The Drone Company Everyone Thought Was Illegal (Now Worth $4B+) | E2265
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Today’s show:
Zipline founder Keller Cliffton started his company with a simple premise: build automated logistics that serve everyone equally. The only problem? It was literally illegal in the US.
In this live recording from LaunchFest in San Francisco, Keller shares how Zipline went from a 20-person team working on a cow farm in Rwanda to operating the largest commercial autonomous system on Earth. They now complete 130 million autonomous miles with zero accidents, while reducing maternal mortality by 51% in the regions they serve.
PLUS we’ve got Rahul Vohra from Superhuman taking us through his entire founder journey, and discussing with Jason why “difficult” founders are often the smartest investments.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:16 Keller Cliffton starts off the show
3:05 Starting Zipline in Africa
8:40 The magic of sky maps
13:55 Building the drone was just the beginning
15:11 Making a huge difference in maternal mortality
23:48 The threats of Little Evil Jimmy and dogs
29:37 The shift from Rwanda to Dallas
31:14 Netsuite - Get the free business guide Demystifying AI at https://www.netsuite.com/twist
32:28 The moral clarity of the mission
41:17 The challenge of staying focused
46:43 Rahul Vohra of Superhuman joins Jason
49:40 Building Rapportive in Cambridge
51:48 Scaling to millions of users via APIs
1:11:46 How getting acquired made Rahul fearless
1:12:31 The boldness of taking on Gmail
1:22:12 Making everyone pay for the product
1:31:24 Inside the Grammarly-Superhuman deal
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From Blood Transfusions to Burritos, How Zipline is Automating Delivery | E2238
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Today’s show:
On today’s TWIST episode, Alex interviews two of the top startup co-founders: Keller Cliffton of Zipline and Anastasis Germanidis of Runway.
Zipline announced its $600 million raise at a $7.6 BILLION valuation. Kellers breaks down the origins, economics, and future of Zipline’s contrarian bet in drone delivery. What was science fiction a decade ago is now a regular part of life for many. In fact, Zipline operates more flights than United!
Zipline is set to leapfrog the car delivery apps AND self driving cars with the superior economics of drone delivery. It is much cheaper to transport your burrito in a lightweight drone than a 6,000 pound self driving car!
Then, Alex is joined by Anastasis Germanidis, the CTO and co-founder of Runway, to explain why the next frontier of generative AI is world models! Runway is looking to build a universal simulation, which will unlock massive gains in robotics, autonomy, and simulations. The world model would be able to simulate rare edge cases that could take years to find naturally!
Check out how this cutting edge AI startup’s NYU Tisch School of Art’s origins
Then, See Jason’s answer to the question: “When should founders pivot or give up?”
Timestamps:
(00:00) The Drone revolution is here!
(02:46) Inside Zipline’s factory to build 20K drones a year
(04:40) American dynamism Vs. Chinese manufacturing dominance
(09:00) How Zipline is growing 75% month on month
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(11:15) Zipline teleports food and goods to your house
(21:54) Crusoe Cloud: Crusoe is the AI factory company. Reliable infrastructure and expert support. Visit https://crusoe.ai/savings to reserve your capacity for the latest GPUs today.
(23:02) Is it affordable to use a drone to deliver a burrito?
(29:18) Zipline DOUBLES United’s flight numbers
(31:11) LinkedIn Jobs - post your job for free at http://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs new AI assistant.
(32:21) Anastasis break’s down Runway’s AI modeling
(35:24) Runway’s Gen 4.5 and the world model
(40:57) Why do robotics companies need a world model?
(43:04) Using AI to simulate robot laundry folding
(52:37) Runway’s origins at NYU’s art school
(55:46) Founder Q/A: When to pivot or give up on your startup
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