4A – Forming An Opportunity Belief

Anti-drone security could potentially become a large issue in the upcoming years. As you are probably aware drones are flown remotely and can contain cameras, sensors, or any one of many different types of equipment. Recently at DEFCON, the largest hacking convention in the world, a drone was shown to do flyby hacking. That is by simply flying by an office building to hack vulnerable computers. In a domestic setting that affects the average person a man was arrested for shooting a drone over his property and as he claimed violating his privacy. Another example of drones being used for nefarious purposes happened this summer. An inmate at a South Carolina prison escaped using tools flown in by a drone. There is currently no good solution for stopping drones.

The unmet need that I have identified is the need for a drone defense system for government facilities, office buildings, and individual residences. Anybody who wishes to maintain the privacy and security of some building has a need for this defense. I believe that the defense of office buildings containing sensitive data and of government complexes to be a much more realistic business than that of defending private residences.

The need for drone defense is extremely new. Only in recent years have they become very cheap and accessible to the general public. People are working on solving the problem but every solution so far can be beaten. You can shoot them with a net, but enough lift and a cage around the propellers will keep the drone in the air. You can use another drone to take it out of the sky but what if there drone is faster? Shooting them works the best but you cant do that in a crowded setting. The situation is so bad that one solution being used is trained falcons which is obviously very expensive, and bringing nature to a science fight.

In percentage terms I think it varies across which customer base we focus on. For domestic residence defense i think the opportunity is fairly low, around 20%. I believe the opportunity for defense of large office structures that may contain sensative data much higher, around 80%. Finally i believe the market for defense of government institutions to be the highest opportunity at 90%, the major problem with that is having to deal with the government in business.

I attempted to contact several companies that own large office buildings buildings across America such as Brookfield Properties. Unfortunately I was not able to secure an interview with anyone who would be involved in this level of decision making. So I decided to focus on the individual residence market.

Interview 1 -
What is the exact nature of the need?
A way to protect the privacy and security of their home from drones.
When do they become aware of the need?
It crosses their mind occasionally when they see a drone flying around or see something on the news about the issue. However in their daily lives they never think about it.
When did they first become aware of their need?
They first became aware of the issue of drones invading peoples privacy from the South Park episode 'The Magic Bush' which features drones being used to invade the privacy of home owners.
How are they currently addressing their need?
They are currently doing nothing to address their need.

Interview 2 -
What is the exact nature of the need?
A cheap and easy way to either ground a drone preferably without to much destruction. Alternatively a way to make sure it does not fly above or near their house.
When do they become aware of the need?
Whenever the neighbor flies their drone over the house.
When did they first become aware of their need?
They had been aware of the need from hearing about issues on the news. Then the neighbors got a drone and the issue became personal. This person had heard about the Kentucky man being arrested for shooting the drone and said they felt helpless against the issue.
How are they currently addressing their need?
They are currently trying to figure out an inexpensive way to stop the drones but have not found anything yet.

Interview 3 -
What is the exact nature of the need?
According to the customer they have no need. I believed they would have a need for a way to protect their privacy at home from drones.
When do they become aware of the need?
Never, now since I told them about it perhaps when they see something about drones on the news they will think about it.
When did they first become aware of their need?
They were not aware of the need until i mentioned it to them. Once I told them about the issue they were not to worried about the issues with privacy saying 'nothing is private these days anyways'.
How are they currently addressing their need?
They are not doing anything to address the need and have no expectation to address the need.

After my interviews with home owners I feel the market for defense of individual residences is very low, perhaps around 5%. The average person does not like the idea of drones above their home but it is not an issue they worry about regularly. They would probably not go out of there way to find or implement a solution to the problem. I believe this is a much more accurate view of the market than the one I had when I started.

Entrepreneurs should adjust based on feedback from consumers, based on this feedback I would not pursue a drone defense business in the residential sector. However, I still believe that a market exists centered around office buildings and government installations. If I had more time and resources to be able to contact these potential customers I believe they would be very interested in a solution to this problem.