Drone business pioneered at university is gaining altitude

A visual content media provider specialising in virtual reality, virtual tours and commercial aerial drones has gone from a university project to a high-flying enterprise, thanks to Boost’s Growth Support programme.

Fylde-based World 360 is a visual content provider and commercial aerial drone business, specialising in 360-degree panoramic virtual tours, video and photography that help improve advertisements for client businesses.

The panoramic tours allow clients – including estate agents, surveyors and retailers – to interact and view the specifics of properties from a 360-degree immersive tour that can include drop-down menus, video, photos and hot spots.

Founders Daniel O’Connor and Conner Romain first met with enterprise4all business adviser Yusuf Musa to discuss how they could turn their Blackpool and Fylde University project into a successful business.

Since then, the duo has benefited from various workshops in the Boost Growth Support programme, including the Professional Selling one-day Masterclass, DIY Marketing, and Lean Launchpad.

As a result, Daniel and Conner have identified new customers by harnessing business development tools and techniques, as well as bringing forward plans to launch a brand-new website to illustrate the quality services they provide.

Boost is Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub and is led by the Lancashire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and Lancashire County Council and supported by funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Conner said: “The support received was crucial to the setting up and launching of our business. We’re still keen on working with our growth coach Sajid Mahmud who we met through a Boost event, he has been a great help in our growth journey.”

Sajid, said: “In particular, Conner and Daniel felt that the DIY Marketing workshop helped them to better understand the business which was useful when considering how to portray the business to customers.”

Sajid added: “The duo continues to receive 2-to-1 support for their business and want to carry on with support through the Boost programme. Conner and Daniel would like to attend more of Boost’s workshops, particularly those in relation to sales and marketing.”