The Epic Drone Tours Story: Three Years In

Approaching the end of our third year in business, I wanted to write and reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly since the creation of the business in the middle of the pandemic.

At the time of the start of EDT, I had been about 6 months removed from college with a decently successful photography/videography career, but was searching for my “full-time” purpose and passion. Photography has always been my continued connection to the world of sports that I love and identify with, especially the sport of swimming, but I wanted to create something big that I could gather a team around, all working towards a common goal. Photography is mainly an individual job.

I bounced around a few ideas that I had, including a marketing company where I’d create videos for small businesses in my community and assist them in driving revenue by utilizing the videos as advertisements on social media platforms. I also dabbled in lead generation for blue-collar companies, selling cleaning devices for commercial companies, and a variety of other things before landing on the idea of using FPV drones to tour a property in one seamless view. Having been a fan of drones and FPV footage, I realized that amid the pandemic and realtors being unable to tour properties in person, this type of footage could be the perfect solution for property tours, not to mention they’re much more fun to watch than crappy 3D tours.

I began a search for a local FPV pilot, and with the help of an old swim teammate, began touring some friends’ houses and blasting the content out to hundreds of realtors. Almost immediately, one of the most successful agents in Hawaii, Carrie Nicholson, loved the concept and brought us out to film three different homes worth over $10 million, launching us straight into the luxury real estate world. From here we garnered several eager clients in the luxury areas of Los Angeles and San Diego including Beverly Hills, Bel Air, La Jolla and more. Agents loved the uniqueness and novelty of the tours, being the only agents in the area to utilize this technology and providing their clients with a creative way to view a home end-to-end.

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This phase lasted for about 8 months as we perfected the craft and built our portfolio. We worked with several drone pilots and found the man who has done more drone tours for us than anyone, the great Yohalmo Coto. In the summer of 2021 I had the opportunity to photograph at the Olympic games, and while I was gone, Zack Reuter, our COO, and our creative team were able to hold down the fort and keep the brand-new business afloat.

Around the Fall of 2021, we realized that agents were looking for more of a one-stop-shop for video content rather than using indoor drone tours for their entire video strategy, so we began offering ground videography and detail shots, creating incredibly unique property tours that combine the gliding FPV footage with the smooth and cinematic ground shots, creating what felt like movie trailers for homes.

Around this time we also began to branch into the commercial world, marketing to commercial real estate brokers and hotels/resorts, an industry with larger marketing budgets and ambition to create invigorating media. We worked with a few small hotels and then received a large contract in early 2022 to film three of San Diego’s most historic hotels. We also worked on a few office and industrial projects. Coincidentally, as we began to put more of our focus towards these industries, we continued to grow even faster in the residential sector with the new style of video tours we were offering.

The majority of 2022 was spent building our foundation and refining our skills and products to be the best on the market in our industry. The year was finalized with our largest residential shoot to date, filming a massive 30,000-square-foot estate in Beverly Park that was listed for $90 million, filming a holiday project at the Hyatt Lost Pines in Austin, Texas, and doing a full hotel production for the W Hotel in Los Angeles. These both were extremely special to us and major highlights of our second year in business. We went into 2023 with large ambitions and ready-to-work.

In 2023 we grew our revenue by 28%, in a year that was pretty rocky and unstable for real estate. We worked with major hotel corporations like Hyatt and Hilton, major commercial brokerages like CBRE and JLL, and did many custom projects for a variety of companies across the US, including Morris Group International that allowed us to travel to 7 different states to create indoor drone tours of their manufacturing facilities. We spent a week back at Hyatt Lost Pines, spending 12 hours a day creating a plethora of content for their 500+ acre resort. We enjoy working in the hospitality sector because of their focus and commitment to both people and quality.

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In 2023, Zack and I spent our hours refining our processes and getting in touch with as many people as we can, as well as beginning to dive into paid advertising. In September, we had the opportunity to speak with Gary Vee and his team, gaining crucial knowledge about the current state of content, business strategy, and paid ads in our digital world. This was extremely impactful for us and has helped guide us through the last several months of our content creation. At the end of the trip we were able to complete a fly-through of VaynerX’s office, which was one of the main highlights of the year, flying right over Gary’s head.

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In 2023, we also invested heavily in Cinelifers, which are large drones that carry cinema-quality cameras (such as the Sony FX6, RED Komodo, etc), with plans to work on larger productions in the film and TV industry.

This year, in 2024, we plan to narrow our focus to select industries and spend as much time as possible perfecting our services for our clients and customers. We plan to scale up the number of shoots we’re taking on and grow our team in the process, creating drone tours in as many properties and businesses as we can. It’s been the greatest 3 years of my life, having the opportunity to be at the helm of a business that I am extremely passionate about. Seeing it grow from a simple practice flight through my neighbors’ house to becoming a company traveling around the world with some of the largest brands gives me goosebumps. The gratitude I have for everyone involved thus far can’t be said enough.

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For team growth, this year we plan to hire a sales department leader, project manager, and additional editors, and of course grow our network of drone pilots and videographers across the country, while constantly upgrading our quality of media and especially our level of customer service.

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I can’t wait to see what we do in year 4 and hope you follow along for the ride.

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To more epic adventures,

Jack, CEO of Epic Drone Tours