The Future Is Now: Arthur Erickson Of Hylio On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Global Ag-Sector
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
There’s Always Tomorrow. Taking a break is important. I’ve obsessively pounded away at problems for several nights in a row but you have to recognize that sleep deprivation is affecting your decision making more than you might think. Often times, taking a break and getting a good night’s rest lets you see more clearly and allows you to solve a problem faster than if you just try to grind through it.
As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Arthur Erickson.
Arthur’s intense interest in UAS began when he was studying aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. While studying, he worked with a research team at UT to deploy drones for disaster prediction/response and transportation optimization. Recognizing the enormous potential of UAS technology, Arthur, and some other UT alumni decided to form Hylio in 2015. In 2017, Arthur applied his experience and passion for UAS by leading Hylio’s parcel delivery project in Costa Rica alongside a local on-demand delivery startup. Now Arthur leverages his technical and management experience to lead Hylio as it applies it revolutionizes the global ag-sector.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Like many other entrepreneurs/engineers, I grew up loving science. By the time I was a teenager, my passion started to gear more specifically towards robotics and aerospace (perhaps partially because I grew up in Houston and visited the JSC many, many times). On a semi-related note, when I was 17, I had an accident involving a very ill-conceived DIY rocket design that I had made that resulted in intense 2nd, and some 3rd degree, burns all across my lower legs. I learned a lot about risk management from that experience.
Anyway, early in my undergrad education at UT Austin, it became clear that aerospace engineering was the optimal degree plan for me. Even before I had started Hylio, I had entered into college thinking that the aerospace industry in general was going to be increasingly important for our future as species. I wasn’t quite sure yet what projects I wanted to pursue specifically, but I knew that I wanted to build up a strong foundation of aerospace skills/knowledge within myself.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
This little anecdote isn’t directly related to what our company does but it’s probably the single most interesting moment I’ve experienced during my Hylio travels. I was in Honduras in the summer of 2019. I had just been operating in the field with one of our teams; we were spraying sugar cane for a large, corporate producer using our drone systems. The job went off without a hitch, it was on my attempted return to the US that things went awry. I caught a bus into Tegucigalpa to board my flight out. Once we got within a few miles of the airport, the bus refused to go any further, claiming that it was too dangerous. I wasn’t certain what the bus driver meant so I (stupidly) decided to get out and just hoof it the rest of the way to the airport; I really didn’t want to miss my flight home.
By the time the airport was in sight, I had walked into a crowd of protestors who I later learned were protesting some recent proposed legislation in Honduras. I thought if I just kept my head down and kept up the pace, I could make it to the airport and get out of the country before things heated up even further. I managed to get just 5 meters from the airport when the military/policy at that moment decided to use the airport itself as a staging ground to organize and attempt to control the protestors. They quickly put up a barrier, blocking my entry, and then the protestors around me started rushing the barricade. The police/military responded by firing several tear gas canisters into the crowd which immediately, temporarily blinded me. In the rapidly escalating confusion, I managed to run to shelter across the street in a mall. I ended up spending the night at a nearby hotel and caught a flight the next morning.
Of course, this story doesn’t have anything to do with drones or agriculture but I still like to tell it as an example that illustrates that sometimes entrepreneurship puts you in situations that you could never expect. I’ve since been back to Honduras a few times and we still have plenty of business down there.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
In a nutshell: Hylio develops and offers innovative drone systems that completely automate precision agriculture processes. Using Hylio’s technology, farmers/producers can now apply crop treatments directly to problem areas, allowing farmers to increase yields by addressing pests and deficiencies with more accuracy and efficacy.
The devil is in the details. Both literally and figuratively, there are thousands of moving parts in our company. Our hardware engineers are working on dozens of innovative projects including: automated payload swapping systems, automated drone charging stations, sensor suites that can safely navigate
How do you think this might change the world?
I think automated, precision farming machines (like Hylio’s) are an absolute necessity for the future of ag-production on our planet. Our world is currently facing
- Declining availability of farm labor
- Supply chain disruptions affecting production of farming equipment and thus food
- A continually growing world population and along with that, growing food insecurity in many regions
In order to combat the above issues, our civilization needs to adopt autonomous crop treatment devices that are smarter and more cost efficient than our current methods.
In 10–20 years, I expect that most farming operations will utilize some form of precision crop tech; whether that be Hylio’s spray drones or something along similar lines.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Like any new technology, there always exists the risk that certain people and/or organizations may try to utilize it for nefarious purposes. This is a ham-fisted analogy but take nuclear energy as an obvious example; tremendous potential to improve our planet through clean energy solutions but also tremendous potential to wreak havoc in the form of weapons (and I’m not saying our drones are as monumental as the advent of nuclear energy).
We need to be mindful that some bad actors will try to utilize UAS technology for harm. In fact, this is already happening throughout the world. It is up to us as the creators of the technology to keep these potential risks in mind. Through careful planning and design of secure, encrypted systems, we should be able to significantly mitigate the chance of our drones being destructive.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
Well, my team and I had an “aha moment” of sorts in Costa Rica several years ago in the early stages of the company. When Hylio first started, we actually were working on drones for delivery of small parcels (food, medicine, beverages). While working on that project in the Costa Rica area, we often found ourselves in rural areas where we could observe the ag-production processes that the local farms employed.
