But after launching Teal Drones in 2015, Matus quickly struggled to keep it afloat. A Chinese drone maker called DJI had dominated the global market, offering sophisticated, easy-to-use consumer drones at prices that U.S.-based companies simply couldn't match.
At some point, Matus realized that if he wanted to keep his dreams alive, he needed to change them.
Today, Matus says Teal sells most of its drones to the Department of Defense to help soldiers conduct reconnaissance, and others to local police departments and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (“They are deploying our drones on the borders of both countries,” Matus said.) The company adopted the slogan “Ruling the Night” to promote the drone's ability to spot targets in the dark.
“Most of our focus is on the Department of Defense,” said Matus, now 26. “Since the invasion of Ukraine, it has become very clear that drones have an incredible impact on warfare.”
The U.S. small drone industry is making a comeback after nearly being defeated by the inability to compete with China on production costs. The reasons for the revival are tough. Small drones have proven to be powerful combat tools in the Ukraine war, with soldiers strapping bombs to them and sending them on one-way missions.
The Department of Defense has announced a “Replicator” program to produce thousands of U.S.-made small unmanned aerial vehicles. It's an effort the U.S. drone maker hopes will provide steady sales and help offset rising production costs. Jeff Thompson, whose Redcat company acquired Teal Drones in 2021, said other governments in North America and Europe are also purchasing thousands of drones, fearing dire consequences if war breaks out again. He said he is ordering a drone.
“Everyone wants to make sure they get their drone before anything happens,” Thompson said. “I hope everyone buys drones in droves and no one wants to invade each other anymore. That would be great.”
When Matus launched Teal in 2015, investors expected a commercial boom. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced his ambition to deliver packages across the country by drone as early as 2017 (Bezos owns the Washington Post).
However, consumer lifestyles powered by drones did not materialize. Sorting out licenses to fly devices was complex and varied from state to state. This technology was not yet fully reliable. There was also the general public's reflexive aversion to the idea of eagle-eyed drones constantly flying over their homes.
“The concept is cool and exciting,” Adam Bly, CEO of San Mateo, Calif.-based Skydio, the largest U.S. drone maker, said of the delivery drone idea. “It turns out that actually delivering a working product is surprisingly complex.”
Then, in 2016, China's DJI released a 1.6-pound drone called the Mavic Pro for $999, which all but crushed the hopes of American players. Mavic Pro can capture his 4K videos and 12 megapixel still photos. You can lock on to your subject, automatically track it, and live stream video from over 4 miles away. When you fold the four wings, you can carry the 3.3″ x 7.8″ device in your pocket.
Matus tried to match the Mavic Pro's $1,000 price point, but he had to take a loss on every drone he sold. He was forced to whittle his staff of 45 down to 10.
“It was a valley of disillusionment,” Matus recalls. “Most companies were going out of business. And Teal was on the brink, too.”
“It was up and down for a while,” said Alex Wishart, 58, Teal's technical manager, but he said the company never missed a paycheck, even during tough times.
Teal, Skydio, and a handful of other U.S. drone manufacturers were banned by the U.S. military in 2018 by the Department of Defense, citing security concerns from using China-based suppliers. I was given a lifeline. The Army began looking for domestic contractors.
“We played our best on defense,” Matus said. “We knew that was going to be our future.”
Teal has improved its drone to be weather-sealed, equipped with a thermal camera for night vision, and with a higher level of cybersecurity. The company named its next drone “Golden Eagle” and unfurled a giant American flag on the factory wall.
Skydio also changed gears, closing its consumer drone division in 2023 to focus on government customers.
Matus' team now numbers nearly 100 people, the largest number ever. That's still a far cry from the 14,000 employees of DJI, whose rows of robotic arms operate automated assembly lines in China and churn out about 70% of the world's drones.
Teal employees in Salt Lake City sit at several long tables in an open workshop, assembling drones by hand. At today's scale, there is no need for conveyor belts or automated production. There is one robotic arm on the back of the aircraft, which is used to coordinate each drone's navigation system. After making adjustments, we carried the drone out into the grass in front of us and performed a test flight with the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains in the distance.
Teal's resurgence brings dozens of new engineering and manufacturing jobs to Utah. Even workers without a technical background were able to quickly understand the details of building and flying a drone.
Zach Childs, 23, who grew up in West Jordan, south of Salt Lake City, said he knew nothing about drones before joining Teal in January 2023.
