Drona Aviation Pvt Ltd’s co-founder, Dinesh Sain, is a multi-faceted individual with expertise in entrepreneurship, aeromodelling, technology, drone piloting, and tinkering. Currently, Dinesh is fully dedicated to managing the day-to-day operations of his company, Drona Aviation. He is eager to connect with investors interested in investing in drone technology or edutech companies.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Dinesh Sain:
Describe your background and what did you do before you started/joined the company?
I come from a humble, conservative family that has lived most of its time in Jaipur. My grandfather was a farmer, and my father used to work. I did well academically until I reached high school. During my 11th year is when I came across the IIT phenomenon. From knowing about engineering and the prestige of IITs, to definitively living through the preparation phase and then getting admitted into the most revered institute in the country, it has been a dramatic, life-changing journey for me.
As I lived out my dreams of studying at IIT Bombay, I discovered a newfound passion for aeromodelling, which led me to join a student club that conducted workshops and research in the field. This is where I met Prasanna (my co-founder). As club members, we conducted various workshops on RC planes. My affinity for the field increased as I got more involved with the club.
Tell us about the inception of the company. How did it all start?
Post-IIT, I had decided to continue working in this field. But there weren’t enough placement opportunities from the sector on the campus. I continued to conduct workshops in my personal capacity. Somewhere, I knew I had to do something beyond just teaching students to use drones. Prasanna, who was in constant touch with me throughout, finally reached out and asked me to join him in his ongoing endeavour to create drones. Along with my senior, Apurva, we founded Drona Aviation in 2014.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
Beyond success, the value that I cherish the most, which is essential to fundamentally surviving in the world, is perseverance. I am a strong believer in making your own destiny, and hard work will eventually pay off.
I can recall several moments throughout my life when I could have paused to reconsider the life-altering decisions I was about to take. I could have chosen less-risky options, opted for a conventional job, or just lived my quaint life in Jaipur. But what made me stick to my guns was this zeal to keep trying despite the fear of failing badly.
Which are the major services of the company and how do the company to get ahead in the competition? What value-added services does the company provide?
We provide an open-source platform for students and enthusiasts of drones to learn, tinker, and discover different applications of drones by using our modular nanodrone Pluto. We are the only such startup working in the education space in the country. Pluto does not need a licence to fly and can be controlled through our application on your smartphone. We provide full technical support for our products.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in, and how do you build this culture?
There are three pillars that act as the building blocks of the culture that we want to build at Drona Aviation: merit, agency, and collaboration.
At Drona Aviation, we mostly hire our workforce from local engineering colleges. Over the years of working with many young folks who don’t come from premiere institutes, I have seen a greater zeal and hunger in them to prove their talent to the world I have seen a greater zeal and hunger in them to prove their talent to the world. Hence, it has been a conscious decision to not just prefer students from IITs and NITs. We also largely recruit as interns and then offer permanent roles to those who perform better. This way, we are able to give a fair chance to even those who might not have a solid profile.
We strongly believe in giving complete autonomy to our employees. There are no constant follow-ups or fixed working hours. As long as they excel at the job that they are given, we don’t interfere with how they choose to work.
Much of the credit for whatever we have achieved so far goes to the excellent teamwork demonstrated by everyone involved. What we have set out to build requires cutting-edge innovation coupled with a frugal mindset. Ideas are never possible when pondered in isolation. Working in teams becomes, therefore, extremely important to create something significant.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
Given the highly fragmented and competitive space of the drone industry, innovation is more of a mandate than a choice. Prior to creating Pluto, it was a long and hard struggle to find our footing. We conducted multiple workshops and tried various applications for different clients—but nothing could create the impact that we were expecting. Pluto was the result of multiple iterations of innovating, finding problems that we could solve.
Through these iterations, we came closer to understanding the significance of innovation. It is not just about coming up with new ideas. For the idea to truly breakthrough, you need to find a problem that is unique but pertinent enough for its users to care about. Pluto arose from the growing demand for drones for educational purposes that are inexpensive, modular, and do not require licences to fly.
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
It really depends on the kind of organisation that you want to build. Some processes require a chain of command because they are critical and there is little to no room for error.Take the kitchen of a Michelin starred restaurant. The chef needs to be the orchestrator of everything that is made in the kitchen. You can’t miss out on any detail, nor can one improvise and disrupt the planned flow of operations. This is where individual heroism is needed.
But if you talk about technology-based startups like ours, we need collective minds to create something spectacular. We can afford to make mistakes, and it is important to get multiple perspectives on any project. Hence, team processes would have more credence.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
A leader is truly successful when they make everyone in the team feel as invested and passionate about the journey and your company. Everything that we have built at Drona Aviation has been due to the hard work and efforts of many. I still remember the tough times during the pandemic when we had all our doors closed. Our employees had stepped up, agreed to have their salaries put on hold, and worked extra hours when offices opened to get us back on track.
So, my only advice to the leaders would be to take the utmost care of your people, be they employees or customers. Success and profits will naturally follow.
