Jonathan Downey, 32, CEO of San Francisco-based Airware.com, has been named USA TODAY’s Small-Business Innovator of the Year. He was chosen from among 10 finalists by a team of USA TODAY editors and last year’s winner, Porch.com CEO Matt Ehrlichman.
“I really appreciate the recognition,” said Downey, whose company has grown to nearly 90 workers and whose staff could possibly double in 2016. “It’s been a lot of hard work over the past four years and there’s a lot left to do.”
David Callaway, editor in chief of USA TODAY, said editors scoured the country looking not just for unique ideas, but great timing.
“Jonathan Downey’s Airware is not just an example of finding a demand to fill, but seeing the demand before it even exists,” Callaway said.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, an industry advocacy group, projects 70,000 jobs will be created with $13.6 billion in economic activity during the first three years after the Federal Aviation Administration finalizes its regulations for drones to share the skies with passenger planes. The completion of those rules is expected in mid-2016, and in the meantime the agency has approved more than 2,000 permits for commercial purposes such as aerial photography, utilities inspection and agriculture monitoring.
Airware has three major facets: navigation software aboard drones; software in tablets to automatically guide the aircraft and monitor it in flight; and cloud services to store and manage the information that drones gather.
The company released its cloud platform in August so that, for example, a company could inspect its open-air mines and then compare the previous footage to see how much has been excavated. Or a cellphone company could check recent footage to confirm whether a piece of equipment was installed in the right position, rather than sending a crewmember back up a ladder to take a look.
The advantage to using drones for these dangerous tasks is apparent from the 13 worker deaths on communications towers during 2013 and another 12 last year, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“There are many benefits to using it,” Downey said. “It’s very easy for them to do their operations in the field, with their data then being sent back to the cloud and then sharing within the organization.”
During 2014, Airware raised more than $40 million in venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, GE Ventures and Intel Capital. GE Ventures was the company’s first large customer, but Delta Drone in France, Altavian in Florida, Allied Drones in California and Drone America in Nevada are also using the platform.
Now Airware is working under contract with Fortune 500 companies in insurance, utilities and telecommunications industries.
Downey’s father was a commercial airline pilot and his mother a recreational pilot, and Downey learned how to fly Grand Canyon tours as a summer job. After graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he worked at Boeing, where he learned about manufacturing and meeting regulatory requirements.
Downey said every entrepreneur must learn step by step how to persuade three or four people to join in what may seem like a crazy quest before gaining the trust of Fortune 500 companies.
While initially raising money in 2012, Downey experienced a lot of rejections. But when he ran into those investors a year later and showed that Airware had produced what he promised, that built trust for future investments.
“We got a lot of no’s from a lot of investors when we said we’re going to go and build this software and this electronics,” Downey said. “Just really be clear about what we say we’re going to do and what we’re promising them and then deliver on every promise to the extent that is possible.”
The drone industry is crowded and competitive. Downey said another key is to not over-promise what a company could produce.
“There are a ton of companies promising the sun and the stars,” Downey said. “We try to help companies understand what you’re asking for isn’t quite possible today. But here’s something we can do today, and it has value itself and it gets you a lot closer to the thing that you’re asking for.”
Downey has joined the board of Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, which has 7,500 members in government, industry and academia, joining other board members from Amazon and Google.
Airware is also sharing the wealth, to spur other developments in the industry, by making $250,000 to $1 million investments in other companies through its commercialdronefund.com.
The third recipient launching this month is Cape Productions of Redwood City, Calif., which will film professionally edited videos of skiers hitting the slopes across North America.
“You don’t have to bring your own drone or learn how to pilot it,” Downey said. “You just swipe your ski pass and pay a small fee and a drone will follow your down the slope and take professional video of you.”
Source: USA Today