First Move Advantage | David Hayes - GRIT ED. 7 Your Next Move - Magazine - Page 10
First Move Advantage | David Hayes
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ORGANIZATION
ADVANTAGE
When you have a background in business &
professional sports, you know pivoting your strategy
is essential to winning. Going in with a solid plan is
easy, but that doesn’t always guarantee success.
Once a member of the Toronto Windsurfing Club
& Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Hayes demonstrated
cunning skill paramount to succeed on the waters,
watching the currents, the clouds and wind directions
in anticipation to adjust his sails. Seven years on
the world cup of sailing taught Hayes to take a
methodical approach to planning and preparation in
order to achieve ambitious goals. When not surfing
the wind, Hayes spent his time taking apart and
rebuilding race car motors, foreshadowing what’s
to come for the 2021 Next AI Top Entrepreneur we
know now. In 2017, Hayes founded AVO, a Torontobased technology start-up, with the mission of
eliminating collisions between people and vehicles
by developing reliable, intuitive, and scalable
V2P technology.
“I am fascinated by the
thought of autonomous vehicles enhancing the world
through the improvement of industry & the elimination of injury
caused by human-vehicle incidents.”
Today, AVO’s mission is to build the world’s first
fully connected and autonomous construction
site platform, Stratos.
“I do my best strategic thinking
when I’m flying across the water
on a windsurfing board. After
a session on the water, I feel
unstoppable.”
DAVID HAYES
CEO & CO-FOUNDER, AVO
2021 Next AI Top Entrepreneur
Windsurfing World Championship Winner
10
GRIT
Stratos will provide unrivalled site efficiency and
safety data for construction sites today, providing
its customers with competitive advantages from the
bidding phase to the completion of a project. Having
successfully built one of the first certified selfdriving car engineers globally from Udacity’s SelfDriving Car Engineer Nanodegree, a level-3 AV, AVO
understands the technical requirements necessary
to adopt AVs on construction sites and is confident
Stratos will achieve the company goal of becoming
the world’s first fully-connected and autonomous
construction site.
AVO pivoted from pedestrian safety to building
the world’s first fully autonomous construction site
platform for one main reason, AV technology is
coming to construction, and AVO has positioned
itself as one of the few companies globally ready
to capitalize on this massive transformation. No
business today is immune to constant—and often
increasing—waves of change. Like the tide and in a
game of chess, they come whether you want them to
or not. The only decision is how to respond.
Migrating the IP and tech stack from the level-3 AV
to job sites was not a straightforward task. However,
Hayes knew AVO would have the potential to win
in the construction vertical if they pivoted their
position versus being a small fish in the big ocean
of the AV industry. This pivot put AVO on the right
path towards a successful future. Without the pivot,
Hayes says AVO would most likely not be here
today. Stratos is now on track to revolutionize the
construction industry.
“The pivot was always on the
roadmap, but the timing was
customer demand-driven.”
Hayes plans his next move years in advance and
begins to work backwards, breaking down his goals
into yearly, monthly, and weekly targets. Using this
technique, he has led the AVO team to execute daily
and build towards their larger goals.
There has never been a better time to be a
technology company in the construction industry.
The pandemic forced the construction industry to
adopt technology, leaving industry leaders hungry
for technical innovations and solutions. AVO’s Stratos
is digitizing sites today through real-time site data
that’s never been seen before while building digital
twins of each site. Over the next 6-12 months, Hayes
and the AVO team are looking forward to executing
their first major Stratos customer as a springboard
for a potential global expansion.
‘‘
FIRST MOVE
Before a career in technology, CEO & Founder
of AVO, David Hayes, was familiar with
navigating through unpredictable waters and
charting from the windsurf board.
ADVICE
FROM A
FOUNDER
Pick up a copy of The Hard
Thing About Hard Things
by Ben Horrowitz.
Learn how to thrive
in a constant state of
discomfort because
you're not pushing hard
enough as a founder if
you're comfortable.
GRIT
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