Ian:
[1:08] Hey everybody in here coming at you from drone deploy is global headquarters and I’m sitting down with Dan Burton the founder and CEO of dronebase one of drone deploys integration partners and welcome to the show.

Dan:
[1:21] It’s great to be here I always love coming to drone deploy office cuz there’s almost always a drone flying off your roof.

Ian:
[1:27] There’s also lots of sparkling water snacks and if you come on every other Friday there’s barbecue so that’s.

Dan:
[1:34] Okay now we’re talkin.

Ian:
[1:35] Yeah so we we got stuff going on over here.

Dan:
[1:36] Drones and free food I mean that it’s a compelling 1/2.

Ian:
[1:39] So first of all then okay CEO founder of dronebase can you tell us first before we get into drum bass and drum bass is who is Dan Burton what’s your story how did you get into drones tell us a little bit about that.

Dan:
[1:52] Of course of course so I was.
You lucky to be really an early adopter of drone systems I had served in the US military so was was a US Marine and I should was not a drone pilot was
an infantry officer so just a grunt interesting Lee enough while I was in the service I watch these systems.
Can I come get the computer eyes and miniature eyes.
When I got in a drone was a global hawk took off my Runway landed on a Runway looks like an airplane.
50 people to fly at even though no one was on it very much a Mainframe computer.
Maybe over a hundred million dollars then Predator Reaper a little smaller system that is big as a truck still takes off of Runway lands on a Runway but you’re typically talking to a pilot that’s working out of.
Erica Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Ian:
[2:56] And you’re overseas.

Dan:
[2:57] And you’re right in your ear exactly you’re overseas but but you’re talkin to still proper aviator pilot then the kind of scant systems got smaller than soda scaneagle was made scan Eagles.
Bought by Boeing made by in situe that was a smaller platform he’s kind of launched from a platform flew around came back here to wire the wings would fly off you thought it crashed that’s what it was supposed to do.
But in that situation where you can have that system on a small postage stamp patrol base and it took more of a specialist to fly not not an actual trained aviator pilot.
I’m in by the time I was getting out,
company called aerovironment was making much smaller really Tactical Systems where I can send a infantryman who had not been to college to a couple weeks training course and they come back with a small backpack drone.
We could take it out throw it fly it gather.
Intelligence video and data and I just say that Trend was just an unbelievable can a democratization,
of the air where are you by the end when we put it by the time I get out of the Marine Corps.

[4:13] Company or even a platoon could have a dedicated air outside.
Whereas that was Unthinkable when I got in six and five six years before that you have to kind of bag of Colonel or bag of general for a couple minutes of a jet or helicopters on stage.

Ian:
[4:30] What was what year was that whenever you were in serving it in.

Dan:
[4:34] Yes I joined late 2006 went to kind of boot camp 2007 and got out in 2011 and then sewed deployed on the on a.
On a ship the USS Dubuque and then subsequently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan after that.

Ian:
[4:52] So the drums yet so during that time yeah that was like a lot of evolution I guess and and R&B happening in the space with miniaturization of course that we had like smartphones probably in that are up getting popular as well and
so you got out of the military and then what you eat you kind of saw an opportunity maybe like to me the
the commercial quote on quote drone mystery kind of like started like really getting its legs in I would say
2012-2013 I would kind of categorize that personally myself as like the early kind of stages is that kind of what you saw and that’s when you were thinking okay there might be a business here.

Dan:
[5:30] Absolutely so I just say that drone systems just fundamentally transform the way that the Infantry operated just having access to air,
having intelligence data from the from the air.
Allowed us to just fundamentally change the way that we operated the speed at which we made decisions it just was a it was our most unfair advantage and if you never want to go into a fair fight you always wanted unfair advantage.

Ian:
[5:55] That’s interesting over cuz you could almost replace everything you said about that in the military till like maybe a construction company there. Now we get all this information we’re working faster smarter safer.

Dan:
[6:08] And that’s exactly right so I mean I just left as a dyed-in-the-wool and it’s a really,
myself and drum bass are trying to the fact that same transformation in a commercial context that I saw in a military contacts when I left in 2011 honestly I just was a dyed-in-the-wool.
Fervent believer in this technology that.
I felt like we were living 30 years in the future seeing these systems operate being actually asked to push them their absolute limit,
absolute capacity obviously be on line of sight
no issue nights lights no issue there is some deconfliction with other planes but really pushing these systems to their absolute maximum capability everyday,
I just fundamentally believe that this technology would commercialize and come to the business world to be candid not really knowing what the heck.
That man so yeah I mean just very briefly.

