Matthew Coda ’14 operates a drone at the Komen Lowcountry Race for the Cure.
Photo: Tag Your Pix
If at first you don’t succeed, fly and fly again. Fly a drone, that is.
After their innovative start-up business – a solar-powered golf cart beach shuttle called Golden Sun Taxi – succumbed to competitive pressure from the likes of Uber, alumni Matthew Coda ’14 and Jake Cotreau ’14 did what any self-respecting entrepreneurs would do: The two business administration majors cut their losses and pivoted in a new direction – taking to the skies over the Lowcountry with a new video production agency specializing in drone video and photography. (Scroll down to see a slideshow of their drone photos.)
The taxi business, called Golden Sun Taxi, grew out of a project that Coda, Cotreau and another classmate, Taylor Denny ’14, conceived for an entrepreneurship class in the School of Business. Based on Folly Beach, the environmentally friendly taxi service was believed to be the first of its kind in the United States when it launched in the summer of 2014 to a spate of media interest and solid customer demand. But after a strong first season, the young entrepreneurs began to feel the sting of competition this past summer as Uber gained a foothold in the Charleston area.
Read: Alumni Harness Sun Power to Power Entrepreneurial Dream.
To help promote their fledgling business – and kill time between service calls – Coda and Cotreau began using video to help advertise the taxi service. Both had dabbled in video and photography since high school and put their skills work creating a spoof video of the often-mimicked Matthew McConaughey Lincoln television commercial.
That video garnered enough attention to inspire the purchase of a drone and a string of more serious promotional videos showing beautiful aerial footage of Folly Beach. Their first video, posted on Facebook in March 2015, eventually drew 7,000 views. The next one garnered 24,000 views. When their third video amassed 50,000 views they thought they might be on to something.
Despite the popularity of the videos, passengers for their taxi service continued to decline during what they had hoped would be a bustling summer season in 2015.
“We saw how much people liked the content we were producing with the drone, and around that same time we were seeing a drop-off in the taxi service,” Coda explains.
Matthew Coda ’14 and Jake Cotreau ’14 outside Vive Media on King Street.
They eventually decided to sell their custom-made taxis and invest in a new video production agency specializing in drone video and photography. Since launching Vive Media over the summer, business has grown through word of mouth and their network of fellow CofC alumni. They’ve done work for several clients, including a boat charter service and a vacation rental company. They also shot footage for the recent Komen Lowcountry Race for the Cure on Daniel Island.
The drone space is quickly becoming competitive and crowded – with drones being pressed into service for everything from package delivery to land management. It’s also an area that will soon be subject to additional government regulations. The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced the formation of a task force that will recommend how to develop and implement a federal registration system for drone operators.
Coda says the regulations make sense from a safety and security standpoint and will help level the playing field across this burgeoning industry. “I think it’s good because there will be more accountability,” he says.
Only time will tell if their entrepreneurial pivot will pay off, but Coda and Cotreau credit their liberal arts education and connections they made through the College for preparing them to adapt and be flexible when market forces threw their original business plan up in the air.
Check out some of their stunning drone photos below (drag to view or use navigation buttons):
[owl-carousel category=”Drone” singleItem=”true” paginationNumbers=”true” autoPlay=”false”]
