Rust Belt Startup, 326 Broad Street Suite 1, Utica, NY (2026)

03/17/2026

The Power of Eliminating Debt for Entrepreneurs:

Excerpt from: The Top Secret Drone Company Hiding In Plain Sight | Justin Call - Modovolo

What if one of the most interesting startups in New York is being built quietly in a barn in Vernon?

In this episode of Rust Belt Startup, I sit down with Justin Call, co-founder and CEO of Modovolo, a company designing a new kind of drone — and doing it far from the typical startup scene.
Check it out at https://rustbeltstartup.com/2026/03/11/the-top-secret-drone-company-hiding-in-plain-sight-justin-call-modovolo/
or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (yes, even YouTube).

03/15/2026

The Gap Between Impossible and Hard

Excerpt from: The Top Secret Drone Company Hiding In Plain Sight | Justin Call - Modovolo

What if one of the most interesting startups in New York is being built quietly in a barn in Vernon?

In this episode of Rust Belt Startup, I sit down with Justin Call, co-founder and CEO of Modovolo, a company designing a new kind of drone — and doing it far from the typical startup scene.

Instead of chasing hype or venture capital headlines, Justin and his team have been focused on something much harder: patiently building a real company, solving real problems, and learning what it takes to bring a complex idea to life.
In our conversation, Justin shares the story behind Modovolo — how the company got started, why they chose a very different approach to designing drones, and what it’s like to build a startup in a small community in Upstate New York.
We also talk about some of the lessons entrepreneurs can take from his journey, including:
• Why staying focused matters more than trying to grow too fast
• What it’s really like to build a product that has to work in the real world
• The importance of patience when you’re building something new
• Why great companies can be built outside Silicon Valley
• And how small teams can quietly do big things
This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how startups actually get built — not just the highlight reel.
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, building things from scratch, or the future of innovation in places like Upstate New York, this conversation is for you.

Check it out at https://rustbeltstartup.com/2026/03/11/the-top-secret-drone-company-hiding-in-plain-sight-justin-call-modovolo/
or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (yes, even YouTube).

03/15/2026

The Value of Failure -

Excerpt from: The Top Secret Drone Company Hiding In Plain Sight | Justin Call - Modovolo

What if one of the most interesting startups in New York is being built quietly in a barn in Vernon?

In this episode of Rust Belt Startup, I sit down with Justin Call, co-founder and CEO of Modovolo, a company designing a new kind of drone — and doing it far from the typical startup scene.

Instead of chasing hype or venture capital headlines, Justin and his team have been focused on something much harder: patiently building a real company, solving real problems, and learning what it takes to bring a complex idea to life.
In our conversation, Justin shares the story behind Modovolo — how the company got started, why they chose a very different approach to designing drones, and what it’s like to build a startup in a small community in Upstate New York.
We also talk about some of the lessons entrepreneurs can take from his journey, including:
• Why staying focused matters more than trying to grow too fast
• What it’s really like to build a product that has to work in the real world
• The importance of patience when you’re building something new
• Why great companies can be built outside Silicon Valley
• And how small teams can quietly do big things
This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how startups actually get built — not just the highlight reel.
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, building things from scratch, or the future of innovation in places like Upstate New York, this conversation is for you.

Check it out at https://rustbeltstartup.com/2026/03/11/the-top-secret-drone-company-hiding-in-plain-sight-justin-call-modovolo/
or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (yes, even YouTube).

03/13/2026

The Art of Building Investor Relationships -
Excerpt from: The Top Secret Drone Company Hiding In Plain Sight | Justin Call - Modovolo

What if one of the most interesting startups in New York is being built quietly in a barn in Vernon?

In this episode of Rust Belt Startup, I sit down with Justin Call, co-founder and CEO of Modovolo, a company designing a new kind of drone — and doing it far from the typical startup scene.

Instead of chasing hype or venture capital headlines, Justin and his team have been focused on something much harder: patiently building a real company, solving real problems, and learning what it takes to bring a complex idea to life.
In our conversation, Justin shares the story behind Modovolo — how the company got started, why they chose a very different approach to designing drones, and what it’s like to build a startup in a small community in Upstate New York.
We also talk about some of the lessons entrepreneurs can take from his journey, including:
• Why staying focused matters more than trying to grow too fast
• What it’s really like to build a product that has to work in the real world
• The importance of patience when you’re building something new
• Why great companies can be built outside Silicon Valley
• And how small teams can quietly do big things
This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how startups actually get built — not just the highlight reel.
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, building things from scratch, or the future of innovation in places like Upstate New York, this conversation is for you.

Check it out at https://rustbeltstartup.com/2026/03/11/the-top-secret-drone-company-hiding-in-plain-sight-justin-call-modovolo/
or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (yes, even YouTube).