[7:05] Went to business school tried to drop out about 2 months into start a company or just to get into the commercial drone space my wife is much more reasonable than I am,
and so she said deal please finish business school and let’s pay off our dad before you go into this crazy drums Bass,
so I said I said okay but then spend most my time at at graduate school,
researching drone commercialization doing papers on how this all might break out and just spending time with both kind of engineers in the space but also just of folks who were kinda early doing the work so,
and I’m sure similar if I know drone to play also is very early to the space but.
Yeah kind of 2012 2013 just was made it my business to know anyone interested in doing commercial drone operations,
and that time work I mean large that would that look like is going to people’s back offices garages sheds.
Building wiring soldering systems right almost always making our own systems whether they were yeah you get the DJI kit with instructions all in Chinese and kind of have to figure out how to solder the ball all the plates on writing.
What you got you got some sense of what happened to the small batch drone challenges that right well if you didn’t wire like the third.
Bass played in correctly the would come loose during a flight in system with like flip upside down.

Ian:
[8:33] So tell us about dronebase then to what is drum Basin and what was the thought process there what when was the company founded.

Dan:
[8:39] Yes so kind of early 2014 and it really like just started honestly as me I had I had driven around 2.
Out of Inland Empire Central Valley Northern California Southern California probably met about a hundred fifty to two hundred I’d say they were pilots right as you were looking to.
Become.
Looking to be full-time in a commercial drone space more often and not they were coming from industry so it could be a couple X construction workers,
could be asked Mine Workers it could be folks that were coming from Real Estate or from Telecom.
Off and younger who thought look like I’d know my industry fairly well I feel like if I approach the industry with a new technology coming out of better career path and just kind of going along the usual course so,
somet you know.
Couple hundred of those early adopters and then I myself had just done this work a good bit I had seven or eight systems that I had kind of either bought off the shelf or home built,
and I would honestly just drive around to worksites mines properties honestly typically find a military veteran,
who would let me on the site at that point I can not only with no one pay I couldn’t even give this away for free.
But you know finally I was working at a.

[10:08] I still have the check kind of frame right on my monitor but I was working at a construction site I got a phone call that Hape coriander down the street is going to.
Put a bunch of C4 into his mind in about 2 hours ago did the explosion he’d like you to film it.
Hey $300 I thought hey absolutely let’s do it drove over there and got this film that mine exploding so you know what’s in market for an exploding Mine video yeah maybe $10,000 a year but then that,
kind of simple Star right let us,
have a more serious conversation. Mine owner of hey here’s another system that can run just a quick-and-dirty survey of your Quarry you know do you know it’s in your stockpile that you got your inventories like well I know it is when I drop when I get off the lot.
Would you like to know what it is every week you said yeah that’d be great so often doing things that seem trivial or simple initially just to start down the road of being a more serious use cases.

Ian:
[11:05] And so then I guess throughout this entire time you saw the challenges of like how is this going to scale I’m not going to be driving to.
Mine sites all the time and I guess was that the formation of dronebase and like figuring out like okay there needs to be a network of Pilots that people can kind of tie into.

Dan:
[11:22] I see exactly said I was just worked as a quads as a consultant I helped a couple of big companies by drone fleets it just didn’t seem to work out for them.
And and just the more I thought about this it just seemed like for companies just like they should not have,
a server room server room full of servers collecting dust they probably should not have a drone closet full of drones also collecting dust.
They should pretty much find this data valuable if they find it dyeable they should pay just for that amount of data.
If they love it scaled up to one work sites to 10 work size to a hundred work size to a thousand and just keep those kind of unit cause very clear and very crisp,
so you always know it’s Roi positive set that’s what it seemed like customers would want it just to help them make a decision and just pay for the days of that helps him get there.
And then in the background just had not these kind of hundreds of early adopters who seems really hungry.
How to do this work often times they were much more skilled in the operational elements of the job then you know the marketing of a business or,
conducting Enterprise sales or working their books in accounting or collecting payments or doing accounts receivable at it just seems like if I could.
Make their lives easier just help them do the operation that they knew best that that’s about what we knew we got started.

Ian:
[12:50] So is it fair to call dronebase like I mean this is how I would have had to explain it to someone it’s like,
for drums you know like if you’re if you’re a drum bass customer see so from what I understand you guys have like two different kinds of customers so you have your pilot’s those are the people that have the you know certificates to fly the drones that have the hardware themselves are part of the network and you have like,
the customer who wants the Drone pilot to come to them and then do XYZ with their drone so is it fair to call Uber,
fair to call dronebase.

