The right time
The company was founded in France 13 years ago and quickly expanded to other parts of the world – including the UK, Japan, Germany and the US.
Guyroud’s background is in aerospace engineering and military technology. After graduating university, he worked in the aerospace and defense industries, including the European Space Program – Aria. After years in the industry, Gayraud decided to get an MBA, which helped me learn a lot about how to manage a company, and start a business.
Later in his career, he worked with camera-based applications for military purposes – which is where he met his business partner, Patrick Mansui (President and Co-Founder of Blackstar). “Getting that experience, and getting my MBA, was essential to gaining the confidence to take the risk and start a new adventure with my partner, Patrick.”
Together, they started thinking about the project that would become Blackstar in 2007. They wanted to put the technology they were working on for the military to a different use, to use artificial intelligence to protect people in the field – “we thought. Now is the right time to use artificial intelligence to provide an efficient way to protect pedestrians around trucks.
Gayrad says that the timing was right for two reasons – one, the algorithms were starting to perform well, and two, the hardware on the market made it possible for industrial companies to buy it.
