Welcome to another enlightening conversation with Team OnestopNDT. This time, we have Mr. Patrick Thévoz, the dynamic co-founder and CEO of Flyability, a company at the forefront of drone technology and innovation. With a career that could be a thrilling blend of a SciFi and psychological movie, Patrick's journey is filled with groundbreaking achievements and profound insights into the intricacies of building and leading a tech company. Inspired by houseflies and driven by a mission to enhance safety through robotics, Flyability has revolutionized the way we gather data in inaccessible and hazardous environments.
In this conversation, Patrick shares the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, the importance of building a strong company culture, and the thrill of seeing innovative ideas come to life. He also delves into his personal experiences, from fascinating academic projects to the unique traditions that keep his team engaged and motivated.
Join us as we explore the fascinating world of Flyability through the eyes of Patrick Thévoz, and discover how this visionary leader is shaping the future of drone technology, one innovative solution at a time.
Hi Patrick, it’s fantastic to have you here! Let's start with something fun—if your career journey were a movie, what would be the title and why?
Not sure about the title but the genre would be half-way between a SciFi movie as when I take a step back our products ability to build live 3d models of inaccessible places seem very futuristic (actually the movie Prometheus was very influential in guiding the development of our latest surveying drone!) - and a psychological movie as in the end building a company is all about building and maintaining relationships and getting to know yourself.
You co-founded Flyability, which is known for some incredible innovations. What was the inspiration behind starting this company? Was there a specific moment or event that sparked the idea for you?
The research started as the PhD thesis of my co-founder Adrien, who was studying robotics at the time of fukusima and the haiti earthquake and was looking for technical solutions to help first responders gather data in those very difficult environments. The initial inspiration was houseflies, and how they just bump on obstacles when flying indoors to find their way. This is how our first prototype of a collision-tolerant drone was built.
… in the early days of Flyability, did you ever have a moment where you thought, “This is going to be something big”? Can you share a memory from those initial days?
When we started the company, I thought: the moment we hit 1M in sales, we’ll have made it and it will be all smooth sailing from there. 10M was very quickly the “we’ve made it” target, and we are now working towards the 100M target. I quickly realized that entrepreneurship is a game where you are never satisfied and always fighting towards the next challenge. Throughout our whole journey and very much still today I feel we are in the very beginning of something much bigger!
Winning awards like the "Drones for Good Award" must have been exciting! Let us rewind a little bit, can you share what that experience was like and what it meant for you and your team?
That is a great memory. The company was completely underfunded, we were paying our first employees out of our own pockets and had struggled raising a first pre-seed round.
We were invited to pitch to Mohammed ben Rachid Al Maktoum in front of thousands of people and while conducting a live demonstration of what was a barely functioning prototype. The stakes were super high, and the stress levels through the roof! We won this competition out of 800 contestants, and it felt like winning the lottery. Looking at the “0” on the company’s bank account turn to 1’000’000 USD the following week felt completely unreal. The most chocking however was that as the competition had made front page news on outlets like CNN, we received approximately 1’000 emails of people wanting to test or buy our product. Unfortunately, we were really not ready to sell anything at that stage, but that was a super important proof for us that we were on to something. What an unusual way to do market research…
… leading a tech company can be tough. Can you tell us about a particularly challenging decision you had to make and how you managed to navigate through it?
Covid was a particularly brutal period for us. We immediately lost 90% of our business in Q2 2020. We could not pay employees, nor access the office. We were lucky to have very experienced Board members who had been through crises in the past and organized a series of internal meetings where they shared their experience of such time with our team and helped me get into crisis management mode to steer the company through these weird times. This fortunately did not last too long and 6 months later we were back to our original sales level.
… your research on microfluidic channels and cell synchronization is fascinating. How do these academic projects tie into your current work at Flyability?
While that research was fascinating, what such projects taught me was that I clearly did not have the patience to spend months in labs running experiments and got me incredibly curious of the mechanisms that might turn my research someday into something useful in the real world. This is where my drive to one day build a company and bring an innovation to market was born.
Problem-solving is crucial in tech. Do you have a specific strategy or approach for tackling complex problems? Can you share a story where this approach made a significant difference?
We have tried to build our organization around very well defined roles for everyone in the company. So when a complex problem arises, a large number of people in the company start thinking about how, in their role, they can contribute to solving the issue. As they are often closer to the field, to customers, and to the actual issues, they are often the best people to solve it. So in reality very few problems actually get escalated to the founders.
When they are, it is usually about decisions that need to be made with very insufficient data, and need to be a fast executive decision, otherwise the team gets stuck. Still working on finding the right balance of when to trust the process and when to make those rushed calls!
… building a strong company culture is important. How do you keep things fun and engaging for your team at Flyability? Any unique traditions or activities that everyone looks forward to?
We are in Switzerland, so since year 1, we bring every single team member to a company ski weekend. It used to be a very simple event, but with now over 130 people based on 3 continents it is now a huge commitment! It is a lot of fun to see our colleagues from APAC seeing snow for the first time, and they keep trying to convince us to go diving close to our Singapore office the following year instead of skiing.
Patrick, What are some of your favorite ways to stay informed? Any go-to books, podcasts, or conferences?
A few books that influenced how we built the company: “reinventing organizations” (Laloux), “the five dysfunctions of a team” (Lencioni) and “measure what matters” (Doerr)
… when you're not working with drones and robotics, how do you unwind and relax? Do you have any hobbies or activities that help you recharge?
It’s very deeply rooted in the Swiss culture to go to the mountains whenever we have any spare time, and go skiing / mountaineering / hiking / mountain biking,etc. Alternatively, I sail on the sea and on the beautiful Leman lake in front of our office.
… what aspects of your work at Flyability make you lose track of time because you enjoy them so much?
An engineer at heart and by training, I originally thought I could lead the company and still work on the technology itself. It was clear after the first week that it was not going to happen. So when I can find an engineering challenge in my scope of work, such as developing code behind financial models or business processes on our ERP, I sometimes completely lose track of time!
… how do you stay motivated to continually push the boundaries of what’s possible in your field?
As pioneers in our field, we are very much driven by our mission of removing people from dangerous jobs that can be done instead by robots, and there are tons of things still to be done. We have set the standard in this domain and continue to raise the bar every year. Our problem is not to find innovative ideas (we have enough great ideas to launch new products for the 10 coming years!) but to only select the most impactful ones as we have to work with limited resources.
… what’s the most interesting or unusual job you had before becoming CEO of Flyability?
As a strategy consultant I often had very peculiar assignments. One that stands out was a project aiming at benchmarking the cost efficiency of all the frozen pizza factories in the USA.
… what drives you to keep pushing forward and innovating in your field? Are there specific motivators or inspirations that keep you going?
Same as two questions up.
… if you had an extra hour in your day, how would you spend it?
I’m expecting my second child in the next few weeks, so the extra hour will probably be needed to take care of him!
Lastly, platforms like OnestopNDT are becoming more popular. How do you see these platforms shaping the future of our industry, and what value do they bring to professionals like yourself?
We started as roboticists with very little knowledge of what kept our customers at night, what their workflows and ways of solving problems. With now more than 1’400 customers we have learned a lot but we keep launching new solutions and entering new markets: 2 years ago we were only doing visual inspection, and we are now doing surveying, ultrasonic thickness, radiation monitoring, and more is coming. Those platforms are thus helping us keep up to date on what’s new and identify the challenges to solve with our next innovations.
Patrick, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for sharing your stories and insights. We’re excited to see the incredible innovations you and your team at Flyability will continue to bring to the world!
