Drone Racing League CEO Nicholas Horbaczewski joins Forbes senior writer Jabari Young at the Nasdaq MarketSite to discuss the business of racing drones and update the status of the Generation Z sports startup.
Founded in 2015, Drone Racing League, or DRL, is a sports technology and entertainment startup that hosts yearly tournaments where drone pilots compete for a cash prize. Horbaczewski says DRL will host its ninth season this fall and raised more than $100 million from investors, including publicly traded Liberty Media, WWE, T-Mobile, and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’s RSE Ventures—the league’s most prominent backer.
“It’s Formula One but with drones,” Horbaczewski tells Forbes, describing DRL. “What we’re doing is hard,” Horbaczewski adds. “It’s a combination of sports, technology, and media. So, our investors represent the best of those industries coming together to build something novel together.”
In the interview, the DRL chief executive explained how he lured notable investors for capital and forecast plans to expand globally.
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Founded in 2015, Drone Racing League, or DRL, is a sports technology and entertainment startup that hosts yearly tournaments where drone pilots compete for a cash prize. Horbaczewski says DRL will host its ninth season this fall and raised more than $100 million from investors, including publicly traded Liberty Media, WWE, T-Mobile, and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’s RSE Ventures—the league’s most prominent backer.
“It’s Formula One but with drones,” Horbaczewski tells Forbes, describing DRL. “What we’re doing is hard,” Horbaczewski adds. “It’s a combination of sports, technology, and media. So, our investors represent the best of those industries coming together to build something novel together.”
In the interview, the DRL chief executive explained how he lured notable investors for capital and forecast plans to expand globally.
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
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Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
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🤖
TechTranscript
00:00It's the first globally televised robotic sport, and in a minute, we'll tell you why
00:04this very well could be the League of the Future, taking you inside drone racing, right
00:09now at the NASDAQ MarketSide.
00:10Hello, everyone, this is Jabari Youngstein, writer here at Forbes, and I am joined by
00:16Nicholas Horbachevsky, the CEO of Drone Racing League at the NASDAQ MarketSide.
00:21Nick, thank you so much for joining us.
00:23Let me get that out of there.
00:25Here at Financial Literacy Month, I like to start off things with the theme of the month
00:28and it's financial literacy.
00:29So tell me, Nick, what's the best thing or the biggest thing you've learned about financial
00:32literacy in your life?
00:34Oh, the power of compounding interest.
00:36Wow.
00:37What is it that Einstein said?
00:38It's, you know, once you understand it, it changes the world.
00:41Yeah.
00:42Yeah.
00:43Just the ability to grow things and making smart decisions early and seeing that grow
00:45over time.
00:46Yeah.
00:47You sound like Warren Buffett there, compounding interest.
00:48Yeah, yeah.
00:49He's a big fan of that, man.
00:50So tell me, what's going on with the Drone Racing League?
00:51Man, I've covered this league for a while in my previous stint, you know, going deep
00:55into sports business.
00:56And I've always been intrigued with racing drones, right?
00:59I mean, the setup is interesting.
01:01It's going through.
01:02You're seeing these little devices going.
01:03And it has quite the crowd, man.
01:05A lot of Gen Z guys.
01:06What's going on with the Drone Racing League?
01:08It's very exciting times at the Drone Racing League.
01:10We're through eight seasons of racing, taking this sort of idea of a sport and brought it
01:14to the whole world.
01:15We've got 90 million fans globally, 15 million social followers.
01:19All people are being introduced to this exciting sport.
01:21And you say it's a robotic sport.
01:23So on the field of play, you've got these ultra-high speed drones that we build to go
01:26from zero to 90 in less than a second.
01:29They race these complex three-dimensional courses, lots of crashing, lots of excitement.
01:32And we're building a new sport for a new generation of technology enthusiast fans.
01:37Yeah.
01:38For somebody who's never heard of Drone Racing League before, right, one sentence, how would
01:42you describe it?
01:43Like, for a fifth, you go up to a fifth period class and say, hey, we see these nice little
01:46drones, but what is the Drone Racing League?
01:48How would you describe it?
01:49It's basically Formula One, but with drones.
