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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the airware-vaporware dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Drone operating system startup Airware today suddenly informed employees it will cease operations immediately despite having raised $118 million from top investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Google's GV, and Kleiner Perkins. The startup ran out of money after trying to manufacture its own hardware that couldn't compete with drone giants like China's DJI. The company at one point had as many as 140 employees, all of which are now out of a job.

A source sent TechCrunch screenshots from the Airware alumni Slack channel detailing how the staff was told this morning that Airware would shut down.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/14/airware-shuts-down/


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:58AM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:58AM (#735621)

    Drones were (and still are) a major competitive bloodbath. Anybody can buy semi-competent hardware for cheap from hobby stores, component suppliers, etc. but the integration is complex and the marketing is brutal.

    If you have a staff of 5 engineers (net cost >$1M per year), how many drones do you have to sell, at what margin, to cover just that cost of development?

    Now consider that there are thousands of "aerospace engineers" graduating around the world every semester, all thinking they can do it better and competing with you, putting pressure on your margins.

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  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:28PM (1 child)

    by crafoo (6639) on Sunday September 16 2018, @03:28PM (#735670)

    It seems like the place to make money with drones is integrating them with other complex systems, such as what is happening in farming and forestry. Someone who is already an expert in those systems could do the systems integration, hire a marketing team, and make some money.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 16 2018, @05:11PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday September 16 2018, @05:11PM (#735694)

      This _seems_ to be the way it is playing out. I briefly worked for a company that had some success selling drones to the military, but that became virtually impossible after the Gulf War ended. They tried to pivot and sell as a service to local law enforcement, but there were already competitors in that space which made for an "overserved" market....

      The big thing 5 years ago was the virtual ban on US domestic use of UAVs, that made it very much like trying to build a marijuana business pre-legalization. At least possession of UAVs wasn't illegal, but using them for profit basically was.

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