At this year’s GrowTECH Fest 2025, hosted by ChicoStart—one of the North State’s leading entrepreneurial ecosystem builders—DART Executive Director Josh Metz joined a forward-looking panel titled “2035: What’s Next?” to explore the technologies and industries shaping California’s innovation future. DART and ChicoStart have an active collaboration MOU, and the event showcased the strength of that partnership and its growing impact across the North Central Valley and the broader Northern California region.

Metz represented DART by spotlighting the expanding Low-Altitude Economy and the wide-ranging opportunities emerging for entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry leaders. He emphasized that rural regions—often overlooked in technology conversations—are becoming ground zero for low-altitude innovation, especially where natural resources, public safety, and climate resilience converge.

Unlocking Opportunity in the Low-Altitude Economy

During the panel discussion, Metz outlined multiple domains where startup innovation can accelerate deployment, improve outcomes, and strengthen rural communities:

🌾 Agriculture & Natural Resources

Entrepreneurs are rapidly developing new drone-based tools and robotics platforms that support:

• precision agriculture
• crop health assessments
• rangeland and forest monitoring
• wildlife habitat mapping

These tools allow land managers and farmers to work smarter, safer, and more sustainably—key priorities for communities across the North State.

🔥 Wildfire Monitoring & Response

Given the increasing intensity of California wildfires, Metz highlighted the urgent need for:

• autonomous early-detection systems
• remote sensing networks
• aerial firefighting support tools
• post-fire watershed and erosion monitoring

These are critical areas where nimble, hardware- and software-driven startups can make a disproportionate impact.

💧 Watershed Health & Water Quality

Metz pointed to watershed-scale monitoring—across rivers, reservoirs, and wetlands—as a fast-growing application area where low-altitude technologies can deliver new insights at lower cost and higher frequency.

🛩 Airspace Management & Navigation Innovations

DART continues to emphasize the need for technologies that enable:

• safer and more predictable low-altitude airspace operations
• autonomy-ready traffic management
• GPS and communications-denied navigation solutions, crucial for wildfire environments, mountainous terrain, and contested or degraded conditions

These core enablers will shape the future of uncrewed aviation, advanced air mobility, and the broader low-altitude ecosystem.

A Panel Rich with Diverse Perspectives

While Metz highlighted opportunities in drones, robotics, and rural airspace technologies, fellow panelists broadened the conversation with insights on:

• Clean energy adoption and regional capacity
• Entrepreneurship programs and faculty innovation pipelines at CSU Chico
• Enabling technology and information system integration across businesses of all scales
• Creative funding and financing solutions for emerging ventures

The combined perspectives painted a vivid picture of a region on the cusp of major entrepreneurial acceleration.

Ponderosa.ai Takes Top Honors

The momentum of the day crystallized during the Startup Story Challenge, where seasoned venture builders and early-stage founders competed in a high-energy pitch session.

The grand prize went to Ponderosa.ai, an autonomous drone fire-suppression company using machine vision and robotics to attack wildland fires at their earliest stages.

Metz noted that Ponderosa.ai’s mission perfectly embodies the promise of the low-altitude economy—leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve urgent challenges in public safety, rural resilience, and climate adaptation.

Looking Ahead

DART extends its appreciation to the ChicoStart team for convening a dynamic festival that reflects the ingenuity and collaborative spirit of California’s heartland. As DART continues to expand partnerships across the state, our collaboration with ChicoStart and North Valley innovators will remain vital to cultivating the next generation of entrepreneurs, technologies, and solutions in the low-altitude economy.

We look forward to continuing this partnership and supporting the breakthroughs emerging from the fertile minds—and fertile ground—of the North State.