Cheeky Pint
Zipline CEO Keller Cliffton on air-dropping blood to Rwandan hospitals and getting to 50,000 aircraft per year
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Show notes
Keller Cliffton joins John Collison to talk about Zipline’s journey to 115 million miles flown, the lost art of American airplanes, building 50k drones a year in California, getting to 99.9% reliability, and US vs. Chinese manufacturing.
Books referenced:
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Skunk Works by Ben Rich
Apple in China by Patrick McGee
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:45) 115 million miles flown
(04:10) Why drone delivery took so long
(07:38) Getting started in Rwanda
(13:31) 51% reduction in maternal mortality
(15:33) Access vs. waste
(21:45) Scaling globally
(24:05) Zipline’s Platform 1
(25:50) The Right Stuff
(27:22) Drone design and safety
(30:12) Getting to 99.9% reliability
(34:39) Multimodal logistics
(38:15) Zipline’s Platform 2
(44:03) US drone regs and the FAA
(48:02) Progress and stagnation in US aviation
(51:30) If Keller ran the FAA
(54:24) 30% WoW growth in Texas
(58:25) Why Texas and not California?
(01:00:28) Building 50k drones in California
(01:06:18) US vs. Chinese manufacturing
(01:11:30) Advice for hardtech founders
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