01:50We do a global circuit of races with the top pilots in the world using the fastest drones.
01:54At the end of the season, the world champion who's the greatest drone pilot on the planet.
01:58Right.
01:59Okay.
02:00So is the 2024 season coming up?
02:01Yeah, it's coming up.
02:02We're going to announce it soon.
02:03Yeah.
02:04Okay.
02:05So it's not announced yet.
02:06Not yet.
02:07You want to give us a preview of when it's going to happen this summer?
02:08No, no, no.
02:09We save those announcements.
02:10Big news.
02:11No, we typically start racing in the fall.
02:12Okay.
02:13In the fall.
02:14Yeah.
02:15Yeah.
02:16Okay.
02:17But it is going to be a 2024 season.
02:18Yeah.
02:19Okay.
02:20So there's a lot of competition in view.
02:21Yeah.
02:22Is what they're doing.
02:23And I had a chance to, again, cover the League and look at the videos.
02:25Very, very interesting setup, the way that you put those goggles on and you're going
02:28through it.
02:29And it's almost like you're a pilot.
02:30Yeah.
02:31But operating these very, very interesting devices.
02:33Yeah.
02:34The pilots are wearing these goggles and what they're seeing is a video feed off the front
02:36of the drone.
02:37And so we also say it's like sitting in the cockpit of the drone.
02:40Yeah.
02:41And then they're navigating at very high speed through these courses.
02:43But it's like flying a rocket ship at 90 miles an hour through a stadium, which is where
02:48we hold our events.
02:49So it's really thrilling for the pilots.
02:50It's really thrilling for the fans.
02:51So it's a very new form of sports entertainment.
02:54Yeah.
02:55Yeah.
02:56Last time I checked, man, this was a League that I know you guys have raised over $100
02:58million to date.
02:59Yep.
03:00And PitchBook, according to them, they had estimated there was a value of $120 million
03:04raised.
03:05Excuse me, $185 million value was of 2022.
03:08Any update there?
03:09Is it still around that range, $185 million?
03:12We're pushing that now.
03:13That's a little old.
03:14That's back from, what, 22?
03:15Yeah.
03:162022.
03:17That's a little out of date.
03:18They're a little out of date.
03:20We've had an incredible couple of seasons.
03:22We just announced we just started a deal with Reach TV.
03:25We're now going to be another half a million TVs and screens around the world in places
03:28like airports and hotels, just reaching an even broader audience.
03:32So is it over $200 million value you're saying right now?
03:35Yeah.
03:36We don't really talk about our valuation publicly, but yeah, that's a pretty old valuation.
03:39Great.
03:40So looking inside the business, man, listen, IBIS World estimates that this is about a
03:43$5.5 billion sector, and a reason such manufacturing seems to be the big thing for drones, right?
03:50So the manufacturing.
03:51How much is your revenue tied to the manufacturing side?
03:54So the global drone industry, I've seen estimates like $60 billion plus in terms of drones being
03:59used everywhere now across so many different industries.
04:02Our industry is a bit more the industry of sports, right?
04:04So we're putting on sports events and sports broadcasts reaching audiences around the world.
04:08We work with a lot of the top brands in the world doing partnerships and sponsorships
04:13so they have an opportunity to talk with our fans and engage with our audience.
04:16And some of the partnerships with MLB, right?
04:19And T-Mobile that you do.
04:20T-Mobile, yep.
04:21You guys did the World Field of Dreams, if I'm not mistaken.
04:23We did.
04:24Yeah, we did a great partnership with T-Mobile.
04:25We built the world's first racing drone that flew on their ultra high speed 5G network
04:29to show just how fast that network was.
04:32And we did fly it around the field of dreams, which was really exciting.
04:34You're investors.
04:35You got some pretty good ones too.
04:36Liberty Media, T-Mobile Ventures, RSE Ventures.
04:39This is Steven Ross' own company.
04:41WWE, right?
04:42They invested.
04:43I was just at WrestleMania.
04:44Terrific time.
04:45They had WWE.
04:46All of those people still invested.
04:47Oh, yeah, of course.
04:48Yeah, yeah.
04:49Great.
