In 2015, José shifted gears from a background in engineering to marketing and started a Coimbra-based Drone company called Sleeklab. This company sold hardware to clients seeking to use drones in their advertising and daily operations and famously pitched to Shark Tank Portugal. Now, as a full-time consultant for the drone industry, José has founded with his girlfriend Ana Rocha a company called Brains Are Nuts. This company offers training for town halls, big industry, and beyond, and came into being after many years of experience in drone technology. But you may know him as a partner of IPBN member company F#*ckingAmazing. 

José’s background ranges from media content and training camps to video and photo production, and later evolved into mapping solutions. Under the Sleeklab moniker, José and his team developed various tools for different projects including innovative solutions for firefighters. Alongside, he also launched the media brand for video production, RXLStudio.com.

He and his team at RXLStudio created a promotional video “Coimbra, the right place…” for the city of Coimbra, commissioned by the Coimbra Town Hall, and just won first place in the ‘National Competition – Tourist Destinations: Cities’ category at the 17th Art & Tur International Tourism Awards.

Aside from his love of marketing, José told the IPBN, “My main focus right now is on drones. I provide training on deploying drones for several companies’ daily operations. It's been an exciting challenge because industries rely on capturing all kinds of data sets. I'm working now with the company CIMPOR, which has been an amazing challenge because they didn't have a single drone at their cement production operation, and now they have two that do all kinds of data collection regarding infrastructure development."

As if all these projects are not enough to keep someone busy for years at a time, José is also starting to do consultancy for the Portuguese company Beyond Vision, which strives to set new benchmarks in optimizing surveillance for enhanced performance, safety, and efficiency. Their sustainable and advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and innovative AI solutions pave the way for autonomous flights, revolutionizing the industry.  

José said, “What I aim to do with them in 2025 is to expand some of their markets, especially in Ireland. I believe that a company like Beyond Vision, in the near future, has the potential for exponential growth and could become an important player in deploying hardware for the Irish government and military.” He continued, “The company is really pushing the boundaries of what can be done with a drone.”

But that’s not where José’s expertise ends. He is also working as a consultant for DJI Agriculture, which provides intelligent solutions through drone technology, facilitating agricultural innovation and development on a global scale. All this under the ADN Smart Farming brand. At present, DJI has successfully released a wide array of crop protection drones and has also introduced a dedicated software called the DJI Agriculture Data Management Platform. With tools servicing over 30 countries in multiple regions, the company has empowered over 10 million professionals with intelligent farming solutions. 

Jose explained, “What these drones can do is amazing. You have smaller drones that can capture data like a small satellite so you can see the terrain in real-time: see the state of the plants and assess if it has enough water or if it carries any diseases. With special sensors you can understand how the crops are emerging and then you can use larger drones to effectively spray them with specific amounts of product - so you can have better crops, use less products, less water, and have better outcomes. Last Saturday, I spread 3 hectares of seeds for a cow pasture in 30 minutes.” 

These technologies will certainly be the future of global agriculture and perhaps beyond. José said, “This is a technology that is not going anywhere. It's going to evolve and evolve, not just with flying drones but with rovers (wheeled drones) and more. When people see how it works, they will understand the benefits and the potential immediately.”