Karthik Lakshmanan

Perception Lead @ Zipline; ex Aurora | Uber | CMU | UC Berkeley

[Karthik Lakshmanan @karts25]

I had the incredible opportunity to talk about what I do with @BarackObama for a new @netflix series - "Working: What We Do All Day"!

@netflix @HGMedia @ConcordiaStudio @aurora_inno

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

I’m excited to share the trailer for Working. In this series, I talk to American workers across various industries – from hospitality and technology to home care – to understand their jobs and hopes for the future. I hope you’ll check it out on @Netflix on May 17.

[Mark Palmer @MarketPalmer_]

The older I get, the more I realize making memories with family, a solid fitness routine, a job you don't hate, a group chat of great friends, annual traditions, and a productive hobby will lead to a very happy life.

[Brett Berson @brettberson]

Zipline has always done things the “wrong” way.

They launched a drone company when drones were essentially illegal in the US. They moved the whole team to trailers on a farm in Half Moon Bay to figure out how to fly. Their launcher was deep sea fishing poles from Walmart. Their landing pads were made by a bouncy castle company.

They went to Rwanda with no aviation experience, no logistics experience, no healthcare experience. Co-founder and CEO @Keller wore tennis shoes and a hoodie to meet the president of the country. The night before the launch, he was on his back in the dirt with a screwdriver in his mouth, trying to rebuild a launcher that kept destroying itself, while the president's special forces watched.

The aircraft flew. Keller was just as surprised as everyone else.

Nine months of all-nighters after that Rwanda launch, they got one hospital working reliably. Then 20 more in three months. Then 50. Then 400. Today Zipline serves 5,000 hospitals globally and has flown 135 million autonomous miles.

To find the best hardware builders in the world, Zipline often hires teenagers. Not as interns fetching coffee — as engineers who own real work. One kid joined at 15 and got offered $180K to lead a team of mechanical engineers instead of going to Stanford. He took it. Another applicant had built a full GPS system for a 3D-printed quadcopter using onboard Nvidia GPUs. While at boarding school. Keller's question for candidates: what have you built?

Keller summarized everything in one line: "We specialize in turning the impossible into the merely late."

He shares Zipline’s wild origin story in full in our conversation on In Depth.

Timestamps:
02:11 Why Zipline doesn't hire for experience
06:04 Are founders born or made?
07:37 Why Zipline hires 17-year-olds over PhDs
17:03 The employees Zipline doesn't want
18:53 The ultimate startup hire is a "heat-seeking missile"
20:36 Why blind references are a non-negotiable
23:07 Can candidates admit when they screwed up?
30:10 Zipline's secret leadership playbook
35:16 Why you should always fire quickly
36:26 The early vision for Zipline
39:48 How Zipline almost died - twice
44:55 From toy robots to drone delivery: Zipline's pivot
51:35 How Rwanda's health minister changed everything
57:10 Why Zipline's launch was a "complete disaster"
1:04:05 Scaling from 1 hospital to 5000
1:05:17 The 10x hardware cost rule every founder should know

[Ryan Oksenhorn @ryanzip]

Zipline Delivery is growing faster than ever, and we’re more beloved than ever. Pulling this off has been anything but easy.

[Keller Cliffton @Keller]

A new kind of mailbox is born. Now any building can get access to drone delivery in 3 hours, no permitting or construction required. Often partners load through a window in the wall, so they never have to step outside at all

[ZiplineRwanda @ZiplineRwanda]

We hit a huge milestone last week — 2 million deliveries and 20+ million products distributed.
Fun fact: It took 2,684 days to make the first 1 million, 699 days to make the next 1 million, and we’re on track to surpass the next 1 million this year. 🚀

[Karthik Lakshmanan @karts25]

So much happened @zipline in 2025!

[Ryan Oksenhorn @ryanzip]

What did you get done this year? Of the 49,000 PRs and 26 major releases Zipline shipped in 2025, here are 52 of the most impactful ways we improved the best delivery service on the planet. 0/52

[Zipline @zipline]

A light delivery for the holidays

[matthew @mattmjensenn]

I’ve raved on them before but @sundayrobotics approach to robots feels so clearly like one of those things we’ll all look back on like “duh I should’ve thought of that” a decade from now 🧵

[Ryan Oksenhorn @ryanzip]

family's in town
SF: send them in a waymo!
DFW: surprise them with a zipline delivery!

[Chuck Cook @ChuckCook]

So many people are making negative posts about the @Rivian autonomy day and demo drives. There are lots of defensively worded comparisons to @Tesla FSD.

From where I sit, Rivian is trying to find a niche, providing a good EV and fulfilling a very important part of the market with a good looking full-size SUV and truck. Don't forget there are also still a lot of customers that won't touch Tesla, to their detriment, but they are still there.

Rivian knows they are no where near Tesla's performance on FSD, just like @comma_ai has said, Tesla is in the lead and it's a race for second place.

My recommendation, don't criticize another company's strategy with sensors, software, hardware or even the vehicle. Let competitors compete.

There are a lot of smart people out there, looking to create the next great thing. Sometimes they even land in a place that might not end up winning. Let's not overlook that it's the people that make the difference here, let's appreciate all of their efforts and win together as a society progressing technology.

[Keller Cliffton @Keller]

Getting home from work on a Friday after a big day

[Zipline @zipline]

Big news: Zipline plans to triple our life-saving drone delivery network in Africa with $150 Million from the U.S. State Department, that will be matched more than double by our country partners

[Ryan Oksenhorn @ryanzip]

We are 3×-ing our scale in Africa to save an additional 50,000 lives each year.

What did you get done this week?

[Keller Cliffton @Keller]

Now that we've launched Zipping Points, we can pick up packages and deliver autonomously from literally any location. Here's a Zip grabbing a package from one of our restaurant partners. Will take so many cars off the road over the coming years!

[Keller Cliffton @Keller]

I’ve been quiet on here because @zipline has been busy. Here’s an update:

[Karthik Lakshmanan @karts25]

@dhaval_shroff These two Patels weren't remotely close in my embedding space.

[Ryan Oksenhorn @ryanzip]

Zipline Delivers - — - — - — - Order #1,779,877
At 4:45 PM on October 30, Nyagatare District Hospital faced a crisis. A mother in labor suffered a placental abruption, causing severe bleeding. Both of her twins were born prematurely and in distress. Three lives were in danger and the hospital's blood supply was low.

[Karthik Lakshmanan @karts25]

@fugitivemonkey @dhaval_shroff Lmao, maybe you should look up Dhaval.

Never been in one? Hilarious.

[Keller Cliffton @Keller]

A completely normal part of childhood

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

The @karpathy interview

0:00:00 – AGI is still a decade away
0:30:33 – LLM cognitive deficits
0:40:53 – RL is terrible
0:50:26 – How do humans learn?
1:07:13 – AGI will blend into 2% GDP growth
1:18:24 – ASI
1:33:38 – Evolution of intelligence & culture
1:43:43 - Why self driving took so long
1:57:08 - Future of education

Look up Dwarkesh Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Enjoy!