The history of SkyDrill is really not about a company; it’s about relationships and desires.  Relationships that were formed based on common interests, and desires born out of fierce independence.

Before there was SkyDrill, there was Barry Sterling.  Barry worked at an air quality monitoring company, performing air sampling, data analysis, and writing opinion papers.  Barry and his employer decided to diversify their business, so they started investigating avenues that fit well with their core business.  An inquiry from a trade show led them to entertain a joint venture with another company.  The deal involved a manufacturing and distribution agreement with a foreign wind turbine company who was looking to establish a presence in the U.S.  Upon completion of initial negotiations, Barry brought Tom Dickerson in to assist with the detailed agreement.  Barry had met Tom several years earlier at church and knew that Tom was always evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities.  During the due diligence phase, however, Barry and Tom discovered that the foreign company had significantly misrepresented their portfolio, and the deal fell through.  Barry’s employer decided to continue pursuing their goal of building wind turbines and engaged in several meetings with potential investors.

After several investor meetings resulted in no funding, Barry’s employer re-focused their efforts on their core business and abandoned the wind energy project.  Barry and Tom, however, never lost their desire.  Rather than accept defeat, they decided to continue pursuing the project and the acquisition of funds, working nights and weekends to develop a business plan and prototype design.  SkyDrill was formed.  However, it became clear that this project would not come to fruition with part-time effort, so Barry decided to take a massive leap of faith and leave his employer to work on the SkyDrill effort full-time.  By this time Barry had engaged his long-time friend Mike Wallace, who lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as Patrick Nolan whom he had met through Mike.  It was through Mike that Barry made the contacts that led him to SkyDrill’s initial investor, Holt Hickman.  After hearing Barry’s sales pitch, Holt entered into negotiations to finance SkyDrill.  During this time, Barry secured the sponsorship of TECH Fort Worth, a business incubator and acquired office space through them.  Also during this time, Kevin Tolson, another contact through Mike Wallace, was added to the team as the financial administrator.

Commuting between Austin and Fort Worth was starting to take its toll on Barry and his family, especially since the talks with Mr. Hickman had stalled.  Finances were also getting extremely low, and Barry was starting to think about alternative plans to provide for his family should SkyDrill not get funded.  The team, who all had full-time jobs, was starting to wonder if this was God’s plan for them as well.  It was at this low time that Barry was able to reach a breakthrough in negotiations with Mr. Hickman, a deal was agreed to in principle which eventually led to SkyDrill receiving its first infusion of funds in March 2008.  The team was finally able to come on-board in April 2008.