<p>This Week In Startups is made possible by:</p><p>Render -<a href="http://render.com/twist"> <u>render.com/twist</u></a></p><p>Deel -<a href="http://deel.com/twist"> <u>deel.com/twist</u></a></p><p>Northwest Registered Agent -<a href="http://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist"> <u>northwestregisteredagent.com/twist</u></a></p><p>Today’s show:</p><p>The &quot;Ryanair of drone delivery&quot; 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.</p><p>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.</p><p><strong>Guest Links:</strong></p><p>Manna<a href="https://www.manna.aero"> <u>https://www.manna.aero</u></a></p><p>Bobby Healy<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhealy/"> <u>https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhealy/</u></a></p><p>Manna funding announcement<a href="https://www.manna.aero/blog/series-b"> <u>https://www.manna.aero/blog/series-b</u></a></p><p>Theseus<a href="https://www.theseus.us/"> <u>https://www.theseus.us/</u></a></p><p>Ian Laffey<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilaffey2/"> <u>https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilaffey2/</u></a></p><p>Most recent Theseus funding announcement<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/17/defense-tech-theseus-landed-y-combinator-the-us-special-forces-and-4-3m-from-a-tweet/"> <u>https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/17/defense-tech-theseus-landed-y-combinator-the-us-special-forces-and-4-3m-from-a-tweet/</u></a></p><p>The tweet that kickstarted Theseus:<a href="https://x.com/ilaffey2/status/1759353732075294766"> <u>https://x.com/ilaffey2/status/1759353732075294766</u></a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>0:00 Bobby Healy of Manna joins TWiST</p><p>1:41 How a Manna base works: drones migrate around the city like Waymos</p><p>7:18 Battle-hardened in Irish weather: 97% uptime in wind and rain</p><p>8:52 Margin-positive economics &amp; the path to $0.20 per delivery</p><p>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</p><p>12:32 $50M Series B vs competitors raising $600–800M</p><p>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.</p><p>22:53 The peer-to-peer drone future and hyper-local commerce</p><p>25:46 Growing from 170 to 570 people and moving manufacturing to Oklahoma</p><p>28:43 Ian Laffey of Theseus joins TWIST</p><p>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.</p><p>30:58 Inside Ukraine&#39;s drone industry: front-line iteration and free-market speed</p><p>33:55 How GPS gets jammed across the spectrum</p><p>35:10 Theseus&#39;s approach: cameras + satellite maps + ML</p><p>37:04 The product: Raspberry Pi, SD card, camera — pretending to be GPS</p><p>49:02 Ukraine: 6–8M drones a year. The US: 300K over two years.</p><p>51:17 Are US drone primes actually reconstituting the supply chain?</p><p>58:22 Y Combinator as a defense tech accelerator</p><p>59:40 &quot;Pick an issue and start working as hard as you can towards it&quot;</p><p>Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter:<a href="https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com"> <u>https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com</u></a></p><p>Check out the TWIST500:<a href="https://www.twist500.com"> <u>https://www.twist500.com</u></a></p><p>Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple:<a href="https://rb.gy/v19fcp"> <u>https://rb.gy/v19fcp</u></a></p><p>Follow Lon:</p><p>X:<a href="https://x.com/lons"> <u>https://x.com/lons</u></a></p><p>Follow Alex:</p><p>X:<a href="https://x.com/alex"> <u>https://x.com/alex</u></a></p><p>LinkedIn:<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/"> <u>⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm</u></a></p><p>Follow Jason:</p><p>X:<a href="https://twitter.com/Jason"> <u>https://twitter.com/Jason</u></a></p><p>LinkedIn:<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis"> <u>https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis</u></a></p><p>Check out all our partner offers:<a href="https://partners.launch.co/"> <u>https://partners.launch.co/</u></a></p><p>Great TWIST interviews:<a href="https://youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQ"> <u>Will Guidara,</u></a><a href="https://youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4"> <u>Eoghan McCabe</u></a>,<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-on-mod-revolt-building-a/id315114957?i=1000617333424"> <u>Steve Huffman</u></a>,<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-on-early-rejection-customer/id315114957?i=1000611761112"> <u>Brian Chesky</u></a>,<a href="https://youtu.be/y2UMzSqX94Q"> <u>Bob Moesta,</u></a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/box-ceo-aaron-levie-breaks-down-box-ai-and-generative/id315114957?i=1000612384545"> <u>Aaron Levie</u></a>,<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sophia-amoruso-on-branding-raising-a-fund-portfolio/id315114957?i=1000601352978"> <u>Sophia Amoruso</u></a>,<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/reid-hoffman-on-ais-crescendo-moment-regulation-and/id315114957?i=1000612548498"> <u>Reid Hoffman</u></a>,<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/snowflake-ceo-frank-slootman-on-moving-the-needle-win/id315114957?i=1000602560622"> <u>Frank Slootman</u></a>,<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/billy-mcfarland-on-fyre-fest-fraud-failure-hacking/id315114957?i=1000610922577"> <u>Billy McFarland</u></a></p><p>Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters:<a href="https://substack.com/@calacanis"> <u>https://substack.com/@calacanis</u></a></p><p>Follow TWiST:</p><p>Twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/TWiStartups"> <u>https://twitter.com/TWiStartups</u></a></p><p>YouTube:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin"> <u>https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin</u></a></p><p>Instagram:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups"> <u>https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups</u></a></p><p>TikTok:<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups"> <u>https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups</u></a></p><p>Substack:<a href="https://twistartups.substack.com"> <u>https://twistartups.substack.com</u></a><br></p>