The Conversation
Chris Hanslik is Firm Chairman of BoyarMiller, a Texas law firm, and host of its Building Texas Business podcast. In Episode 118, he talks with SkyPSI founder and CEO Vic Pellicano about drone-based commercial cleaning, why Dallas-Fort Worth is the home for SkyPSI, and how to hire, lead and start a business.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
Vic, thanks for being a guest on Building Texas Business. Introduce yourself and your business to our listeners, so they understand what you do and what your company is known for.
Vic Pellicano
I'm Vic Pellicano, founder and CEO of SkyPSI. We enable our operators, people running their own businesses, to bring robotic technology like power washing drones into their work and grow their revenue. More broadly, I think about it as using the technology of today, AI and robotics, to better serve their area, make more money for their families and put the new equipment coming out to work.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
You mentioned operators. Are they providing a cleaning service using this technology?
Vic Pellicano
That's right. There are over 17 million properties in the United States that need to be cleaned multiple times every year. If you've spent time around Dallas, you notice a lot of glass. Glass takes a lot of work to keep up, though. It has to be cleaned all the time, and you see crews hanging from ropes. Twenty years from now, I expect that will look archaic. Right now, buildings have to get cleaned, and that's the best method. Drones are getting better every year, so a new generation of commercial property cleaners can acquire this equipment from me, go to the commercial property down the street and say, "You're spending a lot of money cleaning your windows. We can do it cheaper, faster and better using technology."
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
How did you get into this venture? You've had other businesses. I think the hardest thing for most entrepreneurs is taking that first step.
Vic Pellicano
My first step into owning a business came about 15 years ago, when I started my first company out of my garage basement. It was the gutsiest call of my life. You walk into your boss's office and say, "I'm going to go do this other thing," and you don't know if you're going to make money. But you get to a point where you want to own the outcome. You get tired of making other people money, and it's exhausting when you can't figure out how to go fast enough. I'm a people pleaser at the end of the day. I like hearing, "You did a good job today." When you work at that level and hear that, you want to share it and enable other people to do it too. It's one of the greatest adventures of my life, but you have to have the guts to do it.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
What was one of the biggest lessons from that first company? Someone listening is probably where you were 15 years ago, taking that first step. What do you wish you knew then that you know now?
Vic Pellicano
Everything is a people business. You'll read all the news about AI and robots, but at the end of the day, you're talking to another human being who either trusts you or doesn't. You have to show up, say what you're going to do, do what you said and be reliable. You ask that person to take a chance on you, and you prove it again and again. You build champions, and then you build a reputation. That's what a brand is. In the B2B world, people buy from people. They want to shake your hand, and when they have a problem, they want you to answer, day or night. As long as you're that person, they will call you every time, and they don't mind you making a profit.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
So you're moving forward to SkyPSI. How did you come across this technology, and what made you see this opportunity?
Vic Pellicano
What I like most about it is this: my dad was a truck driver, and I see this equipment largely the same way. I grew up around truck drivers, and the small operators have always been my people. My dad would invest in a piece of equipment and bet on himself, saying, "I bet I can show up and keep most of the profits for myself. And I can get my cousins and my friends jobs working with me, and we can make a living and take care of our families." That's what I see in this new generation of entrepreneurs, betting on themselves. I never had to worry about food or where I was going to live, and that was because of the technology of his time, a semi truck. When I looked at these drones, I saw the American dream: a piece of equipment somebody can buy and bet on themselves to change their family's outcome, like my dad did. What a blessing to end my career, 20 or 30 years from now, having enabled thousands of people just like my dad.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
You founded SkyPSI in Dallas, Texas. What advantages did you believe you would find by starting a company here, and how has it played out so far?
Vic Pellicano
The energy in all of Texas is amazing, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There's a new energy: "We want to build new buildings. We want to build new industries. We want to invest in ourselves, and we want to invite people to come here to do that." That's why you see so much interest from the business community and from young working professionals moving there. The amount of talent coalescing in that area is incredible, and everybody's excited to be there. They see a bright future.
When I looked at these drones, I saw the American dream: a piece of equipment somebody can buy and bet on themselves to change their family's outcome, like my dad did.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
What challenges do you face in getting SkyPSI to the scale your vision calls for?
Vic Pellicano
The challenge is always people. It's talent acquisition. That's why we picked Dallas. A lot of what we do is brand, sales and marketing, and that's where a lot of the investment goes. When we invest, we want a place where we invite our people and our customers to come and say, "This is impressive." You want the brightest people. You want to pay them well and have them make you a lot of money, if you're doing it right. Those people want to be in growing areas with lots of energy, great parks and sunshine, and you see that in Dallas and Fort Worth. The trend is your friend. You don't fight the wave. You figure out how to ride it, and you go where the talented people are going.
