How can small drone companies use their experience to tap into larger businesses opportunities?

Rolf Schlub is founder of TerraCam, a drone services company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. TerraCam was founded in 2012 to satisfy the growing trend of remote sensing in industries such as mining, land surveying, construction, urban development, security and agriculture. The company is one of the first operators of commercial drones in Africa.  It started delivering drone services directly to customers, but today, TerraCam specializes in the integration of professional drone solutions for clients wanting to establish their own in-house drone capabilities. After the integration, clients can independently conduct on demand aerial surveys, aerial photography, blast filming, mine maps and much more.

In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, Rolf talks about TerraCam and how it successfully transitioned from a direct service provider to an integrator.

Can small UAS businesses thrive in this changing industry?

Today’s guest has proven they can.  Matt Dunlevy is founder of SkySkopes, an unmanned aircraft systems flight operations company based in Grand Forks, North Dakota.   SkySkopes is a professional service provider with a highly qualified operations and geospatial team. They operate a wide variety of advanced sensors and aircraft for transmission and distribution line inspections, oil and gas applications, and many other innovative use cases that focus on adding value.

Matt founded SkySkopes in 2014 and secured the first FAA permission to fly UAS for business in North Dakota.  Since then, he has success sfully navigated the company’s growth through the changes and evolution of the drone industry.  A lifelong aviation enthusiast, Matt has taught numerous UAS courses at the University of North Dakota such as UAS Business, UAS Engineering, and UAS Ethics.

Matt was also one of my guests on the first year of the Drone Radio Show podcast.  At that time, the company was only about 1 year old and just starting to find its way in the energy sector.

In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, Matt returns to talks about Sky Scopes, how the company has grown over the past 7 years and the lessons learned in creating a drone-based energy services company.