Nicholas Horbaczewski, creator of the Drone Racing League, says startups should be wary of setting expectations too high. Even if they think they’ve hit the “next big thing.”
What is the Drone Racing League?
If you don’t know what it’s about yet, this is the Drone Racing League:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
Nicholas Horbaczewski created the Drone Racing League in early 2015 to appeal to fans of video games and Formula One.
The New York City-based business has raised more than $8 million, despite a rocky start that taught Horbaczewski the danger of over-committing and under-delivering.
This is the story told by its creator:
The history of the Drone Racing League.
At first we invited (completely trusting) a group of investors to attend our first race; that we announce as the Drone Racing Grand Prix.
At Drone Racing League, we mount cameras on our drones and post videos after every race on our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch channel. So that the viewers feel that they are really inside the drones.
For this debut event, we assumed our big challenge would be things like judging and scoring. We thought building the drones would be easy.
Dozens of vendors and experts recommended circuit boards, flight controllers, and other parts; promising that the drones would be racing cars.
We conducted flight tests for months, but we knew there were many ways drones could go wrong.
Also read: How successful entrepreneurs overcome the obstacles of starting a business.
Start over.
Two months before the event, we realized that we had to build the drones from scratch. Clearly, we would not be able to carry out the dazzling career that we had envisioned. I felt disgust for underestimating what was to be done and setting expectations too high.
I had to go back and reset those expectations. While my team redesigned and organized the manufacturing; I visited each of our potential investors and told them that I was not going to deliver what I thought I could deliver.
Instead of the Grand Prix, they would see some racing and a tech demo: essentially, a proof of concept. That was an experience that taught me humility. I could only hope that they still saw the potential the way I did.
The event was set to take place at an abandoned power plant in Yonkers, New York; nicknamed “The Gates of Hell”.
We were hoping to bring 120 drones. (Drones crash repeatedly, so pilots need to change often.) We only had 12 and some with missing pieces. Nine pilots came from as far away as Australia. We only had enough drones for six people to participate.
The big day.
Most of the potential investors came, but they were skeptical. We explained that we realized how difficult this was going to be to achieve.
Compared to what we had promised, the event was a disappointment. But for investors, who had never seen anything like this outside of a sci-fi movie or video game, and had no idea what to expect; it was hugely educational.
Also read: 5 questions you must answer to get investment.
Also, there were enough moments of greatness, like six drones flying at high speed practically on top of each other, and investors could understand my vision.
Afterwards, almost everyone in attendance invested. Our first investment round exceeded expectations. Since then, we have done several races that have had millions of views.
Conclusion.
That early experience taught us that you have to sell your vision to potential partners; while being brutally realistic about what it will take to achieve it.
And remember, if you are really interested in creating your own business, you can purchase our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
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