chicago.
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Jake Cornelius
CHIEF OF STAFF
Former Palantir. Olympian (London 2012, Rowing). BS, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford; MPhil, University of Cambridge.
About The Role
Target Outcomes
What will the “state of the world” be 3 years from now if you perform their role well?
Gecko has successfully scaled at least three of its business lines to $100M+ in annual revenue each at the target gross margins.
Gecko has demonstrated it can successfully scale any business line that achieves “ready to scale status” to $50M in annual revenue within 3 years and has a clearly defined playbook enabling it to continue to do that with additional business lines, including required investment and expected return.
There is a clearly-defined delineation between the parts of the org that handle early-stage, new business line development, the parts of the organization that scale those business lines, and a clear process for when and how that handoff happens.
There is good alignment, harmony, productivity and retention within the VP’s organization, as well as between members of VP’s organization and other parts of Gecko..
What We’re Looking For…
Experience
You have experience:
In a demonstrably well-run sales org such that they understand “what good looks like”
Managing sales managers (or equivalent positions) during a period where revenue grew somewhere in within the range of ~$10-50M+
Architecting and overseeing a sophisticated revenue operations capability
Demonstrating success in an IC sales role
In high growth, VC-backed startups
Selling to C-suite customers
Selling technology, software, and/or services
Selling products/services that involve complex implementations, customizations, and/or onboarding
Transitioning and organization from being “services-first” to “platform-first”
With (and ideally generating/implementing) various pricing models (e.g. value-based, volume-based, etc.)
Selling 7-figure accounts, preferably up to 8 figures
Managing net revenue expansions of ~130%
Comfortable building a sales process for both mid-market and enterprise deals.
Traits & Personality
You are…
An organization builder. Have the skill and orientation to scale the sales function. Ideally you should be able to architect out the the processes and systems used, but at a minimum you should be able to recognize what systems and roles are needed, ensure they are built/hired, and are able to manage all of that to drive revenue growth. You are able to advise and forecast what it will take - in terms of people, process, technology, capital - to hit growth targets.
A producer. Hungry, ambitious, energetic, and intensely focused on producing results at a fast pace. More “rugby player” than “chess player”.
A salesperson and closer. Able to personally demonstrate mastery of the end-to-end sales process in your own right. Are able to model the right behaviors to your team.
Adaptable and resourceful. Demonstrated ability to find ways of being successful with limited resources under challenging and/or changing circumstances.
Pragmatic. Are grounded in reality and focused on the practical realities and constraints and commercial goals when making decisions.
Comfortable dealing with the C-Suite. Are comfortable with, and able to command the respect of, senior executives.
Interested? Talk to Us.
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