04:50And new ones that have come over the last year?
04:51No, but we also have folks like CAA, the Global Talent Agency, Hearst, the Global Media Publication,
04:58and more.
04:59It's an incredible list.
05:01What we're doing is hard.
05:02It's a combination of sports, technology, and media.
05:04Our investors represent the best of those industries coming together to build something
05:08novel together.
05:09And been up and running since 2015?
05:102015, yeah, yeah.
05:11That's when we started.
05:12Profitable?
05:13Again, we don't really talk about our financials, but obviously we've been growing quite a bit,
05:17so it's been an exciting time for us.
05:18Tell me, what's been the biggest surprise that you've learned?
05:21You've got your own company now in 2015.
05:23I looked at your background, man.
05:24You were an analyst before.
05:25We'll get into that in a little bit.
05:26But you have quite a big background.
05:28But now you're starting your own company.
05:29What's been the biggest surprise that you've learned about being the CEO of Drone Racing
05:32League?
05:33One of the interesting things, when you start a sport, the sport of drone racing was like
05:37this underground amateur sport.
05:39No one had heard of it.
05:40And to take that globally, to put it in front of 100 million people a year, there's a lot
05:44you don't know.
05:45And I always say, when you start a sport league, you don't pick your fans, they pick you.
05:49So we weren't sure who was going to watch this when we put it out.
05:51And that's been the most exciting part of the journey, is discovering that there's this
05:54group of fans.
05:55We call them tech centers.
05:56They're young.
05:57They're really into technology.
05:58They tend to be well-educated, affluent.
06:01Their entire lives revolve around tech.
06:04And they need a sport for them.
06:06The vast majority of them don't watch traditional sports.
06:09That's not of interest to them.
06:10But they love drone racing.
06:11And they love technology.
06:12I would say they follow the next iPhone release so closely.
06:14But they don't really care how far Tom Brady can throw a football.
06:17So we've created a sport for them.
06:19And that's been the wildest experience.
06:20To get stopped in the airport for somebody who says, like, you made a sport that I can
06:23care about.
06:24That's pretty crazy.
06:25And how about the biggest negative surprise that you've learned?
06:28Everybody needs to do something better.
06:30What does drone racing still need to improve on?
06:33Well, I think the biggest surprise for us when I started the league was that this technology
06:37sort of existed in the wild, these drones.
06:39And so we thought we could take the drones and put on races.
06:41But what we discovered is that amateur tech, that consumer tech, was not robust enough
06:46for a professional sport.
06:47So we had to step back and build all of our own technology from the ground up.
06:51That's a pretty big shock when you go out and say, wait, we're actually going to be
06:53more of a technology company.
06:54And so we've had to go through all the challenges of building novel, advanced technology that
06:58has to work perfectly around the globe in front of an audience of tens of thousands
07:03in person and hundreds of millions on TV to do that while also trying to create a sport
07:08and a brand and a league.
07:09That's a huge challenge.
07:10There's an old rule in entrepreneurship, which is pick one thing and do it incredibly well.
07:14We picked three things, and we had to do it perfectly.
07:17And that's a big challenge.
07:20What did you learn about that, though?
07:21Because you have to scale.
07:22You have to pivot.
07:23Because I think I was listening to one of the podcasts, and you would mention that even
07:26you had a distribution deal with ESPN.
07:28And you were finding that the majority of your fans didn't even have the channel.
07:33They were so busy.
07:34They're used to getting it nowadays however they can get it, where they want it.
07:37What are you learning?
07:38And what have you learned about ways to kind of get to that demographic and circumvent
07:43the traditional way?
07:44Well, I think part of it is when you're creating something novel, you have to be willing to
07:47do new things.
07:48I mean, the traditional sports TV deal is to get onto linear TV and stay there.
07:53And we realized that our audience is watching on digital.
07:55So we've had to navigate the world of being both a linear sport and a digital sport.
07:58We call it wide streaming.
07:59We want to be on every digital channel possible.
08:02Because for our fans, most of them aren't even cord cutters.
08:04They're cord-nevers.
08:05Right?
08:06So you have to find a way to get to them.
08:08You have to find a way to put the content in a place they want to watch it.
