Ep. 101 - Drone Tech Built in America

Meet the team revolutionizing American drone manufacturing at a critical moment in the industry's evolution. Tobin Fisher founded Vantage Robotics on Christmas Eve 2013, combining his mechanical engineering background with software expertise to create drones that rival foreign competitors while meeting stringent security requirements for government clients.

What began as a consumer-focused venture took a pivotal turn when CNN approached the company seeking drones that could fly over crowds. This challenge led to groundbreaking innovation in safety testing methodology. Using simple foam from Home Depot, the team developed a testing protocol that translated impact measurements into medical risk assessments, ultimately securing the first FAA waiver for commercial flight over non-participants and establishing what became an industry standard.

Today, Vantage serves defense, first responders, and critical infrastructure inspections with two primary products: the Trace drone (2.2 pounds with 50-minute flight time) and a smaller 150-gram model featuring thermal imaging and capabilities that rival much larger competitors. Both are manufactured in America with NDAA compliance, making them eligible for government procurement at a time when Chinese alternatives face increasing restrictions.

The real-world impact is profound. From locating missing children with thermal cameras to clearing potentially dangerous buildings before officers enter, these drones save lives while keeping first responders safer. Vladimir Goforth, who leads sales efforts, recently completed demonstrations for multiple law enforcement agencies across multiple states, showing captains and chiefs how the technology addresses critical operational challenges.

Manufacturing sophisticated technology domestically presents significant challenges, especially competing against countries with lower labor costs and fewer regulations. Yet Vantage has survived both a global pandemic and supply chain crisis through constant innovation and adaptation. Their commitment to American manufacturing positions them perfectly as regulations increasingly restrict foreign-made drones in sensitive applications.

Curious about American-made drone technology or want to explore how these tools might serve your organization? Visit https://vantagerobotics.com/about/ to learn more and connect with the team behind this remarkable success story in domestic technology manufacturing.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because it's always so hard, right?
I've talked to youngentrepreneurs and I even
contemplate it myself Like what,what's the right choice?
How much do you go raise?
What are you going after?
And I think it's wise to inthat point, I haven't really
thought about that but yourinnovation level, your team,
your, your basically your tribementality and connection to
innovate quickly, go to marketquick, do the right things when

(00:23):
you get past that, thatthreshold of those hundred folks
.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
All right, it's great to be back here again on the
show.
Are we ready to go?

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, let's go, man, let's do it All right?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, we've been talking here this morning about
the idiocy of boomers like me.
That's how we kick this thingoff.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Well, just for the record, you're the one that said
that.
Like Vladimir told me, none ofus said anything about that man
as a boomer.
You're talking about boomers.
Just make sure everybody in theaudience knows that.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I just speak the truth and I repeat what my
14-year-old tells me.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Which is what that?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm a boomer.
We don't know anything.
They put us in our place,that's right, but anyway, no,
we're here today We've got aspecial guest with us Long
distance Tobin Fisher, and thenwe also have Vladimir Goforth.
Both of these guys are withVantage Robotics.

(01:29):
Tobin is one of the foundersand Vlad is in charge of
marketing.
I guess or sales, sales, salesit's all the same thing, right?

Speaker 4 (01:39):
yeah, oh, yeah it ties, it ties in together.
I definitely feel like wheneverwe're, we're doing our work,
that's a lot of it is tyingthose two together and making it
happen.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, Somebody's got to get the order right.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
And we want the POs Normally in those emails these
days are saying looking forwardto that PO back.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, you guys have a very interesting company, why
don't you?
Oh, before we get started, yes,I was just waiting.
This is another episode of BigTalk about small business.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
All right.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Tobin, how professional was that.
That was pretty incredible.
It was.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
That was pretty good.
So tell us, though, tobin, tellus about this business.
What all do you do?
How did you get into it?

Speaker 5 (02:29):
We make drones and enabling components and ground
system for drones.
We for first responders,national security and critical
infrastructure inspections.
We have been in business nowfor 11 years Wow.
I founded the company December24th 2013, which my wife loved

(02:54):
that I was handling acorporation on Christmas Eve.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Was it little Christmas at your house, Did you
say like don't spend too muchthis year.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
This Christmas it's all about Tobin.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
We're going to need all the money we got.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
So that's been.
You said December 13th.

Speaker 5 (03:22):
December 24th.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Of 13,.
It was 2013?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Where was this at December 24th?
December 24th, I mean, of 13.
Yes, it was 2013.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
So where's the?
Where were you?
Where was this at?
Where did you find?
What area were you?
Did you found it at?

Speaker 5 (03:32):
San Francisco Bay Area, so I think it was probably
my kitchen table.
Yeah, those businesses arefounded from and yeah, we now
are in.
San Leandro is the midpointbetween uh, my house in san
francisco and my co-founder'shouse in uh in south bay, nice.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
So what motivated you to start this business?

Speaker 5 (04:01):
you know it's a combination of factors.
Uh, you know I've always had afascination with flying things
and you know my background ismechanical engineering.
But I started a softwarecompany that did fairly well and
it seemed like a chance tocontinue mechanical engineering,

(04:22):
which is near and dear to myheart and I love and software.
And you know I also work for acompany called IDEO that is, you
know, sort of one of the bestdesign consultancies in the
country and very close ties withApple and very good at making
those really refined consumerexperiences and very good at

(04:45):
making those really refinedconsumer experiences.
And I saw a real opportunitywhen I got into it that drones
were this kind of nerdy hobbytech that clearly had potential
well beyond that nerdy hobbytech and felt like I had the
right experience and skill setto take it there.
It seemed like an excitingchallenge.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
So you're kind of in the obviously the software side
of things professionally but onthe hardware side of things with
your mechanical engineeringprevious to your software, like
that was your studies,mechanical engineering.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
Yeah, and I also started a micro fuel cell
company.
So I've got a bit of experiencemaking physical things as well
and designing them at IDEO andmultiple degrees.
So some experience in thatfront as well.
But you know I've alwaysenjoyed the multi,
multi-discipline challenges.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
I think I went through five majors before
circling back to mechanicalengineering yeah, yeah, it's
cool, and drones is like aperfect and robotics obviously
perfect area to bring all thosethings together and then where
you're located, obviouslythere's a lot of fuel to that.
A lot of talent out there, yeah, a lot of talent.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
It's an unreal place to do innovation.
It's an expensive place to live, but a great place to innovate.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, and especially in today's time.
I mean it's even getting morelike that right With AI and
everything that's going on.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yes so when you started this business, were you
thinking that you werepredominantly going to go after
a government client base, whichit, as an entrepreneur, has
always been?

