George Matus, as of May 2016, had just graduated high school, but he also had just started his first business: Teal, a commercial drone manufacturing company.
Teal’s first drone is battery operated and camera equipped that can reach speeds of up to 70mph. The product retails at $1,299. Matus, the founder of the company, not only is a Thiel fellow (a program that encourages young entrepreneurs to skip college to pursue their business ideas), but has also raised $2.8 million dollars in seed funding for his business.
Matus started flying drones when he was very young, and soon drone flying became a new hobby. His first “flight” was with a toy helicopter that he modified to fly upside down, to which he posted the video on YouTube. The company that made the helicopter reached out to him and told him to take it down. However, they also offered him a job as a part time test pilot, since they were so impressed that he was able to successfully modify one of their products.
Since then, he has worked on building prototypes and testing them for this company. Throughout this time, he kept a running “wish list” on what his ideal drone would be, and thus Teal was born. What makes Teal unique, is not only the high quality and high speeds of their drones, but the fact that users can see real time what the drone is seeing through an app. The possibilities from hobbyists to security personnel are endless.
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Drones are a relatively new product that is opening up a whole new industry. I see plenty of room for this company to grow. Great article.