# Nathan Schuett

> Nathan Schuett is the founder and CEO of PreNav, a Redwood City company that builds drones guided by computer vision to inspect the infrastructure most people never look at - cell towers, wind turbines, bridges, smokestacks. The idea started as a half-serious plan to fly coffee across a cafe and grew into a navigation system precise enough to fly a robot within centimeters of a steel structure without a GPS signal or an expert pilot. A Stanford computer-music graduate who detoured through video games and robotics, Schuett now also lists himself as founder of Forming AI, the next chapter of turning the physical world into analyzable 3D data.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at PreNav / Forming AI
- **Organizations:** PreNav, Forming AI, The Society for Creative Research, Electronic Arts (EA), Lolapps
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Music, Science & Technology (Computer Music), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded and leads PreNav, builder of what the company calls the world's most precise commercial drone system, Invented a patent-pending ground-plus-air navigation system using a ground laser scanner to guide a drone in GPS-denied environments, Raised roughly $16.25M total across pre-seed and seed rounds, including a $6.5M round led by Crosslink Capital

## Career timeline

- **1998-2002** — Studied computer music at Stanford University (CCRMA)
- **2000s** — Worked in product and marketing in the gaming industry at EA and Lolapps
- **early 2010s** — Managed robotics projects at The Society for Creative Research, with work for Google and others
- **2013** — Co-founded PreNav (October 2013) with Asa Hammond and Naim Busek
- **2014** — Raised a pre-seed round via friends, family, angels and Drone.VC on AngelList
- **2015** — PreNav publicly released video of its precision commercial drone system
- **2016** — Raised $6.5M seed round led by Crosslink Capital
- **2020** — Most recent disclosed seed funding ($1.5M tranche); total funding reaches ~$16.25M
- **2020s** — Began listing Forming AI alongside PreNav as founder & CEO

## Achievements

- Founded and leads PreNav, builder of what the company calls the world's most precise commercial drone system
- Invented a patent-pending ground-plus-air navigation system using a ground laser scanner to guide a drone in GPS-denied environments
- Raised roughly $16.25M total across pre-seed and seed rounds, including a $6.5M round led by Crosslink Capital
- Built automated drone inspection used on cell towers, wind turbines, bridges, buildings and oil & gas infrastructure
- Pioneered photorealistic 3D digital twins of industrial structures analyzed with machine learning for defect detection

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Public profiles list Schuett as Founder & CEO of Forming AI, alongside his ongoing role at PreNav.

## Links

- Website: https://prenav.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanschuett
- Twitter/X: http://twitter.com/prenavinc
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnLIPiI4ONY
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/nschuett

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nathan-schuett
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-22