Passion alone can’t make cars fly

We have been dreaming about flying cars (and startups have been promising them!) for over 70 years, and it looks like we might almost be there. Orders have been placed, and delivery schedules set.

Today we sit down with Tom Fukuzawa of SkyDrive, and we talk about the development of their flying car and their recent contract with the city of Osaka for air-taxi services.

However, we also talk about the real difficulties of turning a group of passionate volunteers into a passionate startup. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but it did not turn out like it was supposed to.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Show Notes

Why the word is experiencing a boom in flying car research and prototypes The cool concept vehicles of the Carivator project How to bing young innovators in an industry together Why driven, committed people rarely "volunteer" Why just asking for money can be easier than getting investment. Why aircraft innovation is slow and why aircraft startups are rare The size of the future flying car market How we will integrate flying cars and traditional infrastructure Why the enterprise to startup revolving door is so important

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about SkyDrive

Friend them on Facebook Follow them on Twitter @Skydrive_Global

Check out SkyDrive's LandCare Robot SkyDrive's Vision Video

Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. You know, we seem to be in a bit of a flying car startup boom right now. Of course, the flying car has been a symbol of the future for over 70 years now. And for that whole time, we've always been just 10 years away from saying goodbye to traffic and taking to the skies. Well, today we sit down with Tomo Fukuzawa, founder of SkyDrive. And he explains how he plans to have his flying cars on the road or rather in the skies in three years. And while there are many startups making such claims today, SkyDrive recently signed contracts with the City of Osaka to deliver an air taxi service. And last month SkyDrive began the final stage of government certification for their vehicle. So yeah, there's something here that deserves a closer look. Oh, and by the way, Tomo was at their testing facility so there's some background noise in this interview. The drones and flying cars themselves weren't flying around so just some cars passing by. It's not too bad. But at one point, it sounds like a tractor trailer drives between us and knocks over our table. You'll know it when you hear it, trust me. Anyway, Tomo shares some really important lessons about running a moonshot startup, how partners and collaborators and people you've known for years begin to treat you differently. Many of these lessons apply to anyone following their dreams, but the startup experience makes everything so much more intense. But you know, Tomo tells that story much better than I can. So let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So we're sitting here with Tomo Fukuzawa of SkyDrive, who is making flying cars and cargo drones. And thanks for meeting with us today. Tomo: Thank you very much for inviting me. Tim: It's my pleasure. I love the whole aerospace and aviation sector. I love what startups are doing in here. I want flying cars to be real so badly. Tomo: Thank you. Tim: So tell us a bit about your current prototype. It's currently a one-seater model, right? Tomo: We started SkyDrive three years ago. And last summer, we studied manned test flight of a flying car or eVTOL. And this was the first time in Japan to show manned flying car, and we have one-seater and eight propellers. And now we are flying 5 to 10 minutes by one charge. Tim: I want to get into the details of the technology in the future in just a minute. But it seems like in the last, let's say, two years or so, there's been this huge interest in flying cars startups, not just in Japan but all over the world, what's driving this? Tomo: Yeah. There are about 400 project of flying around the world, and about 10 project have already studied manned flight. Those project started 3 to 10 years ago. So, movement of flying car is coming for the last two or three years, but they have already started years ago. And the biggest lesson is that the sensor or controller is very, very smaller size and high spec but reasonable price. Tim: When you say the controller, do you mean like-- Tomo: Okay. That means CPU or flight controller or motors are used and how much electricity to produce the controller. Tim: Okay. So despite all this recent global interest in flying cars, I mean, you've been very involved with this for a long time now, right. So, you started out at Toyota and you were part of a project called Cativator. Tim: Yeah. Cativator is a volunteer group. It was found eight years ago when I was in Toyota Motor Company and other members in other