
Founder and CEO @Zipline. Previously, built DNA/RNA computers and climbing walls. Harvard grad. Ex-professional rock climber.
San Francisco, CA
Joined April 2010
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What if your dinner could fly over traffic instead of sitting in it? We are now scaling to provide Uber Eats more than 1 million autonomous deliveries a day. Uber is becoming an investor in Zipline. We’ve entered the scaling era for robotics and physical AI.
Life is short. Skeptics are probably right more often than they are wrong, but they also don't go on epic adventures or get to work on projects that move humanity forward. Ignore the skeptics and build the future!
Delivering the cake for a 90th birthday backyard celebration. Teleportation-like delivery will soon be available everywhere
Zipline has flown over 140 million commercial autonomous miles. We have individual aircraft that have flown more than 1 million miles. Average car drives 150k before being trashed. The service is already much safer and more reliable than people expect
Keller Cliffton retweeted
Hiring a Staff Controls Engineer at @zipline .
Looking for someone who’s shipped complex products in industry, takes broad ownership of hard problems, and drives them to the finish line. Independent, critical, first-principles thinker.
Flight dynamics/controls experience is a plus, not required.
If that sounds like you, apply here: zipline.com/open-roles/78100…
Learn more about Zipline in a recent podcast by Sequoia Capitol with @Keller and @EricWattage
xitter.cf/Alfred_Lin/status/2074…
You can also reach out to me directly with a couple of examples of your industry excellence and why you want to work at Zipline.
Drone delivery is about to be cheaper than cars. But the drone is only 15% of the work to get there.
A decade after starting in Rwanda flying blood to one hospital, @zipline has flown 140M+ autonomous miles with zero safety incidents, expanded to the US and to food delivery and household items, and delivery costs have fallen from $300 to $12 - now cheaper than a car.
Getting there meant building almost everything from scratch: flight computers, motors, GPS modules, even the air traffic software regulators use to track them. And it meant a discipline most engineers find nearly impossible.
That's the reality behind Zipline, the largest autonomous system on Earth. @Keller and @EricWattage joined me and @gradypb to talk more about their journey.
00:00 Introduction
02:28 Early Vision and Regulation
04:09 Rwanda Launch Hard Lessons
06:49 Scaling to 24/7 Impact
09:35 Real World Ops Surprises
11:15 Safety Redundancy Failover
20:24 Precision Delivery Pod Tech
25:34 Building the Drone Network
26:51 Fleet Commanders Explained
28:22 Scaling to a Million a Day
29:51 Autonomy Enables 24 7 Ops
31:52 Reinventing Air Traffic Control
36:08 Why Zipline Is Vertical
41:40 First Principles Delete Parts
44:45 Market Explosion and Closing Thoughts
Huh. I have a theory this is how growth investors are choosing to reach out to companies as well. Over last few months, Zipline got a ton of cold outreach from various funds that are all expressing the exact same investment hypothesis. Feels like one mind behind them telling them exactly what to say and invest in… The similarities and timing are uncanny
At what point is the human intermediary removed and the AI just reaches out to the company directly? 🤖
Keller Cliffton retweeted
Difficulty Levels of Startups:
Insane: Robotics
Hard: Hardware
Medium: Consumer Software
Easy: B2B SaaS










