Modovolo today announced the appointment of Tim Handley as the company’s new Chief
Information Officer (CIO).
“Modovolo’s mission,” said Justin Call, Modovolo’s CEO, and co-founder, “is to design products with first principles thinking to have the highest performance-to-cost ratio of any drone technology. And we relentlessly focus on lean manufacturing to constantly and radically lower prices. Tim believes in this mission because this is what he has done his entire life.”
Tim is an entrepreneur who has founded, bootstrapped, and incubated two companies, the most recent of which is Flyguys, which Tim founded in 2015. Funded with $50,000, Tim built a virtual airline from scratch.
By flying hundreds of missions across scores of industries and use cases, he created and documented flight operation procedures for every use case and industry for which he flew, and then crafted and coded the early versions of the logistics software that put the right pilot with the right equipment for any given mission or contract that Flyguys sold nationwide.
The results speak for themselves, Flyguys now has a nationwide footprint of 1000+ affiliate pilots.
“I’ve been thinking that the drone industry is ready for radical change,” said Tim, “and so when I was introduced to the Modovolo team I knew they were different. They are culture-focused with the intention of building a great company. Plus, their drone is a game changer. I wanted to be a part of that.”
Justin Call continued: “We hire based on four criteria. The first is that you cannot be a jerk. We only hire good people. The second: you must be a hard worker with passion and a work ethic to succeed. The third: you must be intellectually curious (because you can’t fix stupid). And fourth (but only if you have satisfied the first three criteria): you must have amazing skills. Tim crushes the four criteria.”
Tim and Justin immediately hit off when they first started talking because there was a perfect alignment of how they think about the principles that make for a great company.
Tim explains, “Modovolo has the right principles to win. That’s the key here. Without those you may be able to make one good product but never make a great company with many great products. That’s what we want.”
Justin explains, “We’ve taken lessons from the great companies such as Apple, Toyota, Tesla, and SpaceX. Let me give you two examples:
‘Walk the Gemba’ is something that Toyota stresses in its decision-making. It means: you need to see the problem firsthand. Live it. Feel it. Only then can you look for a solution.
Another example is: First, Principles Thinking. This is something Elon Musk preaches to his companies. You have to boil the problem to its core components. Question everything.
We believe that Walking the Gemba and First Principles Thinking are very powerful together.”
Tim continued: “As is everyone on the Modovolo team, my focus will be on our culture and on executing Modovolo’s mission and our core principles but with an emphasis on our software.”
This appointment marks a significant step in Modovolo’s ongoing commitment to expanding its leadership team with world-class talent committed to its culture and mission.
About Modovolo
Modovolo is a start-up that’s launched the Lift, an endlessly configurable modular drone platform of Lift Pods and Utility Pods that are clicked together like Legos to build the right drone for every application, with hours of flight time, and at a price orders of magnitude less than anything on the market. You’ll want to see it for yourself.
For inquiries, please contact: Justin Call, at justin@modovolo.com
