Company Name: Macatawa Unmanned Systems
Headquarters: Holland, Michigan
Signature Product: Unmanned Aircraft System
Website: www.macatawaus.com
Macatawa Unmanned Systems is a veteran-owned company working within the unmanned space since early 2016. Macatawa focuses on helping businesses and government agencies develop unmanned capabilities at expert levels. They are subject matter experts that operate as consultants and not salesmen, so they can ensure you get the products and services you need.
Q&A:
1. Where did your company name originate from?
Macatawa is Native American and is a name of a lake and river in Michigan.
2. What is your signature product and how does it work?
Our Unmanned Aircraft System operates via a controller. It gives aerial images both RGB and thermal. It also has spot light capability and potential rescuing capabilities depending on what the pay load is or can be.
3. Why do you believe your products are essential to the firefighter community?
These products are proven to save lives, time and get valuable information for incident commanders. They have now found children, elderly, saved drowning victims, identified structural problems and assessed disaster aftermath.
4. What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
Educating our clients about how to get legally authorized to fly the aircraft.
5. What makes your company unique?
We are a full consulting service and not just sales representatives. We help departments get the federal paperwork done to have a program, train operators, sell product and then consult best practices on SOPs.
6. What do your customers like best about your products?
Ease of use for the product. They like us because we are far more hands on than our competition and we have been in the industry longer than others, giving us more knowledge on how to support unique operations.
7. What is the most rewarding part of serving the first responder community?
Helping develop the protocols that could and will help save lives.
8. Is there any fun fact or trivia that you’d like to share about you or your company?
We are a veteran-owned company and have worked in unmanned systems for over 12 years supporting the U.S. Army’s integration of these systems into operations.
9. What’s next for your company? Any upcoming new projects or initiatives?
We’re currently working on Underwater Unmanned Systems.
