Ben Marcus

Helping transform the moving world. Co-Founder and Managing Partner @UPPartnersVC, INTJ

[BETA Technologies @BETA_aircraft]

Live from the sky over Vermont with BETA!

@GMA and @GioBenitez became the first morning show to go live from an electric airplane, aboard ALIA, showing the country the reality of electric flight.

Cargo delivery. Medical missions. Passenger flight. Cheaper and safer for every town in America, big and small. Operations launch in September as part of the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.

America, meet ALIA ⚡️

[Adam Bry @adampbry]

Rockets are hard. Flying robots are harder.

Sensing, compute, and software stack that parallels a self-driving car, but three orders of magnitude smaller in size and weight. Plus the full gamut of aerospace complexity spanning aerodynamics, thermals, vibration. Very high flight volumes, low and close to the ground, in and around obstacles. And you have to fight for every gram.

[Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy]

🚨WATCH: THE FUTURE OF AVIATION IS TAKING OFF🚨

It was an honor to become the first U.S. Transportation Secretary to fly in an eVTOL🇺🇸

Now we’re taking the future of flight to the next level with projects across 26 states that include testing of:

✅ Urban air taxis
✅ Emergency medical flights
✅ Regional travel 

America will WIN the race for the next generation of aviation @BETA_aircraft @FAANews 🦅

[Santa Monica Daily Press (SMDP) @smdailypress]

Flying taxis could be coming to Santa Monica sooner than expected as Joby Aviation explores flights ahead of LA28.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞: https://t.co/Hy3XhzxmKg

#SantaMonica #JobyAviation #LA28 #FutureOfTransportation #AirTaxi #Innovation #SMDP

[Adam Bry @adampbry]

There's no more significant application of AI and robotics than Drone as First Responder, and @LVMPD is doing it at scale: 38 docked X10s, 7,500 flights over the past 90 days, with incredible results. And you know it’s important because @chamath talked about it on the @theallinpod.

[Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy]

Freedom in FLIGHT!

Love to see PATRIOTISM of the new JSX jet take off in celebration of America’s 250th birthday! @flyjsx @Freedom250 🇺🇸✈️

[Skydio @SkydioHQ]

First R10s are in customer hands.

Indoor, confined space, GPS-denied — built for the places flying robots couldn't go (and people shouldn't).

Now shipping ⎆ https://t.co/UtHaYIivY8

[Ben Marcus @FlyingBenji]

@bscholl @flyjsx Now serving Santa Monica!

[Ben Marcus @FlyingBenji]

The 20th century was shaped by the airplane.
Not the semiconductor.
The next phase looks similar:
breakthroughs in the physical world, accelerated by software—not defined by it.
That’s the idea behind The Kinetic Age.

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

Today we're releasing our annual report: The Kinetic Age 2026, formerly The Moving World Report. It’s our most ambitious one yet.

AI is moving beyond the screen and flowing into factories, vehicles, energy grids, defense systems, and national strategies, triggering the largest industrial reorganization since the post-war era, and the biggest single-year capital deployment in the history of capitalism.

This year’s report defines eight forces reshaping the global economy from autonomous transportation equity to America’s race to reindustrialize.

We invite you to use it as a guide and share it with those who may find it as useful as we do.

Welcome to The Kinetic Age.

https://t.co/JNuNXFlhGF

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

Taking flight by turning traffic into air.

@jobyaviation celebrates American innovation and the new Golden Age of Flight with NYC’s first electric air taxi demo from JFK to Manhattan. $JOBY

[Kacey Montoya @kaceymontoya]

Santa Monica residents — do you have a strong opinion about keeping the airport closed or open? Let me know!

[Ben Marcus @FlyingBenji]

What?? You can now buy Bamba at Trader Joe's? Amazing!

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

Feed your babies delicious Bamba snacks to help prevent peanut allergies!

Bamba is actually how they discovered this.

Jewish kids in the UK have 10x peanut allergies as Israeli Jews, they studied it and determined it was bc Israeli kids ate Bambas.

[Rep. Jay Obernolte @JayObernolte]

This week I chaired a Research & Technology Subcommittee hearing on strengthening U.S. leadership in robotics and the rise of “physical AI.” Robotics is already transforming industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics, but China and others are investing aggressively while the U.S. still lacks a national strategy. My bipartisan National Commission on Robotics Act will help ensure America stays competitive and turn innovation into real world results for our workforce and economy.

[Ben Marcus @FlyingBenji]

@bznotes Jay has been a dear friend of mind for 15 years. He's a great guy... we're lucky to have him as a leader in Congress during this AI era.

[Director Michael Kratsios @mkratsios47]

Congrats to @SkydioHQ on committing $3.5 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing and secure American drone dominance!

Under @POTUS’s leadership, we’re building a strong, secure American drone supply chain that protects our national security and keeps the U.S. at the forefront of this critical technology.

[Mark Dubowitz @mdubowitz]

“We are not going to forget it," a senior Emirati official said of the assistance from Israel and Netanyahu at a critical moment.

“It was a real eye-opening moment. To see who our real friends are," the Emirati official said.

[Ben Marcus @FlyingBenji]

@FaceTheNation @jonostrower @margbrennan This surge in fuel prices will lead to record profits for the airlines. They’re going to learn that customers are willing to pay much higher fares. When fuel costs come back down, fares will stay high and margins will be much higher.

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

BREAKING: Skydio Raises $110 Million Series F at a $4.4B Valuation

"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."

CEO Adam Bry (@adampbry) joins Sourcery to share @SkydioHQ's funding process, 9 figures in revenue (!!), commercial scale, military + public safety use cases, & their manufacturing edge at Skydio's Hayward factory.

Skydio is the largest drone factory in the US at scale production.

Skydio by the numbers:
- $110M Series F at $4.4B post money
- 9 figures in annual revenue, strong unit economics
- ~900 employees
- 60,000 autonomous flying robots shipped
- 3.4M+ customer flights
- 3,800+ enterprise customers
- 1,200+ public safety agencies (doubled YoY)
- 45 of 51 state transportation agencies
- Every branch of the US military plus 29 allies
- 11M+ Americans live within 2 miles of a Skydio DFR Dock

In this conversation, we cover:
- Series F and the unit economics behind a $4.4B valuation
- $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, & fundraising in hard tech, this one's for you.

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

[Adam Bry @adampbry]

1/ Skydio has raised $110 million in Series F financing, led by existing investors. This round raises our valuation to $4.4 billion. 🧵

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

The future of air travel has arrived. Today, @SecDuffy announced groundbreaking new airspace software that will modernize America’s skies and dramatically REDUCE delays.

The GOLDEN AGE OF TRAVEL IS HERE! ✈