Boost Robotics

What do they actually do

Boost Robotics is building a mobile robot with arms that can be teleoperated to inspect and perform simple physical tasks in data centers. In demos and public materials, they show a remote operator using bi‑manual controls to check cables, press buttons, swap small components, and capture inspection video and sensor data around racks and aisles. The company is actively seeking pilot partners and does not list production deployments or customers yet YC company page.

In a typical workflow, the robot patrols or is dispatched to an aisle, flags an issue via cameras/sensors, and a remote technician drives the robot to the rack to perform the action. The session is recorded for audits and to update maintenance records. Near‑term, the team plans to harden the hardware and teleop UX in real facilities and validate that remote “robot remote hands” can cut on‑site dispatches and speed triage before moving toward more autonomy YC company page.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Data‑center facilities manager (colo or cloud): Wants to reduce urgent truck rolls and shorten time to diagnose and fix simple issues at racks so incidents don’t escalate into outages.
• NOC / infrastructure manager coordinating multi‑site troubleshooting: Lacks timely, reliable on‑site evidence and loses time waiting for techs to arrive before deciding if a physical visit is truly required.
• Field technicians and third‑party maintenance crews: Spend hours on repetitive, low‑skill tasks in tight, high‑voltage aisles and want fewer risky trips so they can focus on complex repairs.
• Operators of remote/edge data centers with minimal staff: Struggle to staff sites cost‑effectively and need ways to inspect and intervene physically without sending a person long distances.
• Compliance and audit teams: Rely on manual logs and photos to prove inventory, access, and maintenance actions; want continuous, auditable records of interventions and inspections.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run hands‑on pilots with friendly colo/cloud operators and select edge sites sourced via YC intros and founder networks; offer a short free/low‑cost on‑site + teleop pilot and measure avoided dispatches and faster triage.
• First 50: Package a repeatable one‑week pilot and playbook, hire 1–2 sales engineers to run pilots in parallel, and use case studies to get warm intros into regional colos and maintenance firms while running targeted outbound to NOC/infrastructure managers.
• First 100: Scale through channel partners (maintenance providers, regional colo groups, DCIM/ticketing integrators) with a partner kit, co‑sell incentives, and standard security/compliance and pricing docs; stand up customer success for onboarding, SLAs, and references.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The global data center colocation market was about $69.4B in 2024, indicating large ongoing spend on facilities where remote inspection/maintenance tools could apply Grand View Research. There were over 1,100 hyperscale data centers at the end of 2024, another high‑value segment for remote operations tools Synergy Research Group.

Bottom-up calculation:

By end‑2024 there were roughly 5,186 colocation data centers plus ~1,136 hyperscale sites, or about 6,300 sites that could use remote inspection/manipulation robots ABI Research Synergy Research Group. If an average site subscribes to 1–2 robots at ~$150k ARR each, TAM is roughly $0.95–$1.9B annually.

Assumptions:

• Focus on colocation and hyperscale facilities as initial reachable segments; excludes smaller enterprise server rooms.
• Average of 1–2 robots per site at ~$150k ARR based on expected RaaS pricing for mobile manipulation in regulated facilities.
• Adoption assumes basic integration with DCIM/ticketing and security policies, enabling use across most sites.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Boston Dynamics (Spot): Quadruped robot widely used for automated facility inspections and repeatable routes; overlaps on monitoring and remote triage, but Spot is inspection‑first and doesn’t ship as a data‑center‑grade rack‑manipulation system out of the box Boston Dynamics support article.
• ANYbotics (ANYmal): Autonomous industrial inspection robots for hazardous/large facilities; overlaps on continuous inspections and anomaly detection, but prioritizes sensing/autonomy over precise rack‑level manipulation in tight aisles ANYbotics.
• Cobalt Robotics: Indoor security robots for autonomous patrols with remote operator workflows; overlaps on patrol and live video/sensor feeds, but not built for dexterous hardware tasks like cable reconnects or drive swaps Cobalt.
• Knightscope: Large autonomous security/patrol robots for continuous surveillance; overlaps on monitoring/alerting, but form factor and mission are ill‑suited for narrow data‑center aisles or hands‑on rack work Knightscope.
• OhmniLabs (Ohmni / OhmniCare): Telepresence robots for remote driving, live video, and communication; overlaps on remote visual triage, but lacks onboard manipulation for physical fixes inside racks OhmniLabs.