Meet GENIUS NY: Modovolo

Many drones on the market today are expensive and cumbersome. They're made of thousands of intricate parts, cost tens of thousands of dollars, and often are limited in how long they can fly and how much they can hold.

Modovolo is a product of Justin Call and his co-founder Arion Mangio's shared frustration with the drone products they'd interacted with during their time working in tech. Call has a background in data and software and Mangio started working inthe commercial drone sector after retiring as an Air Force pilot. To solve the problem in front of them, they started experimenting with designs in Mangio's garage while strictly adhering to a principle they call "performance to cost."

"In order to get to that output, you really need to think about things like, 'I need to increase performance, but also decrease cost.' I can't use carbon fiber or Kevlar. That's not going to work. So what can I use?" said Call. "It forces a level of thinking that produces radically different outcomes."

Their steadfast adherence to the performance-to-cost principle and industry experience lead to the products Modovolo offers today. Modovolo drones are designed around the payload, or the cargo a drone will carry, and Modovolo customers can design a payload that fits their specific needs instead of relying on a manufacturer's predetermined payload.

Call says the other piece that sets a Modovolo drone apart from the competition is their build. A drone used in military applications can be thousands of complex parts, but Modovolo's drones are just 118 pieces. Fewer parts means less weight, a more resilient design and an easier process to repair.

Modovolo allows its customers the ability to purchase its manufacturing equipment and the right to repair. So, customers don't have to send the drone back to the manufacturer in order to fix it. Call says it's an idea that came directly from its military customers.

"When the military started talking about the right to repair and the need to repair on site, it dawned on us that they needed our production equipment to do that. We built the equipment purposely so it would fit in a very small space because that's all we have now in our facility," said Call.

Their manufacturing facility is in Vernon, NY, and Call is committed to growing in the Central New York region. They've hired staff locally, from Le Moyne College, Cornell University, SUNY Polytechnic Institute and others, and have already started partnering with companies throughout the GENIUS NY ecosystem. Call says there is no better place for them to start and grow this company.

"There are startup companies that have adversity against all odds and people keep putting things in their path. We have the opposite problem. We have so many people cheering for us, we just don't want to let them down."

As a member of GENIUS NY Cohort 9, Call and Modovolo are preparing to compete for the $1 million grand prize at Innovation Night on May 7. Innovation Night brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and community leaders for a celebration of innovation across Central New York. Get your ticket today.