BACK TO ALL NEWS & INSIGHTSAt Jitsu, we’re building a delivery network designed for today’s world—agile, tech-forward, and deeply client-focused. That work is powered by a team that understands both the complexity of the logistics industry and the opportunity to do things differently.
We recently sat down with our CEO, Adam Bryant, to talk about his path to Jitsu, the principles that guide his leadership, and what’s ahead as the company continues to grow. From first-principles thinking to building for long-term impact, Adam shares how his diverse experience helps shape Jitsu’s mission and momentum.
Read below for the full conversation.
Adam, you’ve been with Jitsu for five years, most recently as COO. Can you tell us a bit about your journey with Jitsu?
My story with Jitsu started when I met the company’s founder, Daniel Sokolovsky, while I was an investor at Eclipse Ventures. From the moment I learned about Jitsu, I was intrigued. Here was a company trying to reinvent traditional parcel delivery by combining modern technology with the flexibility of the gig economy. It was clear even then that Jitsu wasn’t just building a faster or cheaper delivery solution—it was building a fundamentally better experience for both shippers and consumers. I knew I wanted to be part of that journey.
I quickly built a strong relationship with Daniel and started working closely with the founding team, who were incredibly smart, scrappy, and ambitious. Just before the pandemic hit, I was already deeply involved in helping the company navigate early operational and financial challenges. I officially joined as Chief Operating Officer in March 2020, right as the world was shutting down and e-commerce was accelerating in a massive way. It was a critical moment for last-mile delivery, and we had to build fast.
During that time, I helped lead several fundraising efforts and worked with the team to instill a culture grounded in operational rigor—one that prioritized data, metrics, and process. That discipline helped us scale the business more than 10x in a short period. We expanded our geographic footprint from a handful of markets to a nationwide presence, and as we grew, we kept coming back to one core idea: solving real, painful logistics problems for our clients.
That meant investing in our tech, constantly refining our processes, and making sure we could deliver consistently—not just in terms of speed, but in terms of reliability and accountability.
I stepped into the CEO role late last year, and I feel incredibly fortunate to lead a team that’s so mission-driven and execution-focused. We’ve come a long way, but I believe we’re still just scratching the surface of what’s possible.
How has your previous experience—both earlier in your career and as Jitsu’s COO—shaped your perspective and approach now as CEO?
Early in my career, I intentionally sought out roles across a range of disciplines—engineering, manufacturing, finance, sales ops—because I wanted to understand how a business really works from the inside out. At GE Aviation, I was a lead design engineer and later moved into operations, where I developed a deep appreciation for quality, efficiency, and systems thinking. From there, I joined Tesla, first in finance and later as a director of manufacturing. That pivot gave me a unique perspective. I went from analyzing the numbers to being responsible for driving them. It taught me how decisions play out on the factory floor, and how to pull the right levers to make meaningful impact.
At Proterra, I led customer programs, where I learned how client expectations shape operations, and how important it is to align the entire business around delivering on those promises. Then, in venture capital at Eclipse Ventures, I gained a completely different lens—evaluating founders, allocating capital, and understanding what it takes to scale a company from zero to one. That experience was especially valuable when I joined Jitsu and had to fundraise myself. I’d been on the other side of the table, and now I was pitching to investors, hearing a lot of no’s before getting to the yes’s.
All of that shapes how I lead today. I’ve worked in companies with hundreds of thousands of people and ones with just a few dozen. I know what it’s like to have resources, and what it’s like to have to wear multiple hats. I think that breadth of experience makes me a pragmatic CEO, and I work hard to balance that pragmatism with the bold thinking that’s required to push the business forward. I’m execution-focused, solution-oriented, and very conscious of the trade-offs between growth and margin, vision and reality. I try to underpromise and overdeliver because I’ve seen firsthand what it takes to follow through. I think that grounding in the details and empathy for each function helps me keep the team aligned even when things get tough.
What excites you most about leading Jitsu at this stage in its growth?
What excites me most right now is the team we’ve built. We’ve brought on a group of incredibly talented people with complementary skill sets, and it’s been rewarding to watch them step in, take ownership, and build on what we’ve created. Seeing team members make the business their own and continuously improve it in ways we hadn’t yet imagined has been one of the most energizing parts of this phase. That same spirit extends to our drivers and delivery partners too. They’re the face of Jitsu on the ground every day, and their reliability, hustle, and professionalism are a huge part of what makes our service stand out.
I’m also excited because we’re solving a real problem in the market, and our clients consistently tell us that they want more of Jitsu. They value our flexibility, our responsiveness, and our ability to adapt, especially in contrast to the rigidity of the national carriers. That validation is powerful. At our current scale, we’re large enough to have real impact, but still nimble enough to move fast and tailor solutions in a way others can’t.
