10 things I wish I knewwhen starting a commercial drone startup

May 9, 2014

Jonathan DowneyFounder & CEOjdowney@airware.com

My Background

Airware Now

• 47 people in San Francisco, CA

• $15M raised from

• Platform for Commercial Drones• Hardware• Software• Cloud• (Not Drones :)

10 Things I Wish I Knew

Good ideas are plentiful.It’s all about execution.1

It’s about execution

• We announced what we were building at AUVSI in 2011

• The rest of the stuff is the hard part• Getting the best people• Raising money• Developing a complex product• Learning the things you don’t know• Keeping your company aligned and organized• Understanding what is most valuable to your customer

Don’t worry too much (or too

little) about competitors.2

Competitors

• Most startups fail because of internal reasons

• Don’t worry too much:• Some will be acquired • Others will focus on sales of existing products• Others will run out of money, be poorly managed, or hire too

many B-players• Others will fail for all kinds of other reasons• In emerging high-growth industries, rising tides float all boats

• Don’t worry too little:• Understand what your real competitive advantages are• Always confirm you’re building the right thing

Optimize for likelihoodof success.3

Likelihood of success

Startups often optimize for many other things:

• Early revenue

• Valuation

Instead, optimize for likelihood of success in all things:

• Who you hire & how you compensate them

• Who you sell to & when

• When you release your product

• Where you are locate your company

Investors are not all equal.And some help is better than money can buy!4

Investors

What makes a great investor:• Operational experience

• Experience failing

• Resources beyond just money

• Helps you see what’s down the road and plan for it

• Helps you be the best CEO possible

Start by doing things that don’t scale.5

At first, don’t scale

• Work very closely with early Beta customers• You get better feedback• You can make your product better• They’ll love you for it and be advocates

Not all customers are equal.6

Not all customers are equal

• How to pick early customers• Don’t go with the biggest customer, the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th largest

will be more motivated to find any way they can be better• Focus on how much you can learn by working with them, not

on potential revenue• Work with a company who is more interested in what you will

have in a year than in what you have now• Focus on companies who need you the most• Geographic proximity is good (oops)

Find opportunities to be your own customer.7

Learn by being your own customer

• Benefits of this:• Very rapid product feedback• You’ll find bugs before a real customer• You’ll learn more about your customer’s needs

• Ol Pejeta Conservancy• Led to rapid improvements in our software and the

demonstration of sophisticated capabilities

• Rotating employees into flight test schedule

Hiring is a great teamis really tough.8

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50Full-time employees at Airware

What you need to learn about hiring

• Knowing when to hire• Have someone do the job of the missing role, make them the hiring

manager

• Knowing who to hire• Know your own weaknesses, complement the• Hire people who can hire more people

• Finding great people

• Deciding between functional expertise, domain expertise, and passion

• Treat hiring as a product• Putting someone in charge of it• Continuously improve it• Treat it with the same priority and enthusiasm

Hiring is just the start of building a great team.9

Hiring is just the start

Core Values• Help align your organization around hiring

• Keep you moving in the same direction

• Don’t wait to do this – core values are a must!

OKRs• Align your team

• Clarify priorities and goals

Every company is different, learn what will make your company better and start early!

Productivity Hacks10

CEO Productivity Hacks

• A great ATS - Greenhouse

• Digital note taking - Livescribe

• Email prioritization - Asana chrome plugin

• Almost any process can start in Trello

• Start your day early (Oops)

4 week period

A final lesson

You don’t need to know everything to start.

• There are a few constants• It will start small• You won’t know everything• It will not go exactly as planned

• When I started Airware:• Strong technical background• Knew what the customer problem was• Knew what we wanted to build to solve that problem• Hopelessly naive about what it would take

• Still don’t know everything I’ll need to learn for 2014

Up Next for Airware

Up next for Airware

• Exhibiting at AUVSI North America

• New website and blog

• More details about upcoming products

• Still hiring for hardware, firmware, software, and web roles

www.Airware.com

Questions?