03/12/2026

What if one of the most interesting startups in New York is being built quietly in a barn in Vernon?

In this episode of Rust Belt Startup, I sit down with Justin Call, co-founder and CEO of Modovolo, a company designing a new kind of drone — and doing it far from the typical startup scene.

Instead of chasing hype or venture capital headlines, Justin and his team have been focused on something much harder: patiently building a real company, solving real problems, and learning what it takes to bring a complex idea to life.
In our conversation, Justin shares the story behind Modovolo — how the company got started, why they chose a very different approach to designing drones, and what it’s like to build a startup in a small community in Upstate New York.
We also talk about some of the lessons entrepreneurs can take from his journey, including:
• Why staying focused matters more than trying to grow too fast
• What it’s really like to build a product that has to work in the real world
• The importance of patience when you’re building something new
• Why great companies can be built outside Silicon Valley
• And how small teams can quietly do big things
This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how startups actually get built — not just the highlight reel.
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, building things from scratch, or the future of innovation in places like Upstate New York, this conversation is for you.

Check it out at https://rustbeltstartup.com/2026/03/11/the-top-secret-drone-company-hiding-in-plain-sight-justin-call-modovolo/
or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (yes, even YouTube).

02/20/2026

The Civil War Prison Break Tool Hiding in Plain Sight - an excerpt from an amazing conversation with Max Smith

So what you’re about to hear. Is the story of how the abolitionist movement functioned in many ways, like an early startup, so a small group of people that had an idea that was considered radical, dangerous, and disruptive, and the epicenters of that abolitionist movement. it wasn’t Boston or Washington.

it was right here in upstate New York. The story starts with the drunken mob shutting down an abolitionist meeting in Utica and how that meeting was reborn the next day in Peterborough. And hundreds of people walked miles overnight to continue that work, and those choices sent ripples across the country that still shape our politics today.

Now Max walks us through the life of Gerrit Smith, whom I’m sure you’ve probably never heard of. I’ve never heard of him, but he was one of the wealthiest men in America in the 18 hundreds. And after this event, he started giving away his fortune to fund abolition, women’s suffrage and civil rights. He was hosting Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and formerly enslaved people at his own dinner table, and his mansion in Peterborough became one of the stops on the Underground Railroad.

This is also a deeply personal story for Max. It’s one that connects his own family lineage directly to the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and the long arc of freedom in this country. So if you care about how change actually happens and how movements are built, how courage, community, and conviction scale over time.

02/16/2026

Hi everyone - every once in a while when you do a podcast you feel like you've captured something really special and this is one of those times. If you've never taken the time to listen to one of my podcasts, I'd invite you to start today. I promise you that you've never heard a story like this.

What you’re about to hear is the story of how the abolitionist movement functioned, in many ways, like an early startup: a small group of people with an idea that was considered radical, dangerous, and disruptive…

And one of the epicenters of that movement wasn’t Boston or Washington—it was right here in Upstate New York.

It’s not a startup story in the way we usually tell them.
But it might be the most powerful one I've ever gotten to share.

My guest is Max Smith, a historian, storyteller, and lifelong steward of the history of Peterboro, New York—a tiny village in Madison County that most people have never heard of, but that quietly shaped the course of American history.

Watch on YouTube or on my website - or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

02/12/2026

Excerpt from: What Upstate New York Can Learn from Upstate Sweden | Zack Schuman

In this episode, I’m joined by Zack Schuman, a public affairs scholar at Hamilton College, to explore what he learned after spending a full year living and researching in Sweden with his family.

Zack’s research focuses on how communities actually work — especially in rural and peripheral regions — and how entrepreneurship, institutions, and culture shape economic life outside major metro areas. While in Sweden, he studied how small regions support lifestyle businesses and social enterprises, how immigration reshapes local economies, and why quality of life often takes precedence over high-growth startup culture.

This conversation dives into:
• Why Sweden isn’t built around “unicorn” startups — and why that matters
• How social safety nets change the way people think about risk and entrepreneurship
• The role of universities as anchor institutions in small and rural regions
• Immigration, diversity, and the creativity required to deliver social services
• The difference between being welcomed and truly belonging
• What it means to leave community work — and return with new perspective

This isn’t a conversation about copying Sweden’s model wholesale. It’s about asking better questions:
What makes a place work?
Who gets to participate?
And how do small businesses, institutions, and people quietly build culture over time?

If you care about community development, entrepreneurship outside big cities, higher education, or the future of places like Upstate New York, this episode will give you a lot to think about.

Check out the full conversation on YouTube or at www.rustbeltstartup.com/thepodcast or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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