Day 4: Liftoff
Welcome to Day 4. Today you start a drone company.
Not pretend. Not "for the workshop." A real company you could legally register in Shasta County by next summer for under $200. You'll pick what you sell, who pays for it, what you call it, what your logo looks like — and then you pitch it to the room.
By 1:00 you'll have: an FAA cert, four days of flight experience, a real pitch deck, and a clear path to your Part 107 license. That's a resume.
Here is the actual pathway from this gym to a paid drone job. Nothing on this list is theoretical. Every step is a thing you can do.
- Today: you already have your FAA TRUST cert. That's step one, and it's done.
- This year: log flight hours. Borrow a friend's drone, use your phone to record practice. Real Part 107 study prep is ~30 hours over a couple of months.
- Turn 16: you are now legally allowed to take the FAA Part 107 commercial drone exam. Test fee is $175. Pass = you can be paid to fly.
- Can't afford the $175? The Elevate Scholarship covers it specifically for students from underserved backgrounds. That's you. They've funded thousands of these.
- With Part 107 + a drone: register a sole proprietorship in California (~$70), buy basic liability insurance (~$500/year), and you can legally sell drone services.
- Or skip the company route: Cal Fire, PG&E, REACH Air, USFS, and Shasta County Sheriff SAR all hire drone operators. Part 107 is the minimum qualification.
A dry run. You're going to design a real-feeling drone services company — for the North State, for real customers — and pitch it. Doesn't mean you have to start it. But you'll know exactly what it would take.
First question on the table: what would your drone company do, and who would pay you for it?
Yesterday you used AI for mission planning. Today you use it for branding — generating logos, brand imagery, and marketing copy. Five years ago this was a $5,000 contract with a design agency. Now it's 20 minutes and a phone.
Same rules as yesterday: AI gives you a draft. You decide what's good and iterate.
A bad logo prompt: "Make me a drone company logo." You'll get something generic.
A good logo prompt has 4 ingredients:
- Style — "minimalist," "vintage," "tactical," "hand-drawn," "vector"
- Imagery — what's in the logo? A drone? A mountain? A propeller?
- Mood — "professional," "rugged," "futuristic," "trustworthy"
- Use — "for a small business," "for a t-shirt," "for a website header"
Example prompt to try right now (just to see how the tool works):
Send it. Look at what comes back. Don't keep the first thing. Iterate:
- Too busy? Add:
Cleaner. Less detail. - Wrong colors? Add:
Try with forest green and orange. - Want text? Add:
Include the company name "Shasta Aerial" in bold sans-serif.
About AI text in logos: AI image generators are bad at spelling. If "Shasta Aerial" comes out as "Shsata Aieral," that's normal. You'll add the company name yourself in the slide later.
Save your favorite 2–3 logo options. Hold onto them. You'll pick the final logo during the build block.
Break. Water. Stretch. Form your pitch team — partners from earlier in the week, plus a third or fourth person if you want a bigger team. Teams of 2–4.
10:35 – 10:45One slide. Sixty seconds of pitch. You're going to fit your entire drone business onto a single image and present it to the room. This is harder than writing 10 slides — every word and every pixel matters.
What does your drone company actually do? Each of these is a real business model that real people in the North State make money on right now.
Pick one. A focused company beats a "we do everything" company every time. Investors and customers both like specificity.
Two parts:
- Company name. Short. Memorable. Often references the region. Examples that work: Shasta Aerial · NorCal Eyes · Trinity Drone · Cottonwood Sky · 530 Aerial · Cascade UAS.
- Tagline / mission. One sentence. What you do, for whom. "Aerial inspection for North State roofers, on-site in 48 hours." "We map walnut orchards so growers see what they can't from the ground."
Use AI if stuck:
You'll get 10 names. Pick one. Or take pieces and combine.
Use Google Slides (slides.google.com — needs Google account) or Canva (canva.com — free templates). Make one slide. Put these six things on it:
Hard limits:
- One slide. Not two. Not five. One.
- No paragraphs. Phrases only. The slide supports your pitch; it doesn't replace it.
- Logo image takes ~1/3 of the slide. Drag your AI image in. Resize.
- Export as PNG or PDF. Upload to Padlet: [PADLET LINK], "Day 4 — LIFTOFF Pitches" column.
Rich will pull the last two groups of four outside during this block. If your name hasn't been called yet this week, this is your turn. Day 4 outdoor mission: a free-fly demonstration — your last shot at flying the big drone.
Pitch prep. Slides uploaded to Padlet. Decide who speaks. Rehearse your 60 seconds once with your team. Move chairs to face the projector.
11:50 – 12:00Your slide is on the projector. You have 60 seconds. That's not a lot — but it's also not a little. Real founder pitches at investor events run 60 to 120 seconds.
- The hook (10 sec) — one sentence: who you are, what you do. "We're Shasta Aerial. We inspect roofs without a ladder."
- The customer + problem (15 sec) — who needs this and why. "North State roofers cap out at 4–5 inspections a day. Insurance adjusters are 8 weeks backed up since the last fire season."
- The offer (20 sec) — what you sell, what it costs. "$200, 24-hour turnaround, photos and a written report. We can do 10 inspections a day."
- The ask / close (15 sec) — what you want from the audience. "If you know a roofer in the North State, send them our way."
While you watch every pitch, on Padlet vote one reaction emoji per team:
- 💰 = I'd actually pay for this
- 🎯 = Sharpest pitch of the day
- 🎨 = Best logo / brand
- 🔥 = Boldest idea
- 60 seconds means 60 seconds. Rich is on the timer.
- No "ums" mid-pitch is impossible — keep going anyway.
- No phone scrolling during other teams' pitches. Eyes up. You'd want the same.
- After each pitch: one clap, the next team is up.
Rich tallies the Padlet votes while you take a breath. Top three in each category get called out. No giant trophies — but bring your FAA TRUST cert to the front: everyone who passed the cert gets a moment.
- 💰 Most Investable — the company the room would actually pay
- 🎯 Sharpest Pitch — tightest 60 seconds
- 🎨 Best Brand — logo + name + vibe
- 🔥 Boldest Idea — the swing nobody else took
- 🚁 Best LIFELINE Drop — from yesterday
- 🤖 Best Damage Assessment — from yesterday
- 🛰️ Cleanest Autonomous Flight — from Day 2
Pull up your TRUST cert on your phone. That is a federal aviation credential with your name on it. Most adults in this country don't have it. You earned it Monday. It's yours forever.
Four days. Three platforms. One real federal cert. A drone company.
- An FAA TRUST certificate — federal, lifetime, real.
- Hands-on flight experience with three classes of aircraft (Tello, Phantom 4, RoboMaster ground robot).
- A working knowledge of autonomous flight programming in DroneBlocks.
- Real practice using AI as a working tool — for planning, for branding, for problem-solving.
- A pitch deck for a drone services company you could legally start before next summer.
- Door 1: Get the Part 107. Turn 16, apply to the Elevate Scholarship, study 30 hours, pass the test. You can be paid to fly the next day.
- Door 2: Hire on with someone. Cal Fire UAS, Shasta County Sheriff SAR (volunteer first), PG&E, USFS Shasta-Trinity, REACH Air — all hire drone pilots. Part 107 is the door key.
- Door 3: Start the company. What you pitched today. Sole prop, basic insurance, a used DJI Mavic. ~$1,500 in startup costs. You'd be the youngest drone services owner in Shasta County, but not by much.
Take one Post-it. Finish this sentence: "The thing I want to remember from this week is…" Stick it on the gym door on your way out.
Thanks for flying with us. Go build something.