053 Jason Aldridge on Turf Tank’s Rise in Sports Tech

On this episode, hear from Jason Aldridge, a veteran founder and executive with over 30 years of experience building and scaling emerging hardware and software technologies.Jason is the founder of Turf Tank, where he spent the last decade taking a bold idea from concept to global market leadership. What started as a simple question, “What if a robot could paint sports fields?” became a category-defining autonomous robotics platform with more than 6,000 robots operating worldwide on annual subscription, serving everyone from NFL and MLS teams to high schools, colleges, and municipal parks departments.Throughout the conversation, Jason breaks down what it takes to introduce robotics and automation into a traditionally manual industry. He shares how Turf Tank earned trust one customer at a time, why world-class service became just as important as product innovation, and how shifting from upfront hardware sales to a Robot-as-a-Service subscription model unlocked scalable growth.They also dive into the realities of scaling a hardware company, from supply chain and onboarding systems to managing thousands of annual subscriptions, navigating COVID, and building a global team of more than 200 employees.Jason closes by reflecting on his recent exit from Turf Tank and his next chapter, where he now works with founders, leaders, and organizations on strategy, execution, and long-term legacy building.This episode is packed with practical insight for founders, operators, and investors building in sports, robotics, automation, or any business where real innovation requires changing how work has been done for decades.