About Vermeer

From Film Production to National Security & Defense

Our military needs cutting edge technology

I always thought the U.S. military had first dibs on the most advanced technology available. Seriously. I thought they had cool super-secret, sci-fi stuff from crashed alien space ships that they could use to plan missions, fly drones, control satellites and robots, and operate in GPS-denied areas. It never occurred to me that we had something that the military needed. My eyes were opened to the need after presenting our technology at an investor conference. A participant pulled me aside and told me the DoD would love what we were doing. I said: “Get outta here. Really?” He assured me that we had something special. He recommended we apply for the TechStars Boston Accelerator where the Air Force scouts commercially viable innovations that can transform their capabilities. I discovered the deadline to apply was just two hours away. If we didn’t apply immediately, we would have to wait until next year. I raced out of the investor conference, perched on the edge of a lobby chair, and applied on the spot. We were selected and soon found ourselves sitting shoulder to shoulder with defense leaders answering all the important questions, from “what if we could...” to “how fast can you...” Within months we had eight government contracts.

Creating the future of visualization

Vermeer applies the latest in mixed reality and artificial intelligence so users can better see, plan, train, control, analyze, communicate and take action in the most demanding of environments. Our novel applications of AR, VR and AI, with full motion video, are driving the future of:

AguNav for UAS and satellite eyes in the sky for in and out of battlefield C5-ISR

Visually enhanced immersive SDA

Operating in GPS-denied environments

Vermeer is an innovative tool for pre-mission planning and visualization. Today, it is capable of integrating into any autonomous platform, from sUAS to satellites.

From High Tech and Hollywood

We are unlike traditional government contractors. We started from a different place and approach problem-solving from a different angle. Our company grew from two influences. The first was technology innovators like Apple. Their leaders knew that good technology is not enough. Technology products have to be people-friendly, designed with empathy for how users will interact with them. You start with an idea. Then you quickly develop and test prototypes to bridge the gaps between the idea, the product, and users—relentlessly throwing out what doesn’t work. That approach is exactly the process of creative selection that we at Vermeer use in developing our solutions.

The second influence was Hollywood. We originally founded our technology venture as a drone service cinematography company. When you would see a drone shot in a Netflix or HBO movie or TV Show—that was us—executing those drone missions. We worked with Spielberg. We shot Fast & Furious movies. We flew on an Oscar winner for Best Picture. Yet working with directors, we kept running into a problem. They had a vision in their brain of what they wanted to the drone to do, but they struggled to explain that vision to our team.

When a director like Spielberg makes a gesture with his hands, he's not just directing. He's running a simulation in his brain of what he wants the camera to capture. We thought: “What if we could...extract that vision and seamlessly execute it in the real world?” We would have a really cool product. That’s how we came to build a tool that removes the friction between what you see in your head and what a device can do, whether it’s a flying movie camera, a combat drone, or a satellite.

“What if we could...” becomes “This is how...” and then “Here it is.”

It always comes back to that first question: “What if we could...?” Yet creativity isn’t just imagination. It is making an idea real. And making it work. We specialize in making cool, sci-fi stuff into real products that outperform in the real world—without needing the crashed alien space ship.