Speaker 5 (06:17):
try to have a positive impact on the world and
make the biggest impact you can, and you know I've been very

(06:39):
flexible as far as where that isand how that's done.
But you know, initially weactually started out a consumer
and, you know, saw ourselvesvery much as a creative tool and
you know we considered a widerange of possible applications
at the outset, you know, lookedinto farming applications,

(07:00):
looked into law enforcement,defense and ultimately decided
that those markets were toonascent for us.
The consumer was going to bethe first adopter and so the
approach we took is went around,basically asked everyone I knew
.
When I saw them, I said show meyour favorite picture, show me
your favorite video that meansthe most to you and tell me

(07:21):
about it.
And everyone was showing mepictures of, you know, their
kids and their recent birthdayparty and their engagement and,
uh, and my thinking was let'smake a drone that can make those
pictures better and createsomething that will be effective
and useful in social settingswhich didn't exist.

(07:43):
Uh, and so we set out to createa product that you know solved
the sort of issues.
It was, you know, easilyportable and quiet and safe and,
uh, and easy to use.
And you know we were.
I think we distinguish ourselvesin that we were one of the only

(08:06):
companies who actually did whatthey set out to do.
This was a time when everyoneand their brother was saying I'm
going to start a drone companyto do something amazing.
A lot of pretty notable failures.
A lot of people like ourselvesdiscovered it's really really
hard, and one of the things welearned along the way, in

(08:29):
addition to very, very steadystream of humility, was that
while what we did was valued inthe consumer space, those
innovations were much morehighly valued elsewhere, and so
you know, the first pivot wemade was really initiated when
CNN contacted us and they said,hey, we're looking for a drone
that we can fly illegally overpeople, and currently that's not

(08:52):
possible.
Specifically, the frangibledesign of our drone, and so we
ended up working with the FAAand CNN to demonstrate the
safety of our drone.
In the process, we created alot of what's currently the

(09:12):
method of testing the safety ofdrones, so some innovations
there as well.
But it ended up getting thefirst broad waiver in history
for commercial flight overcrowds of non-participants,
which launched a transition intothe most terrifying business
you could ever be in of having avery high-tech, cutting-edge

(09:34):
product flying over lots ofpeople.
But we were successful at that,and then that is what really
got our foot in the door withgovernment customers when that
market started to develop forsmall drones.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Hey, Tobin, real quick.
What year was that?
When CNN, when you did thatflight over the crowd, you
remember?

Speaker 5 (09:57):
Yeah, I think it was 2017, if that serves correct,
maybe 2016 was the first I thinkit was we got the waiver.
2017 was when you know the CNNwas using it broadly.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, because, like and I think that's important
because the context, like whenI've recognized what you're
talking about because there'sbeen, there's a lot of
regulations related to thesedrones.
I mean, in my experience, whichis watching it from a retail
perspective, like you know,delivery and stuff like that.
Obviously those regulationshave been opened up more since
that time, but back when you'retalking about it was a lot of

(10:31):
regulation to prevent bad thingsfrom happening.
Obviously, but that's pretty alandmark scenario.
I just want to point that out.
In that time period that yougot that it's a big deal.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
Yeah, we were excited .
It was certainly an honor forus and uh meaningful to get to
you know.
Feel like we can move theneedle on uh in a pretty, pretty
major national level regulatedimpacted the whole industry.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Clearly it did it.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It basically opened it up significantly, I would for
a lot of competitors too.
At the same time right.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
Yeah, well, and you might appreciate that the
backstory is a fun story wherewe our office at the time was on
top of a Home Depot and the FAAwas really stuck on this idea
that safety was measured injoules in kinetic energy, and so
they had this number I think itwas 14.7 joules was what

(11:30):
determined whether a drone was athreat or not, and no one
really knew where that numbercame from or why that was the
number, but everyone was likethis is the number, 14.7 joules.
And so I ended up diggingaround, discovering that it was
actually based on a study fromthe 1940s on battlefield
shrapnel and the lethality ofbattlefield shrapnel, and then

(11:57):
noted as well that there aresimilar studies for non-lethal
ballistics munitions, and forthose studies, the, the numbers
300 joules.
And there are also studies onvehicles hitting pedestrians,
and for that number, the, forthat those studies, the number
is 30,000 joules, and you mightpoint to that because you look

(12:18):
at the wrong number, this.
You know this isn't really ameasure of safety.
And in order to prove thispoint to them, we got a piece of
EPS insulation foam from theHome Depot we were conveniently
on top of and we went to the topof our building and we dropped

(12:39):
various objects on the drone, onthe foam, and then we both took
pictures of the impact cratersas well as we made measurements
on them.
What's the total area displaced?
What's the peak depth?
We translated that intophysics-based measurements and

(13:00):
then translate that into medicalstudies of what's the risk of
skull fracture, what's the riskof cranial vertebrae fracture,
and compare droppingshrapnel-like stuff with our
drone with other objects.
And that was ultimately notonly the basis of our approval,
but also became the at leastlast I heard the ASTM standard

(13:23):
for evaluating safety of drones.
At the time, everyone wastrying to drop drones in the
heads of crash test dummies, butthey were really expensive.
Depending on where it hit inthe head of the dummy, you get
totally different results, andso it ended up being an
effective innovation, as yousaid, kind of paving the way for
other drone companies toevaluate the safety of their
drones using a $15 piece of foamfrom Home Depot instead of a
$250,000 crash test.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Well, this is pure entrepreneurism right To
challenge old rules, right andold concepts.
I mean, that's what we do.
You know, why wouldn't we Rightexactly.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
I mean, and one thing I think with Tobin is,
regardless of what people thinkit did for our competitors, it's
good for the industry.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, no, you opened it up Rising tides raise all
ships.
That's right, and that's whatwe want.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
We don't want to make anyone feel like they're not
allowed to succeed in theindustry.
You deserve to succeed just asmuch as Mark me, tobin,
everybody.
So I think that that innovationand I think collaboration
between companies in the UnitedStates is necessary.
I think we have a lot of peoplejust saying we're on this side,
we're on this side, we're goingto go head to head.
When you look at a lot of othercountries, that's not really
the case.
They collaborate internally andmake better products.

(14:36):
We're seeing that out of Chinaright now.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
So that's fair.
That is happening a lot inChina, right now and keeping up
here?

Speaker 4 (14:43):
obviously we pay people here good wages to live.
We can't really keep up if it'sa different kind of government
that is.
You know.
Propping them up, basically andbasically getting you know, 10
engineers for the cost of ourone here.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
And so that makes it difficult to keep up, but I feel
like we're doing a dang goodjob.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, so do you make your drones here in the U S?

