Drone Business Talk

How to stay alive in the ever-changing drone industry and grow your business in the right direction.

I had a great talk with Patrique Zaman from Avy in the Netherlands.

When building and growing your business in a sector that is as fragile as the drone industry, it is important to make sure that you have a couple of key principles right.
- A mission and vision
- A flexible team
- Strategy
- Motiviation
…

Listen to the full interview via the link in the comments to learn more!

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Social acceptance of drones. Is the battle over or did we just get started?

I had a great talk with Enrique Ventas García from ITG in Galicia, Spain.

Creating social acceptance for drones in the sky is something that we, as a sector, have been working on for quite a while now. And we have come a long way!

As long as we can keep showing people that drones bring a real added value for everyone and that we use them in the safest way possible, we will keep increasing the social acceptance of drones.

What do you think?

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Drones are not only in the sky but also on land and in the water. Providing a client with an end-to-end solution isn’t always that easy and almost always consists of more than 2 parties working together.

I had a great talk with Christian Bering from Holo in Denmark.

Holo is the leading implementer, integrator, and operator of autonomous vehicles in the Nordics. Whenever a customer needs a solution for a problem, most of the time multiple parties have to work together in order to solve the problem. If you don’t want to deal with all those different parties you can ask Holo to come up with a complete end-to-end solution for your problem.

And it’s not only limited to drones in the sky, they are also working with autonomous vehicles that drive around on land!

Check out the links to the full podcast in the comments!

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To have experience or not to have experience in the aviation industry, who has the advantage?

I had a great talk with Nico Ninov who is a Business Development Manager at DroneLions in Switzerland.

Nico pointed out that in his opinion people who come from a business background have the biggest advantage. As they know that the customer’s needs should be central.

P.S. did you know that the Phantom 1 is already 9 years old?

Nico offered a great promotion deal to everyone who listens to the podcast episodes! Everyone who is looking to find their segment in the drone industry can book a 1 on 1 session with someone from the team at DroneLions! Now for 50% off €99, send me a message if you are interested!

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Combining manned and unmanned aviation in the same airspace. A hard task that we will need to learn.

I had a great talk with Michael Larsen from UAS Denmark Test Center about how it is to have a drone test center very close to an airport.

Safety is very important when mixing manned and unmanned aviation in the same airspace. We see that right now that some of the safety margins are too big. When you are hovering your drone you need to land it because a plane is landing 3 kilometers away.

With our eyes on the future, we all know this is something we will have to learn to do in a safe way.

#Denmark #IDRONECT #DroneBusinessTalk #Podcast

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Managing a large drone operation can be quite difficult. Especially when you are dealing with seasonal work like Cyberhawk is doing!

I had a great talk with Anna Dillé who is a Planning and Operations Manager at Cyberhawk.

Cyberhawk deals with a lot of seasonal work due to buildings that need to be inspected before the wildfire season for example. It can be quite challenging to offer your drone pilots work all year round. Planning your projects is of great importance here!

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What are the biggest challenges for drone operators right now? Conversion and scaling after a customer is converted.

I had a great chat with Henri Klemmer from Hepta Airborne in Estonia. They are focused on powerline inspections with drones. A very specific part of the industry that is rapidly growing.

Converting a customer can be a tough and long process including proof of concepts and much more. After you converted that client it is of course important to build a relationship between you and the customer and scale up your operations.

Listen to our podcast episode to find out how and much more

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“Grabbing the market” is something everyone has heard before but how do you do it?

I had a great chat with Tobi Akinibiyi from Drone 9JA in Nigeria.

Tobi Akinibiyi explained very well that the path for each company is different and that you should do what you’re comfortable with.

Don’t just focus on 5 different parts of the industry just because you want to make as much money as possible.

You can focus on 5 different parts of the industry but just make sure that those 5 different parts of the industry are represented within your team by team members who are passionate about that part of the industry!

#Drones #Nigeria #Podcast #Tech #Belgium

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I had a great talk with Nehemie from Zipline
Zipline is an amazing company that is based in Rwanda, they revolutionized the supply chain for medical supplies by using drones to deliver for example blood bags to people in need.

Zipline is the perfect example of how drones can be used to save lives on a daily basis.

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ADDA in a nutshell. The African Drone and Data Academy (ADDA) aims to be a center of excellence that will equip African youth with necessary 21st-century skills

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The biggest challenge to starting your drone business in Malawi? Acquiring the drone itself.

I had a great chat with Hope Kelvin from Nkhawzi.

One of the biggest challenges is to acquire drones for your drone company because drones are very expensive.

Check out the link in the comments to learn more about the drone industry in Malawi

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Open source drone data to improve the quality of maps all over the world, is that realistic?

I was talking with Rasheed from Digital Horizon about the possibility to create an open-source databank from private mapping operations so that a general authority could start making better and updated maps of Africa.

