Sophomores Start “KC Drone Dudes” Drone Company

With his iPhone 8 in his left hand, displaying a lagging shot of the PV skatepark from 60 feet above, sophomore Miles Patterson controls his DJi Spark drone with the remote in the other hand, switching to sport mode as the drone darts off at 30 mph. His two best friends and fellow sophomores, Sawyer Waterman and Palmer Bowles look on alongside Miles with smiles and heads tilted as the Spark reaches a height of 100 feet.

Miles received the DJi Spark beginner drone last year for Christmas, and so did Palmer, who he had known since middle school. These two compact quadcopters led Palmer, Miles and Sawyer to a new business: KC Drone Dudes.

Starting for pure fun, the self-proclaimed “drone dudes” have created a startup business to film houses for realtors to help sell houses. As teenagers, they plan to undercut the drone filming market for realtors, according to Miles, and bring something young and new to Kansas City real estate.

The trio has a clear division of labor – Sawyer handles the business and marketing, Palmer uses his artistic eye for shots and editing, and Miles, with his connections in realty and experience with videography, leads the company. 

Miles has always been interested in the flying of drones, first learning from a cheap quadcopter. He has learned from Google how to improve his videography and editing skills and simply enjoys the technicality of getting a shot.

Sawyer is the entrepreneur – interning at Cambrian, a company for homeowners to visualize paint and DIY Projects, over the summer, and taking entrepreneurship and marketing classes. As their website boasts, he has an overall passion for technology and business.

Video by Peyton Watts

“I just figure out what I can help with since I can’t afford a drone,” Sawyer said.

Palmer is the artist – and who Miles and Sawyer both describe as the one with the visual eye for shots and ability to artfully edit the videos.

These three have already started marketing with a YouTube channel and website, but the startup is still in its early stages. They have to wait until spring time to start filming for the handful of clients they already have connected with, because houses do not go up on the market during the winter.

“[We can film] when things are looking pretty outside…when things turn from brown to green” Miles said.

The three sophomores noticed a large gap in drone footage of houses for realtors and wanted to take advantage of the huge KC home buying market. According to Miles, they want to provide something unique for consumers to view houses.

Sawyer and Miles frequently email and meet with local realtor Andy Bash to discuss their startup and get critiques on their house tours.

“He knows the business, has a ton of connections and he knows what people want,” Sawyer said.

What the trio also learned from Bash was that their pay rate for an hour of work is at least 50 percent less than what the normal pay is; they plan to charge $75-150 per house. As teenagers, they are more easily able to undercut what paid professionals charge, according to Miles.

They’ll tell you themselves that they are inexperienced, but as Sawyer says, as long as they are passionate about what they are doing, they’ll be fine. They learn off of each other while filming, and can look up any question they have about flying drones.

“Our whole goal in the end is to be three teenagers who undercut the market,” Miles said.

According to Steven Patterson, Miles’ dad, Miles and Palmer had finished the Drone Dudes logo, started the YouTube channel and launched their website in just two days. As featured on both sites, the trio have close-ups of the red Western Auto sign, orbital shots of the Loose Park cannon and the top of the World War I Museum tower, all to show off their filming abilities to potential clients.

“I was really proud of them because in really an evening or two [they] had designed a logo and they were branding themselves,” Steven said.

Going forward the “drone dudes” are going to continue tending to their drone addiction, uploading new content on their YouTube channel and travelling downtown to scare pedestrians with their flying robots. They are planning to attend “1 million cups”, an entrepreneur expo downtown in the summer as well, furthering their name in KC.

“So it’s really just, hey we have some money and this is a really really fun thing, we’re all passionate, let’s try to do something cool with it,” Sawyer said.