Speaker 4 (15:05):
yes, yeah, interesting and fully compliant
NDA compliant, which is thenational defense authorization
act here in the United States.
We're fully compliant with that, as well as a blue UAS and
green UAS list.
So it clears a lot of that redtape for a lot of the
departments and agencies we'reselling to.
So it makes procurement of ourdrones a lot easier, so you can

(15:26):
use grant money, federal funds,a lot of things like that, and
you know we're proud to be ableto build these things in America
and not source parts from othercountries.
I think I think it's important.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
So you actually all the parts are manufactured in
the U?

Speaker 4 (15:38):
S and almost all of them there's little things like
the, uh, the motors and thingslike that.
That can be from othercountries, but as far as the
transmission and the camera,those are all made in the United
States, correct?

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Oven.
We are NDAA compliant.
The final assembly all happensin the US.
We do sometimes make PCBAs andother sub-assemblies in lower
labor rate regions in order tokeep the cost down value high.
So we work with partners inIndia and Taiwan as well.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
And is everything assembled and brought all
together in the United States?
For sure, right.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
It is when do you do that.
About 50 feet from me right now.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Yeah, san Leandro, california.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Nice yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
And one thing that's really great about our company
is, if you look at our pricepoint for the drones that we
make and their capabilities, wehave the best price point as far
as american manufacturers aregoing american eoms.
So I just think that ultimately, you know, we are in a perfect
position to really help publicsafety, law enforcement, our
government.
Our price point is definitelyone of the best and, with

(16:50):
everything that's going on inthe country where prices are
going up, we're proud to keep itlow.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
That's cool.
So right now, like your marketthat you're or your, your market
you're really serving is, likeyou mentioned before, tobin the
first responders, governmentorganizations, and that's kind
of where you are really leanedinto right now at the moment.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
Yeah, yeah.
So before I came on, tobin andteam had secured a lot of
funding through the, through thegovernment, for you know,
developing drones for the army.
And you know, that you know,closer to that $50 million mark
and above at this point, nowthat I'm on board and we're
doing more public safety.
I actually just got back intotown last night from about a
two-week roadshow where we wentto different states.

(17:30):
I started in West Texas, closerto Austin and Burnett, texas.
I worked with Texas DPS and alot of the guys that are working
on the border down there, movedinto Louisiana.
Then we met with over 40agencies in Louisiana, in Baton
Rouge two weeks ago, and then weproceeded to Nashville where we

(17:50):
met about 25 more agencies, andthen we went to West Virginia,
virginia, and then I flew out ofWashington DC last night to be
here and each one of those stopswe were just seeing sheriff's
offices, state police, policedepartments and emergency
management, fire departments,you name it.

(18:11):
If we had the contacts and weinvited them, they showed up.
I can't tell you how manycaptains we had show up and say
why do we not have this kind ofequipment in our department
right now?
And obviously you have certainthings in certain parts of the
country Regulations, likeNashville the metropolitan
police actually cannot usedrones because there's a law in

(18:33):
place there where you cannot useaerial drones to watch people,
and you know that just takestime for those things to change.
Ultimately it would be saferfor the city if that were to
change, but we just have to workwith what we've got right now.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Sounds a lot like reminds me of the alcohol
industry right, where everycounty and every city has got a
certain law right.
There's distribution, I mean,there's just that's a little bit
of a.
It's a significant challenge toscale out your business, but
you guys are fighting it andmaking that change and we have
to.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
We got to pivot fast, man.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Our competitors are moving fast competitors being
not necessarily your productcompetitors, but you're talking
about the solution well,ultimately we're up against a
lot of different things.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
The biggest elephant in the room for us is a company
called dji.
Out of china.
They make amazing drums andbecause of where they are in the
world, they can.
They can pump money into theirbusiness.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
And they were a first mover on the consumer side of
drones, wouldn't you say?

Speaker 4 (19:30):
I would say so.
I would say so.
They were a pretty earlyadopter and just because of
their ability to innovate andcreate new technology and new
drones very quickly, they have apretty good strong you know
pretty good strong hold on our,on our drone space here in the
united states yeah, we have alot of departments, too, that

(19:51):
expect a certain standard nowbecause of what they put out,
but with legislation coming down, as you know, the security
thing that's coming into america, they're being outlawed,
essentially certain states thegovernment can't use them
anymore.
But it's because they found that, you know, there was
transmission going back toshenzhen and yeah videos,
pictures, flight data, yep, allwas being transmitted back and,

(20:14):
wow, we, we can't allow that tohappen because ultimately, now
you know, the entire unitedstates has been mapped and they
have I mean they got they havetens of thousands of drones over
here.
Man Tens of thousands.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
But have they mapped out Antarctica yet?
Probably, probably.
They say there's aliens, Iwould say I would say they've
got it all.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
That's your next market Tobin I want to know what
that is.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, so Tobin now, have you guys thought about
going after the private sectorin a B2B?
Is that a consideration?
Or is it all government andinstitutional type clients that
you are working with?

Speaker 5 (20:54):
No, it very much is, and in two ways.
So you know there are threeprimary customers that we serve,
so defense, first respondersand critical infrastructure
inspections.
That last one is sort of thepublic-private domain, but

(21:15):
that's certainly in the privateindustry.
And then the other one is otherdrone companies.
So the controller you havethere Vision 2 controller, I can
humbly say, is the bestportable drone controller in the
world today.
I wonder what this was.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
It's the most portable controller.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
You showed it is the just flat out best of portable
drone controllers, and the thingthat makes it the best is we
were we're the only companiesthat have the technical
sophistication to actually makea mobile computer from the
ground up.
The person running the programactually created the first
Android tablet ever at Motorola,and that led us basically build

(21:59):
the controller, choosing theright screen, choosing the right
processor and making a reallyeffective mobile computer,
whereas everyone else is takingtablets and putting sticks
around them.
Uh, with the screen that's everintended to be viewed outdoors
an operating system, they don'tcontrol the really bulky,
expensive piece of kind ofcobbled together hardware, uh,
and so we offer that to otherdrone companies and uh so this

(22:22):
is your, this is your product,right here.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I mean your proprietary and it's metal,
that's cool, that's serious man,Is it?
Wow, magnesium controller thatcan handle all kinds of
conditions.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
And when you talk about institutional military, I
mean that's extremely importantobviously I'm sure they like
that have it on your pack, say,you have a velcro on this, you

(22:57):
just strap it to your shoulder,yeah, and just go up a mountain,
launch it and the drone's superlight, with a battery on it.
It's 2.2 pounds and our batterylife right now you're getting
50 minutes out of that flighttime.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
You know that's unheard of in the american space
right now that is a very simple, looking cool sort of
apple-esque design for a drone.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
It's high praise, thank you.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, so is this.
This is the two.
These are the two productsyou'll be selling to the.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
We have three, so we also have a smaller drone than
the one that you see there, butwhen we flew back in last night,
my teammate needed it.
We're doing a demo at.
Fort Rucker in Alabama.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Here's the small drone.
So this is the small drum withthe controller in the packaging
there, and then I'll pull it outso you can see it yeah, it's
literally 150 grams with thebattery so it is a 150 gram
drone with capabilities thatactually surpass a lot of drones
that weigh two kilograms.
So it's uh, you know it'll flyover six kilometers away.

