Q&A Interview: Trik founder and CEO Pae Natwilai

In-Depth

Pae Natwilai is an engineer, designer and entrepreneur who first cut her teeth in the energy sector. In 2015 she founded Trik, a drone mapping and reporting software company for large infrastructure. Trik has since raised more than £600,000 in funding from Innovate UK, the Department for Transport, Ordnance Survey’s Geovation Program, the Royal Academy of Engineering and private investors. Earlier this year Pae appeared in Forbes' 30 under 30. The Engineer caught up with her to find out more about Trik and the skills that have helped Pae on her journey. 

Firstly PAE, can you tell us a bit about your background?

Having completed a BEng. in Mechanical and Robotic Engineering at Chulalongkorn University in my native Thailand, I started my career as an inspection and maintenance engineer at the Thai national oil and gas company, PTTEP, before winning a scholarship to study an MA/MSc in Global Innovation Design at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art (RCA).

trik

When and how did the idea for Trik first emerge?

Trik was born from my experience as a project engineer in the oil and gas sector in Thailand, assessing the safety and maintenance of massive, inaccessible structures and machines, for example, oil rigs out at sea. We’d have to send in people on helicopters, or erect huge amounts of scaffolding to perform vital structural checks. I saw the potential for drones to have a huge impact upon the construction and infrastructure industries, and Trik is the answer!

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