World Model · podcast knowledge graph

The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery

2026-05-27 · 61 min · episode 2293 · 22 entities

episode page audio

Asserted relationships

  • → references twistartups.substack.com website
    0.77
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://twistartups.substack.com/
  • → references @Calacanis website
    0.77
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://substack.com/@calacanis
  • → hosted by Jason Calacanis person
    0.55
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed author/publisher: Jason Calacanis
  • → discusses Technology company
    0.40
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: Technology
  • → references ThisWeekIn website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://youtube.com/thisweekin
  • → references Twist website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://deel.com/twist
  • → references @Thisweekinstartups website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
  • → references partners.launch.co company
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://partners.launch.co/
  • → references manna.aero website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://manna.aero/
  • → references Series B person
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://manna.aero/blog/series-b
  • → references theseus.us website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://theseus.us/

Entities found in this episode

websites 14

  • mentioned twistartups.substack.com website
    0.90
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://twistartups.substack.com/
  • mentioned @Calacanis website
    0.90
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://substack.com/@calacanis
  • references twistartups.substack.com website
    0.77
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://twistartups.substack.com/
  • references @Calacanis website
    0.77
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://substack.com/@calacanis
  • mentioned ThisWeekIn website
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://youtube.com/thisweekin
  • mentioned Twist website
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
  • mentioned @Thisweekinstartups website
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
  • mentioned manna.aero website
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://manna.aero/
  • mentioned theseus.us website
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://theseus.us/
  • references ThisWeekIn website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://youtube.com/thisweekin
  • references Twist website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://deel.com/twist
  • references @Thisweekinstartups website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
  • references manna.aero website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://manna.aero/
  • references theseus.us website
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://theseus.us/

persons 4

  • mentioned Jason Calacanis person
    0.70
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed author/publisher: Jason Calacanis
  • hosted by Jason Calacanis person
    0.55
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed author/publisher: Jason Calacanis
  • mentioned Series B person
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://manna.aero/blog/series-b
  • references Series B person
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://manna.aero/blog/series-b

companys 4

  • mentioned Technology company
    0.50
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: Technology
  • mentioned partners.launch.co company
    0.45
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://partners.launch.co/
  • discusses Technology company
    0.40
    evidence rules-v5
    Feed category: Technology
  • references partners.launch.co company
    0.38
    evidence rules-v5
    Link in episode "The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery": https://partners.launch.co/
Episode description as stored
This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - render.com/twist Deel - deel.com/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Today's show: The "Ryanair of drone delivery" just raised $50 million and plans to bring its technology from Europe to the United States. Manna founder Bobby Healy explains to TWiST how his Dublin-based company completed 300,000 deliveries while some rivals are still publishing blog posts, and why low-cost airline economics will decide who wins the autonomous skies. Sticking to the drone theme, TWiST welcomed Theseus co-founder Ian Laffey, who called in from Kyiv to tell us about his company's drone guidance system. It runs off a simple camera and Google Maps. The technology could rewrite the modern, GPS-jammed battlefield, and bring more firepower to smaller nations fending off larger foes. Guest Links: Manna https://www.manna.aero Bobby Healy https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhealy/ Manna funding announcement https://www.manna.aero/blog/series-b Theseus https://www.theseus.us/ Ian Laffey https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilaffey2/ Most recent Theseus funding announcement https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/17/defense-tech-theseus-landed-y-combinator-the-us-special-forces-and-4-3m-from-a-tweet/ The tweet that kickstarted Theseus: https://x.com/ilaffey2/status/1759353732075294766 Timestamps: 0:00 Bobby Healy of Manna joins TWiST 1:41 How a Manna base works: drones migrate around the city like Waymos 7:18 Battle-hardened in Irish weather: 97% uptime in wind and rain 8:52 Margin-positive economics & the path to $0.20 per delivery 9:25 Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 12:32 $50M Series B vs competitors raising $600–800M 19:51 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more. 22:53 The peer-to-peer drone future and hyper-local commerce 25:46 Growing from 170 to 570 people and moving manufacturing to Oklahoma 28:43 Ian Laffey of Theseus joins TWIST 29:57 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 30:58 Inside Ukraine's drone industry: front-line iteration and free-market speed 33:55 How GPS gets jammed across the spectrum 35:10 Theseus's approach: cameras + satellite maps + ML 37:04 The product: Raspberry Pi, SD card, camera — pretending to be GPS 49:02 Ukraine: 6–8M drones a year. The US: 300K over two years. 51:17 Are US drone primes actually reconstituting the supply chain? 58:22 Y Combinator as a defense tech accelerator 59:40 "Pick an issue and start working as hard as you can towards it" Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com