AERAS’ development of a drone capable of sanitizing large-scale sports and entertainment venues is proving successful for Co-founder and CEO Eric Lloyd. Using electrostatic sprayers, the company’s drones can deliver disinfectant in droplets that create a uniform coating to combat pathogens that include Covid-19. He has taken the tech to Churchill Downs in Kentucky twice and has deployed it numerous times at PPG Paints Arena and PNC Park. His next task is working to get the drones to scale buildings vertically, something he plans to demo soon on a willing downtown Pittsburgh skyscraper. The roughly 10-person company also has branched into making personal-sized sprayers that can work in homes or automobiles. All of these efforts have been self-funded, another accomplishment Lloyd is happy to tout.
What has been your biggest challenge getting your startup to where it is today?
Our biggest obstacle has been to focus. And the reason that I say focus is that it was one thing when we set out to create a drone that could sanitize large stadiums and arenas … and then very rapidly discovered that the implications were far greater in the world of agriculture. And then based on inbound requests, we very quickly went from a drone sanitization company to a drone technology company that’s focused on R&D. After a very short period of time, we stepped back and said, “OK, there’s 10 different industries that what we do is applicable to, and we’re a small team.” So I would say that focus has been one of our hurdles to overcome.
How can Pittsburgh better serve its startup community?
One of the things that Pittsburgh could do better is to take a more active role in the identification of startups that represent benefits to the environment, safety and cost savings. And play a more active role in helping to secure and subsequently allocate resources that are made available — from the federal government to state to the city — to local startups.
What do you hope your startup will be doing five years from now?
My company is not my baby; my 4-year-old daughter is. And my business partner has 5-year-old twins, and our head of business development has a 5-year-old son. So I guess in five years, I hope that I’m not working because I will have already sold the technology that we created. And now, mind you, then I would want to be a venture capitalist to help young kids in Pittsburgh build their own business the way that we did.