This is something that is already being done in the hydrography world!

The links to the podcast episodes are in the comments!

#Nigeria #Drones #IDRONECT #Podcast

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How to fly your drone legally in Kenya & are we missing out on opportunities?


It’s actually very similar to the South African regulations. Check out the full podcast to learn more about what @craig claeve from @kendrone shared with me.

One of the rules in Kenya is that you need an ROC (Remote Operator Certificate) to fly your drones legally. In order to get an ROC, you need a company with at least 4 members. Because of this rule, it’s impossible for single pilots to really start their own drone business.

One of the workarounds is asking another (umbrella) ROC if you can fly under their ROC. This comes with its own risks of course. For example, how will you keep operational control over all the single pilots that need to follow your Operations manual and so on...

This is a very interesting topic and I know there are pros and cons.

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Should we be scared of drone technology?

Well, we all know the answer, of course not. When taking safety and risk management in high regard drones are very safe for everyone.

A couple of weeks ago I had a great talk with Confidence from Beatdrone in Nigeria.

The new podcast episode is now live, you can find the link in the comments.

In this podcast, we talk about
- How it is to start a drone business in Nigeria
- The public opinion about drone technology in their daily lives
- What the future could look like

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What is the role of the head of operations in a company that delivers GNSS-free positioning for the aviation market?

https://www.protrack.co.il/

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You have the best product in the world but it’s difficult to find customers. Sounds familiar?

Together with my friend @benoit Rebeiro I had a conversation about connecting drone manufacturers, drone operators, and software providers with the market. As a drone agent, @benoit Ribeiro is that crucial connection in the industry.

In this podcast episode, we will talk about
- What should you look for in a good sales guy
- Why it can be hard to find the right people
- Bringing a safety culture to customers without a background in aviation

Check out the link in the comments to watch the whole episode

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Building a global network of drone pilots is no easy task, neither is managing the fleet or supporting the daily operation. Matt Davis will tell us his secrets.
Let's listen!

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Today, we have an episode which is somewhat special, we are talking to Henke Beyers who is
7 times South African National F3C Helicopter Precision Fly champion
3 times top 30 finisher at F3C world championships

You can say this guys knows how to fly fast! Looking forward to learning more about speed and precision when it comes to drones.

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Talking to Sam Twala, the brain behind NTSU Aviation

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Today we are delighted to talk with Mark Boyt, one of the only drone enthusiasts and influencers who made it big with the drones in the UK, who was also featured on Dragon's Den.

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We finally got to chat with Jim James who is the author of the book "Drone professional" and her husband Bertus van Zyl the mastermind behind UAV Aerials Works, a pioneer in South Africa's Drone Space.

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The Lean Startup principles applied to a drone company. 🚀
Want to know how do you start a company in an emerging market and get acquired after 2 years ?
In this episode I talk to Johann Neethling from Neo Precision (Pty) Ltd, a drone service provider in South Africa who specializes in geology, mapping and mining.🌐

Johann started his drone company as a natural extension to his geology activities.
It’s a living proof that you can still start a new business, keep your head down , do the work and come out with a great result.
I really enjoyed talking with Johann and I am happy to share this episode with you.

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We had a call with our good companion, Mark Beltran, about regulations in Europe, drone specialization, durable drone environments, and a lot of other exciting things. Mark is the operations manager for the Barcelona Drone Center. The BDC is one of the biggest drone schools in the world and has made huge steps for the drone industry.

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I’m pleased to announce yet another great podcast of our #DroneBusinessTalk!

Desert locusts are a big issue in large parts of Africa, including Kenya. How can drones help us in local and global #locustcontrol? That is one of the things I talked about with Kush Gadhia, Senior Business Development Manager of Astral Aerial Solutions.

In this enriching podcast, we talked about the interesting drone regulation and application possibilities when it comes to #droneagriculture.

Thank you, Kush!

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How do you keep up with your paperwork and the safety of your team in a highly regulated and compliance-driven field?

That is one of the topics our guests of today’s Drone Business Talk-podcast are discussing. We proudly present CEO Robin Kock and CFO Vincent Sepeng of Premier Mapping Africa, THE survey company in Southern Africa, and one of the pioneers of the UAV industry.

These guys have been experimenting with drones - think Hasselblad cameras attached to weather balloons to do photogrammetric mapping - as early as 1983 (!). Their innovative mindset has led them to have about 6 or 7 aircrafts in the air today, daily, flying multiple missions.

Learn from the best as they discuss UAV data management, fixed wing drones and LiDAR technology!

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Welcome to our first episode of the Drone Business Talk podcast. We kick off this podcast with a talk between Tom Verbruggen and Ciprian Iorga the CEO Of Skyline drones.

Should we invest always in the latest state of the art gear? Are autonomous drones on the rise? Will robot drones soon replace drone pilots? How important is it to follow strict procedures when operating UAVs?

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