The Beginning

Late in 2016, I noticed a shift in the mix of affordability and the quality of the drones available in the market.  At that time drones were beginning to be used by various professions (agronomists for instance) to extend their pre-existing practices.

Yet the ‘shift in the mix’ that I detected appeared to make drones and the related technology ready to be used in mature applications.  Also, the technology mix allowed for new applications to be brought to market similar to advanced technologies like Big Data Analytics (BDA), Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI – including Neural Networks and Machine Learning).

Great ideas are born with a mix of inspiration and perspiration as we all know, so I set out to immerse myself in the drone technology use cases.  Over the course of a year, I invested around $20 000 of my own money and hundreds of hours of research, interviewing, discussing ideas with people in various industries.  I explored a wide variety of opportunities from videography through to engineering and agricultural requirements.

The Breakthrough

It was during such a discussion with the CEO of a reputable company that we explored the opportunity to produce a solution that manages feed budgets.  The firm provides farm management solutions to more than 2000 farmers nationwide in New Zealand.  According to the chief executive “several well-funded initiatives” had failed to solve in the past.  This recent article highlights the need for this solution: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/discovery/95906996/pasture-measurement–the-new-technology

I investigated the solutions available in the market and researched what has been achieved in the drone industry to date.  I then had the transformative idea that forms the basis on which AgriDrone.nz has built its software solution on.  This concept is truly revolutionary in that it approaches the problem of calculating the pasture measurement from an entirely new angle.  It is a paradigm shift to be truthful, and it opens several new opportunities.  It also solves the critical problem of the economic value of pasture measurement using drone technologies.

Developing the Idea

To bring this idea to fruition, I enlisted the help of one of the most gifted developers I have encountered in my IT career, Jono Halse, to develop the solution.  Jono has been instrumental in fleshing out the idea and developing the advanced algorithms that make the idea viable.  Our proof of concept was a success! Jono is now focused on rearchitecting the solution to cloud-centric and mobile.

This idea and the related software we have developed relies heavily on Neural Networks and Machine learning.  The fantastic results we are getting are encouraging, and we have proven under test conditions that the solution works.  Furthermore, there are a variety of options now opening in the areas of pasture analysis, predictive budgeting and pasture interventions that to date could only be dreamt of.

Our Go To Market Strategy

We recognise the value of our idea, and after careful consideration, we decided to follow a strategy of keeping our IP secret (as opposed to trying to invest in measures like patents, that only offers limited security) and to pursue a ‘first to market’ approach to developing our solutions.  Legacy legal protection mechanisms that are daily being circumvented by unscrupulous operators internationally.  Instead of encumbering ourselves with it we will ensure that we will lead the market by six months in bringing our solution to market.  This makes us light and nimble and allows us to produce more significant results from optimised inputs.  For more on this see our Strategy page.

Why Not Only Software?

Finally, one might ask why we are not only developing drone solution software?  Why do we even bother with building a franchise based drone service provider business?  One of the answers lies in our experience in the IT industry and technology in general.

Let me explain:

Right now, technology is developing at rates not yet experienced.  One of the most significant challenges with this is that we do not yet know how to employ these powerful technology tools gainfully. In fact, our experience tells us that most of the solutions developed today has been formed on top of technologies that have been around a while.  It’s my experience that it’s the paradigms we hold in our heads more than the technology itself that forms the most significant barriers to discovering new uses of technology.

Think for instance what is unique about a notable success like Uber, and you’ll realise that it’s not the technology but the application of technology in a novel way that makes it a success.  And that’s precisely what I feel we have achieved with our software.

To continue to think of fresh solutions to problems, it is of strategic importance that we are intimately involved in everyday issues and use cases in the areas we are trying to service.  This will enable us to be challenged to bring real-world solutions to real-world problems continually.  Real world issues can be monetised because they solve tangible problems and have easily demonstrable economic value.

This then is one of the key reasons why we are interested in running a drone service provider business.