08:11And I think you can see some explosive growth on channels like TikTok and YouTube were really
08:16outperforming.
08:17And part of it's because we're taking the content the audience wants to the channels
08:20they want to be on.
08:21I think the old school philosophy of sort of like, I'm going to put this here, and you're
08:25going to have to jump through whatever hoops you need to jump through to watch it.
08:28That doesn't work, especially for our fans, the generation that is digitally native.
08:33And I believe at one point, y'all had more followers on TikTok than the NHL and NASCAR.
08:38Is that still the case?
08:39We do.
08:40That's still true.
08:41That's still true.
08:42Yeah, yeah.
08:43We outperform traditional sports on digital channels in an incredible way.
08:46Not a surprise to me, because I know our fans, and I know how digitally native they are.
08:50We're speaking directly to them in the language they're used to on the channels they want
08:53to be on.
08:54Yeah.
08:55Let's talk a little about your background, right?
08:56You grew up in Boston.
08:57Yeah.
08:58And you're a young kid running around trying to...
08:59What did you want to be when you were growing up as a young kid?
09:01So I came up through film.
09:02I always loved creating content and inspiring people through content.
09:06I spent my summers in high school working in special effects, did some film production.
09:11So I loved that idea of creating, but then got into the business side of it after college,
09:16started doing, as you said, I was a consultant.
09:19And then after that, got into technology and selling technology, especially into the U.S.
09:24government, sort of really advanced technology and seeing how that could change the world.
09:27And then I moved over to sports.
09:28I was the chief revenue officer at Tough Mudder, the Global Mud Run series.
09:32So I had this kind of mix of film and content creation, technology, and sports, and it all
09:38came together for me when I created DRL, because that's what we are.
09:41We're a tech company wrapped in a media company wrapped in a sports league.
09:44Yeah.
09:45Well, listen, you kind of said it, right?
09:46You fast forwarded there.
09:47You went to Harvard, got a business degree from Harvard, but then associate, a consultant
09:51at Bain & Company, right?
09:53Definitely.
09:54But here you are, you find yourself coming up with this idea in 2015.
09:59And drone racing has been around for a while, 2010 over in Australia.
10:03They had been developing the concept and here it is now.
10:06But what hit you that you were saying, you know what, I think I can turn this into a
10:10business?
10:11I think it was the opportunity.
10:13Right around late 2014, there started to be these videos going viral on YouTube of people
10:17racing drones, especially in France, racing through the woods.
10:19And they said, oh, it's like Star Wars and pod racing.
10:21And I thought, I'm totally captivated by this.
10:23Why isn't there a more mainstream version of this?
10:25Why isn't this more exciting?
10:27And you know, I want to be able to go to a stadium, watch it on sports TV.
10:31And so started working on that question of how we create it.
10:34But as I said, the lesson I learned was the answer was lots of people thought this was
10:37a great idea.
10:38The tech just hadn't caught up yet.
10:39We had to build that tech to make it possible.
10:41I mean, in the beginning, you had lots of companies trying to go out and build professional
10:44drone racing leagues.
10:45But until you could deliver that experience, people don't always think about that.
10:49For a technology-based sport, the technology has to be so perfect that it's invisible.
10:53Otherwise, it's not a sport.
10:54It's a spectacle.
10:55If the drones are falling out of the sky or it's constantly being interfered with, it
10:58doesn't feel fair.
10:59It doesn't feel like a sport.
11:00So we had to get over that hurdle to make something that we could take the whole world.
11:04And having achieved that is the reason that we are the drone racing league.
11:07We are the global professional circuit for the sport.
11:09What goes into building that tech when you say, you know, we had to provide it and build
11:12it up?
11:13Yeah.
11:14So we have a lot of really novel technology.
11:15We design and build our own drones.
11:17So when you're watching the sport, all those drones are designed and built in-house at
11:21DRL.
11:22They're all identical.
11:23So everyone's just competing on pilot skill.
11:24We designed some really novel radio systems to connect the pilots to the drones.
11:28You think you got a drone flying on a radio, but you're in a stadium full of 10,000 people
11:32with all kinds of gizmos and we've got TV broadcasts going on that can't get interfered
11:36with.
