Zipline CEO Keller Cliffton on air-dropping blood to Rwandan hospitals and getting to 50,000 aircraft per year
Podcast: Cheeky PintPublished On: Wed Sep 10 2025
Description: 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 WolfeSkunk Works by Ben RichApple in China by Patrick McGeeTimestamps(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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