(23:55):
It can fly on high wind about42 minute flight time.
Uh has a thermal camera onthere as well as a 48 megapixel
eo, all gimbal stabilized yeahcan we arm that thing?

Speaker 4 (24:07):
that's what I want I'm sorry, I mean it's, but
it's's the what's the benefit?

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Why would you want the bigger one?
Does it have more flight time?
I mean there's some specs to itLike it has a little bit more
battery.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah, and it all depends on what you're trying to
do with it, right?
So we also have a lot ofdifferent attachments.
So when we are doing our demosfor the narcotics units, for the
police departments, yesterday,we have shrouds that go around
all of our drone props.
So for this and the trace, sothey can fly indoors, so we can
clear houses and actuallyalleviate an officer having to

(24:44):
go inside and risk their lives.
So the drone can go in, you canclear a room based on the
officer's standards.
They're like.
We have to be able to see itlike this check that room, move
forward, cause if they send aguy and he gets shot that's,
that's not gonna work.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
You're saving lives with this technology.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
It is shrouds being like they protect the props,
yeah, yeah from hitting hittingsomething.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
Yes, sir, prop cages.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
So right here, those right there yeah, that's, that's
super that's like the coolestshroud I've ever seen in my life
.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
And it's also it works really well.
Like we were testing it throughlike busted up cars.
Like we were at a public safetytraining site yesterday and
they had just crazy burn intactical houses all this
different stuff on site thereand we were having to just fly
it through whatever they askedus to.
They're like this is how we usethis stuff on a day-to-day
basis.

(25:33):
If we had it in our toolbox,show us if it can do it.
And man, the drones performedreally well.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Can a consumer, can an individual, buy any of your
products?

Speaker 4 (25:45):
They could technically Tobin.
What do you have to say aboutthat?
They're not our target customerRight.

Speaker 5 (25:53):
So you know if someone wants to buy it we won't
tell them no.
But that said, a lot of whatmakes our product amazing for
law enforcement and our defensecustomers doesn't make it that
amazing for a consumer.
So the fact that it's secureelectronics and encrypted
communications and a thermalcamera probably is not the best

(26:17):
value for them at the end of theday.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, so from getting into the business side of it,
your objective is you probablywant to sell these for our
listeners, right, the businesseconomic.
You most likely want to sellthese in quantities.
You most likely want to sellthese in quantities.
And more of a host You're, moreof a wholesale type of, or bulk
seller of, your products, right, like?

(26:41):
You're not going to sell oneoff to a they're a solution
provider.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
solution provider, that's what they are.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
It's a solution provider.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
We do both.
I hate that cliche, but it'strue.
Yeah, it's an integratedsolution.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
Who's interested in trying one to potentially buy
100.
Yeah, we do try to look forlarger customers and work with
folks who we can scale with.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, you mentioned this infrastructure stuff
public-private.
I worked in the engineeringbusiness my entire career,
business, my entire career andI'm actually I'm also an owner
and a firm based out there inCalifornia that's a structural
engineering, earthquake disasterrecovery firm, but that's.
I think that's a really goodmarket that I hadn't thought of.

(27:26):
You know some of these largerengineering firms that are doing
all kinds of inspection bridgeinspections or dam inspections
or parking structure inspections.
There's like all kinds ofinspection bridge inspections or
dam inspections or parkingstructure inspections.
There's like all kinds ofapplications for this thing.

Speaker 5 (27:39):
A hundred percent, and you know DJI has really
owned that market for a longtime, and you know we're very
grateful to the federalgovernment, you know, who's
provided us with about 22million in R&D funding to sort
to develop our tech to start tobe able to compete with DGI.

(28:00):
And then the current laws beingpassed this year it looks like
DGI is going to be entirelybanned in the US by the end of
this year, and we're in a reallynice spot in that we have this
technology that was originallydeveloped for defense customers
but is very relevant to theseengineering customers, and so

(28:20):
we've been in the process now ofadvancing it for capabilities
specific to them.
One that we're really excitedabout is we actually, just last
week, did our first flight wherewe were able to get what's
called RTK GPS integrated onthis trace drone.
Rtk GPS is what those customerswant, so it basically gives us

(28:41):
the ability to know within abouta centimeter exactly where the
drone is on the planet, so itcan then take pictures that can
be geo-registered precisely,create precise 3D models used
for as-built engineeringinspections.
Create precise 3D models usedfor as-built engineering
inspections but the idea ofdoing that in a drone that costs

(29:01):
under $20,000 and weighs under250 grams has been pretty
unheard of up to this point.
So we'll be the first of itskind and there's a big, big
potential for that for a varietyof reasons.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
If you guys ever want to reach out to the hundred
fastest growing architecture andengineering firms, we have our
annual conference.
It's wide group.
You guys should really be infront of that audience.
I mean, I think they'd befascinated with this.

Speaker 5 (29:28):
I would love to have that conversation.
I yes, please.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, but did you?
Oh, I'm sorry You'll have no,no, you are.
I mean, you're the main man ofthe show.
I'm not the main man of theshow.
Come on, Mark.
Like anytime, I try to saysomething.
No, I'm just kidding there, Allright.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
So, hey, one quick.
I heard the word the, the, thecontroller, the drone, all that
put together and a trace kitwith training, all for close to
$30,000.
So we're, not robbing people atthese departments.
We know that they've beenunderserved.
With technology it's now veryaccessible.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
So to put that in some context, this comparative
to a DJI right when you can goto a Best Buy or Walmart or
something and you can buy it for350 bucks To the listeners this
is a whole different spectrum.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
It is Of what we're talking about obviously, and I
want people to remember thatwhen you buy DJI equipment, you
are funding the problem.
We do not need to help how theyare treating their workers over
there.
And you know, a lot of us havetraveled over there and seen
Shenzhen and seen the way thatpeople are worked.
You don't want that foryourself, man.

