“I went to a construction site and took some video. I got kicked out though because I was in flip flops and a t-shirt. But when I showed the video to the site superintendent, he really liked it and wanted more videos from different angles. ”
Subscribe on: iTunes | Stitcher | Google Play Enjoy the episode? Review us on iTunes!
Why Listen:
I'm so honored to have had time with Christian today. I realized a while back that we hadn't talked to anyone in the drone industry. I think it's an industry that has a lot of interest for veterans - it's growing rapidly, it's cool, it's high tech. I started looking for veterans in this industry and came across Christian. He agreed to be interviewed for Beyond the Uniform and I was so energized and inspired by our conversation.
About Christian:
Christian Sanz is the CEO and Founder of Skycatch, the leading industrial aerial data collection and analytics company, focused on indexing and extracting critical information from the physical world. He served in the Navy for 4 years, and his civilian career includes work as a software engineer for The Walt Disney Company, a Senior Software Engineer at LoopNet, the Senior Director of Engineering at Break Media, the CTO at Kin Community, the Founding CTO of Storify (acquired by Adobe), and the Founder of DroneGames. Over the last 7 years, Christian has grown Skycatch to have over 50 employees and $46M in funding.
Our Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by the Carlson School of Management. Whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high-impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits, experiential learning, and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver, all admitted full-time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill.
E-mail mba@umn.edu to learn more. That's mba@umn.edu.
Selected Resources:
Transcript & Time Stamps:
7:00
Joining me today from San Diego is Christian Sanz.
Christian - can you share with us what your transition out of the Navy was like?
Back then, there weren’t many tools available for transitioning military members. It wasn’t clear to me where I would fit outside the military. I enrolled at UCLA but ended up dropping out. I started getting really into the internet and building websites. I was reading books and just testing out different programs. I started doing free work for people to gain experience. I built a database for a law firm and learned a lot from doing that.
I started publishing some of my programming online and I ended up getting a call from Belkin Components. They asked me if I was interested in working on some of their databases. I started doing some basic projects with them. I learned a ton and was also working on my own projects on the side. Someone from Info Seek eventually reached out to me offering me a job there. Eventually Infoseek was bought out by Disney.
10:50
At that time, did it feel like a big risk to join Infoseek?
I’ve always been fascinated with building things. So to have the opportunity to join a growing company was exciting for me. To me, it was really motivating.
My career evolved out of a genuine curiosity. I just wanted to learn new things and eventually over time, I built up a tool kit of skills.
I think a lot of people go into a job thinking ‘what am I going to get out of this’. I try to have an approach that’s closer to ‘how can I create impact for other people through this job’.
14:00
Why did you eventually make the decision to leave Disney?
I had a great experience working at Belkin and Disney. What was difficult was going through the internet boom. For example, at Disney, I built skill sets in a variety of different departments. Because of that, even when Disney was laying people off during the internet boom, I was able to maintain my job. But eventually, I really wanted to start my own company.
16:30
What advice do you have for veterans that aren’t sure what to pursue?
I encourage people to pursue what you love. That will drive you to work longer hours and to want to learn more. If you’re just chasing a title or a salary, you won’t reach the same heights. Ifi you follow what you’re interested in, good things will tend to come your way.
19:50
How do you explain your work at Skycatch?
The physical world is changing all the time and people are interested in those changes. It’s extremely difficult to get accurate information about our world in a 3-D manner. That problem is at the heart of Skycatch. We are able to create 3-D data for industrial use.
As humans, we consume data in three dimensions. At Skycatch, we recreate this 3-D world. We use drones and other software and tools to do this. Our 3-D data mapping is extremely accurate.
We do a lot of work with construction companies. Precision and understanding of the ground is very important in construction. We also work with automating machines. We build 3-D models for them that help them automate heavy machinery.
23:10
How do companies use the expertise that you’re able to offer them?
Construction groups need to know that the earth that they’re building on is at the right level and angle. For companies that work with automating machines, our products make the machines easier to use and operate. Our product is able to help drivers of heavy machinery make their equipment safer and easier to use.
27:00
How do you do this?
We send up a drone and the drone takes photos of the movements and size of various sites. We also use photography from satellites to help us in our mapping. We combine the images from space with our drone data to get a really precise recreation of equipment, buildings, or land.
30:00
How did you come up with the idea for this business?
I’ve always been fascinated with things that fly. When drones first came out, I realized that access to huge amounts of data and information was available through these pieces of equipment. Drones use sensors and cameras to come up with incredibly precise information.
In 2012, I went to a hackathon focused on drones. From that day, I got hooked on using drones to create better information for people and organizations to use. I started doing more and more drone hackathons. I created a community in San Francisco that made developing in the drone space mainstream. The group I lead ended up getting really big. We were invited to South by Southwest and various other festivals. At that point, my interest shifted. I wanted to start my own drone company that would solve various problems people in construction and industrial industries were having.
I started visiting construction sites and offering my drone data collection services. I got kicked out of the first visit I offered because I was in flip flops and a t-shirt. But then I showed the construction site superintendent the value of the video and information I was able to provide. That experience sold me on how needed this service was in these industries. Construction sites are constantly changing and they need real-time data to inform them about what they’re doing.
I eventually went to the 49er’s stadium. I took video of some of the construction they were doing. I passed the video on to the superintendent and I saw how valuable those videos were. It again confirmed to me how valuable this service was.
A few months later, I started my company - Skycatch. I started making contacts with various venture capital firms. I would update them on progress my company was making and what we were working on. They were really eager to invest.
44:20
What advice do you have for listeners that are interested in entrepreneurship?
I was born in the US but grew up in Chile. I moved to the United States when I was 12. Almost immediately, I started to sell things to other people. I think the independence that entrepreneurship offered was really appealing to me. And that’s stuck with me over the years. I really like just going after things that I’m interested in and creating a life around that.
There are many books written about minimum viable products (MVP). I recommend that you start there. When you build your own business, you need to know that people will be willing to pay for a product that you’re offering. Put your product in front of people and get feedback from them about what works and what doesn't.
I discourage entrepreneurs from using NDAs. They’ll really just get in your way of getting valuable feedback from the people around you.
As soon as you have your first MVP, get that out to other people for feedback so that you can continue to iterate and make your product more valuable for your customers.
As the leader of a company, it’s also important that you recruit good people to your company. It’s not about their school or experience. It’s really more about their attitude and interest in what your company is doing. Recruiting the wrong people will make it much more difficult for your company to grow.
54:00
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our listeners?
When you think about a bus as a company that you’re working at, it doesn’t necessarily matter where you’re sitting on the bus. What matters much more is where that bus is heading. Make sure you join a company whose vision you believe in. If you have that, you’ll find it much easier to succeed at that organization.