Hiring, talent sources, and candidate traits

Skydio announces $110M Series F at a $4.4B post-money valuation. CEO Adam Bry joins Sourcery to share Skydio’s funding process, commercial progress, & manufacturing edge at Skydio's Hayward factory. Skydio is the largest drone factory in the US at scale production.

"The most significant fact in our Series F is how little we are raising. Despite investor demand to put substantially more into the company… our capital needs are rapidly decreasing." – Adam Bry

In this conversation:

• $50M, 3,000 drone US Army contract and tripling production in 2026

• R10 indoor drone and F10 fixed wing

• Turning down DJI's acquisition offer in 2014

• Getting sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2024

• Drone as First Responder: Public Safety customers in 42/50 states, 42% auto theft reduction in SF

• Built a China independent supply chain & US manufacturing at scale

• Flying agentic AI & the future of autonomous robotics

• Adam's hottest take on the robotics hype cycle

If you're interested in reindustrializing America, drones, AI, robotics, and fundraising in hard tech, this one's for you.

Adam Bry: https://x.com/adampbry

Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 

Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com

• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery

• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery

• Merge—The leading provider of customer-facing integrations and agentic tools for frontier LLMs, Fortune 500 organizations, and B2B SaaS companies. Visit https://merge.dev 

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

Disclosure

Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Adam Bry, CEO of Skydio

(00:54) Inside Skydio Factory

(01:31) Series F & Scaling

(03:17) Customers And Growth

(04:10) Origins & Reliability

(08:04) Civilian Missions Focus

(09:19) Drones For Public Safety

(12:29) Edge Compute & Partners

(14:20) Expanding Drone Lineup

(17:10) Beating China & DJI

(19:34) US Supply Chain Resilience

(21:33) Reindustrialization Timeline

(22:35) Hiring & Leadership

(27:12) AI Agentic Drones

(30:08) Metrics & Operating Model

(31:49) Hottest Take And Advice