In 2007, when Dave Kroetsch co-founded Aeryon Labs Inc., most people lumped drones into two categories.

“There were RC helicopters in the hobby stores, and drones that dropped bombs on the other side of the world,” says Kroetsch, Aeryon’s CEO. He and his co-founders, Mike Peasgood and Steffen Linder, saw potential in another category: A flying tool that takes pictures to make tasks safer, more efficient and cost-effective.

That was a tough sell for potential customers who associated drones with toys or weapons, or hadn’t even heard of them. But thanks to a user-friendly, resilient design, Aeryon’s drones have flown in 35 countries for an array of jobs in the “three D’s” category—dull, dirty and dangerous. That includes assisting the Manchester Fire Department in the United Kingdom, rescue workers for Nepal’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake, and cleanup efforts for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.