FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Drones have become a big business, especially in South Florida. A company in Fort Lauderdale says sales are soaring sky high and they only seem to have scratched the surface on what to use the drones for.
Entrepreneur Don Scott is CEO of DSLRPros, a development, manufacturing and customizing drone company working out of an inconspicuous building off west Dixie Highway.
"Why not do it here? Why not have the next Silicon Valley right here in Fort Lauderdale?" said Scott. "It's an octocopter and you can see it is carrying a Canon 5D now so you can shoot a movie with this."
The company has even developed a prototype of an amphibious drone.
"It is completely waterproof," Scott said. "It will land and take off of the water."
A bubble housing on the bottom allows underwater filming.
Customer John Leimkuhler, of Caribbean Sky Hawk Productions, wants to do real estate drone work in the islands. He is convinced his new company will be successful, so he invested $4,000 in this drone kit.
"We chose DSLR specifically for their abilities of creating a professional product," said Leimkuhler.
Apparently a lot of others have chosen DSLR, too. The company's annual revenue doubled from $5 million to $10 million last year. They hired 30 new employees as well and are expecting to add 40 more employees next year.
The company opened a little less than a year and a half ago in an area only 1,500 square feet. Since then they have taken up over 7,500 square feet. Their research and development laboratory is used to create new drones for different applications.
The company began by selling three gimbal stabilization platforms, but then they put that technology on a drone.
Scott invested in 3-D printers to make custom parts direct from engineers' designs and he has opened offices in Los Angeles and in India, but in Fort Lauderdale is where he wants his business to soar.