Nick Burgess found a church in Southwest Florida that had gone uncleaned for years. Skylights covered the entire roof, access points were limited, and narrow walkways and surrounding trees ruled out scaffolding or a boom lift. Traditional cleaning had never really worked on this building.

The same features that ruled out ground equipment worked in the drone's favor. Minimal tree interference near the structure and a roof shape well suited to drone navigation made this one of Summit's smoother jobs, less setup and less time in the air than a typical project.

Burgess picked Lucid Bots mostly on the strength of its support, not when things go well, but when they don't.

Summit just celebrated its first year in business last month, including some large commercial projects Burgess says the company is gearing up on, with a growing pipeline heading into year two.