Our Story
The Story and Timeline Behind UplinkRobotics.
Our Story
The idea for UplinkRobotics started in the Summer of 2021. Two of the co-founders were working on internships with Qualcomm and NASA and quickly realized that a typical 9 to 5 job, staring at a computer screen in a cubicle, wasn’t really what they would like to do with their professional careers. One afternoon they started coming up with a few business ideas and robotics was one of them. Soon after the third co-founder join the team, they started talking about inventing a product. the idea of develop inspection robotics came from a co-founder’s family member who shared that the market was filled with over priced products. This is where UplinkRobotics began.
Fall 2021
Starting Out
Christian, Ore, and Brady were college students at this time and knew they couldn’t support UplinkRobotics on their own. This is when Christian had the idea to sign them up for the $50K John Ellbogen competition. The first step in this competition was to submit a business executive summary. The judges were intrigued by the summary so the team moved to the next round where a business concept must be turned in and a virtual pitch was given. The team of engineers continued to surprise the judges and continued to compete in the final round of the competition.
Spring 2022
Ellbogen
During this time Christian, Brady, and Ore were preparing for the final round of the Ellbogen competition where they would have to present their business plan live in front of a panel of judges. In order to be fully prepared Christian and Brady took an entrepreneur class. This is where they met their final team member, Zoe, who was studying business entrepreneurship at the time. They also met Don Small who has been an amazing mentor. Together the members of UplinkRobotics built their business plan and practiced their presentations until they were blue in the face. When the day came UplinkRobotics won $30k to help bring their company to life. All of this was done while the group were in their final semester of their undergraduate degrees as well.
Summer 2022
The Struggles
During the Summer of 2022, work started the final smart crawler prototype that was demoed in the previous Ellbogen competition. Unfortunately, many issues surfaced that included supply chain shortcomings and the development of custom software that was not feasible in the time frame for the company. With some quick shifting, development started on what is now known as the Mink and Marten inspection crawlers.
Fall 2022
Multitasking
During the Fall of 2022, three of the four co-founders started pursuing Master’s degrees in their designated fields with the final co-founder working for Qualcomm, a large tech company located in San Diego California. During this time of juggling school, work, and life, development on the Mink and Martens crawlers continued while working close with home inspectors located throughout the United States.
Spring 2023
The First Year
The Spring of 2023 brought the first year anniversary of UplinkRobotics. The company was built from the ground up by the four co-founders within 12 months and finally launched it’s first commercial product, the Mink inspection crawler. The team behind UplinkRobotics are excited to help support the local economy and make the jobs of inspectors easier and safer than ever before.