One day in March last year, Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics, the largest consumer-grade drone manufacturing company in North America, invited Forbes to talk to 3D Robotics’ headquarters in Berkeley. On that day, the former editor of Wired magazine and the author of the best-selling book, Long Tail Theory, explained to us why no one would be the leader in the next wave of computing and device trends. At the time, he expressed his confidence that he would seize the opportunity to wade through this multi-billion dollar blue ocean market.
"It's a bit weird that we have no drones at the top of our heads now," Anderson said as he pointed to the sky. "We have been looking for this huge opportunity for many years and this time we must seize it."
However, things are probably not as simple as Anderson imagined. In the consumer market, drones are not necessarily the same as PCs and smartphones, and the prospects for 3D Robotics are now bleak. In the past year, the company has changed from a UAV leader in the United States to a company that is struggling to survive. The main reason is that the company's management is not good, there are wrong predictions on the market, and they put the fate of the company on an unrealistic flagship model. The market gave them the most realistic response: After the company burned a $100 million VC, it still had no choice but to lay off 150 employees. Its original grand strategy was also dead.
To find out the secrets of the rapid decline of 3D Robotics, Forbes interviewed 10 former employees of the company. Most people think that the company didn't realize any problems up or down before it hit the sales-fall season. However, the aggressive competitors eventually drove 3D Robotics out of the consumer market. Of course, there are also employees who are very eye-opener. They think that the rapid decline of the company has already shown up a year ago. At the time, 3D Robotics got stuck in the mass production of its first mass market drone Solo.
"This is a typical Silicon Valley arrogance," said one former employee. "After burning $100 million, 3D Robotics realized that he was wrong."
In the heyday of the company, they set up offices in four cities. The company employs more than 350 people, and its valuation has once reached 360 million US dollars. It is favored by several well-known venture capital companies. While leaving Wired magazine to expand its business of 3DRobotics, Anderson had fantasized that every child could fly his own drone in the park, while farmers and construction workers could use their drones to monitor their fields and Building.
In Anderson's vision, the drone with this historical mission is Solo. This "lean" black quadcopter has an open source software platform. Developers can use their wisdom to create more novelties for drones. Features. Unfortunately, Solo was unable to catch up with competitors after it was released in April last year. It was eventually hit by teething lands.
Colin Guinn, the company’s former chief revenue officer, said: “The failure of 3D Robotics has made us realize that traditional software-centric Silicon Valley companies have been unable to compete with Chinese manufacturers with strong vertical integration capabilities.â€
However, it has been too slow to depict through the PPT the transformation of Anderson's thinking about the future imagination of the drone industry. Previously, 3D Robotics invested almost all of the company's resources in the manufacturing of Solo. After the failure, they became partners' software and service developers. In an interview last month, Anderson refused to talk about the company's financial status today, but he said that 3D Robotics's focus has shifted to the enterprise software market.
"We gave up the hardware and it was hard to survive in the highly competitive consumer market," Anderson said. “Dajiang is a magical company. Too many opponents are falling under its feet. This market is too cruel.â€