Dan:
[13:20] It is fair to call Uber the the.

Ian:
[13:21] Drum bass for cars.

Dan:
[13:23] The drum bass for cars that’s absolutely Fair.

Ian:
[13:24] Area code failure called dronebase that Uber for drone so.

Dan:
[13:28] Will take their valuation.
So here’s the high-level what drone-based does the drum bass provides hour and drum bass Fries Enterprise customers.
Stunning new Ariel information we do that quickly affordably reliably.
That helps our customers make better faster decisions about their most critical assets.
So that that really is the heart of what we do is helping those customers getting his new source of data,
sorry customers can make better faster decisions about the places that matter to them most so.
You know I think about that I think of us being.
Quick right I mean so if you send an order to the Drone days API in North America were typically used to signing up to for 48 to 72 hour SLA.

Ian:
[14:28] There’s an a that means a pilot goes out to the site that you’ve identified and then captures the data.

Dan:
[14:34] That means a copy of her exactly Enterprises built into our API they send us an address or a lot longer a series of coordinates.
We’re generally comfortable signing up with within 48 hours if you send that address or API you’re going to we’re going to return to you drone data from that site yet from any Us address not in restricted airspace.

Ian:
[14:51] Yeah are you guys you mentioned us airspace are you are you guys Global International are there is there a drone Bay pilot like can you find one like kind of and everywhere.

Dan:
[15:03] Yeah so we have completed over and this kind of speak to a liability right we’ve completed over 100,000 commercial drone missions.
In all 50 US states in over 70 countries in terms of reliability.
Basically a 99.5 success rate meeting we only have to reapply 0.50% of the time.
And then kind of in addition to Reliable day that we need to provide a reliable service so across and who got something like,
thousand customer reviews with about a 9.0 rating on those sample even if we have a very close relationship with the executive team of a construction company.
If the Drone pilot Lee dispatch is not professional is not within uniform standards is not fluent in worksite the site manager is going to ask him to leave the work site and and they should write so it’s that the service has to be rendered reliable as well,
I’d say to your question.
The US and the English-speaking world is where we really think about having 10 like you think of like a Verizon cell coverage we really want you to have.
Service.
Substantially across that entire country was pretty reliable turnaround times I can’t promise that is the case in Morocco or.

[16:28] Thailand but those are countries where we’ve worked so I’d say that at the moment.
The u.s. is a large and wonderful Market I think we feel like if we can’t build a big business here we just must build a big noses here but I’d say past at the English-speaking World Order and I think of that is kind of Canada.
UK Ireland Australia New Zealand that’s place where you want to feel like there’s that kind of,
couple day turnaround across the entire country.

Ian:
[17:00] What industries like what would you say like your top three Industries are that are using drone base right now and has that changed over the years I mean it’s been what companies about 4 ish years old.

Dan:
[17:11] So I.
In the military we we thought of airspace as a stack right satellites were good for some things airplanes were good for others drones were good.
For some and I think we think about the stuff we think about this the same way think about are the same way at dronebase where satellites are good for some things.
Planes are good for some things and drones are excellent at that other thing so if you need them not the entire Gulf Coast Louisiana but hurt before and after Hurricane,
use a satellite don’t even know how I do that with the Drone if you have a 600 mile oil and gas pipeline I still think it’s better to use a plane.
Maybe years until a drone is better than that to do that use case I would say that.
Drones as a platform and dronebase as a company are kind of best in World at property level data capture Define that as.
800 acres or less as a parcel side and I mean I’m sure you and I both on this work once it gets too kind of above 800 above 1000 I mean yeah you’re out there all day swapping out that it makes for a long day right but I’d say that.
That’s what we think of is like getting property level worksite level data and and providing that in a way where it’s this yeah it is sufficiently detailed.

[18:40] Insightful really A New Perspective that was not previously available or just wasn’t scalable to get a plane or satellite you out to that ass up before like that’s that’s what we try to be best if it looks like that parcel,
it looks like that size I think we feel good about operating there for us that tends to look like kind of all insurance.
All construction and Mining all real estate.
And some kind of energy and end Telecom infrastructure so I’d say that solar farm yes wind turbine yes cell tower yes.

Ian:
[19:21] Basically anything that’s outside that’s kind of in a certain size range can be affecting the world how businesses are using.

