At Commercial UAV Expo, industry leaders gathered to discuss how the drone industry can accelerate its growth and achieve commercial profitability. Moderated by Gretchen West, co-founder of the Commercial Drone Alliance, the panel featured insights from Eric Brock, CEO of Ondas Holdings, Jon Damush, CEO of uAvionix, and Eric Mintz, director of infrastructure mobility at Mitsubishi Electric. All of the panelists are veterans of navigating the complex economics of business in cutting-edge industries: balancing growth in a challenging investment environment and navigating a profitable path to profitability. The conversation focused on the steps needed for the industry to thrive, attract investment, and prepare for the future in a post-regulation environment.

Post-regulation perspective: moving beyond technical challenges

Eric Brock opened the discussion by emphasizing the need to reflect on the current state of the industry. While the rapid advancement of technology and evolving policies are encouraging, Brock emphasized the importance of shifting the focus from innovation to operationalization. Ondas Holdings is the parent company of drone manufacturer American Robotics, Airobotics, cUAS provider Iron Dome, and software provider Ardenna.

“We talk about our technical challenges and evolving policies, but we don’t think enough about how we’re evolving,” Brock said. “The technology has evolved rapidly, and the policies are getting more stringent. The question now is: How do we implement this at scale? It’s going to take everyone in this room working together.”

For Brock, the next step in the evolution of the drone industry is making sure the technology is fully operational and scalable. Achieving that will require collaboration.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle: Getting Through the Lows of Disappointment

Jon Damush cited the Gartner Hype Cycle, a model that tracks the growth of new technologies through the peaks and valleys of market expectations. According to Damush, the drone industry is currently at the bottom of the “trough of disillusionment,” a period of recalibration after early hype and inflated expectations.

“There was never any question that our industry would be big,” Damush explained. “It was always a question of when. I’m particularly optimistic about where this industry is headed, but I think it will be less exciting—and that’s our job. When you get to the point where it’s boring, reliable, predictable, and safe, that’s when you have big business.”

Damush’s perspective suggests that while the industry is moving away from the enthusiasm of early innovation, a shift toward reliability and security is a key step toward true commercialization and widespread adoption.

Drones as “Flying Computers”: The Path to Democratization

Eric Mintz expanded on the idea of ​​drones as a revolutionary technology, drawing a parallel between drones and the personal computer industry. He emphasized that just as personal computers democratized computing, drones have the potential to democratize aviation.

Mintz attributes the idea to Jon Damush. “Jon told me, ‘drones are the way to democratize flight,’ and that’s really profound,” Mintz said. “When you deconstruct our industry from its beginnings, it’s not just like the personal computer industry—it’s identical.”

Mintz explained that the drone industry may be on the cusp of its own “Internet moment,” a disruptive period in which new technology that has not yet been fully unveiled or widely adopted leverages existing technologies to transform the market. Much like the internet unlocked the full potential of personal computers, connecting them and fundamentally changing the way the world works, drones could similarly experience this kind of transformation. Mintz noted that as the commercial sector continues to evolve across hardware, software, and services, reusing existing infrastructure—which may be needed for advanced air mobility—may be key to making that moment a reality.

While personal computers eventually became commoditized, Mintz doesn’t see the same outcome for the drone industry. He believes that while recreational drones faced commoditization, commercial drones will go a different way due to the complexity and specialization of their applications.

“Our ‘Internet moment’ is coming,” Mintz said.

Preparing for the Future: Building Sustainable Business Models

The panel also touched on how drone companies should think about their future business models. Gretchen West pointed out that the industry is still too small to have significant lobbying power, making it crucial for companies to approach their growth strategically.

Eric Brock says drones are inherently profitable, but he stresses the importance of integrating technologies and building infrastructure to support scalability. “It’s not just showing up with a drone,” Brock said. “It’s how you integrate technologies.”

Damush echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the need for product-market fit. “We’ve solved the flight problems,” he said. “But that’s not product-market fit—that’s just proving the prototype.”

Cooperation and operationalization

As the panelists made clear, the drone industry is at a tipping point. While the technical challenges have been solved, the focus now is on scaling operations, finding product-market fit, and ensuring profitability. To achieve commercialization of the drone industry, the industry will need collaboration, strategic thinking, and the ability to integrate technology with broader infrastructure systems. As these efforts mature, the drone industry will be able to move beyond the trough of disappointment and into a future of reliable, predictable, and scalable operations. The drone industry’s “Internet moment” may be just around the corner, waiting to fully transform the commercial sector.

Read more:

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional marketplace for drone services, and a passionate observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has written over 3,000 articles on the commercial drone space, is an international speaker, and is a recognized voice in the industry. Miriam holds a degree from the University of Chicago and has over 20 years of experience in high-tech sales and marketing for emerging technologies.
If you would like consulting or writing about the drone industry, please email Miriam.

TWITTER:@spaldingbarker

Subscribe to DroneLife here.