Measure

Overview

Measure is a startup that offers drones as a service to corporate customers in the Energy, Telecommunications, AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) and Media industries.  They focus on developing full drone solutions to improve processes at these companies and then sending their own pilots out to the field to perform these services for their clients.  Some examples include capturing live shots for media companies or doing infrastructure inspection. 

Measure does not build it own drones but instead buys them off the shelf and incorporates them with their backend systems and processes.  They are technology agnostic and will use the most optimal products on the market for client's use cases.  Especially unique from a startup perspective is that Measure has a franchise business model to help it quickly cover wide swathes of the country.  

The company is headquartered in Washington D.C and currently has under 100 full time employees.

Why I like Them

I have never quite run across a business model like theirs and I really like the innovation here.  Measure is taking a well established business model of the franchise and combining it with a rapidly advancing technology in drones.  Most startups achieve scalability via software but in this case to scale they need more pilots in the field covering more territory.  The company recognized this and realized in the green field that is drones as a service the fastest way to expand would be to franchise since it requires minimal capital investment.  The drone industry as a whole and demand for its services will continue to grow rapidly (currently globally drones are a $100B+ industry) especially as more autonomy in units is developed and regulations broadened.  Especially huge is what the industry calls BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) which will allow much faster scaling when regulations allows it commercially.  Measure is at the forefront of these trends and posed to benefit as they take off.

I further like that the company knows who its customers are - it is focused on 4 industries and targets small and medium sized businesses for its services.

Disclosure:  I have spoken to members of the team.