Sequoia led the Series A round for the company that later became Zipline, before it pivoted to drone delivery.
“Sequoia led our Series A and took this bet on us. This was actually before we started building Zipline, though.”
Person
Keller Cliffton
1 episodes · 23 quoted claims
Rwanda's government gave Zipline 21 hospitals to serve, starting with blood deliveries.
“So they gave us 21 hospitals, and they said, just do blood.”
According to Keller Cliffton, about half of blood transfusions in Rwanda go to mothers with postpartum hemorrhaging.
“50 % of blood transfusions are going toward moms with postpartum hemorrhaging.”
Zipline's Rwandan system reliably served only one hospital during its first nine months.
“the system only served one hospital for the first nine months reliably.”
A University of Pennsylvania study of hospitals served by Zipline found a 51% reduction in maternal mortality.
“University of Pennsylvania came in and did this big study across all the hospitals we serve and showed a 51 % reduction in maternal mortality.”
Zipline is the sole distributor of more than 500 health products in Rwanda's public health supply chain.
“we're like the sole distributor of 500 plus health products in the public health care supply chain.”
Zipline serves about 5,000 hospitals and health facilities.
“Today we serve 5 ,000 hospitals and health facilities.”
Cliffton says unreliable supply led health facilities to over-order blood, which distorted demand signals.
“The numbers get bigger and bigger and you lose like all signal in the system.”
Zipline's aircraft has 43 major sub-assemblies, each designed in-house.
“There are 43 major sub-assemblies on the aircraft. Every one of those sub-assemblies is designed from scratch by zipline.”
Zipline's Platform 1 aircraft is recovered by catching it in flight with a tail hook rather than landing on the ground.
“we actually catch it out of the air. Looks kind of crazy.”
Zipline reduced the fastener types on its aircraft from 43 to two to simplify maintenance and stocking.
“the next version of the aircraft had two total kinds of fasteners on the entire aircraft.”
Zipline designed its own servo actuator from scratch, now used in Platform 2.
“Zipline went and designed its own servo from scratch.”
Keller Cliffton said the proposed FAA Part 108 rules codify what exemptions had already allowed in recent years.
“Part 108 is kind of like codifying something that has already been happening over the last three to four years”
Cliffton says FAA aircraft type certification takes five to ten years.
“It takes five to 10 years to get aircraft type certified.”
Cliffton said the DC-3 cost about $2.5 to $3 million to design, roughly $75 million in today's dollars.
“The entire design cost for that aircraft was like two and a half or $3 million.”
Cliffton said the Boeing 787 took 20 to 25 years and about $32 billion to develop.
“The 787 took 20, 25 years, $32 billion.”
Zipline was integrated with about 10 Walmart stores in the Dallas area and adding one a week at the time of the interview.
“right now we are integrated with about 10 Walmarts and we're launching one a week”
Zipline's Dallas service grew 25 to 30% week over week for about three months after launching in April.
“the service has been growing 25 to 30 % week over week for the last three months.”
Zipline expanded its South San Francisco facility to 160,000 square feet, capable of building about 50,000 aircraft a year.
“It'll be capable of building around 50 ,000 aircraft a year at scale”
Zipline releases new software versions to its whole fleet every 30 days.
“we're releasing new software versions to the entire global fleet every 30 days.”
Zipline says hardware-in-the-loop testing detects about 95% of potential aircraft problems before test-site flights.
“We can detect like 95 % of what's going to go wrong on an aircraft.”
Cliffton stated that China makes more drones in a week than the US makes in a year.
“in a week, China makes more drones than the US makes in a year.”
Cliffton said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission started in about 1978 and that no US power plants have been built since, a claim he hedged.
“the Nuclear Regulatory Commission started in, I think, 1978.”