companies. We wanted to make a nice vehicle, and we finally decided to make a flying car. Tim: What other kinds of vehicles were you working on? Because it wasn't just the flying car, right? It was a lot of different experimental projects. Tomo: Yeah. Before we decided to make flying car, we thought of unique vehicle, like, two stories car or car we can sleep in or cargo to see or like that, yeah. Tim: What was the motivation of starting this? Because it was a lot of engineers from a lot of different companies, I mean. Tomo: Yeah. So the member was about 20 or 30 years old. And as they are in a big company, they cannot see whole vehicle but only light or only washer or only steering wheel, like that. We wanted to make a vehicle, and also we wanted to make innovation to the vehicle. Tim: And so of all these different, you know, two-story vehicles, you decided on the flying car, Tomo: We experienced many things and we found if we can freely, it is very fantastic, not only efficiency but also very fun. And we decided to make flying car. Tim: That's awesome. So it was just this project, a bunch of talented engineers who wanted to work on the whole project. So, what made you decide to change the structure from this friendly group of people collaborating into a real startup? Tomo: When we started Cativator, the first prototype was drone-size product. So, we bought radio controller car, and also we bought a drone, and combined together and fly. And after that, we made a full scale prototype, and it wasn't flying very well at first. And we finally started flying it in 2018. And I thought, oh, it might be a good business. Tim: So just it seemed like it might be something that you could turn into a business? Tomo: Yeah. Tim: But that's a pretty big shift. Tomo: Yeah. When I see full-size prototype flying, I was very surprised, because for the last three years, it wasn't possible. And if it is possible, we have to try hard to make a real flying car. Tim: Yeah, yeah. And so during that transition, changing from a community of engineers to turning it into a real company, so a lot of your current staff is from Toyota and Mitsubishi. So, did most of the members joined the new company? Tomo: Not too much. So, there are about 100 members in volunteer group. And now in the company, there are only five to eight members from volunteer groups. Tim: Oh, wow. Who came? How did people make that decision? That must have been a really difficult time. Tomo: Yeah. When we made a company, we found a very, very specific engineer in our volunteer group, and asked him or her, why don't you quit your job and come to our company? And of course, not all agreed about it, because it is very difficult to make flying car with five or six or seven full-time members. We hired engineers from outside too, before that, many members of our brand to come group was from automobile sector. But it is our drone and also aircraft, so we searched aircraft engineer too. Tim: All right. So, what's the biggest change from running the organization versus running the startup? Tomo: Ah. It is totally different. If we joined volunteer group, it is just a hobby. So, don't have to focus it so much. And for startup, it is changing of life. Yeah, if they don't-- Tim: They don't commit or-- Tomo: Yeah, yeah. Commitment is so much different. Tim: Yeah, that's true. I mean, startups, it takes over your life. It's not a hobby. You don't have any hobbies when you're running a startup. Tomo: Of course. And I found another part that very committed people don't join volunteer group but join startup. Tim: Ah. You know, I guess that makes sense. Because very committed people want to be around other very committed people. Tomo: Yeah, that's right. And committed people want to do project seriously, not hobby. Tim: That makes perfect sense why it was time to change from a hobby to a startup. Actually, it looks like a lot of your funding came from Toyota and Mitsubishi and the same sources that a lot of the engineering talent came from too. Tomo: Yeah. To be honest, first funding was from venture capital, and the last funding stage, some big company begin to fund. Tim: Okay. So they came on later. Tomo: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. But when we are a volunteer group, we get money from Toyota or other company, other sponsor fee. And we got more than $2 million. That was very good. Tim: So you get $2 million from the sponsor fee as the volunteer group? Tomo: Yeah. Tim: But they wouldn't invest early on? Tomo: That's right, yeah. Tim: Okay. Well, I'm glad they've invested now. Let's talk about how flying cars and cargo drones are going to roll out. So, are cargo drones kind of the first step, is that what we're going to see commercialization of first? Tomo: Yeah. We launched cargo drone last month. And now, more and more cargo drone is flying near the mountain. Tim: So,