Big tech wants the drone at your doorstep. Amazon. Walmart. Google. Zipline.
Jake Vander Ploeg thinks they're chasing the wrong mile.
Jake is the founder of The Good Drone Company. He's an electrical engineer who built autonomy at Boeing, SpaceX, and Apple. Now he builds hybrid-electric cargo drones. And he's flying them in Africa.
The Last Mile Problem
The last mile is the most expensive leg of shipping. Jake puts it at more than half the cost of getting a package to your door.
So why not drones?
Volume. Small packages, nonstop, same day. To make a dent, you need aircraft flying constantly over every neighborhood.
"I don't want that over my house," Jake said. "And I'm big into the industry."
The Middle Mile
Jake's answer is hub to hub. Bigger drones. Longer range. Low altitude, over empty country.
His first customers are what he calls high-cost-of-downtime industries: mining, oil and gas, energy, agriculture. When a part breaks, they lose money every hour. Many already pay for helicopters to fix that.
"Helicopters are terrible," he said.
The Good Drone Company says its drones deliver 20x faster than ground and 20x cheaper than overnight express. If that holds, the customer already exists. The budget already exists. The drone just replaces the helicopter.
Why Africa
The U.S. built the technology. Other countries let it fly first.
Zipline proved the model in Rwanda. Jake followed the same playbook. Fly where the roads are dirt, and the need is real. Collect data. Bring it home.
At home, the unlock is Part 108, the FAA's rule for flying beyond visual line of sight. Jake expects middle mile to be the fastest-growing segment once it lands.
Why It Matters Here
Colorado has three highways into the mountains. One big snowstorm and you're stuck.
"It's a trap," Jake said.
Drones wait out the storm too. But the minute it clears, they fly. No plows. No chain law. No closures.
That's the middle mile. It's not a delivery app. It's infrastructure.
Watch the full conversation below.
Godspeed.