Dan:
[19:32] Yeah and we tend to think that like there is a tremendous amount of value at that kind of Preferred Property work site
acid level I mean those tend to be really important decisions get made things happen often at those Parcels you know big dollar amounts are being exchanged or we feel good there’s enough
kind of Roi to getting a new data source at that,
size and images for us helps us had a little bit of a bull’s-eye where we know what we’re good at what we’re not good at again that you know.
If its 700 miles of high tension power lines like it’s.
I’m excited for that use case I just I just don’t know how much better we are than a helicopter or an airplane today or when we get there.
So I take it warm again to be honest.
Drone kind of penetration of the of even that property worksite asset parcel is still .001%.
There’s so much of the trend is getting too.
1% of that to 10% of that to 70% of that versus I need that young versus doing some crazy Beyond line-of-sight thing that it would be helpful for some use cases,
feels like honestly an add-on to me that’s like our sweet spot like The Sweet Spot drum systems is at that size right property as at work site.

Ian:
[20:55] You guys have some interesting partner shifts I’ve always been you know it makes so much sense we talked briefly about the Getty Images partnership so getting some of your Pilots access to fly you know certain,
certain types of missions for Getty Images but since were were at drum to play HQ
in San Francisco you guys released a drone deploy integration
announcer partnership fairly recently I don’t know within the past like a month or two so tell us a little bit about that I mean what does the Drone double integration do and why is this useful why is it even exist.

Dan:
[21:32] Nope of course.
Would love to talk about that I mean first I think that Joe know Mike the Drone deploy team it’s a group we’ve known for years admired for years always felt like we’re working on slightly different problems.
The way we can look at the space I kind of look at it in three big layers I think of first drone Hardware.
Which is a largely been won the DJI is certainly the large player they are the Monopoly player a couple other notable companies but with we have them having largely one that piece.
I didn’t think of data acquisition as another layer of the space kind of drone operations.

Ian:
[22:22] Yes.

Dan:
[22:22] And I’d say the Drone base that’s where we really think are the kind of Heart of our company is in drone operations we really want to.
Own. Drone operations and data acquisition piece of drone data analysis.
And that’s where I think drone deploy brings amazing insights increasing capabilities and we’ll just get better and better in that in that.
Piece of analysis so that’s a little different than.
Then that’s our own unique take so for us like drone we feel that just the acquiring of this data.
The acquisition of it as I said before quickly affordably reliably.
That still is a very unsolved problem that still is very much,
technology plus a network problem it’s a problem that will be solved the software and are engineer’s we think there’s a ton of value just in solving that,
peace alone and that’s really where we’re mostly focused I think that we try to be a humble and be Capital efficient to understand that for us.

[23:41] We’re probably not going to go into 10 different verticals and saw the kind of Nth Degree analytic problem that at each one of those verticals has when.
The imagery plus another day does maybe not sufficient to get the customer to a really good decision that’s what we love to find Partners like a a drone deploy who can really get them,
to that decision from from the day to right nut sometimes that does require more hardcore analysis and more hardcore outputs that that I think your team is excellent.
So I guess is that that’s kind of how we think about the space so I mean everything about drone operations is.
Like I said there’s usually happens at the property or a Cider assiter Works eye level.
We think about when an address comes into the Drone base API how do I adjust.
How do I bring get that back to you a kind of magical speed magical cost and it’s right.
Damages will constitute of Berkeley Stitch model the sensor data is correct the metadata is attached it done in a way that a customer that wants to do this not just on one site but a hundred or thousand or 10000 it feels like it is fairly priced,
and it can happen quickly enough that it can replace what they’re doing now.

Ian:
[25:08] And so we had so into with that integration then to now drone deploy people on Drone 2 player able to order a drone base,
pilot to come and fly at a specific site and that they kind of you know identify within the drug user interface analysis sent to you guys and
all this magical awesome stuff happens and then and then the people get it and so
Rebecca and customer finally get you know gets their data whether it’s a situation where they couldn’t get to the sites you know or you know it’s physically impossible to get there for them or would be very arduous or take time and so with that,
you know we recently have seen an article I forget who originally published it but.

[25:51] This is kind of a Hot Topic right now of some people are surprised about this others of us are not,
surprised at all I was surprised by the metric here but the article says that there’s basically a 90% reduction it interviews this pilot I think he’s on the East Coast
he used to be able to charge a drone pilot not a I don’t know if he’s drum bass whatever but just basically just said in 2015 I used to be able to charge about $2,000 a day
Pilots to businesses for the purpose of data is this a race-to-the-bottom or what exactly are we seeing here.

