Allan Evans is the CEO of Unusual Machines and we're very excited to say Allan is taking the time out of his very busy schedule to join us here for a one-on-one interview. Allan, great to have you. So let's start with the basics here, especially for any of our viewers who might be a bit unfamiliar with the work you and your colleagues do at Unusual Machines. How do you see your company fitting into the so-called drone economy right now in the US?
Yeah, we build drone parts. So we've been trying to onshore a bunch of parts. There's all these really great drone companies that are changing everything and they need suppliers, so we look at it that way very simply, just onshoring the parts.
Uh, to that point, a few really exciting acquisitions, companies with some really cool names I got to admit, Fat Shark, Rotor Riot. How do those companies fit into your overall strategic picture recently?
Yeah, so that's sort of where we started with those. Like we IPO'd, brought them in, and what they really are is consumer drone parts businesses, particularly for FPV. So in the industry where you wear the goggles, and what we have is this e-commerce business, Rotor Riot, where if you were going to go fly drones in your backyard, you'd go buy an FPV kit and put it together. We realized we're selling like 20,000 motors, you know, 8,000 drone flight computers, all these things to customers. So then by moving away from China and moving to USA-made components that we make or source ourselves, we can be our own first customer. And in doing that, we can hit the volumes necessary to pass the savings on to not just our customers but any enterprises that buy from us, like US government agencies, and really overcome that, you know, how do you get to 10,000 of a thing barrier.
So you mentioned China, obviously. In terms of artificial intelligence, we've got this kind of current AI cold war going on, obviously the big story of the week here, DeepSeek contributing to the wiping out of some $600 billion in Nvidia value alone earlier this week. How does China's progress on drones compare to that of the United States?
The way ahead. The Chinese company, particularly DJI, in the small drone category, dominated the entire world. I mean, amazing. And so this is one case where we're playing catch-up, and we're playing catch-up not just on the final product in a lot of ways but also on the whole supply chain because they dominated the industry. You know, millions of drone motors and millions of flight computers, millions of all those things were being made particularly in the Shenzhen area, China. And so, you know, really appreciate a lot of the legislation sort of kicking them out so we have the ability to really play catch-up in the domestic marketplace.
So to that point, the legislation we did have from former President Joe Biden helping lead that effort here to essentially ban Chinese drone makers like DJI, were you in support of that particular push from the former White House? And is it your expectation that the Trump administration will continue with that push?
So I would say the American Security Drone Act, which was part of that push, was approved unanimously through the Senate and was actually introduced by Elise Stefanik, who is now, you know, part of the Trump administration. So I think this is one of the places where everybody, red, blue, they all agree. They all think, hey, we need to really support the domestic drone ecosystem and build it out. And if you look at the new Secretary of Defense, he's pro-drone, Elon's pro-drone. I think you see everybody realizing this is a big deal and it not even being a political football but just being a necessary thing.
But it's not just pro-drone, it's pro-American manufactured drone, correct? And why is that so important to the overall equation?
The easy way I look at it from a defense perspective is, if you have great drones but none of the drone parts or you're not making them yourself, it's like having great guns and no bullets. Like if something comes up, you just don't have the supply for it. And we saw these issues on a smaller scale during COVID with vaccine allocation or even with toilet paper. And so I think there's a real concern that if there's not an American base for drones, then there won't be American drones when we need them the most.
What's your understanding, your thought about exactly why the US fell so far behind China in the last decade in this space, specifically as drones are used for military operations?
You know, weirdly, it's this really positive aspect of America that caused us to fall behind. We have this free market economy, so competition comes in, everybody fights it out. About seven years ago, 3D Robotics, GoPro, and DJI were all trying to be in Best Buy, and DJI just had the better product at a better price. And so, you know, capitalism was used against us to scale up something that was at the time considered a toy. And then it wasn't really till the conflict in Ukraine or a little bit before that we realized these were tools, not toys. And so I think it was just like, you know, us allowing capitalism to work in a place that we didn't realize was maybe as sensitive as we've come to realize it.
Short time after the election in November, you announced Donald Trump Jr. joining your advisory board. He is also, Allan, if I'm not mistaken, the second largest shareholder in the company. What does Don Jr. bring to the role?
Yeah, we were talking to him long before the election. And what he brings is a really deep awareness from a business perspective into other groups, other people that are really interested in bringing production back to America. You know, he sits with 1789 Capital, so there's this really deep understanding of how the investor markets work for strategics. And then he also has really great reach to a bunch of people who share the same beliefs, you know, through social media followers and through what he's written. So we're really excited that he can help just connect us to some of those businesses and customers in the enterprise marketplace that share our values. And so that's been great.
Allan, I got to ask you the obvious question that a lot of people out there have been speculating about. Did you add Donald Trump Jr. to your advisory board simply so that Unusual Machines could be in a position to get better government contracts under the Trump administration?
No, we in fact don't go after government contracts. We explicitly say it all the time. We try to sell to other companies that have government contracts. It's called dual use. So if you walk around and talk to government employees and ask for their cell phone, they'll hand you like a Samsung S20 or an S23. And it's because Samsung makes all these amazing things for the much larger market that the quality, the cost, everything else is there. And we're built in the same way as a business. So I think we're a great match with what he does because we only sell to other companies, not to the government, and he believes in drones and American-made drones as the future. And so there's not really any conflict or any crossover into the government there at all.
