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Highlights
Building a Global Emissions Monitoring Business: SeekOps’ Journey from NASA Tech to Industry Standard
The path from breakthrough technology to successful business rarely follows a straight line. For SeekOps, it began with NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover and led to pioneering drone-based emissions monitoring across six continents.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, SeekOps CEO Iain Cooper shared how the company transformed from a NASA JPL spinout into a global leader in emissions monitoring. Their journey offers valuable lessons for technical founders navigating the complexities of industrial adoption.
The Evolution from Tech to Business
SeekOps’ origin traces back to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where founders Andrew Aubreyam and Brendan Smith saw commercial potential in their Mars rover technology. As Iain explains: “They were working on technology for the Mars Curiosity rover… and they had the idea of saying how can we use this commercially back on planet Earth?”
The founders secured initial funding from Equinor to explore methane detection in oil fields, establishing their base in Austin. But the real breakthrough came through strategic validation partnerships. “They worked closely with Stanford University on validating the technology, that independent validation of the technology being really important for them,” Iain notes.
Cracking the Industrial Adoption Code
Rather than trying to sell hardware directly to industrial customers, SeekOps made a crucial strategic decision to operate as a service business. This approach eliminated adoption barriers and accelerated market penetration.
“We are typically contracted by an operator to fly a facility for them to determine again the emissions at kind of the asset level,” Iain explains. “Really our differentiation is we actually quantify the emissions so we can tell them the rate of emission.”
This quantification capability proved crucial as regulatory pressures mounted. “We’ve actually helped a number of the larger operators achieve OGMP Two gold standard with our technology,” Iain shares, highlighting how alignment with regulatory requirements drove adoption.
Scaling Through Partners
Instead of building a massive internal operation, SeekOps chose to scale through partnerships with drone service providers. As Iain describes: “We don’t plan on adding a lot of heads because again, our business model really is to scale with those drone service providers as independent industrial drone companies that have already got significant flight approvals from operators.”
This partner-first approach enabled rapid global expansion. “We are now commercial on six continents, we’ve trained at least two or more drone service companies in each of our key regions,” Iain notes. The result? “Last year we tripled our revenue from the previous year.”
Market Education as Strategic Advantage
Perhaps most importantly, SeekOps recognized that success required more than superior technology – it demanded market education. “There’s a lot of misinformation, particularly in this space out there, that we’ve had to correct by looking at the science of emissions rather than the marketing of emissions,” Iain explains.
Rather than overselling their solution, they acknowledged industry complexities: “There’s no silver bullet when you’re addressing emissions… It’s going to require a combination of technologies and also operators and service companies working in harmony.”
This honest, science-based approach helped overcome the traditional resistance to new technologies in industrial markets. As Iain notes, while “most operators like to be fast followers,” providing clear validation through pilot programs and regulatory alignment helped drive adoption.
Looking ahead, SeekOps aims to automate the entire customer experience: “I want to automate from proposal to payment… so when a customer comes with a request, everything, including the survey, the data analysis, and our payment is automated.”
For technical founders, SeekOps’ journey illustrates how combining breakthrough technology with thoughtful go-to-market strategies can accelerate adoption in even the most conservative industries. The key lies not just in the technology itself, but in building an ecosystem that makes adoption and scaling as frictionless as possible for customers.
Actionable
Takeaways
Collaborative Innovation:
The origin story of SeekOps, evolving from NASA technology, highlights the importance of looking beyond traditional industry boundaries for innovative solutions.
Strategic Partnerships for Growth:
Iain's effort to secure investments and partnerships, including convincing previous employers to invest, showcases the importance of strategic alliances in scaling technology from concept to global implementation.
Navigating Regulatory Landscapes:
As SeekOps operates in a heavily regulated space, their approach to understanding and influencing emerging regulations offers a blueprint for how startups can navigate complex legal environments.
Embrace Technology for Operational Efficiency:
The ambition to automate from proposal to payment reflects a forward-thinking approach to business processes. Startups should consider how automation and technology can streamline operations and enhance scalability.
Global Market Presence:
The rapid expansion of SeekOps into all major continents serves as a reminder of the global nature of today's market opportunities and challenges. Startups should plan for international growth and the nuances it brings.
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