Adam Bry

Adam Bry has worked with small unmanned aircraft for about two decades, starting as a national champion radio-controlled airplane pilot. He earned a BS from Olin College and an MS from MIT, where he was part of a research program that pioneered autonomous drone flight; in 2009 he met Abe Bachrach, a fellow MIT graduate student.⁠[1]

Bry co-founded Google[x]’s Project Wing, has authored numerous technical papers and patents, and was named to MIT’s TR35 list of young innovators.⁠[1]

In 2014 Bry and Abe Bachrach co-founded the drone company Skydio; the company is headquartered in San Mateo, California, where Bry is chief executive officer and Bachrach chief technology officer.⁠[1]

On February 22, 2018, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) released the episode “a16z Podcast: The Self-Flying Camera,” in which Bry, as co-founder and CEO of Skydio, spoke with a16z’s Chris DixonChris DixonChris Dixon is a programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, and the founder and managing partner of a16z crypto. He co-founded SiteAdvisor and Hunch, helped create Founder Collective, and later joined Andreessen Horowitz, investing in technology companies such as Coinbase. He is also the author of Read Write Own and has long written about blockchains, network ownership, the open internet, and the combination of AI and crypto.Open the full entry in a conversation led by Hanne Tidnam.⁠[2][3]

The episode covered the evolution of the technology behind autonomous small commercial drones (a self-flying camera), how such a drone works from propellers to perception, the experience of using a drone that follows its user, how autonomous drones differ from autonomous cars, and how interactions with computers may change as AI becomes more prevalent. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[2][3]

On February 6, 2023, a16z published the video “AI & The Future of Modern Warfare” on its YouTube channel, in which Bry, as co-founder and CEO of Skydio, spoke with Brian SchimpfBrian SchimpfBrian Schimpf is co-founder and chief executive officer of the U.S. defense technology company Anduril Industries. A Cornell University graduate, he spent nearly a decade at Palantir, where as director of engineering he led the teams that built the Foundry platform.Open the full entry, co-founder and CEO of Anduril IndustriesAnduril IndustriesAnduril Industries is a defense technology company headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, United States, co-founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey and several former Palantir and Oculus employees. It develops autonomous drones, unmanned undersea vehicles, border surveillance towers, counter-drone systems, and the Lattice command-and-control software, and builds its own large-scale weapons manufacturing facilities. As of May 2026, the company was valued at $61 billion.Open the full entry, and Brandon TsengBrandon TsengBrandon Tseng is an American entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL who co-founded the defense technology company Shield AI with his brother Ryan Tseng and others in 2015 and serves as its president.Open the full entry, co-founder and president of Shield AI, about how their companies apply artificial intelligence in defense, where its use could expand, and how software companies and defense customers can best work together.⁠[4]

On April 9, 2025, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) released “The Future of Drone Warfare,” recorded live at the third annual a16z American Dynamism Summit and led by Matt Cronin, a16z’s senior national security advisor, with Bry appearing alongside Ryan Tseng, co-founder and CEO of Shield AI; on April 11, 2025, the conversation was uploaded to the a16z YouTube channel as “Drone Warfare: The New Rules of Combat Are Here.”⁠[5][6]

The conversation covered how drones are reshaping battlefields in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere, the cost asymmetry of inexpensive drones attacking expensive armor, why U.S. drone production trails China’s and how to close the gap, ethical and tactical questions about autonomy in combat, and U.S. reindustrialization and deterrence.⁠[6]

Skydio: Official website: https://www.skydio.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]