11:37So what do you think about all of that?
11:38We've built simulation technology.
11:39We have the DRL sim, which is online.
11:41You can get it on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox, Epic.
11:43It'll teach you how to race drones and let you compete against your friends.
11:46We had to build our own physics engine for that.
11:48So it's realistic enough that if you learned on that, you can go and fly a real drone.
11:51All those steps of building the core technology and making it all work so that when fans come
11:55and they engage with our sport or watch it, they're seeing a sport, they're seeing a competition.
12:00The technology is actually in the background.
12:01How did you do it?
12:02Did you have to go and develop a staff?
12:03Did you have to go overseas?
12:04Oh, no, no.
12:05We had to recruit a whole team.
12:07We had to build people.
12:08You just mentioned all of our incredible investors.
12:10We had to raise capital for them.
12:13From all of them, some of our first investors, RSC Ventures, you mentioned Steve Ross has
12:17backed us from the very beginning because he understood the vision we're trying to achieve.
12:21Did y'all show him this demo?
12:22No, no.
12:23I literally walked in.
12:24Matt Higgins, who runs RSC Ventures, I walked in with a PowerPoint deck with drawings of
12:28drones flying.
12:29And I explained the vision.
12:30He said, I see the vision.
12:31Go see if you can actually do it.
12:33And he's backed us.
12:34He's still our largest investor, backed us from a PowerPoint deck to being broadcast
12:38in over 100 countries around the world.
12:40Yeah.
12:41You know, also funny, when you hear drones, everybody is associated now with military
12:44because it's drone this, drone that.
12:46How much of the ... Do you guys make that?
12:48I know you have a partnership with the US Air Force, if I'm not mistaken.
12:52And you, at one point, was working with Lockheed Martin.
12:56What partnerships did you have from the government level that's allowing you to stay afloat?
13:00Because they're relying on this tech.
13:02Drones are everywhere now, especially with all this geopolitical stuff.
13:05Yeah.
13:06I think what's amazing about drones is they are a really broad platform for a lot of different
13:09things.
13:10So USAF is our longest standing partner.
13:12We have worked with them for a long time.
13:13We focus with them on recruiting, on developing people whose interests are ... You know, our
13:17fans' interest in technology, aviation, helping them see career opportunities in the USAF.
13:23We just launched a program with them called Women Taking Flight, which is about getting
13:26more women interested in professional drone racing, in drones, in STEM technology.
13:31We're going to be building a whole educational program that we're rolling out to schools.
13:35They also focus on a lot on diversity.
13:37They want to reach out to as many people as possible.
13:40We've got a program with HBCUs doing a drone design competition, showing people pathways
13:46to turn their love of either STEM or aviation or drones into career opportunities in the
13:51USAF.
13:52So there's a lot of different elements of this.
13:54Drones are just ... They're exciting, they're fun, and we get to race them.
13:57So it's even more fun and sport.
13:58We turn that into an opportunity to talk to a large group of people about STEM, about
14:03education, about aviation, and the opportunities to fly.
14:07Yeah.
14:08I also saw this ... It's a drone soccer league.
14:11I'm watching a video of that, and I'm looking at these kids, and as you kind of said, you
14:15see a whole bunch of companies like that luring students in for careers in aerospace and things
14:20of that nature, right?
14:21What does that look like?
14:23Are the kids kind of being introduced to these things?
14:25Are you seeing that return at, hey, they are going into those fields?
14:29Yeah.
14:30I mean, that is the whole purpose of this, is the opportunity to go out and talk about
14:32it.
14:33You show them drones in an incredibly exciting way, and they say, oh, I want to fly.
14:36I want to understand how that thing flies, or what the technology is behind it, how your
14:39radios work.
14:40And it begins this conversation driving it.
14:42I mean, right now, as we speak, our team is over at the School of Business in New York,
14:48School of ...
14:49BOSS.
14:50BOSS.
14:51And they are doing an educational program right now with the USAF.
14:53Our president, Rachel Jacobson, and Captain Reeder from the Air Force are presenting to
14:57students about STEM and technology and career opportunities and how aviation can be a possibility
15:02or technology can be a possibility for their entire lives.