(30:49):
You don't want that.
And if you support American, weare building this here with
people here and trying to makeit for users that work on the
ground in the United States.
Obviously, we have a globalbase, but I truly you know I'm
an immigrant man.
I think supporting this countryis very important.
It's the best place I've everlived.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
So just to add to the sort of us versus DGI
comparison.
I think it's worth noting that,yes, you can buy.
You can buy a drone for $30 onAmazon and, man, it's amazing
what you can get for $30.
It blows my mind that said it'snot what we deliver, nor is a
$350 drone.
What we deliver, you know whatwe deliver is more comparable to

(31:30):
, say, the Matrice from DJI,which is getting closer to the
$10,000 price point, and so youknow you can buy a full trace
system for about $10,000 as well.
So you know we're getting closein terms of value competition
with China.
You know, as Vlad says, they'rea hard one to compete with

(31:50):
because you know they haveaccess to labor rates and you
know willingness to.
You know perhaps bend,environmental or you know other
human rights ethics that wedon't have.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
But we're in the motorcycle manufacturing
business, and so we deal withthis all the time.
I mean what we pay for ourengines, you can buy a complete
bike in China from China, for Imean it's just.
There's just no way you cancompete on price alone because,
like you said, they know laborlaws, no environmental

(32:30):
regulations.
I mean it's just you know, andthen maybe the government props
it up on top of it.
So let's talk a little bitabout your business itself,
though.
So here we are.
We've got the ideal stage tohave this incredibly successful
growth spurt, with the buyAmerican push and potentially

(32:52):
your biggest competitor beingthrown out of the market.
That's a great opportunity forwhoever owns this business.
What's the ownership structureof this thing, and has that
evolved?

Speaker 5 (33:05):
Yeah, so we're, we're a C corp and we have we've
raised about 25 million inprivate investment and so those
investors obviously own a pieceof the company as a result.
That said, you know the youknow we're very grateful for the

(33:30):
relationship we have with ourinvestors and so you know we're
certainly able to steer thecompany in the way that we think
is best have with our investors, and so you know we're
certainly able to steer thecompany the way that we think is
best and you know it's been, uh, a very, it's been a wonderful
company to have the opportunityto work.
Uh, in that, you know, if itsucceeds, uh, we'll certainly
grateful for everyone that thathelps, has helped along the way,
but if we fail, uh, we'll nailourselves to blame yeah you know

(33:55):
, on that, I'm glad you broughtthat because I was thinking
earlier, you know, as you weretalking about the competitor
being knocked out.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
You know you got government, there's funding
coming on and all that To ouraudience who might be an
entrepreneur or thinking aboutit.
Right, that's usually who ouraudiences are, right, they're
trying to decide or they'retrying to grow their business A
lot of different folks.
But you know, if I put myselfin an entrepreneur, shoot, I'm
like man, what a fantastic.
I mean, what an advantage.

(34:22):
You know.
I mean that some folks might go.
Well, how lucky that is.
Right toby now.
You see already smiling becausebut to make sure that there are
listeners are clear, it is notan easy ride to get to your
positioning opportunity thatyou're in right now.
I mean like it took lots oftime, lots of energy.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, you slogged it out for 12 years.
Yeah, man you work.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Like you know, I love Sam Walton's quote right Like
yeah, I'm an overnight success,40 years in the making.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
Right Dang right.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Right, and I mean it is a hard road.
So can you talk about that alittle bit, about like it sounds
really great right now, butit's been a labor to get here,
right, yeah, it reminds me ofthe quote the best part of being
an entrepreneur is you get towork half days and you get to
pick which 12 hours.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, amen.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
That's a get to pick.
You get to work half days andyou get to pick which 12 hours.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, exactly yeah that's a good one, right?
So the journey to get heretoberon has been it's been, I
mean, like man, you've beenhammering at it for years, right
?
Lots of challenges andobstacles, and to be in this
particular position uh, that isa fact and man holy.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
I cannot think of a harder and worse time than the
one-two punch of a globalpandemic and a global supply
chain crisis.
We had our product that cost$250 that suddenly cost $400.
We were redesigning our productpractically on a monthly basis
to try to figure out how to workaround the latest chip that

(35:55):
became unavailable, and that isa period of time that I do not
care to ever relive.
It was my life, that is forsure.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Not that I want you to really relive it right now,
but I mean for real, like what,what was that?
I mean likeive it right now,but I mean for real, like what
was that?
I mean like, how did youovercome?
I mean, give our listeners sometips if they're going through a
hard time in their business.
What was maybe one or twothings that you did to break
through that time period?

Speaker 5 (36:33):
I mean, a lot of it was just putting one foot in
front of another, I must say,and not giving up.
Yes, probably the mostimportant part.
And then, I think, recognizingas well to you know that it's a
marathon, not a sprint, and thatyou have to take care of your
health.
You know, I've always had afirm belief.
You know your own personalhealth and your family's health

(36:54):
has to take priority overwhatever you're doing at work,
because if that's not intact,whatever you're doing at work is
going to be short lived.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
What does that mean, though?
Like taking care of your health, Because that's a pretty broad
statement.
Like I mean, what are you?
What are you talking about?

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Yeah, so I made the joke about working 12 hour days.
I don't work 12 hour days,about working 12 hour days?
I don't work 12 hour days.
I actually try very hard to youknow, I leave the office often
by 4.30 so I can get home intime to go get on the water in
the bay for an hour beforedinner, and that just does

(37:28):
wonders for my mental health andmy ability to sleep well at
night.
That's usually my canary in thecoal.
Mine is I'm not sleeping.
I recognize something is offthe rails and I have to make a
change, or it's, it's.
It's unsustainable.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Get underwater in the Bay.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
On the water.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
On the water in the Bay kite surfing.

