In the near future drone videographers may be as commonplace as wedding photographers.

Brandon Presley started Drone Finder when his father was looking for a drone photographer for his electrical business. His father worked on large electrical jobs for the radio broadcast industry, and he wanted before-and-after photos of his work.

Presley found a few operators online in Kansas City, but they were not easy to find, and their websites were not great.

In April 2015 Presley started to work on a website that would make finding a drone operator much easier.

“There needed to be an easy way to find and hire these professionals,” said Presley. “I was trying to create a hub where they could all go, and it would be easier for clients to find them,” said Presley.

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At first Presley launched Drone Finder nationally, but has since decided to focus on the Kansas City area to perfect the business.

“We had about 55 operators signed up nationwide,” said Presley.

Now they have five commercial drone pilots who they work with.

“They each have their own specialty,” said Presely.

Today they serve clients in the Kansas City area, including industries like agriculture, construction and real estate.

How Drone Finder works

Drone Finder works with professional drone pilots who typically have their own businesses. Drone Finder offers next-day availability and a very simple pricing model. Drone Finder accepts a job, contracts the work out and receives a small fee when processing the payment.

“We’re a little bit of a marketplace and booking service,” said Presley.

Because there are constantly changing limitations, both legally and technologically, each project has to be evaluated on a case by case basis.

“We don’t explain on our website everywhere where you can’t film,” said Presley. “The main thing is no flying within five miles of any airport. That closes out a lot of land in downtown [Kansas City] and the northland [near MCI]. We don’t talk about that until we get the request and there’s an issue.”

Although personal drone flying has always been legal, in the past year the FAA announced that commercial drone pilots had to have a 333 Exemption and a pilot’s license. When those regulations came out, Drone Finder had to drop any operators who couldn’t meet the legal standards.

Presley expects that the pilot’s license requirement will be dropped soon.

According to Presley, Drone Finder averages 3-5 clients per week, mostly in the residential real estate and construction industries.

“We’re still trying to gain some traction,” said Presley.

Most recently, Drone Finder joined BetaBlox, a Kansas City business incubator. Presley thinks having a functioning MVP already up and running helped with getting Drone Finder into the incubator program.

Navigating privacy, safety and liability

Besides meeting legal requirements for drone operation, there’s still questions of liability. Drone Finder has general liability insurance but all of the individual operators have their own insurance as well.

As for privacy, drones can legally capture video and photography if they are over public space. That doesn’t mean that everyone likes it.

“They are fairly loud,” said Presley. “You will hear a drone if it’s near you.”

For those who still feel a little bit uneasy, Presley argues that handheld cameras with zoom lenses are much more powerful than the cameras on current commercial drones.

Meeting consumer expectations of a new technology

One thing that consumers often don’t take into account is the difference between raw video and photos and professionally edited work. Most commercial drone companies have in-house video and photo editing, but it costs extra.

On Drone Finder it’s $100 more for a 2-3 minute video of the best highlights from the flight.

“We offer both edited and unedited photo and video,” said Presley.

Another concern that first-time clients have is wondering if they are even allowed to use the service. Some potential clients decide against Drone Finder after talking to their legal departments.

“It is 100% legal to hire one of our drone operators,” said Presley. “And it’s definitely more affordable than you would expect.”

Presley expects that even if the pilot’s license requirement is dropped and everyone owns a drone, there will still be a premium for professional operators.

“Just like hobby photographers, there’s still a need for professional photographers and videographers,” said Presley. “I think there’s going to be a huge growth in the number of operators. The one’s with the right skills will outshine the rest.”

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Ryan Pendell is the Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News.