Hayden Gosch is Co-Founder and CTO at Voltair, a Y Combinator-backed startup developing self-charging autonomous drones that perch on power lines to enable unlimited-range grid inspections and wildfire prevention.

Hayden studied electrical and computer engineering at the University of Washington with a focus on power electronics, graduating in 2025. He spent two years doing system protection engineering at Seattle City Light and later worked in R&D at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL).

Hayden and co-founder Ronan Nopp have been friends since middle school and developed a passion for energy infrastructure and drone technology. Voltair won two UW Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship competitions in 2025, earning $45,000 in total winnings.

Since founding Voltair in 2025, the team has validated their core charging technology on power lines, built 5 flying prototypes, and inspected approximately 2,000 utility poles. The company was accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2026 batch and is based in San Francisco.

Voltair's autonomous drones can deliver over 20x the inspection coverage for the same cost as manual inspections, completing full grid inspections every 60 days versus 5 to 11 years manually. With 50 miles of range, Voltair can service 90% of U.S. land area and aims to eliminate wildfire risk for utilities.