Brett Adcock

Brett Adcock (born April 6, 1986) is an American technology entrepreneur^[6] and billionaire^[7] who is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Figure AI.^[8][9][10] In 2018, Adcock founded Archer Aviation,^{[11][12][13][14]} five years after he started Vettery.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} In 2023, he established Cover.^[5] As of June 2024, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$1.4 billion.^[20][21]

Brett Adcock
Adcock in 2022
Born	(1986-04-06) April 6, 1986 (age 39) Moweaqua, Illinois, U.S.
Education	University of Florida
Occupation	Technology entrepreneur
Years active	2008–present
Known for	Founder of Archer Aviation,[1][2] Vettery,[3] Figure AI,[4] and Cover[5]
Title	CEO at Figure AI
Children	3
Website	brettadcock.com

Early life and education

Adcock was raised on his family's farm outside Moweaqua, Illinois. At the age of sixteen, Adcock began working on web companies, which included an e-commerce site focused on outdoor electronics and a content site called Street of Walls. He subsequently graduated as the valedictorian of Central A&M High School.^[22]

Initially majoring in engineering, Adcock then studied at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 2008.^[22][3]

Career

In 2013, Adcock founded Vettery (which later became known as Hired), a talent marketplace that matched job seekers with employers who needed technical expertise.^[15] In 2018, the Adecco Group bought Vettery for $100 million. The same year, Adcock started eVTOL company Archer Aviation. In 2022 he founded Figure, an AI startup based in Sunnyvale that is working on a general-purpose humanoid robot.^[8][23] Adcock assembled Figure's team from people working at Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Google DeepMind and Apple.^[22][24] Adcock opines that the creation of humanoid robots will mitigate labor shortages.^[24]

Vettery

In 2013, Brett Adcock founded the online recruiting marketplace Vettery.^[25] Vettery came out of stealth in 2015 and its clients included Jet, Casper, Etsy, Blue Apron and Percolate.^[26] Vettery was started out of NYU's Varick Street Incubator.^[27] As of 2017, Vettery has raised $12 million in venture backed funding led by Greycroft Investors, Raine Ventures, and Pritzker Venture Capital.^[26][28][25] In February 2018, The Adecco Group acquired Vettery to use their technology in advancement of digital strategy.^[29]

Archer Aviation

In October 2018, Adcock founded electric aircraft company Archer Aviation.^[30] Archer was originally started with a research grant from Adcock at the University of Florida and ultimately headquartered in Palo Alto, California.^[31] In February 2021, United Airlines made an initial purchase of Archer aircraft with the intent of using them to provide urban service to airports.^{[32][33][34][35]} Archer went public on the New York Stock Exchange with investors including United Airlines, Stellantis, Exor, Baron Capital, Marc Lore, and Brett Adcock.^{[36][33][32][37][38]}

Figure

In May 2022, Adcock founded AI robotics company Figure.^[39] Figure is building a humanoid robot that can do autonomous human-like tasks.^[40] In February 2024, Figure secured $675 million in venture capital funding from a consortium that included OpenAI, Microsoft, Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Intel.^[41][42] In August 2024, Figure revealed their second generation humanoid robot Figure 02.^[43][44] In the same month, Figure had a successful deployment of their humanoid robots at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg.^[45][46]

Cover

In October 2023, Adcock founded AI security company Cover to prevent school shootings in the United States. Cover uses licensed technology from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA.^[5][47]

Personal life

Brett Adcock resides in Palo Alto, California, with his wife and three children.^[22][48] Adcock has a penchant for the Robot series authored by Isaac Asimov—novels that influenced his career.^[49]

Honors

He was included in the Time 2024 list of influential people in AI.^[50]