I’m Mark Sarojak, the Founder and CEO of GeoNeo LLC. With more than two decades in the geospatial industry, I’ve worked at the intersection of data, software engineering and real-world problem solving.
During my professional career, I’ve helped to lead the development of advanced analysis tools for the defense, intelligence and first responder communities.
Over that time, I’ve seen how powerful geospatial imagery and analytics can be when they’re made accessible and actionable in the right hands.
Mark Sarojak
On a personal level, my family and I relocated a few years ago to Northern Nevada, more than 500 miles from our previous home in Southern California—which we still own.
The risks and impacts of wildfire are deeply personal to us. During our years in Southern California, we watched as friends and neighbors tragically lost their homes to wildfires.
Now, living full-time in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), we continue to feel that same threat every season.
At the same time, we’ve often felt disconnected from what’s happening on and around our SoCal property, especially during fire season.
That distance creates a persistent sense of uncertainty and unease; not exactly the peace of mind you want when it comes to a major investment.
Now, as the Founder and CEO of GeoNeo LLC, these personal and professional experiences have inspired me to create FlyBy, an online platform that combines high-resolution aerial imagery with AI-powered analytics to help people monitor their properties and stay informed about changing risks.
What began as a personal tool to stay visually connected to our own property has evolved into a scalable commercial solution with broader implications for wildfire preparation.
Now geospatial imagery and AI can empower not only fire agencies, but also everyday homeowners to protect what matters most.
Mark Sarojak
Wildfires are increasing in intensity, frequency and unpredictability across the United States. Entire regions are experiencing longer fire seasons, faster-moving flames and greater destruction.
Especially in areas where development meets wildland, known as the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI).
Protecting communities from wildfire is not the responsibility of firefighters alone. We must work together- homeowners, public agencies and private organizations, to leverage every tool in the toolbox.
Among the most promising of these tools are geospatial imagery (photographs and sensor data captured from above) and artificial intelligence (AI) that can interpret that data quickly and at scale.
These tools are not just for agencies and experts. Increasingly, they’re becoming accessible to everyday people, enabling individuals to proactively assess and manage wildfire risk on their own properties.
Geospatial imagery refers to visuals captured from satellites, aircraft or drones. These “eyes in the sky” provide up-to-date views of terrain, vegetation, structures and roads.
Mark Sarojak
Traditionally, this type of data was difficult to access and use- locked away in specialized systems or costly enterprise tools. But that’s changing fast.
Today, aerial imagery is becoming more accessible and easier to use. Intuitive online tools let users zoom in on a neighborhood or a specific property to identify risks that are hard to spot from the ground.
This matters enormously in the WUI, where homes and fuel sources often sit side by side. With high-resolution imagery, it’s possible to see brush or overgrown vegetation near homes, trees hanging over roofs, narrow driveways that may block emergency vehicle access, and fuel build-up over time.
Beyond visible imagery, some aerial platforms now carry specialized sensors that detect vegetation health, moisture content, and stress levels.
These indicators are useful for identifying areas with dry, flammable fuel before it becomes dangerous. Combined with traditional visuals, this offers a much fuller picture of fire risk.
We’re starting to see very distinct patterns emerge around vegetation encroachment and property vulnerability.
For example, in high-risk zones, overgrowth near structures is often cyclical- landscaping is cleaned up in spring but regrows quickly, often going unnoticed during dry summer months. Aerial imagery reveals this seasonal lapse with striking clarity.
Additionally, we’re seeing patterns where certain neighborhoods, especially those near wildland-urban interfaces, have inconsistent defensible space practices, even within a single community.
These visual insights help identify not just high-risk properties, but systemic gaps in preparedness that might not be obvious from the ground or from annual inspections alone.
Mark Sarojak
Our tools help in two ways: preventative maintenance and emergency planning.
Property managers and property owners can use the data to prioritize vegetation management, identify structural vulnerabilities and verify that vendors are maintaining fire-prone areas appropriately.
We’re now integrating these tools into risk reports and automated alerts that monitor and notify stakeholders about changes over time. For instance, when defensible space degrades or an unreported structure appears.
Public agencies and community groups are also starting to use these insights to inform evacuation route assessments and resilience planning at the neighborhood scale.
Seeing the full property and landscape context from above allows them to visualize scenarios that ground-based surveys might miss.
The most consistent feedback is that aerial monitoring brings peace of mind, especially when access to properties is limited, expensive or dangerous.
Users appreciate being able to see their property risks evolve over time, rather than relying solely on static reports or checklists.
We’ve also heard that the image-based reports are incredibly useful for communicating with tenants, board members, or contractors. The visual evidence often leads to faster action, particularly when justifying budgets for mitigation work.
What role do you see this technology playing in community-level wildfire preparedness over the next few years?
We believe this technology will become a foundational layer of proactive wildfire resilience. Just as satellite and weather data revolutionized forecasting, we think high-frequency aerial monitoring will become routine in fire-prone communities.
At the community level, this tech enables a shift from reactive response to proactive maintenance. If agencies and HOAs can visualize changes across entire neighborhoods, they can target outreach and coordinate mitigation work with greater efficiency.
We’d like to see FlyBy evolve into an early warning system that alerts not only to natural wildfire hazards, like dry vegetation and weather conditions, but also to vulnerabilities in the built environment.
Mark Sarojak
This includes factors such as how close buildings are to vegetation and other buildings, the condition of roofs and other property features that can influence wildfire spread and damage.
This comprehensive perspective will help communities prepare more effectively and reduce wildfire impacts on both landscapes and homes.