Speaker 4 (37:52):
Tobin's pretty, he's a he's.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
He's pretty athletic man, he's out there, okay, yeah
so so I mean, but I'd like tokind of break that down a little
bit, because what you're reallysaying if you're mountain
biking, right, or what you needsome physical exertion in
business like to really kind ofhelp, like I mean, that's
important right To keep yourstamina going.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
Whatever it does for you to clear your head, to
connect with friends.
But you know, what I've foundis that the, you know, our brain
is a muscle just like any othermuscle in our body and you can
overtrain it and you know whenyou do it's not going to perform
.
I remember years and years agoI tried to do a marathon that

(38:34):
was coming up soon by just doingthe training program but taking
out all the rest sections, andI nearly made it.
But I remember when I did the22 mile run I did it really fast
and then my legs just could notrecover.
And you discover that restactually does matter and it
matters just as much for yourhead.
If you want your head to beperforming as well as it can,

(38:57):
you got to give it a break fromtime to time and take care of it
.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Have you guys heard about this Dutch concept called
Neksen?
By chance, tell us about it.
You do nothing.
Seriously, that's what it is,you're not going to meditate.
You don't meditate, meditate,you just do nothing okay maybe
you sit there and look out thewindow and drink your coffee,

(39:22):
just but it's doing nixon.
They believe in that yeah, itsounds like nixon, but um,
anyway, I mean hey, just readingabout this, so it's well along
the lines of what you're saying,though you just give your brain
a rest.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Well, I mean like there's been you know, like I've
read articles and stuff aboutwhere and I do this accidentally
, but you just daydream, yeah,like you.
Just you float off Like you can.
I've seen people do it Like youjust kind of stare off and you
don't really even know whatyou're doing.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
I fall asleep when I do that.
Yeah, do you.
Yeah, that's what happens whenyou get to be my age.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
You can just take naps anywhere.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Dude, I have a great story.
I was doing this biggest Tobin.
You'll like this too.
You're glad I was doing thebiggest presentation in my life
about I don't know 10 years ago.
It was like huge opportunityfor my company and I go and I
drive for like all overall.

(40:16):
Not, I mean, I am just wasted,tired.
You know, speaking I'm nottaking care of yourself, but I
get in this boardroom andthere's like 20 people in this
company judging my presentationabout what I'm trying to pitch
them and the owner of it, olderguy.
I look over and I'm likeliterally the middle of my
presentation.
He's just over there knockedout, just sleeping, and then
he'd wake up and he'd look at mein the eyes and he'd laugh at
himself and he'd look around andthen five minutes later he's

(40:39):
passed back out.
But he thought it was thefunniest thing that ever
happened.
And I'm just like, dude,everything's aligned for me, bro
.
And you're taking a nap.
That's like Mark Zweig man.
I'm surprised you're not takinga nap during our podcast.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
I'm going to need one one today.
I woke up at three o'clock.
Talk about laying awake,telling your body there's
something wrong.
I was up, dude.
Yeah, I was drinking coffee byfour.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Heck yeah, man but anyway the same, I'm gonna get a
lot done early.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, it just.
And it's not because I, like,got hammered last night when the
booze kicked in, or something Iwent to the

Speaker 1 (41:12):
other way around.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
You wake up at night I went to bed early and I barely
drink, but no, that'sinteresting that you do that and
you're able to do that, tobin,and I think that makes a lot of
sense.
So where do you go?
How long are you going to dothis?
Do you have any big like exitstrategy for this business?

(41:33):
What's the plan going forward,aside from growing in this
market that you're in?

Speaker 5 (41:39):
Yeah well, I love what I'm doing.
If I do it for the rest of mylife, I'd call it a good life.
So you know, I'm certainly inno rush to get out.
That said, this isn't mycompany, you know.
My job is I am a custodian,taking care of everyone else's
piece of the company, and I have, at the end of the day, a

(42:00):
responsibility that is certainlybigger than me.
We've had seven offers foracquisition to date.
Not surprised, my way ofapproaching all of them has been
the same of asking the questionof if we were to be acquired,
uh, you know.
A is it good for everyone whoowns the shares in the company

(42:22):
right now?
Uh, and b and this is animportant one is, you know, can
we do what we're currently doingmore effectively under this new
ownership, because that's theonly way we'll be successful.
For the acquirer, the deal willhappen, uh, and, and it
certainly will continue to takethat approach as we look at new
opportunities for acquisition.
I think, as larger companiesrecognize that it would be

(42:46):
perhaps useful to have a smalldrone strategy.
I think that we're a fairlynatural acquisition target.
There aren't many companieslike us in the world, and so I
think that's certainly aplausible exit.
That said, I remember aninvestor of mine of ours saying

(43:07):
you got to want to ring thatbell referring to taking the
company public, and you knowthat would be exciting.
I'm certainly if that's, youknow, ends up being the right
path.
It's a path I would.
I would be thrilled to,thrilled to do, jeff.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Bullas 00,00,00 and a little bit of time.
I got two questions.
Number one so from our tell me,from I'm pointing towards you
on this the our audience orlisteners right, I mean as any
entrepreneur have as a choice,you start up Bootstrap, right,
you can go that method, raisecapital.
Obviously, in your area, in theBay area, there's a lot of

(43:45):
capital raising going on, right,that's kind of more, I would
say, that's more of the naturalthing that happened, I mean.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
I'm just taking an assumption there.
You know, I don't know ifthere's any yeah, what?

Speaker 1 (43:57):
what do you think like from you being a co-founder
in this?
When did you make that decision?
Or was that an obvious thingfrom the get?
Go on what you were going totry to build, and do you think
that what you're trying to dotriggers that decision?

Speaker 2 (44:11):
most likely, or is it more of a?
When you say decision, you'retalking about raising.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, like we need to go raise a lot of capital for
this venture, or can webootstrap it and retain equity?
What was yours based off?
What's your perspective on that?

Speaker 5 (44:29):
Yeah, I kind of the mental metaphor I have is making
a business, is there's at leastanalogies to trying to cross a
body of water?
You know, if you want to crossa puddle, you're going to just
step across.
If you want to cross a littlestream, or you know a river, you
could swim across.
You know, if you want to crossa lake, you know, maybe you can

(44:50):
make a little boat yourself andpaddle across.
But if you want to cross anocean or go around the world,
you need to build a bigger boatand that's going to, you know,
take more time, more money to doso.
And you know, I think in ourcase, and that usually requires
investment at the end of the day, and I think in our case, and
that usually requires investmentat the end of the day, and I
think in our case, it's worthnoting that Russia, who makes

(45:17):
nuclear submarines and mannedspacecraft, has been
unsuccessful making small drones.
Huawei tried to make a smalldrone and failed.
Gopro tried to make a smalldrone and failed.
Gopro tried to make a smalldrone and failed.
So we are, without a doubt,crossing an ocean, a really big
ocean, a really hard ocean tocross, one of the technically

(45:39):
most complex products ever, andso we do need to build a big
boat to do so, and that requiresmoney.
But I think that's the crux ofthe question.
Uh, you know, in theory you can, you can kind of make a you
know boat piece at a time.
Uh, you know kind of thebootstrap method in some markets
, but I don't think that oursreally lends itself to that.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Especially in your market, right?
That is like you reckon, likeit's just going to take time to
engineer.
I mean, so you and yourco-founder, y'all knew that
going into it.
So it was like an obvious goget, we need to go raise capital
, we need to support the timeit's going to take, the money
it's going to take.
That's why you went on thatjourney.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
It is.
That said, one of the greatthings about being in the Bay
Area is you get to know a lot offolks who have started other
big successful companies, andone of the things I have seen is
that the number I hear frommost people is that once you go
after about exceed 100 people inthe company, it becomes a lot

