Name: An 18 Year Old Raised $2.8 Million for His Drone Startup
Uploaded: 2016-07-20
Duration: 1 min 10 s
Description: And it launches today

An 18 Year Old Raised $2.8 Million for His Drone Startup

a new commercial drone company launches today, and the founder is barely old enough to vote. Teal is taking preorders for its first product, a battery operated unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a camera that can reach speeds up to 70 MPH. It costs $1299 and expects to start shipping early next year. The company was started by 18 year old George Mattis, who just graduated high school. But that didn't stop him from raising $2.8 million in seed funding, even getting $100,000 from Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel Foundation, which incentivizes people to skip college. Mattis says he fell in love with drones after his family moved to Salt Lake City when he was 11 and he started building and flying them in his new big backyard. Since then, he's worked for another drone company as a test pilot and building prototypes. Meanwhile, he was making a list of everything he would want the perfect drone to have Every time I fly, it's like the first time all over, I don't know. It's really hard to describe with words. It's just that feeling you get when you're expecting something great to happen, and then it exceeds your expectations. This is only the first drone his company is creating of what are likely to be many more to come.