How He's Taking On a $2 Billion Software Giant — Keith McCall

Keith McCall is building a company that watches the Earth from above. Omniris pulls imagery from drones, satellites, and IoT sensors, overlays it on a map, and adds the one thing that makes data powerful time. Capture the same field or cell tower ten times across a year and you get a living database, a digital twin more useful than anything sitting in a spreadsheet. His network of 4,000 independent drone pilots has flown Walmart's headquarters, Amazon distribution centers, 11,000 Verizon cell towers, and solar farms around the world. Keith is the CEO of Omniris, along with the ag-tech company Pollen Systems and the wine venture Everyvine. He and Jason get into why he ripped out a $2 billion incumbent and bet on open source, how he handles data sovereignty across Azure, AWS, and on-premise servers from Saudi Arabia to Chile, and why he thinks the billions being poured into AI valuations could evaporate faster than anyone expects. We also discuss: Why he went open source to scale past a $2 billion competitor The AI valuation bubble and how Chinese model distillation could wipe it out Smart cities. Why Seattle's cameras, drones, and traffic lights aren't on one geospatial layer The coming food crisis and the aging-farmer knowledge problem behind his ag-tech work Hiring for communication, collaboration, and compassion over pedigree Ranking family offices first and venture capital last when raising money Keith's links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithmccall/ Omniris: https://omniris.world/ Pollen Systems: https://www.pollensystems.com/ Everyvine: http://www.everyvine.com Eastside Entrepreneurs: https://eastent.org/ Jason links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncavness Follow the show so you don't miss an episode.