15:05So we start early, get people excited about it, and engage them using drones because they
15:10do suck people in.
15:11Yeah.
15:12Now, that is a good infrastructure, right, to develop young talent.
15:14Does that help business-wise?
15:16What does that look like for your future racers?
15:17How does that help your business stay afloat?
15:19I think it is a beautiful virtuous cycle.
15:21It draws more people into the sport.
15:22It gets more people flying drones, which gives us even better pilots in the future.
15:26And then for our partners like USAF, it draws people into careers like STEM.
15:30I mean, you're watching this.
15:31Not everybody is going to turn into a pro drone racer, but they might end up flying
15:34other aircraft.
15:35They might develop technology.
15:36They might go into aircraft maintenance, any of the fields that are really of interest
15:39and sort of because that passion started when they saw that high-speed exciting racing in
15:44the first place.
15:45Yeah.
15:46If you had to describe the commercialization, right, the part of drone racing here in 2024,
15:51what stage would you say, describe it in one word, the commercialization of drone racing?
15:55Is it there yet?
15:56It's accelerating, I'd say.
15:57It's accelerating.
15:58You know, I think most sports, when they start, one of the great challenges is bringing in
16:01partners and sponsors.
16:02We've achieved that.
16:03You mentioned we're some of the best brands in the world from T-Mobile to Google Cloud
16:08and more.
16:09And the opportunity to work with those brands and to solve their problems, you know, working
16:13with USAF on things like recruiting and STEM education, diversity inclusion in the workplace,
16:17those are awesome opportunities for us.
16:20And as people see what this sport can do, as they see this audience that we can reach,
16:24as I said, 70% of our fans don't watch traditional sports.
16:27So when brands out there are saying, wait, I need to reach this group that I'm just not
16:30getting to, we're an incredible pathway to do that, which is why you see us working with
16:34such incredible blue chip companies.
16:35Are you competing against the bigger leagues though?
16:37Because I know there's enough space for everybody to operate.
16:40I firmly believe that.
16:42But you know, you're going to have to get some of those young people who are looking
16:45at football and basketball.
16:46You're going to have to start to draw them in to be sustained.
16:49Are you, you know, can you do that?
16:51Is it enough room to go around?
16:52Oh, there's enough room to go around.
16:53And I, you know, I think there's, there's a growth of sports and sports opportunity.
16:57I mean, even just look at like what eSports has done over the last few years.
16:59There's opportunity to continue to grow this.
17:01I think that illusion that there's, you know, one sports fan and everybody's tugging on
17:04them.
17:05We're the exact proof that that isn't true, right?
17:06We went out and talked to an audience of tens of millions of people who weren't tuning into
17:10traditional sports.
17:11We do have some overlap, you know, things like auto racing, you can tell someone who
17:14loves high speed racing is going to love high speed racing, whether it's a drone or a car.
17:17So there's some opportunities to overlap there.
17:20And so, you know, I think there's some beautiful synergies there, but I, I agree with you.
17:23This is not some tiny market where we're all fighting, you know, for market share.
17:27This is about growing it, growing engagement.
17:30And our sport goes far beyond just the sports field that we've talked about all the things
17:33we do in STEM and tech.
17:34This is a whole conversation that branches into areas that are really important to, you
17:38know, this tech centric digital native generations lives.
17:41Yeah.
17:42Listen, man, I appreciate that.
17:43Looking ahead and close now, I do know drone racing has been accepted into the 2025 World
17:47Games, right?
17:48Yeah.
17:49Yeah.
17:50That's right.
17:51How long before it gets to become an Olympic sport?
17:52I know that's a push there and technology and you almost can see how it would work.
17:56But how long before you think we get there being as though the Olympics is this summer
17:59now?
18:00Um, I think it will be soon.
18:01I think, I think you're starting to see these games and things like the World Games, which
18:05is sort of the precursor step to the Olympics.
18:07The Olympics is trying to figure out how to incorporate some of these new sports, whether
18:10it's drone racing or esports or others.
