Members of Technical Staff Climber Vs Gym Bro, with Keller Cliffton
Dec 4, 2025
Keller Clifton, CEO of Zipline and former pro rock climber, shares insights on scaling drone logistics for medical supplies. He discusses how climbing taught him resilience and the parallels between overcoming challenges in sports and entrepreneurship. Keller reflects on the social dynamics of climbing, its physical demands, and the technique over strength philosophy. Their humorous banter contrasts gym workouts with climbing strength and touches on the evolving culture within the climbing community.
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From Restaurant Shifts To Rock Faces
- Keller Clifton fell in love with climbing after a friend took him to a gym while he worked in restaurants in high school.
- Climbing became central to his life, where he met his wife and now takes their children to the gym.
Living In A Car On $5k A Year
- Keller lived in his 2008 Honda Fit and survived on roughly $5,000 a year while competing as a pro climber.
- That period taught him he could be fulfilled with very little money, which later influenced Zipline's risk tolerance.
Failure As Training For Founders
- Keller draws a direct parallel between climbing and entrepreneurship as iterative failure-driven pursuits.
- He says loving the process of repeated failure prepares founders to take big risks and keep improving.