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SPANISH FORK — Two Utah men were recently selected as winners in Shopify’s fourth annual build-a-business contest with their new local drone company.
The eight-month contest included over 210,000 entries of startup businesses across the U.S., according to Shopify.com. Ten categories were established with a winner for each, and Utah company Drones Etc. was selected as the winner for the “Everything Else” category.
Shawn Rowland said he and a high school friend, Jon Baird, started the company in November 2013. He said he had recently finished medical school and he wanted to start a business with Baird. While pursuing several different options, Rowland said he bought a drone.
“The first time I flew it, I was just like, ‘Is this legal? I don’t have a permit for this. I don’t think you are supposed to have this much fun,’ ” Rowland said. “Literally it was like that feeling you get when you’re a kid at Christmas. This was amazing. People are going to want these.”
Rowland said he pitched the idea of selling drones with GoPro attachments to Baird, and at first, Baird balked at the idea because of the large initial investment and the novelty of the industry. However, Rowland said he did more research and contracted a drone manufacturer in China and eventually, Drones Etc. was developed as an online retail company for drones and accessories.
The company launched the day before Cyber Monday, and Rowland said their stock of 40 drones sold out in only three hours.
“It’s kind of exciting in the industry because (drones) are such a brand new thing and there are so many capabilities with the drones or aerial vehicles that you can apply them to,” he said. “Everyone sees it and immediately applies it to their work in some way.”
The website for their business is ecommerce, hosted by Shopify, and Rowland said when they saw the competition, they loved the idea of winning an opportunity to be mentored by entrepreneurs like Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.
“When they told me (we had won), it was so unexpected,” Rowland said. “I had to call them back a couple times and make sure it wasn’t some kind of scam. We were so excited. It was something we were not expecting.”
The men won a cash prize of $50,000 along with a trip to New York City on Aug. 6 to meet with several famous entrepreneurs.