(46:38):
harder to innovate, and mostfounders I speak to have grown
companies to.
You know thousands of people saythat their favorite time, the
company's most effective time,was in that 50 to 100 person
range.
And so you know, while I dorecognize we have a big
challenge and a hard challengeand that there's a minimum
viable scale, I am a bigbeliever in small teams and the

(47:01):
power of small teams andcreating a company that, can you
know, built with people thatare capable of doing more than
the average person, workingreally closely together and
being conservative in how muchmoney we raise.
You know, one of the challengesif you raise $200, $300 million

(47:26):
is you're really limited to a$3 billion, $4 billion exit in
order to make a success.
In our case, having been moreconservative, I certainly would
like to cross that billiondollar mark, but if we sell the
company for $500, million Ithink a lot of investors would
say they're happy to get theinvestment.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
That is a really good point, man.
I think that will give, becauseit's always so hard.
Right've talked to a youngentrepreneur and I even
contemplate it myself like what,what's the right choice?
How much do you go raise?
What are you going after?
And I think it's wise to inthat point.
I haven't really thought aboutthat.
But your innovation level, yourteam, you're, you're basically
your tribe mentality andconnection to innovate quickly,

(48:07):
go to market quick, do the rightthings.
When you get past that, thatthreshold of those hundred folks
, it becomes money and a littlebit bureaucratic and political.
You know there's, there's otherthings that start becoming more
precedent than than stayingnimble in that.
So my other question, if I canask so, vlad, how long have you
worked with the company now?

Speaker 4 (48:27):
So Tobin just brought me on a few months ago a few
months ago.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
How did you learn so much so fast about this?

Speaker 4 (48:33):
Well, I've been in the drone space for a while.
I also have known about theircompany for a while, and it was
just the right time.
You know the the directorposition was open.
I'm great at sales, I loveTobin and I love the team there.
That's really one of the mainreasons that I wanted to come
over there was because of howthey've constructed the team and

(48:53):
the way that Tobin lets me work.
So you know, when he brought meon it's, I'm not going to
micromanage you.
You're going to, you'reexpected to do your work and you
do it, and I love that becauseI just I know what it needs to
be done.
I'm great at developingbusiness.
Whenever I'm in this stage andhe's just letting me move
forward, Like I just got back inlast night, we're doing this

(49:13):
today and then we're going to beright back out again doing more
demos in Arizona.
We have a huge one coming up inNorth Carolina and there's just
a lot of good things happeningfor the company and we also, you
know, big deals coming down thepipeline too for for military
and international military aswell.
So we just things are reallycoming together in a very
interesting way and I reallylove that he brought me on at

(49:37):
the time that he did.
It was a pivotal moment,especially for growth in the
company, to really hit thesemarkets hard, and it's, it's
been a great ride so far.
I love the team that I'm with,I love what we're doing and,
like Mark you say, it's reallyeasy to learn when you love what
you do.
So I really love what I do, sowhenever I I knew I was going to

(49:58):
be selling these products andit was pretty easy for me to
just sit down and learn learnexactly what they do.
And even though I'm in sales, Ilove to fly.
I've had my part one of seven.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
You've got to.
I mean, it's got to make youmore effective when you actually
understand how to use theproduct.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
Yeah, and that's where I started I mean that's
such a key.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
I think so.
Do you love to fly the dronesor fly in the airplanes to
meetings?
What are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (50:21):
I do both for sure, both for sure.
I love meeting customers.
So, as you know, I love gettingout being you know, being
extroverted just seeing thepeople that use these things.
I love getting out and doingthat.
And then, you know, I loveflying drones.
It started my love for thisstarted, you know, when I was
taking them apart in the verybeginning.
You know, whenever I firstfound this technology I was just

(50:42):
tinking around with it.
And my guy, chris, at UVT,actually brought me on for my
first drone position, and thereis where I really just started
to take these things apart,learn why they work, learn
what's going on in these thingsthat makes them do what they do,
and from that point it reallydrove me into sales, business
development and ultimately ledme in some really solid

(51:05):
positions that I can just really, you know, get out there and
show people why this technologyis necessary and why it can help
it.
There's no reason departmentsshouldn't have it.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I'm a big believer in generally in marketing.
That makes the phone ring Okay,yeah, and the sales is a is
sort of an afterthought in thatenvironment.
You're right.
In your case, I can see whyyou've got to be able to really
get face-to-face and demonstratethis stuff.
I mean, it's just toocomplicated to just sell it to
somebody over the phone orwhatever and people lie all the

(51:39):
time.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
We have a lot of companies and, as Tobin said, in
the American space we've hadhundreds of companies start up
and fail, and it's becausethey're trying to do what you're
talking about sell over thephone.
Tell people this is our specsheet, buy it.
A lot of people know you'refull of crap if you do that,
because the reality is we haveto show up on site, show the
departments how these work.

(52:00):
They even we let them fly.
Yeah, I had multiple captainsof departments yesterday that I
have pictures of them flyingthis equipment, and one of them
it was his first time everflying a drone.
He flew it just fine.
We did have to teach him,obviously, what the joysticks do
, but he's played a video gamebefore.
So he goes all right ascension,descension on the left stick,
and then the right stick is mydirectional, actually moving

(52:21):
forward, and then that knobright there with the left
trigger is your gimbal, so youcan control your camera just
from right there and he flew itaround for about 40 minutes,
just tested it out, and we thinkwe're going to have a sale with
them in Virginia coming uppretty soon.

