Brian Bondy is a Canadian software engineer and entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Brave Software. Before founding Brave, he held engineering positions at Mozilla, where he worked on the Firefox browser, and at Khan Academy. ^{[1] [2]}​

Education

Bondy attended the University of Waterloo, graduating in 2005 with a Bachelor of Mathematics with Honors in Computer Science. His language proficiencies include full professional proficiency in English and professional working proficiency in French. ^[2]​

Career

Bondy's career in software development began in 1999. His early roles included working as a software engineer at Anchor Lamina from 1999 to 2001, where he developed internal customer relationship management (CRM) systems and other C++ applications. He then joined Corel Corporation as a researcher and software developer from 2001 to 2002, contributing to product updates and .NET-based projects. In 2003, he worked as a device driver developer at ALT Software.

In 2004, Bondy co-founded VisionWorks Solutions Inc., a company that developed backup software, applications for encrypted storage, and various low-level system tools. He worked there until 2010, and the company was acquired in 2011. Following the acquisition, he served as Technical Director at KineticD from 2010 to 2011, where he managed development teams across multiple programming environments.

From 2011 to 2014, Bondy was a senior software engineer at the Mozilla Corporation. During his time there, he contributed to the development of the Firefox web browser, with his work spanning areas such as process sandboxing, system updates, plugins, and both front-end and back-end components. Following his tenure at Mozilla, he joined Khan Academy as a software development lead from 2014 to 2015. At Khan Academy, he led teams responsible for content discovery systems, educational platforms, and programming tools. ^{[2] [3]}​

Brave Software

In May 2015, Bondy co-founded Brave Software, Inc. with Brendan Eich, who is also known as a co-founder of Mozilla. Bondy has stated that the venture was spurred by a "demotivating encounter with a figure in the tech industry," which led him to collaborate with Eich to build a new browser. Since the company's inception, Bondy has served as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), overseeing the technical development of the Brave browser and its ecosystem of privacy-focused products.

As CTO, Bondy directs the engineering efforts behind Brave's core products. The flagship product, the Brave browser, is built on the open-source Chromium web core, with its client-side code released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. A central feature Bondy's team developed is Brave Shields, which blocks advertisements, trackers, and scripts that enable browser fingerprinting by default. The browser also automatically upgrades website connections to HTTPS where possible to enhance security. ^{[1] [4]}

Interviews

Brave’s Story

On the Coffee with Crainer podcast, host Linden Crain interviewed Bondy, discussing the Brave's journey and its focus on online privacy. Bondy, a former lead software developer at Khan Academy and senior engineer at Mozilla, shared insights into Brave's suite of products, including its privacy-focused web browser and cryptocurrency wallet, which had accumulated 58 million monthly active users by then. The conversation also delved into Bondy's path to founding Brave, which began after a demotivating encounter with a figure in the tech industry, leading to his eventual collaboration with Brendan Eich, co-founder of Mozilla. Bondy emphasized the importance of maintaining a consistent work ethic and aligning with core values in both personal and professional life. Additionally, they explored the rapid evolution of AI technology and its potential impact on both Brave Software and the broader job market. The episode concluded with Brian reflecting on his journey, including his passion for long-distance running, and offering advice to aspiring computer science graduates. ^[4]