From NASA to Industry Standard: SeekOps’ Strategy for Landing Enterprise Customers

Turning space technology into a commercial product is challenging enough. Getting conservative industrial enterprises to adopt it is even harder.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, SeekOps CEO Iain Cooper revealed their playbook for transforming NASA Mars rover technology into a solution now used by major energy companies worldwide.

Starting with Strategic Validation

Unlike typical startups that rush to market, SeekOps recognized that credibility would be crucial for enterprise adoption. As Iain explains: “They worked closely with Stanford University on validating the technology, that independent validation of the technology being really important for them.”

This validation-first approach created a foundation of trust with industrial customers who are naturally skeptical of new technologies. It also led to crucial early funding: “Subsequently got funding from the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative climate investments group, which again enabled them to grow further.”

Solving Real Regulatory Challenges

Instead of pushing technology for technology’s sake, SeekOps aligned their solution with emerging regulatory requirements. “We’ve actually helped a number of the larger operators achieve OGMP Two gold standard with our technology,” Iain notes. This alignment turned regulatory pressure into a catalyst for adoption.

The strategy proved prescient as regulations evolved: “EPA is still deliberating what improvements they’re going to make to their regulations… We feel this is certainly going to mandate, again, quantification, not just detection, which is the current regulatory requirement.”

From Pilots to Full Deployment

SeekOps designed their pilot programs to demonstrate clear value while minimizing customer risk. As Iain shares: “That’s really all been about the transition from operators, trialing pilots, seeing how these technologies work from one or two jobs to I want to come and do 300 well pads or can you come back every quarter?”

This approach helped overcome the natural resistance to new technology in industrial markets. As Iain notes: “Most operators like to be fast followers. No one really wants to be the first in a new market or test a new technology.”

Building a Complete Solution

Rather than just selling technology, SeekOps developed a comprehensive service offering. “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 service model made adoption easier by eliminating the need for customers to develop internal expertise: “We typically show up as well and perform an orthomosaic map. This is a high resolution image survey so that we can really put where those emissions we have found on that image and give them the context of the operation.”

Expanding Through Market Education

SeekOps recognized that market education was crucial for scaling beyond initial adopters. “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 shares.

They focused on honest, science-based communication: “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.”

Future-Proofing the Business

Looking ahead, SeekOps is focused on automation to make their solution even more attractive to enterprises. Iain’s vision is clear: “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 targeting enterprise customers, SeekOps’ journey offers crucial lessons about the importance of validation, regulatory alignment, and comprehensive solution development. Success in enterprise markets often requires more than just superior technology – it demands a thoughtful approach to reducing adoption barriers while solving real business challenges.