He Dropped Out of MIT at 19 to Build America's Drone Arsenal. It's Working | StrictlyVC LA 2026

In this talk

1. 0:29

   Why Thornton started Mach

   Thornton says he started Mach in 2020, at age 16, and later left MIT to focus on it. With family members in the military, he became concerned about China and the rise of unmanned systems. He says the company aims to help the West build and adopt those systems quickly, using product development to offset China’s manufacturing scale.

2. 4:28

   Building across the defense stack

   Thornton describes Mach as an engineering company that currently works on six vehicle programs, including a long-range strike aircraft, an anti-ship missile, stratospheric systems, and a low-cost surface-to-air missile. He says the company is also moving into components such as jet engines, radar, and solid rocket motors, which he sees as supply bottlenecks. Mach built two jet engines last year and acquired a rocket motor and warhead company to scale its research.

3. 10:29

   From flight tests to manufacturing

   Thornton says all but the newest program have flown, and Mach manufactured around 1,000 aircraft in the prior 12 months. The company is producing hundreds of units per month across some products and aims to bring three programs into rate manufacturing this year. He says several products are expected to see operational deployment this year, while most current government contracts involve testing in representative environments.

4. 15:49

   A larger aircraft and a different business model

   Thornton describes a proposed 40-foot aircraft designed for near-vertical takeoff, more than 1,000 miles of range, and a 1,000-pound payload. Mach is working with Whisper, whose electric ducted fan and jet foil technology Thornton says could enable the design. He contrasts Mach’s hardware-first approach with Anduril’s software-first strategy and says defense procurement benefits from multiple vendors and more flexible engineering requirements.

5. 23:15

   Getting candid feedback as CEO

   Thornton says he works to avoid an executive echo chamber by listening to experienced leaders and people doing day-to-day work. Mach holds company-wide question sessions where employees can challenge him directly, including on engineering choices and company direction. He says leaders need both open debate and a central vision, and that companies should be able to survive some bad bets.