Dan:
[26:39] I’d say the the one piece that was missing is that related to price a big variable is volume and that was an element that was missing from that article so I’ll tell you obviously.
I focus a lot on talking about customers cuz until we feel like we’re helping a customer Make a Better Faster decision.
So yeah I mean was it sent I mean the the way that we spent we spend a lot of time at dronebase thinking about drone Pilots thinking about the Pilot’s Journey.
I still believe honestly that most drone Pilots still have not even been created right or even gotten their part 107 many more will come and and and what being a drone pilot.
Means will change over the years that the way we think about it is that.
We pray we believe that being a drone pilot is a new class of skilled labor.

[27:49] America the world desperately needs new types of skilled labor.
We think less probably in terms of how much did you get paid for this one increment with his one flight that you did,
maybe 20 pushing it right but like how do we how do we.

[28:44] By doing it the Thousand once time you didn’t learn anything it is now incremental how do we take that off your plate and really get you,
compensated fairly as a skilled labor so the converse of that book I mean I remember when the first kind of five.
And yeah that was those were salad days for a few weeks or months where you’re sensually the only game in town in this is in the median film vertical right where.
Greats of a studio my pay you thousands maybe even like ten thousand or more.

Ian:
[29:24] For sure those film does film cinematographers can make quite a bit of money.

Dan:
[29:29] Of course of course but I will tell you that that work as as most of the ultra high dollar value daily work is extremely lumpy so even in the studio. That’s really going to make so many movies.
We believe the being of drone pilot is a profession.
It’s a skilled labor for fashion how do I get this to be your profession that were very proud to say that some folks are able to earn a full-time living just by working on drum bass many others are able to significantly supplement.

[30:20] Their own work or their own piloting with with flights coming from drum bass we feel very good about that and that’s that’s that’s really what we think about really is less so cost per flight more about,
what internet an hour but I would also ask me again why we talked about every day this is probably the number one thing we talked to them about right.

[31:11] The customer we all have to keep the customer in mind as well it does not matter if we are.
We need to be better faster cheaper than what the customer is doing now then. Just not just 10% better to get them to adopt a flying robot.
I think I’m sure van any company here prices the absolute last thing we go to but that it has to be part of the consideration because that is when,
if you can really get in there and change how customers doing business change the workflow they want to do this not just as a press release not just as a pilot to seem innovative.

Ian:
[32:24] So that was good I bet actually excellent point and thank you for bringing that up but,
the follow-up question was and still is our there always going to be human drone pilot I think everyone knows the answer to this,
yeah sure there’s always going to be human drone pilot but like I think maybe the nature
of the way that they’re piling you got it eluded to that earlier actually will change anywhere to see more automation right and different types of ways that these drones are deployed.

Dan:
[32:52] Absolutely I mean I think that you’d again I think that there is a there is absolutely a path for.

[33:25] There are more and maybe work there’s a bit of chasing demand now but in the full endgame of this there were absolutely going to be Supply constrained I’m more worried that there’s not going to be nearly enough 107 Pilots to get to nearly enough,
assets properties work sites in the full version of say I am sure that’s going to flip,
ultimately that Amazon web services and service provider model is going to be which we fundamentally believe is going to be the winning model when I think about a.

[34:24] A drone at a worksite fly it once a day still 20 minutes out of 24 hours still getting used about 1% asset utilization that’s not.
Pipeline and progression and I still always do that as a skilled labor right in someone who’s able to bring a unique skill set to each kind of increment of that pathway.

Ian:
[35:21] Totally agree.

[36:00] For drones in the sky but it it it means so much more than that I feel and specially from a business perspective so tell us a little bit about like why did you guys make this and what’s the future of this like drone augmented reality technology.

Dan:
[37:01] What we think about a drum bass is not to sound so much is automation coming yes automation is coming we think about what is the highest value added task but a human can do.

Ian:
[37:40] Oh yeah the drones fly themselves better than any human.

Dan:
[38:48] And your G located and display it back to them during a drone fly.

Ian:
[38:52] Amazing.

[39:18] You know the scheduling is off and etcetera sabet’s
I like that will cool so damn thank you so much for joining us and giving us your thoughts on all these different topics it was really nice to hear from you I think this is.

[40:22] More of the ethos the thought behind where you where you guys are kind of like pushing the industry and where you believe it’s going to be headed and so if you’re listening to this and you want to learn more about dronebase you can go visit their website at dronebase.com
check out the website commercial drones. FM shoot me an email if you got any questions Ian at commercial drones FF. FM and.