When something in an industry you are involved in annoys you and you have the skills to fix it, the result can have benefits for the sector
globally. As an early adopter, drone racer, president of the local club and coder, Jay Davis says at first, he was scratching his own itch, before realising Teledrome’s commercial potential.
Startup Shakeup turned our idea from a backyard community project into helping us realise the potential commercial value. Once we started looking into the numbers, we realised how big it could be, and that made us feel more comfortable in pushing ahead.
– Jay & Rohan
Tell us about your idea or startup.
Teledrome is designed to make drone racing more digestible for racers and spectators by providing better visuals for online screening and live races.
Drone racers currently race without any situational information about others in the race. It will give them this and training tools. There’s a drone racing league in the United States that has combined drone racing with a reality TV concept; they spend a lot of time in post-production and it attracts 50 million viewers. But broadcasting live racing is awful to watch – that’s part of the problem we are trying to fix. While the spectator experience is horrible, sponsors won’t get involved. Our solution will help with that and that grows the sector for everyone. The same problem exists worldwide.
What were you looking for when you came to Startup Shakeup?
We were thinking about it on a really small level. The project was borne out of Jay scratching his own itch. He wanted the viewer experience to be fun, not horrible.
Please describe what Startup Shakeup did for you?
Startup Shakeup turned it from a backyard community project into helping us realise the potential commercial value.
We identified the need to seek help with the commercialisation side of the project. We are both coders. We had an idea but no experience in commercialising. Dealing with Mark Cooper expanded the scope of the product. Once we started looking into the numbers, we realised how big it could be and that made us feel more comfortable in pushing ahead.
What has changed in your business and/or life as a result of Startup Shakeup?
We are still concentrating on our other work, but Teledrome has moved from being a cool hobby project to a more serious pursuit now.
Where to next for you?
We built a proof of concept device and that’s working. Now we are changing our tech stack so that we can use it in more environments. Once that’s proven, then we’re going to chase some funding to get the resourcing we need to get it to market as quick as we can. The customers are both clubs and racers. Part of the solution is allowing you to get live updates about where you are on the track. It can be used for segment timing for practice runs. And you can also race other racers, against their recorded time on the route. It makes it accessible to everyone. A kid in a rural area who has no-one to race against can still race against a world champion through his or her recording, using our tools.
What are the benefits of Startup Shakeup to our region?
Startup Shakeup is for people who have ideas but have no idea how to execute on business. It helps them get that initial jump into the business aspects and understand that it’s not terrifying. They learn what they have to undertake to move it forward.
What is your advice to other people in startup mode/other entrepreneurs?
Jay wanted to make himself aware of how to run a business, so he listened to lots of podcasts and got comfort from that. Initially, he thought he didn’t need to go to Startup Shakeup but it helped re-inforce what he knew and it did help with our networking. Mark’s contacts have been pretty important to us. Jay’s podcast suggestions: Startup, Startups For the Rest of Us and Flying Solo is good early on for business basics.
Visit their website: https://www.teledrome.com.au/