18:12But the fact that they're focused on the fact that they're thinking about it, the fact that
18:15we've got, you know, 90 million fans around the world knocking on the door saying we want
18:19our sport to be part of this.
18:20It's really exciting.
18:21You know, you said started this in 2015 and to be talking about whether or not it's going
18:25to be in the next Olympics.
18:27That's a pretty crazy journey.
18:28Yeah.
18:29Look, you take you back to your analyst days, right?
18:30Look at the state of sports media, right?
18:32You're in this because you need distribution to see your content.
18:35You got Fox, ESPN, Warner Brothers kind of combining Amazon, kind of doing what they
18:38do locally.
18:39What do you see?
18:40What does Nick Harbacheski see about the future of state media?
18:43I think the biggest lesson for us and for everyone out there is the world changes really
18:50fast.
18:51And that didn't used to be true in media.
18:52You got to be incredibly nimble.
18:53You got to be watching.
18:54As you say, people are merging.
18:55People are separating, spinning up digital channels, linking digital channels to linear.
18:59You got to figure out at all times this idea of I've locked up the way I'm going to do
19:03media for the next 10 years and we're just going to let it be.
19:05That is not the rule anymore.
19:06You see us moving every year.
19:08We reevaluate how we're reaching people through what channels on, you know, with what partners
19:12you got to do that.
19:13It's just, it's gone from a really slow moving space to one that is moving at a million miles
19:17an hour.
19:18And, and that it is our job to keep track of that so that we can make sure our fans
19:22get to watch what they want.
19:23Well, you've got a lot of young people that's, you know, watching, you know, Drone Racing
19:26League.
19:27If you had a big time media exec in front of your face that says, Nick, give me some
19:30advice, man.
19:31How do I get these young people to watch maybe the biggest sports on my channel being as
19:34though we're in this media fragmentation right now?
19:36What would you tell that executive?
19:37I'd say you got to give them content they're passionate about, right?
19:40I think that's the answer is that, you know, for them, you know, this is a sport they really
19:44care about and you're putting it, you know, I think we've had a great time with partners
19:46like ESPN in the past and NBC now we're putting them side by side with traditional sports
19:51and saying to them, you're welcome here.
19:53You're welcome here.
19:54I think there used to be a lot of effort to say what and what, what was a sport and what
19:57wasn't a sport back in 2015 when I started, there was a lot of like, is what's, and now
20:00people have said the fans get to decide.
20:02Yeah.
20:03Yeah.
20:04As a CEO of a company, man, U.S. presidential race is here.
20:06All right.
20:07What do you want to see or hear from the candidates?
20:09No picking sides.
20:10What do you want to see and hear from the candidates as this presidential race heats
20:13up?
20:14You know, we obviously think a lot about the drone space and drone regulation.
20:17And I think there's the FAA has done a great job in the last few years of navigating a
20:21complex situation.
20:22I'd love to hear the candidates say that we're going to keep pushing that.
20:24I think we should be a technology first nation.
20:26We're, you know, we're a good example.
20:28We're in right here in New York City building incredibly novel technology.
20:31We want the government to say, how do we encourage that versus how do we regulate it more carefully?
20:35So we're watching that and, um, you know, we, we care a lot about the airspace and airspace
20:40issues and, and drone regulations and technology autonomy.
20:44We do stuff with autonomous drones, so self-driving cars, what's going to happen with them.
20:47How are we saying, let's make our world better through technology as fast as we can.
20:50Yeah.
20:51Looking at it, man, Ford's be okay.
20:52We have this great community here and they always want to know things like big leadership
20:56books or the best leadership books.
20:57Uh, but you know, listen, you were able to navigate through corporate America again,
21:01analysts at being in company and you had a lot of background and you were able to start
21:04your own company.
21:06So I wanted to ask you, what's the biggest pieces of advice that you would give an entrepreneur
21:09about starting their own company and then going to pitch it to major investors?
21:13Wow.
21:14That's a, that's a big one.
21:16I would say you need to have a true passion for what you're building.
21:20I think sometimes I meet people and they say, I want to start a company versus I want to
21:23start this company.
21:24And I'd say that's, that's a hard road to go down.
21:26This is a really challenging thing.
