Matt Bilsky is a mechanical engineer (and avid outdoors guy) who completed his undergrad, master’s, and PhD at Lehigh. Today, he’s the founder and CEO of FLX Solutions, a startup aiming to disrupt the robotics market with a snake-like robot that can access hard to reach places, saving time and money while protecting workers across a range of industries.
For Bilsky, being an entrepreneur is the logical extension to a path that might have started around the day he threw a tantrum as a four-year-old when his mom wouldn’t buy him an extension cord. “I had a little shop in the basement,” he says, “and I think I knew what I wanted to build, I just didn’t have the skill set to make it. Now, 20 years later, I’m able to make those things a reality.”
Bilsky’s story takes us through those early days of trial and error, to stumbling upon mechatronics as an undergrad, and essentially designing his own PhD program. And of course, we learn about—and listen to—the inventions small and large and potentially game-changing that he’s creating in South Bethlehem.