Building Zipline: From launch disaster to drone-delivery giant | Keller Cliffton (Co-founder, CEO)

Building Zipline: From launch disaster to drone-delivery giant | Keller Cliffton (Co-founder, CEO)

From In Depth by First Round

March 12, 2026 · 1h 11m

About this episode

Keller Cliffton discusses the journey of Zipline from a struggling startup to a leader in drone delivery, sharing insights on hiring and leadership.

Keller Cliffton is the co-founder and CEO of Zipline, the world's largest commercial autonomous delivery system, which today serves 5,000 hospitals across multiple countries and saves an estimated 17,000 lives per year. In this episode, Keller breaks down his extreme hiring philosophy that has powered Zipline for over a decade. He also walks through Zipline’s full origin story: from a near-dead home robot startup to a scrappy bet on drone blood delivery in Rwanda, to 135 million autonomous miles flown. In today's episode, we discuss: Why Zipline hires teenagers over PhDs Why the best startup employees are "heat-seeking missiles for pain" The 5 leadership attributes Zipline has never shared publicly The brutal firing advice that shaped Keller’s leadership How Rwanda’s health minister changed Zipline’s trajectory References: Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com Alfred Lin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linalfred/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com Apple: https://www.apple.com Brian Chesky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianchesky/ Cleveland Clinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org Netflix: https://www.netflix.com Paul Kagame: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkagame/ Reflect Orbital…

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Guest: Keller Cliffton

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Organizations: Zipline, Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Cleveland Clinic, Netflix, Reflect Orbital, Sequoia Capital, SpaceX, Sphero

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