Darren Liccardo built his career inside autonomous systems before becoming an investor, leading Tesla's founding Autopilot engineering team, opening DJI's Silicon Valley R&D office, running BMW's autonomous-driving research while scouting deals for its venture fund, and heading Crossbow Technology's inertial systems group behind the first FAA-certified aircraft navigation system using solid-state sensors—work that traces back to his UAV research at UC Berkeley. That hands-on path across cars, drones, and aircraft carried into his investing, where he had already backed autonomy companies like Starsky Robotics, Swift Navigation, and Auro Robotics before starting Catapult Ventures.