From a market perspective, the timing feels right. The external environment is shifting—between the inflexibility of the Nationals, continued USPS changes, and rising tariffs, shippers are looking for partners who can adapt quickly and think differently. That’s exactly what Jitsu was built for. We’re designed to be agile, to evolve with our clients’ needs, and to offer solutions that don’t just meet today’s challenges but anticipate tomorrow’s.
And from a personal standpoint, I love the complexity of what we do. Logistics and transportation is this massive, constantly evolving optimization problem with endless variables. As an engineer by training, it’s easy to get addicted to. There’s always a better answer, a smarter route, or a more efficient system to uncover. Leading a company that’s built to keep pushing on those fronts is incredibly exciting.
Every leader has a vision. What’s yours for Jitsu in the next five years?
From the beginning, Jitsu has been focused on solving the last mile and doing it in a way that gives our clients more control, more transparency, and a better experience from end to end. As we look ahead, our vision is to deepen that impact across the full journey of a parcel. We’re building toward a future where Jitsu is more than just a delivery partner, we’re a true orchestrator of that journey.
Over the next five years, we’re focused on expanding geographic reach. Our goal is to scale Jitsu to cover more than 70% of the U.S. population, while still delivering the flexibility, responsiveness, and transparency that shippers typically associate with regional carriers. We want to be the national urban solution—the transportation ‘easy button’ for brands that need to reach their customers with speed and precision.
At the same time, we’re continuing to invest in the technology behind the scenes. While our clients expect us to execute flawlessly on delivery, we also want to give them comfort in the moment through better visibility, proactive updates, and what we call a ‘control tower view’ of their shipments. It’s about combining performance with peace of mind.
Ultimately, we want to be the silent partner that helps brands shine. When we do our job right, we’re not just delivering a package, we’re delivering on our clients’ promises. And when that experience is seamless, it drives loyalty and lifetime value. That’s the kind of impact we’re building toward.
How would you describe your leadership style, and how do you hope it shows up in the day-to-day at Jitsu?
At my core, I’m a fairly logical person. I grew up drawn to engineering, physics, and finance, so numbers have always played a big role in how I think. That analytical mindset informs how I lead. I believe in metrics, and I think that rigor shows up throughout the company. We hold ourselves accountable not just because it’s good business, but because our clients depend on us to deliver with precision.
I also believe in the idea that a stitch in time saves nine. We try to catch mistakes early, fix them quickly, and even celebrate those moments, because they’re opportunities to learn and improve. That kind of thinking fosters a culture of transparency and candor, which ultimately makes us better problem solvers.
I’ve always believed that leaders shouldn’t just manage, they should contribute. I value leaders who can fly at different altitudes: getting into the details, understanding how things really work, and bringing forward real ideas or solutions. That mindset helps us stay grounded and collaborative. At Jitsu, we share ideas across functions and departments constantly. No one operates in a silo.
I also highly value consistency, discipline, and hard work. I’m less focused on what our competitors are doing and more focused on what we can control—taking small, thoughtful steps forward every day. It’s those incremental improvements that compound into something meaningful.
Lastly, I care deeply about building a sustainable business. There are plenty of companies in our space that scaled fast but burned through resources inefficiently. That’s not our path. We stay focused on what will truly move the needle for our clients. Sometimes that means saying no to things that might be flashy but aren’t strategic. That kind of discipline, and knowing where to invest our time and energy, is a big part of how we operate.
For those who may not have met you yet, what’s something you’d like people to know about you—either personally or professionally?
Something people are often surprised to learn is that before Jitsu, I had very little direct experience in logistics. Aside from a role in production control and build planning at Tesla, I hadn’t worked in shipping or parcel delivery. But in some ways, that’s been an advantage.
During my time at Tesla, I learned the value of first principles thinking—something Elon Musk was known for advocating. It’s the idea of breaking things down to their most basic truths and reasoning up from there, instead of relying on how things have always been done. That approach stuck with me, and it’s something I’ve brought to Jitsu.
We’ve approached the problems in last-mile delivery with a clean slate. Rather than inheriting legacy systems or assumptions, we’ve asked: What does today’s shipper actually need? What does today’s consumer expect? And what tools and technologies can we use now to solve these problems better?
That mindset has allowed us to move fast, stay agile, and build a service that’s truly designed for today, not constrained by the playbooks of the past. I think that curiosity and willingness to rethink the fundamentals is something that defines both me personally and how we operate at Jitsu.