I’m not sure, but I sort of feel like teenagers who either drop out of high school or college to start up their own companies (or become one of the most notorious whistleblowers this country has ever had) somehow always make it.
That is pure bullshit from me, but at least there is some measure of anecdotal evidence. Pretty soon, 19-year-old GauravJit Singh could be added to that list because the teen dropped out of Drexel — where he was studying bio-engineering — to start a drone delivery company.
Singh got the idea for DroneCast after reading about Amazon’s plans to use the devices as part of its delivery service. Here’s part of his pitch, from the company’s official website:
Why stick to the same old conventional advertising? It’s time to start using a platform that will actually capture your audience’s attention! Billboards, newspapers, and TV advertisements are getting old. Our aerial advertising platform acts almost like a flying billboard, using a small drone to capture attention while displaying your adversisement to viewers.
Singh started small but already deploys four different $4,000 drones (patent pending), which only fly 25 feet high. Singh has operators trail the drones in cars, while they fly them via an iPad. Singh soon hopes to fly all of the drones from a base station, which will be interesting, since wind can make the drones unpredictable and usually the operator needs to be in a very close range to control the devices.
Singh already has four clients who pay DroneCast $100 for a day of advertising. It’s unclear just how long the flights last and if there is more than one flight for that daily fee. Singh hangs his clients’ banners from the drone, and they can be as large at 6 feet x 2 feet.
The CEO borrowed $10,000 from his father to start the company, a pittance for any startup. He plans on expanding to New York and Los Angeles.
(Photo: B Ystebo)
