5 ms·
I know the article says Airware attempted to go into hardware, but did its operating system (ostensibly its main product) have users?
by danso 8y ago
I know the article says Airware attempted to go into hardware, but did its operating system (ostensibly its main product) have users?
- roymurdock 8y agohttps://techcrunch.com/2015/04/16/airware/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/16/airware/ A few customers listed here: Delta Drone, Drone America. Sounds like the market didn't want or need a $2500/yr/drone software package for automating flights/data retrieval/storage. And there's simply no competing at the hardware level with DJI, even with $118M in funding. "Across all prices in North America, DJI represented 50 percent of the market, Snow says. The price range where DJI is not dominant is drones under $500, which are mostly toys, and where there are hundreds of companies competing." [1] There's money to be made in industrial (non-warfare) drones - but not as much as everyone thinks, and competition is really tough. [1] https://www.recode.net/2017/4/14/14690576/drone-market-share-growth-charts-dji-forecast https://www.recode.net/2017/4/14/14690576/drone-market-share...
- anonairwavedev 8y agoNone of those customers ever got an SDK (because there wasn't one) or any software. They only provided vehicles.
- roymurdock 8y agosounds like a really frustrating experience. sorry to hear about all the pivots, lack of strategy and vision. a good/interesting idea killed by overengineering and tough competition. sounds like you learned a lot of valuable lessons on someone else's dime while the ride lasted
- anonairwavedev 8y agoThank you —- this makes me feel much better about the time I spent there :)
- ianiridium 8y agoanon: would be interested to chat if you can reach out: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iridium-dynamics/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/iridium-dynamics/
- anonairwavedev 8y agoNope, never did. We build 2 OS(s): the first was based on linux with a rtos package (2013-14?). That was scrapped and a new fully custom hardware package was built with a fully custom OS (built by a team that never had done this) and was built for a low power arm processor. We were plagued by huge issues most of the time due to that OS being nearly impossible to debug or work with. Also doing that prevented any third-party from building anything because there wasn't a SDK or even a platform to build on.
- ddtaylor 8y agoHow do companies raise $10M+ without having a product ready to use? (Real question I run a startup that needs funding)
- gonational 8y agoPlease when you find this out let me know as well, as I am also in the market for some free money.
- quickthrower2 8y agoYou need to cast the magic spell. The following spells work well: "Drone" "AI" "Blockchain" etc.
- notJim 8y agoAlso VR or even better, AR!
- anonairwavedev 8y agoWe actually did have something at that point -- it was based on existing hardware and it did work. I seem to recall the original CEO taking I think someone from A16Z (?) out to a parking lot and flying an aircraft around as a demo
- rasz 8y agoIts all about who you know and how shiny can you look to the outsiders (founders being MIT grads etc).