Taking Off with BoxHero: DroneHub PH's Journey to New Heights
Passion can be the foundation of a successful niche business. Meet Andre Patrick Martinez, founder of DroneHub Philippines, who transformed his love for drones and the exhilarating world of FPV (First-Person View) drone racing into a profitable venture. By catering to fellow enthusiasts and their specialized equipment needs, he built a business rooted in innovation and community. But with growth came challenges—managing a vast inventory of custom-built drone components.
Discover how Andre tackled the hurdles in his inventory and why he ultimately turned to BoxHero to streamline his stock management.
The Starting Line: From a Hobbyist to Business Owner
Drone racing is an adrenaline-pumping sport where pilots compete to fly high-speed drones through challenging obstacle courses as fast as possible. Pilots wear FPV goggles, which stream a real-time video feed from their drone’s camera, making them feel like they’re inside the cockpit as they navigate tight turns, LED gates, and sharp dives. Unlike standard camera drones, racing drones are custom-built for speed, agility, and durability. The fastest, most precise pilot wins the race.
Andre has been part of this thrilling world for years. In fact, in 2019, he nabbed the 1st place award (B-Main) at the Dinagat Islands Transtec Kwad International Night Racing in Agusan del Norte, Philippines, an event that drew drone racing pilots from around the world.
What started as a hobby soon evolved into a business with the launch of DroneHub PH. Andre shared that they recently opened their Shopee store and are looking to launch a website on Shopify to expand their reach.
Beyond selling drone components (such as propellers, radio control, and frame) DroneHub PH also offers custom-built drones for customers who need ready-to-fly setups. Recently, they expanded into B2B partnerships, working with schools to provide STEM kits and integrate drone technology into engineering and science courses.
Inventory Challenges: The Hidden Complexity of the Drone Business
There’s an old saying, "Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life." But in reality, even a passion-driven business isn’t free from challenges—especially when it comes to inventory management.
The drone business involves handling a vast array of components, each varying in size, type, and function. Managing these diverse items manually quickly became an exhausting task for Andre. He recalled how using Excel and Google Sheets to track inventory turned into a complicated and time-consuming process.
“We had so many SKUs, and they’re very small, with slight variations that aren’t obvious at first glance. With the naked eye, they all look similar, but each product has different variants. Even when I tried tracking my inventory through spreadsheets, I found it lacking—the process was just too slow,” Andre explained.
As he navigated his first real business handling inventory, Andre quickly realized how messy and inefficient manual stock management could be, especially when dealing with tiny yet expensive components. Without a proper tracking system, even misplacing a single item could result in significant loss.
“One small thing—like this ballpen, for example—could be even smaller but cost around 3,000 pesos. If I misplace that one component, I’m already at a major disadvantage. That’s 3,000 pesos gone.”
Finding the Right Solution: Journey to Discovering BoxHero
Determined to improve his system, Andre started testing inventory management apps, trying the first four or five that appeared in his Google search. Interestingly, BoxHero wasn’t among them at first—but when he finally came across it, he realized it was exactly what he needed.
“It was easy looking at the dashboard to see what was out of stock and what was not,” Andre added.
Q: What sets BoxHero apart from all the inventory apps you tried that made you ultimately choose it?
A: “I was happy to find BoxHero because I think it worked best for me. The other apps I tried were more of an all-in-one solution with sales tracking, POS, CRM, and other features.
While those were great, when it came to inventory tracking alone—which was my main priority at the time—they didn’t perform as well as I needed.
BoxHero, on the other hand, allowed me to input as many SKUs as I needed without restrictions, unlike the other platforms that capped product uploads. Even though those were fully integrated solutions, they didn’t fit my primary requirement: inventory tracking.”
The Winning Factors: Transaction Review and Multi-Location Tracking
For Andre, one of the biggest drawbacks of using Excel sheets was the difficulty of backtracking and modifying inventory records. Human errors were common, and correcting them was a tedious process. With BoxHero’s Transactions feature, he could easily review the inventory activity, including stock-in and stock-out records, and correct any errors in item or transaction details.
Apart from managing inventory from his store, his team still actively participates in drone racing events and activities. This is where BoxHero’s Location tracking feature proved invaluable. The ability to transfer specific SKUs to different locations allowed him to manage stock more flexibly.
Instead of manually sorting through inventory, we can simply decide, ‘Let’s bring five flight controllers and 10 motors,’ and transfer them to what I call my ‘mobile warehouse.’ That’s just how I refer to it."
Andre also emphasized that BoxHero has helped him learn the ropes of proper inventory management—even through a mobile app. This, he noted, has been a significant improvement in running his business.
“The organization part was such a big thing for me because it has helped me see my inventory in one glance.”
As DroneHub PH expands into Shopify and other marketplaces, Andre is eager to explore new and upcoming features in BoxHero that will further improve his inventory management and business operations.
Gearing to Expand: Inventory and Beyond
What started as an interest for FPV drones became DroneHub PH, a business that serves fellow enthusiasts and professionals alike. While the journey has been exciting, managing a vast inventory of small yet high-value components became a challenge for the organization. Switching to BoxHero provided DroneHub PH with a simple, efficient solution to keep track of stock and reduce inventory errors.
Much like drones give operators a bird’s-eye view, BoxHero offers businesses a clear, real-time snapshot of their inventory. Whether you need to manage stock across multiple locations or keep up with fast-moving sales, BoxHero helps you stay organized and in control.
Looking for a smarter way to manage inventory? Try BoxHero for free today.
Explore our user guide for a complete feature walkthrough, or check out other customer testimonials to see how over 200,000+ users are optimizing their operations with BoxHero.
