Boom Supersonic

Today’s show: How do you get investors excited about jets when they’re hyper-focused on new AI tools? In a fresh TWiST 500 interview, Alex sits down with Blake Scholl of Boom Supersonic to talk about the Overture, the world’s fastest plane that recently broke the sound barrier over the Mojave Desert. (That’s a first for a private company, rather than a military or government.) Hear about the secrets to avoiding a noisy and disruptive sonic boom, using satellites to set the most efficient routes, designing the Overture’s complex engine, dispelling the common myth that hardware startups are money pits and much much more. PLUS we’ve got two brand new companies entering our Gamma Pitch Deck Competition. Time to see how they stack up to our first impressive entrant, Where2Wheel. Timestamps: (02:22) Introducing Blake Scholl from Boom Supersonic (04:03) How Boom is improving on the classic Concorde experience (08:29) How hyper-fast Overture flights could change passenger behavior (10:02) Gusto. Check out the online payroll and benefits experts with software built specifically for small business and startups. Try Gusto today and get three months FREE at Gusto.com/twist. (11:10) The long road to breaking the speed barrier (14:34) How satellites could help guide Boom’s planes (16:37) The next milestones to check off Blake’s list (19:13) Breaking up the jet engine duopoly (20:57) Nexos.ai Stop Shadow AI in its tracks with the unified platform for secure AI adoption and productivity. Try it with a free 14-day trial at nexos.ai/twist. (24:28) How 3D printing speeds up the R&D process (30:26) DevStats translates complex engineering metrics into a shared language everyone at your company can understand. Get 20% off by going to https://www.DevStats.com/twist(34:10) Gamma Pitch Deck Competition: Confy vs. The Drive AI 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: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Thank you to our partners: Gusto. Check out the online payroll and benefits experts with software built specifically for small business and startups. Try Gusto today and get three months FREE at Gusto.com/twist. Nexos.ai Stop Shadow AI in its tracks with the unified platform for secure AI adoption and productivity. Try it with a free 14-day trial at nexos.ai/twist. DevStats translates complex engineering metrics into a shared language everyone at your company can understand. Get 20% off by going to https://www.DevStats.com/twist 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’s 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 Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

We talk all the time about the US attempting to become a powerhouse in advanced manufacturing, but a lot of it just sounds like talk that's not going anywhere. But some companies are trying. Boom Supersonic is an 11-year old company that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in its quest to build a new supersonic jet for commercial air passengers. And it believes that just because the business model of the Concorde didn't work out in the end, that there's no reason there can't be a market for ultra-fast travel in the sky. On this episode, we spoke with Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl about the business, and how they actually plan to manufacture planes. We discuss the challenges of advanced manufacturing in the United States and why he believes that small startups can succeed, even while legacy aerospace firms like Boeing stumble. Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

Episode 704: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Blake Scholl ( https://x.com/bscholl ) about he went from high school dropout to Groupon to the founder of a supersonic jet startup.  — Show Notes: (0:00) Find your red line (4:29) Problems hidden in plain sight (13:00) The making of Boom Supersonic (23:00) No rules of thumb (29:13) Blake's favorite interview question (34:22) Demo Day at YC (38:13) Selling Richard Branson (47:46) Being a dark matter founder (52:14) What does the most ambition of yourself look like? (55:51) Progressively overturning of the skeptics (1:01:06) Working with Jeff Bezos at Amazon — Links: • Steal Shaan's $20M Pitch Deck: https://clickhubspot.com/wem • Boom - https://boomsupersonic.com/  — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies! Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth • Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/ My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, is leading the boldest effort in decades to bring back commercial supersonic flight—this time with product-market fit. We talk about what went wrong with the world’s first try at supersonic commercial aircraft (launched in the 70s), why Boeing hasn’t introduced a new plane in over a decade, and how Blake’s startup is building a jet that flies 2x faster than today’s aircraft—without the sonic boom. This episode is a crash course in engineering ambition, regulatory dysfunction, and what it takes to defy gravity and incumbents. (00:00) Intro (00:40) The History and Evolution of Aviation (01:12) The Rise and Fall of Concorde (05:25) The Impact of Government and Founders on Innovation (08:57) Regulatory Challenges and Business Models (26:53) Boom's Vision for Supersonic Travel (47:10) Building Trust with Regulators (48:16) Challenges in the Aerospace Startup (49:36) Recruiting Talent from Unlikely Places (55:47) The Importance of Mission Success Events (01:01:52) Developing a Custom Jet Engine (01:22:54) Reindustrialization and Economic Strategy (01:34:42) Conclusion and Final Thoughts Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

