Meet the 18-year-old entrepreneur

But by the time St. George Matus was twelve, he had already engineered his own flying quadcopter and was operating with drone firms to check each product on the market.Flash forward six years, and nowadays he's chief executive officer of his own drone and code company, Utah-based Teal, that has four full-time workers, fifteen contractors and sells the world's quickest client drone.

Meet the 18-year-old entrepreneur who built the world's fastest drone and Meet the 18-year-old entrepreneur who built the world's fastest drone

"Between once I was eleven and sixteen, I flew everything on the market and that i very got annoyed with what was out there and by what I wasn't able to do however," Matus aforementioned. He wished a drone that did not limit him to solely taking footage, or solely sport. "It ought to the purpose wherever i used to be eager to push the bounds."After making a "wish list" of all the items he wished in an exceedingly drone, Matus developed the conception for Teal, and also the prototyping method began. confine mind, this chief executive officer was solely sixteen at the time, and he had prep, comes and papers to stay up with, too.

After years of "flying, crashing, reconstruction and modifying" dozens of versions of his product, Matus completed his dream drone, the Teal.Teal will fly quicker than seventy mph, with no out-of-the-box modifications required, and also the drone is in a position to resist forty mph gusts. Matus aforementioned he is been able to fly the drone as quick as eighty five mph, and he is functioning on add-ons that may create it go even quicker.Teal comes engineered with a small Nvidia pc that's capable of machine learning and image recognition. It's basically a flying pc, Matus said. Further, Matus aforementioned the platform can go with associate degree open code development kit, that he hopes app developers and different drone manufacturers can adopt.At $1,300, Teal's worth falls in line with the market-leading DJI Phantom series. The drone are offered to the general public early next year, and five hundred units square measure offered for preorder currently, able to ship simply prior the December holidays."I started sport drones before they were cool, and currently there is a massive community growing out of this," Matus aforementioned. "Teal needs to administer racers one thing that works out of a box, … one thing they do not have to be compelled to tinker with." Most racers either have to be compelled to modify their own drones or build one from scratch, Matus said. however he is trying to unravel that downside.And Teal is not only for drone racers. It's nice for the patron, the amateur, and even the one who has ne'er flown something before, Matus said. and also the doable use cases for Teal square measure masses, like taking photos and videos, taking part in games, delivering packages and complete a "search and rescue mission," Matus superimposed..

In 2015, Matus was chosen from virtually three,000 candidates to be a Thiel Fellow from Peter Thiel's foundation. The organization pays young entrepreneurs $100,000 to either drop out of faculty} or forgo college to figure on their own ventures.Matus, WHO lives in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, recently graduated highschool, however he aforementioned he is delayed about to school to devote his time and energy entirely toward his company.While he was still in class, Matus would pay his days in categories together with his peers, however afternoons and evenings were dedicated to prototyping, coming up with Teal's web site and fundraising — transportation the abstract product in Matus' mind to life."Raising cash was pretty exhausting, particularly simply beginning out," Matus aforementioned. "My male parent was driving Maine around as a result of I did not have my license — I had braces — thus it took a moment."

Teal completed its 1st spherical of seed funding in December. To date, the corporate has raised quite $3 million, Matus said, with plans to scale the team even any and grow production to higher volumes into 2017.

"Starting this company was a steep learning curve on behalf of me — learning a way to raise cash, build a team, build a corporation," Matus aforementioned. however once Teal's 1st angel capitalist, Northgate Capital's Mark Harris, believed in Matus' vision, things became easier, he admitted.

This year, Matus was chosen to be a challenger on the programme "Battlebots." He spent 3 months building a combat drone for the show, whereas conjointly functioning on Teal, that tested to be another "incredible expertise," packed with mistakes and far learning on the approach, Matus said.

With a bright future, this 18-year-old chief executive officer has just about begun. "[Teal's] goal is to push what is doable, to push the boundaries and expand the utilization cases for a drone, integration increased reality," Matus aforementioned. He plans to form his drone "as omnipresent as a smartphone" at some point.

"The recommendation i might provide to young entrepreneurs is to actually realize what interests you, so it does not desire work," Matus aforementioned. "This is my passion, and it's what i like to try and do."