Game Of Drones

The iPhone of drones is being built by a teenager. His name is George Matus. His company is Teal. And with the millions he’s raised, his flagship product might also become one of the most game-changing drones in the air. 

- Jesse Hyde

His Drone, he believes, will be revolutionary. It will come equipped with artificial intelligence so it can recognize faces and objects and pick them out in a crowd; it will help police departments find lost children, ranchers monitor their herds, cities inspect buildings. If all goes according to plan, it will do for drones what the iPhone did for phones. It will make them useful, helpful. It will change the way we live. And it will be very, very fast.

Yet, until a year ago, whenever its creator, George Matus, went to see a venture capitalist to ask for money to bring it to market, his father had to drive him. That’s because Matus didn’t have a driver’s license. He wore braces, lived at home, and was still in high school. Unique were the challenges facing young George Matus. That was then. On a morning this past June, he sits behind the wheel of a Mercedes SUV, navigating traffic in the leafy suburbs of Salt Lake City, where he lives. He is 19, rail-thin, quick tolaugh, and unfailingly polite and optimistic, as he describes his vision for his drone. At a red light, he hits the brakes just a tad too hard, and the SUV lurches to a halt. He smiles sheepishly, as if to say, Oops; still getting the hang of this.

That isn’t the only thing he’s getting the hang of. Matus is the founder and CEO of his own drone company, Teal, which has raised $2.8 million in seed money and attracted the support of some of the biggest venture capitalists in the tech world. He’s looking to raise another $15 to $20 million next year. He’s managing a staff of people decades older than he is. He is also under pressure. A lot of pressure. Which is why it’s good that we’re headed to a park to play with his company’s first product, the Teal Sport. 

“This is how I relax,” he says.