Drone's evolution from a personal project to a significant player in the continuous integration (CI) space underscores the shifting landscape towards more accessible and enterprise-ready CI tools, challenging the dominance of Jenkins. Founded by Brad Rydzewski, who initially faced barriers with Jenkins during his tenure at General Electric, Drone began as a self-service CI platform aimed at simplifying software delivery. After transitioning from a SaaS product to an open-source model, Drone gained substantial popularity and contributions from major tech companies, leading to growing demands and Brad's eventual burnout. This prompted the introduction of paid support tiers and ultimately a strategic partnership with Harness, which shared Drone's vision of achieving Jenkins-level ubiquity in the CI marketplace.