Guest: Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic “Passion and drive trumps knowledge and experience,” says Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl. Long before he was running Boom — which earlier this year successfully tested the world’s first privately-developed supersonic jet — he was enabling “the world’s most obnoxious spam cannon” at Groupon, or designing a barcode-scanning game for retail shoppers. But eventually, Blake found the courage to be more audacious and do something closer to his lifelong love of aviation. He began educating himself about things he had never thought to learn, and tapping his LinkedIn network to get intros to the smartest people in the industry.  “If you imagine yourself on like the day of IPO, 99 percent of what you needed to know to get to that day, you didn't know on day one,” he says. “So, why not take 99 percent to 99.5 percent, and work on the thing you really want to exist, even if you don't know anything about it yet?” Chapters:  (01:07) - Blake on Boom’s beginnings (01:52) - Breaking the sound barrier (05:23) - Concorde’s legacy (09:36) - Navigating regulations (12:08) - Boomless supersonic flight (16:48) - The test flight (20:11) - Day-of nervousness (24:26) - Carrying passengers (26:55) - Cost & wi-fi (30:19) - “No middle seats” (32:35) - Hard tech (36:48) - What if Apple made a plane? (39:08) - Blake’s career journey (43:29) - The risk of failure (49:12) - Finding the courage (52:49) - Balancing life with Boom (56:42) - Learning how to build a jet (01:00:20) - The power of LinkedIn (01:02:38) - Y Combinator Demo Day (01:08:24) - Richard Branson (01:11:38) - Dividing yourself (01:14:19) - Being a focused dad (01:20:05) - Exuberance vs. fear (01:24:15) - Hiring slowly (01:27:17) - What “grit” means to Blake Mentioned in this episode: Chuck Yeager, ChatGPT, the Apollo program, Elon Musk, SpaceX and Falcon 1, Boom Overture, Starlink, Boeing, Airbus, iPhone, Jony Ive, Uber, Airbnb, Anduril, United Airlines, American Airlines, Eclipse Aviation, Tesla, Scott Kirby, Mike Leskinen, Inktomi, Yahoo!, Amazon, Pelago, Google Ads, Kima Labs, Barcode Hero, Groupon, iPad, Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs, Khan Academy, Sam Altman, Loopt, Virgin Atlantic, Paul Graham, Michael Seibel, Ashlee Vance, Bloomberg, Hacker News, Jared Friedman, Sen. Mark Kelly, SV Angel, Ron Conway, Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Holden, and How It’s Made. Links: Connect with Blake Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.com/twist Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website! Go to https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. OpenPhone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist * Todays show: Boom Supersonic’s Blake Scholl joins Jason to discuss the future of supersonic flight (1:18), Boom's vision and test flights (9:25), the evolution of hardware startups (22:29), the future of autonomous aviation (1:17:06), and much more! * Timestamps: (0:00) Boom Supersonic’s Blake Scholl joins Jason (1:18) Commercial flight speed & Concorde history (8:34) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (9:25) Boom's XB-1 test flights and airline partnerships (15:04) Pricing, market comparison, and venture capital's view on hardware startups (21:16) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (22:29) Evolution of startup market and hardware innovation (29:03) Boeing's innovation decline and attracting talent to projects (36:15) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://www.openphone.com/twist (37:42) Working with tech legends and overcoming engine design challenges (49:14) Cross-discipline innovation (57:01) Learning from Air France 447 and cockpit safety design (1:03:36) Cockpit technologies and the MH370 mystery (1:11:30) Public perception of aviation risks and airport security impact (1:17:06) The future of autonomous aviation * 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 Blake: X: https://x.com/bscholl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakescholl Check out: https://boomsupersonic.com / https://x.com/boomaero * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (8:34) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (21:16) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (36:15) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://www.openphone.com/twist * 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’s 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 * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

Commercial air travel has been stuck below the sound barrier for about 20 years, since the Concorde’s last flight in 2003. While the technology exists to fly about twice as fast as we do now, conventional wisdom in the aerospace industry is that supersonic flight simply doesn’t make economic sense. Blake Scholl disagrees... This week on How I Built This Lab, Blake tells Guy how Boom Supersonic is working to revive the dream of supersonic air travel—and already has orders from major airlines like United and American for their first supersonic aircraft, the Overture. Plus, Blake describes his transformation from tech startup founder to aviation leader and discusses how founder-led companies can foster innovation in commercial flight. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

Kara is out welcoming the newest member of the Pivot family! Scott is joined by co-host Stephanie Ruhle to talk about The Great Resignation, inflation, J&J’s split, and Steve Bannon’s indictment. Also, Elon is still bullying senators on Twitter, and Beto is officially running for Governor of Texas. Plus, Scott chats with Friend of Pivot, Founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, Blake Scholl about supersonic air travel. You can find Blake on Twitter at @bscholl, and Boom Supersonic at @boomaero. Send us your Listener Mail questions, via Yappa, at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic

Blake Scholl is the Founder & CEO @ Boom Supersonic, the world's fastest commercial aeroplane, aspiring to bring back supersonic passenger flight at an affordable price. To date, Blake has raised over $166M in funding with Boom from the likes of Paul Graham, Sam Altman, Ray Tonsing @ Caffeinated Capital, Homebrew and 8VC to name a few who have featured on the show in the past. Prior to changing the world of commercial flight, Blake started his career with a 5-year stint at Amazon as a Manager of Social Networks and Automated Advertising. Blake then went on to found his own company, Kima Labs, acquired by Groupon in 2012 where he then spent 2 further years before founding Boom. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Blake made the move from Groupon to changing the way we think about commercial travel today with Boom Supersonic? 2.) How was the fundraising process for Blake given he was raising for supersonic jets? What is his most memorable fundraising moment? Where does Balek believe investors provide outsized value? Where could the investing class improve? How should the fund structures today change? 3.) What deliberate choices and decisions has Blake made to find and acquire the best talent? What is Blake's favourite interview question? What works? What does not work? What specific elements has Blake built into the culture at Boom to build operational excellence? 4.) How has Blake seen himself evolve and develop as a leader over the last few years? What have been the most challenging elements to develop and scale? How does Blake feel on whether founders should have experience on the industry they are entering or if there are benefits of not having so? 5.) What would Blake really like to change about the world of tech and Silicon Valley today? How does Blake feel about the current level of both innovation and founder ambitions? What can be further done to foster this in the coming years? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Blake's Fave Book: Atlas Shrugged As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Blake and on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Carta simplifies how startups and investors manage equity, track cap tables, and get valuations. Go to carta.com/20vc to get 10% off. More than 800,000 employees and shareholders use Carta to manage hundreds of billions of dollars in equity and Carta now offers Fund Administration so you can see real-time data in the Carta platform and work with Carta's team of experienced fund accountants. Go to carta.com/20vc to get 10% off.

Blake Scholl

Founder and CEO

Boom Supersonic