Local 22-Year-old Entrepreneur Provides Career Advice

Last Saturday (February 11), 22-year-old Trent Siggard spoke at his former school, Santa Susana Magnet High School, about technology and careers. Trent was born in Thousand Oaks and attended elementary and middle schools in Westlake Village and Agoura. At the age of 13, he started his career in photography finding jobs on Craigslist, and once he turned 14 worked for the Thousand Oaks Teen Center and Gary West Productions.

While working at the Teen Center, he proposed to the city that they get the latest technology, a drone, so he could do aerial photography as well. That started a new phase to Trent’s career. Trent learned how to maintain the drone, and worked with Dronefly flying and selling drones in the Thousand Oaks mall and helping them develop a customer service department. Eventually, Trent worked with Drone Dudes in Venice filming concerts, advertisements, and feature films.

After purchasing one of their electric skateboards, Trent connected with the President of Yuneec, a manufacturer of drones, electric planes, and skateboards. Trent contacted him, and was invited to an interview: film himself and the President riding electric skateboards in Venice. Afterwards, Trent was invited aboard the President’s helicopter for a nighttime tour of Los Angeles. Trent did some work for Yuneec, and eventually Trent proposed to the President the idea for a “selfie drone.” After just 5 minutes, Trent was invited to come to China to help design, build, and market what eventually became known as the Breeze, which became one of the best-selling drones in 2016.

In Trent’s presentation, he showed video he filmed along his journey, documentaries that interviewed Trent, as well as the drone backdrop to the Super Bowl’s half-time performance using drones from Yuneec’s partner, Intel. Trent encouraged students to follow their dreams and put in the work and take advantage of opportunities to achieve greatness.