UTICA — SkyTubeLive, a Mohawk Valley tech startup, sees a big future for private live streaming of drone videos, especially in emergency services. Brian Barris and Mat DePasquale founded the company and created the application, which enhances the ability of first responders to react to emergencies. SkyTubeLive created a private, secure web platform and mobile […]
UTICA — SkyTubeLive, a Mohawk Valley tech startup, sees a big future for private live streaming of drone videos, especially in emergency services.
Brian Barris and Mat DePasquale founded the company and created the application, which enhances the ability of first responders to react to emergencies. SkyTubeLive created a private, secure web platform and mobile app that a first responder can see on any device — phone, tablet, and computer — what the drone sees, allowing personnel to be quickly dispatched to areas that need them most.
Barris and DePasquale started SkyTubeLive in 2015 with a $25,000 grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), according to Barris. The founders use common space in a warehouse at the Mohawk Valley Community College’s thINCubator (short for “the home for innovative new companies,” a business incubator and student accelerator located at 326 Broad St. in the Bagg’s Square East district of Utica. It exists to help build startups and grow businesses in Central New York. “The space is great,” Barris tells CNYBJ.
Shortly after release of the beta version of their application, the SkyTubeLive founders determined that first responders — police, fire, and rescue — are the ones who can most benefit from it. These departments often already have drones with video capabilities, so live video is the next step, and SkyTubeLive can help with that, Barris says.
SkyTubeLive came in second place in the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Commercialization Academy Demo Day and IDEA NY (Innovation & Development Entrepreneurial Accelerator) business accelerator competition on March 21, winning a prize of $100,000.
“This is huge. It will allow us to do all kinds of stuff that we’ve thought about for years, and now we finally have the resources to do those things, so this is really going to make a massive difference for us. It’s just amazing,” Barris said in a news release issued by Griffiss Institute, which partnered with AFRL on the competition. Specifically, the prize money will help the company travel to drone conferences where it can get “our name in front of emergency responders across the country,” Barris adds in the interview.
Six teams from the current AFRL Information Directorate Commercialization Academy pitched their startup ideas in cybersecurity, big data, information systems, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for $300,000 in total prize seed funding provided by IDEA NY Mohawk Valley.
The judges’ panel evaluated each startup based on such factors as: the ability of the business to affect the Mohawk Valley’s startup ecosystem and high-tech economy, the culture of innovation that has been created within the startup due to incorporating AFRL technology, the sustainability of the solution beyond the initial startup period and go-to market strategy, according to the Griffiss Institute release.
The startups were incubated by early-stage venture capital firm Wasabi Ventures, while embarking on an acceleration process to either build a sustainable startup, or enhance technology from an already existing startup, with Department of Defense intellectual property from the AFRL Information Directorate.
This wasn’t the only competition in which SkyTubeLive participated. The company was one of 16 semifinalists in the Genius NY 2.0 program in Syracuse in late 2017. Genius NY is a business-accelerator program at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden.
Barris declined to disclose annual revenue for his company. He says the firm derives its revenue from selling monthly or yearly subscriptions to the application. “The pricing structure is based on purchasing a license and paying monthly or yearly,” says Barris.
SkyTubeLive’s founders have extensive experience with imagery and software development. Barris earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Caltech (California Institute of Technology) and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaii. He has two decades of experience in aerospace, having worked at Helios Remote Sensing Systems and Electromagnetic Systems, Inc. according to his LinkedIn profile.
DePasquale is a software engineer who earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology. He has two decades of experience in software development and engineering. He worked at Black River Systems, Helios Remote Sensing Systems, and Global Info Tek., according to DePasquale’s LinkedIn page.
The two men met while working together at one of their previous employers, Barris says.