21:27There is, is a huge lift to build a company from nothing.
21:30You should, you should have a real vision for what you're going to achieve because that's
21:34what's going to drive you every day.
21:35Not the concept that I'm starting a business, not the brand that I'm an entrepreneur.
21:38It is, you know, for me it is, it was taking drone racing to the world and you, you have
21:43to have that inside you if you're going to go through the journey that is starting a
21:46company from scratch, recruiting a team, raising money, going through the good times, the bad
21:50times, all that.
21:51Yeah.
21:52Well listen, man, I usually do good to great one, but I'm going to do two for you because
21:54the Olympics, I want to honor something that you love.
21:58So right fast before I get you on the real good to great, let's do a Nick good to great,
22:02right?
22:04Difference between a good fencer and a great one because you love fencing, right?
22:09I did.
22:10I did.
22:11I did.
22:12I fenced in college.
22:13Yeah.
22:14I, I think it's about, I mean, I think different from truly good and truly great is, is a lot
22:17about hand eye coordination.
22:18It's a lot about being able to be so focused that you can actually slow the world down
22:22in real time in your head because, you know, this is a really fast sport.
22:25Yeah.
22:26And so I think that's a big difference.
22:27Yeah.
22:28Now you have me watching fencing this Olympics.
22:29Yeah.
22:30Yeah.
22:31But the real good to great man, listen, I'm in the market for one, right?
22:34And I keep on asking your president, Rachel, listen, I need a drone, right?
22:37I go to these stores.
22:38I see the prices.
22:39One is $99 and I can look online.
22:41Another was $1,700.
22:42I know price is big.
22:43Right.
22:44But I want to ask you because this is your field.
22:45What's the difference between a good drone and a great one?
22:49Keep the consumer in mind too, because we want to see it all and we want to have the
22:52good experience.
22:53I think what's awesome about drone technology today is it's all really great.
22:57Most consumer drones today are really fantastic platforms.
22:59It's just how good a camera do you need?
23:01You know, how great a pictures do you want to take?
23:02How long do you want to be able to fly for?
23:04So I think for most consumers, the entry level drones, you know, I get asked all the time
23:07what drone to buy.
23:08The DJI Air is a phenomenal drone.
23:11That's for their entry level drone.
23:12And it will do what people need for 90% of consumers.
23:15And then you can go up to the super high end ones that you could film a Hollywood movie
23:18with.
23:19But the question, if you're not filming a Hollywood movie, then stick to the entry ones
23:21and get flying because that's the most important thing.
23:23But truly, I would say, if you want to start flying drones, go find the DRL sim on any
23:27of our platforms.
23:28XBOX, PlayStation, Epic, Steam, and learn how to fly.
23:32Because learning how to fly in simulation, then when you pick up a real drone, you will
23:35be good to go.
23:36I can't wait to see the drone racing around New York City, man.
23:38Right around the NASDAQ.
23:39Yeah.
23:40We wouldn't mind.
23:41We wouldn't mind.
23:42Yeah.
23:43Everybody watching from the building.
23:44Just watching these little drones go around.
23:45Yeah.
23:46Nick, appreciate the time, man.
23:47Come back when you have closed your new race.
23:49I will.
23:50I will.
23:51See what that valuation is.
23:52And keep up the good work, man.
23:53With all the STEM work, man.
23:54And you're right.
23:55I think getting kids into a new phase in drones definitely is the future.
23:59Can I do one personal shout-out?
24:00Yeah.
24:01Because less than 5% of women are pilots.
24:02Yeah.
24:03A lot of what we're doing with USCF with women taking flight is to encourage them to think
24:05about it.
24:06So I want to give a shout-out to my cousin, Abby Price, second lieutenant in the U.S.
24:10Air Force.
24:11Just assigned to fly super tankers for us.
24:13Beautiful.
24:14She's up in the air.
24:15She's one of those examples of people taking women into the skies.
24:16There you go.
24:17Abby, thank you so much for your service.
24:18And here, us at the NASDAQ Market Site and Forbes.
24:21Thank you, Abby.
24:22Nick, appreciate the time, man.
24:23And thank you for watching.
24:25Thank you.