2020-03-01_Fast_Company

09

FOR

GAMIFYING

GAMING

Roblox

Every month, over 100 million global active

users spend more than 1 billion hours on

Roblox, an online gaming platform where

users can play games such as Jailbreak

and MeepCity, and develop their own. For

cofounder and CEO David Baszucki,

it’s all about “allowing the content to take

center stage.” This past year, the company

introduced tools for its 2 million–plus devel-

opers, such as a translation feature that lets

them publish game titles in multiple

languages and an upgrade that allows up

to 800 people per server to play simultane-

ously. Creators, who earned some $100

million in revenue in 2019 (up from $70 mil-

lion the year before), make money selling

virtual goods and other in-game upgrades.

“We’re the toolmakers,” Baszucki says. “Our

developers are the real creative geniuses.”

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020

48 FASTCOMPANY.COM ILLUSTRATION BY MARCIAL RODRIGO PAULETE

10

It took drone delivery pioneer Zipline,

which specializes in sending medical sup-

plies autonomously over long distances,

nearly three years to create its first coun-

trywide network. Launched in Rwanda in 2016, the San

Francisco–based company now transports roughly 75%

of the country’s blood supply outside its capital city, Ki-

gali. In May 2019, Zipline moved into Ghana—and in less

than a year reached 2,000 hospitals, covering 12 million

people. “We knew how to work with [the country’s] civil

aviation regulator, integrate with the public health-

care supply chain, set up distribution centers, and run

maintenance [on the drones],” says cofounder and CEO

Keller Rinaudo. Zipline also develops its own hardware,

avionics, and flight-control algorithms, which allows it to

iterate on its technology. (It debuted a new drone model

at the end of 2019.) The company is now applying its

knowledge around the globe: It’s launching in the Phil-

ippines later this year, and has recently been tapped by

Novant Health to bring medical supplies to rural areas in

North Carolina. Here’s how the Ghana network operates:

1. Distribution
   Center
   Each of Zipline’s
   three distribution
   centers in Ghana
   employs roughly 24
   people, operates a
   fleet of 30 drones,
   and carries some 150
   different medical

supplies, including

blood products and

vaccines. (A fourth

center is under con-

struction.) After a

hospital places an

order via SMS or

WhatsApp, fulfill-

ment center workers

pack supplies (each

drone can carry up

to 1.8 kilograms, or

two orders, of blood)

and hand them

over to flight opera-

tors who prepare the

vehicle, adding the

supply box, wings,

and rechargeable

battery to the basic

carbon-fiber frame.

FOR DELIVERING THE MOST

IMPORTANT GOODS—FAST

4

1

Bra

tisl

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Mi

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Rob

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