Grace Dahlstrom

Grace Dahlstrom is Chief of Staff at Apellix, a Jacksonville, Florida-based manufacturer of autonomous drones that clean, coat, and inspect the world's most dangerous structures — so people don't have to. In a role that spans marketing, business development, HR, and government strategy, Grace has helped scale Apellix, and the Apellix Power Wash Drone is the most widely deployed commercial cleaning drone worldwide, with active operators in 21 countries and 5 continents as of mid-2026. Grace writes about the realities of scaling a hardware startup, wearing many hats in a small team, and competing as a 100% American-made manufacturer in a global industry.