Henri Seydoux[1] first founded Parrot in 1994. But the company has drastically evolved over time and managed to remain relevant more than 20 years later. Less than ten years ago, Parrot started working on consumer drones. And now, the company is in the middle of another shift as it now focuses more than ever on commercial drone use cases. That’s why we’re excited to announce that Parrot founder and CEO Henri Seydoux will join us on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin[2] on December 4-5, 2017.
When I last interviewed[3] Seydoux, he looked back at the origin story of the first drones. He realized that he could re-use the same sensors and processors that you can find in a smartphone.
But instead of building phones, you could take advantage of the accelerometers, gyroscopes, wireless chips and energy-efficient processors to power tiny quadcopters. Since then, drones have become a big industry. It’s hard to find a reality TV show without drone shots now.
Things worked well for a while. Parrot managed to sell a ton of consumer drones and it quickly became a great gift for the holiday season. But increased competition and shrinking margins led to some difficult decisions.
It hasn’t always been a smooth ride for Parrot. In January, the company laid off 35 percent[4] of its drone team to focus on commercial drones. The company has made a few acquisitions to become a key player in this space. SenseFly, Airinov, MicaSense and Pix4D are now all owned by Parrot.
And now, Parrot sells integrated software and hardware solutions for very special use cases. Just two weeks ago, Parrot released drones for firefighters and farmers[5]. You can also imagine...