(52:44):
So it's it's just one of thosethings where what I've learned
is I can tell you about it or Ican fly to you and let you
freaking fly it.
Yeah, so, and that's whatreally sells it for me.
I'm not hiding, I love gettingout, love showing people what
our products can do, and I wantpeople to really trust us and
partner with us and give us anopportunity to show them why
we're the better drone company.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Other than the fact that your market, your audience
that you're talking to right now, right is some of the wonderful
people on planet Earth, rightin our country, right is some of
the wonderful people on planetearth, right in our country,
right, that are first responders, military, etc.
The the fact is that they'rewhat they all do has substantial
responsibility, right?
I mean, like if you firstresponders, like if they don't

(53:21):
have good equipment and itdoesn't work and they don't know
how to use it and it's nottrained on it and it's not good
product, it can put some peoplein some really bad positions.
People die you can't mess up.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
For example, we just had a department in Tennessee
that we're working with inMontgomery County.
They were using our drones forsearch and rescue.
Kids went missing in the woods.
They couldn't find them, theyjust strolled off.
It was freezing outside.
They got the drones up up, seta search grid pattern up on our
maps and the drone automaticallysets a flight plan right, set
the thermal camera to nadirstraight down, flew it at 250

(53:56):
and they actually ended upfinding the kids using our
drones that's awesome so livessaved.
And then, not to mention, yeah,you have other situations where,
like, we just use the drones toclear house if they see that
person with a gun and get him tostop before he shoots at an
officer.
That's another life, absolutelyso any captain you talk to will

(54:16):
tell you that any purchase.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Yeah, it's a noble endeavor.
You can feel good about whatyou're doing.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
Yeah yeah, and it's I like.
I like it and I think that'swhy it really drew me to the
spaces.
It does make a difference.
I do enjoy what I do andultimately we're doing it at a
price point that we're not pricegouging our customers and we're
building great relationships.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Yeah Well, it definitely helps sales and
marketing If you have peoplethat understand how to use the
product and and and arepassionate about it.
I mean I know that sounds soobvious, but then Harley
Davidson just hired a new CEOwho's never ridden a motorcycle
and came out of the Pizza Hutchain and some other business I

(54:58):
can't remember what it was and Imean I question that whether
that's a smart thing to do.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
Tobin can attest to this.
This is happening in the droneindustry right now.
We have large drone companiesthat are getting to these points
in their journey where theirvaluation is getting super high.
They're kind of like pushingcertain leadership out and then
the board is bringing these guysin that can run the company
because they're a CEO at sometech firm.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
They don't know anything about what we do do.
We have talked about thisbefore on this show.
It's so common.
It's like get the entrepreneursat some point they can't grow
it.
Now we gotta get theseinstitutional type managers.
Yeah, no, I'm very skeptical ofthem.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
He needs to be our ceo, because not?
Only is he the guy building it,but he believes in it exactly
he knows what the product can do.
He's not some guy that hasn'tflown a drone exactly and that's
what we needed fundamental yeah, fund, it's fundamental.
But guess what it doesn't seemto make sense to the people with
a hundred million dollars Iknow cash.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
No, it's like let's go get brand managers or
whatever we're gonna get thatguy that ran arby's for 20 years
he knows he knows how to exit.
He, he knows how to scale andexit.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
Yeah, yeah, it's so true, and it's brutal because
it's caused some companies tofail in our space that I don't
think deserve to fail.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Well, that's one of my personal passions is this
whole idea that theentrepreneurs need to get run
off at some point and bring inprofessional management?
I and bring in professionalmanagement.
I know that's what everybodylikes to say.
You know, I hear it around thehalls of the business school.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Well, anytime that happens, there's a big hole, a
mysterious hole that theentrepreneur leaves when they're
out of that company.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
Took the heart out bro.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Take the heart out you took the heart out, yeah but
then all the good to greatpeople will say but that's level
four management.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Did you learn that business school?
We need level five managershere.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
Okay, they're not inspirational or charismatic.
You know I think it's bullshit.
Okay, I agree.
Yeah, it's easy to replace alevel five manager.
They're not passionate.
Nobody cares if they're thereor not.
Yeah, okay.
So I I mean, you know, it'slike, it's like, but that's not

(57:12):
the point.
Yeah, yeah, so anyway, tobin,you've been quiet over there.
Anything else?

Speaker 1 (57:18):
you want to add, just letting the rant go we need to
wrap.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
We need to wrap this up and and get back to work.
But anything else you want toadd for our audience?

Speaker 5 (57:27):
well.
Thank you so much for theconversation here.
This has really been a pleasureand you know, at the end of the
day, as far as you know, addingfor the audience, we are always
my favorite conversation ishaving conversations with
customers.
So you know if anyone in theaudience is interested in drones
, interested in our products,you know, especially in a space.

(57:49):
You know if anyone in theaudience is interested in drones
, interested in our products,you know, especially in a space.
You know that's maybe off ourradar, that we're not thinking
about.
You know you mentioned, youknow, some of the engineers.
Those are my favoriteconversations to have to learn
more about challenges peoplehave.
So certainly welcome, welcomethat and again, thank you so
much for the conversation.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
It's been a lot of fun Speaking of how do people
get in touch with the company,when do they go?
What do they need to do?

Speaker 5 (58:15):
Website is the first point of entry.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
So go to vantageroboticscom and then
there's a contact us page onyour button on just about every
page on the website and that'llultimately get get to me you can
find us on linkedin easily toookay, so you know people reach
out to us all the time on thereand if you really do just want
some help with drone, droneindustry knowledge or whatever

(58:38):
it may be, we're always willingto help people great all right.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Thank you all so much for your time for coming on
it's.
Yeah, it's been a really goodcombo.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
It's been very interesting yeah, yeah, we
appreciate you guys having us onman, it's, it's great and you
know it's awesome to have stufflike this in our area in
northwest arkansas california.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Just happening in our country right now.
So we appreciate y'all we oughtto get y'all back in too in a
few months, you know as thingsdevelop and we get an update.
I mean I think I think it'sbeen fun.
It would like the.
I think the positioning thatyou're in is pretty awesome, but
, as we know, I wonder how allthat stuff will develop out,
we'll see.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
We think we're in a good position.
Sounds like it.
We're just looking forward tothe ride, man.

Speaker 5 (59:20):
The end of the year is going to be fun.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
We have a lot of cool events set up.
A cool one that I don't know ifyou all have heard of is called
International Association ofthe Chiefs of Police.

Speaker 5 (59:28):
It's happening in.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
Colorado this year.
That's something we're doing inOctober as well.
So just get you know in frontof all these people.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Don't do anything stupid there, vlad, that'd be
stupid.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
That's the perfect opportunity to show out.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
All right guys.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Hey, we got to get there somehow.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Well, it's great having you on the show.
It's definitely a differenttopic than we've talked about
before.
And we're always glad to dothat.
And so, for those of you whoare interested in either being
on the show or sponsoring it,check us out at
wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscomand reach out to Eric or myself.

(01:00:09):
And, in the meantime, this hasbeen another episode of.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Big Talk About.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Small.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Business.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
Thank you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
Thank you guys.
Thanks so much, Been a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk
about Small Business.
If you have any questions orideas for upcoming shows, be
sure to head over to our website,
wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscomand click on the Ask the Host
button for the chance to haveyour questions answered on the
show.
Stay connected with us onLinkedIn at Big Talk About Small

(01:00:50):
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