Startup Spotlight #157: Stratodyne
Stratodyne is making persistent aerial surveillance feasible through small interconnected blimps that can fly for months in the stratosphere.
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I got the chance to speak with Ed Ge, co-founder and CEO of Stratodyne, about what he’s working on at his startup, and any advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs.
Stratodyne started in a college apartment in Missouri, Stratodyne builds self-flying blimps to help developing nations support aerial surveillance missions over areas at risk of terror attacks. The startup has signed massive multi-million dollar contracts to work with the Nigerian army and space agency. Their blimps are also being adopted by users in the insurance, climate monitoring, and logistics space.
Ge previously worked on self-driving car software at General Motors and satellite control hardware on a project sponsored by the Air Force. He met his co-founder Amit in 5th grade and has been friends with him for over 13 years. In High School, the two tried to launch a rocket into a suborbital trajectory from a weather balloon and even built a hybrid and liquid-fuel rocket motor.
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Startup Spotlight: Stratodyne
Problem: Public safety is a big issue in developing countries because armed groups like ISIS can strike without warning and escape before authorities respond. In Nigeria alone, attacks by Boko Haram cost over 4,000 lives and $25B in damages each year.
Market: We're building self-flying surveillance blimps that small teams can deploy from anywhere. They operate for months without landing and carry video sensors to spot threats on the ground in real-time.
Solution: African governments spent $59B last year on security. U.S law enforcement alone spends $4.7B each year on aerial platforms like helicopters, drones, and aircraft. These numbers are growing, but our blimps still have room to expand into civilian applications like insurance, climate monitoring, forestry, and logistics that multiply our TAM considerably.
Team: My CTO and co-founder is Amit; I've known him since fifth grade after meeting on a class trip to the Air Force museum.
Recent Success:
Ge: We've been fantastically successful at getting customers into the pipeline. A huge win we recently had was securing a multi-million contract to deliver our blimps to the Nigerian army. This deal came about after one of our angel investors (whom I originally met with a cold email) introduced us to several Nigerian officials. Although we still directly try to sell to customers, we've met customers through other sources too, and even had a corporate VC intro us to two of their portfolio companies.
On surprise customers being referred to us: you never know how the people you meet can help you in the future (whether for a reference or an unexpected intro). I remember reading one of the Paul Graham essays on 'Why It's Safe For Founders To Be Nice,' and following that principle doesn't backfire.
Recent Struggle:
Ge: Hiring and networking. This was tough; I found out too late that your own network matters a ton if you're trying to launch a startup (especially if you're working with enterprises and governments). I didn't have any network at all (I had so little exposure to the startup world that I didn't even know what a term sheet was until a month in), so I had to send cold emails every time we wanted to do something: whether it was finding potential hires, reaching potential customers, and trying to find investors, and so on. We've likely had more than a thousand rejections at this point, but without massive amounts of cold email, there's no way we would've been able to hire our first engineers, raise our first $300k, and find our first big customers.
Founder Advice:
Ge: Expect rejection. Be optimistic, but expect that optimism to be tested. If you're a new founder who's an unknown quantity, getting hundreds of nos for every single yes is typical. Some nos matter more than others - for example, a software VC passing should be meaningless for a hard-tech founder, whereas feedback from an actual customer should make you think. In general order of precedence, you should listen closely to why customers say no, listen a bit less closely to why a relevant investor would pass, and ignore everything else. Knowing how to filter through the noise is crucial to efficient time management as a founder.
One Cool Founder You Should Know About:
Ge: Here is one founder you should check out next!
Daniel Mazur, Founder of Swiftsku: SwiftSku’s app connects to point of sales at convenience stores in real-time, enabling owners to remotely manage and monitor their stores.
Who should I profile next? Leave your suggestion in the comments:
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