You're talking to another human being who either trusts you or doesn't.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
You're a big believer in technology as part of your growth strategy, and you can't have a conversation these days without the letters AI coming up. How did you develop that mindset, and what would you encourage others to do to embrace rapidly developing technology?
Vic Pellicano
When I was about 13, we got a computer at home. My dad, despite being a truck driver, did some engineering on the side. He had a ham radio in the basement and liked to talk to other truck drivers around the world. As soon as the internet came out, we were among the first in our neighborhood online. I taught myself to write code at about 14, and I'm an engineer by trade. That two- or three-year head start is worth everything. You get some advantage, and you have to take it and see it coming. Then the cloud came online, and we built our company on it early. The same thing will happen with AI. It's inevitable. It's a tool like everything else. What I mean by economic advantage is value creation for somebody else: how do I use this tool to do something good for someone who doesn't know how to use it? We use these robots and these AIs to create a cleaner, safer world. As new technologies come out, we vet them, we train our operators and we hand them down ready to go, so they can run their own businesses, grow and flourish.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
If it's cheaper and faster, property managers and building owners might clean more often in a year, instead of just once.
Vic Pellicano
That's what we see all the time. With glass, the first clean can be a nightmare, done with a squeegee and a razor blade sometimes. Now you can get it with the drone four times a year, and sometimes four times a year is cheaper than once a year with crews on ropes. Clean it four times a year and it never gets that bad, so the upkeep gets cheap. And the operator goes to a property manager down the street, does it cheaper, faster and better, and might sign a three- or five-year contract. That's steady work for three or five years from a neighbor. Everybody wins.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it evolved since the early days?
Vic Pellicano
It has evolved. At first I hired young people like me, and we grew together, because I didn't know how to hold people accountable. Now I hire somebody and set very clear expectations. I tell them, "I'm going to pay you well, I'm going to expect more from you than anybody else, and I'm going to talk to you very plainly, but I'm going to be fair and understanding. I expect you to be great." A mentor gave me a blessing early on. I'd missed a meeting with him and forgot to follow up for two days. He called me into his office, and I said, "I just blew it." He looked at me and said, "You don't forget. They forget," and pointed out at the bullpen. Helping people separate themselves from the herd, telling them "You can be special," and then seeing if they are, matters. You don't do the work to get the outcome. You get the outcome because you're the guy who does the work.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
How do you hire people who fit the culture you're building? It's an imperfect science, but how do you get it right more times than you get it wrong?
Vic Pellicano
Expectations up front are very important. If they hear you say the thing and then live the thing, that works. So many people hide behind sanitized language. If you talk to people honestly and plainly, that works best for everybody. When somebody does great, you celebrate them in front of everybody. You parade them around and make them feel like champions, because they are. When you're having accountability talks, always be open to an off-ramp to a different position: "Is there another fit for you in this firm that makes more sense?" You don't get mad at the fish because it can't fly. That's your job as a hiring person and as a manager.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
What advice would you give someone who is looking to start a business?
Vic Pellicano
If you do it, fully commit. It's the only way to do anything great. You don't have to know every answer going in. Businesses aren't built on a spreadsheet. They're built out here with other humans, so get out there and talk to the people you think are your clients. I think businesses are problem-solving machines, and if you can solve somebody's problem at less cost than it costs them to solve it themselves, you have a profitable business. The best ones to start are where you know the problem or the customer base intimately, because you have to live it. Nine times out of ten, they're going to say, "That's dumb." If you give up then, that's the universe telling you you're not cut out for it. The universe will test your mettle with all the no's and all the rejection. You have to wake up and say, "No, I'm doing it," even if you change the business model eight times in a week. Somebody wants you to solve it, and then you've got a business.
I think businesses are problem-solving machines, and if you can solve somebody's problem at less cost than it costs them to solve it themselves, you have a profitable business.
BUILDING TEXAS BUSINESS (BOYARMILLER)
Vic, I appreciate you sharing your story. This new venture sounds intriguing. There's not a major city in the country without a lot of glass skyscrapers, and it seems to have a lot of good momentum behind it.
Vic Pellicano
Great to meet you, Chris. Thank you so much for having me.
Edited for length and clarity.
Original coverageListen to the episodeChris Hanslik with Vic Pellicano on Building Texas Business (BoyarMiller).Watch on YouTube