Beagle Drones is on track for $100K in sales and looks for funding
Dwight Neptune, a 22-year-old college dropout, founded drone startup Beagle Drones when he was 18 years old. Now his young company is on track for $100,000 in sales and is looking for funding to expand its business.
Beagle Drones is on track for $100K in sales and looks for funding
In high school, Neptune studied electrical engineering and picked up flying drones as a hobby. He “wanted to build something that people enjoy and saw FPV as the entryway to building really cool tech products.”
FPV drones are more agile than regular consumer drones and allow the user to get video footage and offers a flying experience that would be physically impossible with other types of drones, reported CNBC.
To test the markets Neptune and it's cofounders first build a prototype with off-the-shelf parts in May 2017. After sales slowly started to pick up, he dropped out of Mercer County Community College after three semesters to pursue his new drone startup, Beagle Drones full-time.
Fast forward to today and the New Jersey startup sells two different drones priced at $130 and $400. Beagle Drones is on track for $100,000 in sales this year, according to Neptune. He's working on raising $1 million at a $4 million valuation, Neptune says.
As a Black founder raising money is “weird,” Neptune says. “I've been with several VCs, angel funds, and nine times out of 10, I'm the only Black founder there.”
At his own company, Neptune aims to create a diverse and tolerant culture.
“Our team is extremely diverse by default because our C-suite and our founding team is diverse, and it just attracts other people that want to work with a diverse group.”
As the founder and CEO of Beagle Drones, Neptune makes long workdays. He starts at 7 AM and keeps going until midnight or sometimes even later.
“There's not much of a social life when you're a founder,” he says. “The reality is you have to outwork as many people as you can.”
Neptune has big ambitions and wants to turn Beagle Drones into a large drone company.
Take it up a notch with Drone kit 2x pic.twitter.com/ijoODpwFst
— Beagle Drones (@BeagleDrones) August 22, 2020
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