{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Drone Company Quietly Taking Over Delivery","description":"This Week In Startups is made possible by: Render - render.com\/twist Deel - deel.com\/twist Northwest Registered Agent - northwestregisteredagent.com\/twist Today\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u2014 Learn more at https:\/\/northwestregisteredagent.com\/twist 12:32 $50M Series B vs competitors raising $600\u2013800M 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 \u2014 pretending to be GPS 49:02 Ukraine: 6\u20138M 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: \u2060https:\/\/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\u2019s 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 ","author_name":"This Week in Startups","author_url":"https:\/\/thisweekinstartups.com","html":"