“Now I'm like a complete enthusiast,” Childs said. “I have a drone at home that I use all the time… It's essentially a flying supercomputer. So it has nine different processors.”
Alexander Pott, 19, who was making drone controllers on a recent weekday afternoon, said his girlfriend's grandmother had come to work at Teal earlier and introduced him to the job.
“I build these big controllers from the bottom up,” he said. “I really try to learn as much as I can.”
Matus still faces an uphill battle. Even in Teal Drones' own backyard, the Salt Lake City area, police are skeptical of the need to buy domestically. They say they believe that China's DJI remains the gold standard in terms of features and price, and that the cybersecurity risk is minimal if the device is run without an internet connection. states.
Kyle Nordfors, drone search and rescue coordinator for Weber County, just north of Salt Lake City, said he expects U.S. drone brands to become more competitive, but DJI remains the best. . He said DJI's superior capabilities can be the difference between life and death when his team searches for lost hikers on snowy slopes.
“Unfortunately, U.S. manufacturers are still years behind,” Nordfors said. “If these anti-China laws were to go into effect, it would cost American lives. This is not an exaggeration. If I had been forced to use American drones, I would have lost my life. I will tell you the real names of American citizens.”
Nordfors said he believes there is no risk of data leakage from the drones to China if they are configured to operate without an internet connection, and that his team will I mentioned how it is used. The pride of his squadron is a top-of-the-line $30,000 DJI drone that can zoom in on targets over the horizon and has a thermal mode that pops people out of the landscape.
Nordfors said he's glad Utah lawmakers “listened to the logic” and didn't ban DJI's drones. He said he explained how to delete all data from the drone before reconnecting it to the internet. “It's all fear-mongering and nonsense,” he said.
Sergeant Josh Ashdown, who oversees the Salt Lake City Police Department's drone program, says his team has 17 drones from four brands: China-based DJI and Autel, and U.S. brands Skydio and Brinc. he said.
“Part of it is just economics, which is the most affordable and whether it's responsible for our taxes,” he said.
Ashdown said the Salt Lake City Police Department currently has 27 officers licensed to fly drones, who take their drones out almost every day for operations and practice. He said drones are an innovative technology that will allow police to monitor parade routes for potential assailants and locate bystanders before SWAT teams arrive. Ta.
Last year, Florida adopted an ordinance banning the use of Chinese-made drones by police. Other states have no such restrictions.
Sergeant in the Miami Police Department. Anthony Loperfido said that before the country banned China-based drone brands, his team owned 14 DJI drones and was scrambling to find funds to buy more expensive domestic drones. He said he had to. His team currently operates 12 of his California-made Skydio drones, which cost him about $25,000 each, while DJI drones cost him about $1,500. It costs $3,000. “It's going to be a big investment,” he said.
Loperfido said his team was forced to suspend the use of drones in indoor SWAT operations after Florida's Chinese drone ban went into effect. He said U.S.-made drones are “poor” when it comes to indoor cellular connectivity. If the operator loses contact with the drone, it will no longer be able to fly, he said. “Right now, all you have is a piece of technology sitting somewhere on the floor that you can't communicate with,” he said.
But Loperfido said U.S. drone manufacturers are making progress. He cited the new Skydio X10, which he said has features tailored for law enforcement, compared to off-the-shelf DJI consumer drones.
“That's what I would have said at the time,” he said of the lag in U.S. drone capabilities. “I don't think I can say that right now.”
After their shift, Matus employees often take out their personal drones, circle and fly them around the office for pure joy. Experience an exhilarating drone perspective of high-speed flight by wearing goggles that display a live feed from the drone's camera.
That's what teenage Matus imagined his customers would be able to do with his drone. But his employees aren't playing around with teal drones. Teal's products cost him $15,000 apiece, which is too expensive to fool around with. Employees instead race cheap and cheerful Chinese-made drones, which frequently crash into walls and need repairs.
It remains a difficult prospect for consumer-oriented U.S. drone companies to survive in the face of competition from DJI. Teal's parent company, Redcat, also owned two consumer drone startups, Fat Shark and Rotor Riot, which sourced from China to keep costs down. Red Cat recently sold these two startups, leaving only Teal.
“We have to divide ourselves because we work with the government every day right now,” Thompson said. “It doesn't say 'Made in the USA,' and I'm on the phone at 2 a.m. ordering tons of stuff from China.”
Matus said the last U.S. consumer drone model was Snap's Pixy, but the company announced a recall in February because the battery could overheat and catch fire.
