Texas-based SkyPSI launches today to make drones work for working people while providing the infrastructure to enable the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Geared towards drone enthusiasts, cleaning crews, and entrepreneurs looking for the next great business opportunity alike, SkyPSI puts professional cleaning drones, training, and paying commercial contracts in the hands of independent operators.
Ahead of today’s launch, The Sociable caught up with SkyPSI founder and CEO Vic Pellicano. Pellicano is a serial entrepreneur with a storied background.
“SkyPSI is enabling the next generation of entrepreneurs to actually make use of the robotic technology that comes out“
Vic Pellicano, CEO at SkyPSI
The son of a truck driver, he was raised in a trailer park, lost his parents and had to drop out of law school to live in a van for a stint, but in the face of all this adversity, Pellicano went on to be a sucessful founder with two tech company exits, one of which was a pioneer in cutting edge drone technology.
Now, the SkyPSI CEO is going back to his roots, to give working class people like his father all the tools and training they need to run their own companies — this time with the help of drones.
“SkyPSI is enabling the next generation of entrepreneurs to actually make use of the robotic technology that comes out,” said Pellicano.
“Everybody’s terrified of robots taking their jobs, and what they will believe when I’m done and the world’s done is that this is the great enabler,” he said of his company’s work.
But with all the tasks that drones and robots can do to help lighten the load and free up time for workers to focus on other tasks, why would cleaning commercial buildings be the place to start?
Let’s take a look at time and money.
According to the SkyPSI CEO, a drone operator — the one that has their hands on the control — is paid on average $13,000 for a professional cleaning job that takes around one or two days to complete.
That means you could do cleaning work 10 or 20 days per year and still make $100,000.
And drones are lot safer than having people dangling on ropes and pulleys running squeegees across windows dozens of stories high.
Furthermore, it’s cheaper for building owners to hire drone operators, meaning they can hire professional drone cleaning crews to do more than just one job per year, especially in areas that are warm and don’t have harsh winters.
“I founded SkyPSI to put practical robotics in working hands, help independent operators build businesses, and give commercial property teams one accountable cleaning partner”
Vic Pellicano, CEO at SkyPSI
“My hope is to give guys like me and my dad access to the technology that will be life-changing for them, that will change their outcomes for them and their kids. And as this new world gets online, give them something, a company that will stand behind them and help them be successful with the new technologies that come online”
Vic Pellicano, CEO at SkyPSI
But before getting into the actual cleaning itself, there’s a lot of work to be done in getting the equipment ready, providing the training, setting up the contracts, going through insurance, legal requirements, and so on.
As Pellicano says, “You got to go out and bid and win the jobs, you got to be able to support those jobs — that’s the infrastructure that we provide for these operators as they get into it — it’s that business-in-a-box stuff that they really want out of it.”
That’s the kind of infrastructure that SkyPSI is providing for its clients, and that’s on top of the value added to commercial property teams, so they always have a reliable and accountable cleaning partner.
“We connect them with commercial properties, we bring them into jobs we’ve already won, we teach them to sell themselves,” said Pellicano.
“We’re the company behind them, supporting them technically, in sales and marketing, everything, so we’re just helping them out as they grow their businesses.”
Professional cleaning is an industry that’s never going away and will always be in demand as long as commercial buildings are standing.
What’s changed is the technology, and with SkyPSI the robots are taking away jobs — they’re creating entirely new business opportunities for working people.
“Tech turned a homeless kid from a trailer park into a multimillionaire. I’m putting $5 million of my own money into making sure working people get the same shot. Machines should take the strain. People should take the profit”
Vic Pellicano, CEO at SkyPSI
And with Pellicano’s history and background, the son of a truck driver that provided a life for his family, he made the decision to put up $5 million of his own money into SkyPSI to help working class people.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of guys from the trailer park out here in robotics, in AI, that know what I know and that came from their world, right?” he said.
“When I go out and talk to these guys, they see me and I see them, I think, more than anybody in Silicon Valley can understand them.”
In a nutshell, SkyPSI was founded to put practical robotics in working hands, help independent operators build businesses, and give commercial property teams one accountable cleaning partner.
Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
Image Source: Courtesy of SkyPSI