One afternoon, I recall that we were watching local workers haphazardly spraying ag-chemicals using a backpack mounted sprayer, and we even saw some workers dispensing chemicals literally by hand (cupping their hands as a bowl of sorts). Upon seeing that, we just all realized that our drones can be a much safer and effective way of applying these crop treatments.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
In the coming years we simply need to aggressively evangelize this technology. When we go to farm and ag-equipment expos, many of the attendants still are not aware that drone technology can be used to apply these crop treatment products. We are still very early in the technology adoption curve so the biggest challenge is simply getting the word out.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
Like many startups, we engage heavily in online marketing via Google and social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. I wouldn’t say we’re doing anything particularly innovative in the marketing dept. at the moment; in fact, perhaps a bit of the opposite but to positive effect. We are huge fans of physical trade shows because (A) our drones are very exciting to see in person and seeing the drone in action is worth a thousand words and (B) a lot of our target customer base prefers to learn about and purchase new products at these physical trade shows. These trade shows are out of style for many of the solely-software focused startups but we still get a lot out of them.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have to give a shout out here to my senior design professor at UT Austin, Armand Chaput. He was one of the chief engineers on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 JSF Program. He was my professor during my final year of aerospace engineering at UT. He taught my fellow students and I how to design a mission-focused UAS from the ground up. His class was incredibly enlightening and it showed me that a seemingly complex problem can be solved with a careful, systematic approach.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Our technology is putting power back into the hands of small farms, many of which are family owned and operated. They’re relatively cheap, meaning that you don’t have to be a corporate-backed super farm to purchase them. We also designed our software to be very intuitive so that people of all backgrounds could utilize it. Our drones have helped many small-scale farmers achieve very successful yields where previously they were finding it hard to stay afloat with rising crop care prices and large, corporate farms pushing others out of the market.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
- There Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day.
I recall working jobs when I was a teenager, fast food delivery and things like that, and I was always just counting down the hours until I could clock out. As a CEO, the end of the day always comes way too quickly and there are usually 100 things that I still wanted to get done that day that will have to wait until the following day.
2. There’s Always Tomorrow.
Taking a break is important. I’ve obsessively pounded away at problems for several nights in a row but you have to recognize that sleep deprivation is affecting your decision making more than you might think. Often times, taking a break and getting a good night’s rest lets you see more clearly and allows you to solve a problem faster than if you just try to grind through it.
3. Two is one, one is none.
For any system, whether that be hardware, software, or even something non-physical like a standard operating procedure, you need to have backups and contingencies. In the early days of our company when we were operating as a service provider, there were countless times when we were waiting on repair parts that we didn’t have on hand. If we had planned a little better, we’d be up in the air that much sooner and back to making revenue.
4. Hardware is Hard, Flying Hardware is Even Harder.
It took several years for our hardware systems to reach a level of professional stability. I knew the endeavor would be hard going into it but I didn’t realize just how challenging it would get.
5. You Need to Delegate.
I’m the type of person that believes he can do anything; the objective truth is that there are many people that are better than me at certain things and they should handle those tasks. Not to mention the fact that there are only 24 hours in the day. Ultimately, as a CEO, it’s imperative that you get good at delegating. Maybe that team member doesn’t handle a problem exactly how you would, and maybe that’s a good thing.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think most human beings have enormous potential, but unfortunately many great minds are never able to access education and tools that could lead to innovations for our civilization. This is a nerdy, engineer answer but if I could inspire any movement, it would be a push to give as many people around the world access to an excellent STEM education from a young age. I’m not saying that everyone should or needs to be a STEM professional but those are foundational skills that could make us all more proactive and conscientious about the problems our planet is facing. More scientific literacy, I would hope, would lead to tons of inventions and solutions that make our planet that much better to live on. You can tell I’m a fan of Carl Sagan.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
This reference is a little dated, but one quote I often come back to is from Lawrence of Arabia (1962). In the film, T.E. Lawrence says, “Big things have small beginnings”. I am a big fan of the film from an artistic standpoint but I’m not commenting on any of the surrounding politics. Simply put, the idea that massive change could come about thanks to the efforts of a few, driven individuals is something that I think is widely applicable in entrepreneurship. The systems and institutions that Hylio is going up against are fairly ingrained, but with significant effort, every day, I think we can make quite a difference.
Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
When everyone is in the metaverse, someone still needs to feed us. I completely understand the appeal of investing in the software sphere, especially where things are growing incredibly fast in the AI, blockchain, and metaverse sectors. Those companies scale quickly and exits can be fast and astronomical.
With that being said, there is incredible, perennial value in the ag-space. There is a reason why Bill Gates is the largest individual farmland owner in the US. It’s important for institutionalized capital to realize that there are big disruptions occurring in the ag-tech space now that will ultimately shape how we eat for the next few hundred years. What will ever be more important than how we put food on the table?
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
The Future Is Now: Arthur Erickson Of Hylio On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
