Silicon Valley GirlStarted from Zero at 33 — Now He’s Building a $1B Airline | Blake Scholl
CHAPTERS
Teaser: quitting Amazon to build a supersonic airline
A fast setup of Blake Scholl’s improbable leap from tech to aviation: leaving a stable job with young kids to start Boom Supersonic. The teaser highlights major milestones—fundraising, breaking the sound barrier, and rapid political attention.
- •Left a high-paying corporate path to attempt a historic aviation startup
- •Raised major funding from top-tier Silicon Valley investors
- •Boom’s test aircraft broke the sound barrier (including “boomless” flights)
- •Momentum led to immediate conversations in Washington
14 years in tech: early entrepreneurship, Amazon, and Groupon
Blake recounts a long arc in tech—starting a company in high school, joining Amazon early, then later founding a startup that was acqui-hired by Groupon. The throughline is seeking “where the most interesting stuff was happening” and building new systems.
- •Started his first company in his parents’ basement in high school
- •Worked ~5 years at Amazon early in its growth era
- •Founded a startup that was later acqui-hired by Groupon
- •Describes running what he calls the “world’s largest spam operation” at Groupon as demoralizing
Declaring big goals: choosing “try and fail” over “never try”
He explains the mental shift required to attempt something historic: you often have to declare an audacious goal for it to become possible. He frames the real decision as whether you’d rather risk becoming “dark matter” (unknown failures) than live with not trying.
- •Inspired by Apple’s “crazy enough to change the world” message
- •Uses Bill Gates’ “computer on every desk” as an example of absurd-sounding ambition
- •Notes history remembers winners, while many courageous attempts remain unseen
- •Reframes fear: better to try and fail than to never attempt something meaningful
Lessons from early Amazon: first-principles advantage and unconventional strategy
Blake describes working near Jeff Bezos and building Amazon’s early automated Google ad buying system. The lesson: when everyone operates a domain a certain way, there may be an overlooked, scalable alternative if you reason from fundamentals and automate.
- •Built early automated search-ad management when SEM was mostly manual
- •Focused on long-tail searches with little competition rather than expensive head keywords
- •System at one point influenced ~7% of Amazon revenue and ~7% of Google revenue
- •Core insight: find a different way in a crowded space, then execute relentlessly
Why aviation: Concorde inspiration, “Johnny Ive-designed airplanes,” and a 10-year itch
Multiple threads push him toward supersonics: seeing Concorde, dreaming of better passenger experience design, and keeping “start an aerospace company” on his to-do list for a decade. The tipping point came after burnout and dissatisfaction in his corporate role.
- •Set a life goal to fly supersonic after seeing Concorde in a museum
- •Questions why airplane experiences feel poorly designed compared to consumer tech
- •Held the idea for 10 years before acting
- •Quit after feeling the corporate work wasn’t worth the tradeoff anymore
Quitting at 33 with newborn twins: risk planning, savings, and time pressure
He details the personal leap: leaving stability while raising three very young children. He mitigated risk by saving enough to fund multiple attempts and giving himself a defined window to explore the idea seriously.
- •Quit at 33 with a 14‑month‑old and newborn twins
- •Spouse initially gave him “a year to screw around” before needing a job
- •Saved enough to bankroll what he calls “two failed startups”
- •Acknowledges startup time demands can be more constraining than money
Family tradeoffs and work-life structure: becoming efficient and present
Blake talks candidly about the strain of startups on family life, including divorce and its impact on how he parents. He emphasizes presence and efficiency—making limited time with children higher quality and reducing wasted effort elsewhere.
- •Struggled with balance during early years of building Boom
- •Divorce led to a more intentional parenting approach when he has the kids
- •Focuses on being fully present during family time
- •Efficiency becomes non-negotiable when responsibilities are high
No aerospace background: replacing opinion with spreadsheets and self-education
He rejects the idea that “if it’s good, multiple teams already exist,” calling it herd-mentality advice. Instead, he attacks qualitative industry claims with quantitative modeling, then rapidly fills knowledge gaps via textbooks, remedial science, and expert checks.
- •Calls the “good ideas always have competitors” maxim ‘terrible advice’
- •Treats conventional objections as measurable questions (cost, demand, feasibility)
- •Builds spreadsheet models to test assumptions rather than trusting conclusions
- •Does intensive self-study (textbooks, calculus/physics refresh) and validates with a Stanford professor
From theory to credible plan: validation and first key hires
A Stanford expert review boosts confidence by saying his assumptions are conservative, pushing him to act. Recruiting hinges on showing rigorous work—turning ‘Are you crazy?’ into ‘How can I help?’ once candidates see the analysis.
- •Stanford professor says assumptions are conservative and team should push harder
- •Decision to proceed framed as a ‘choice of courage’
- •First chief engineer validates the model by building a more sophisticated version
- •Early credibility came from concrete analysis, not pedigree
The hardest part isn’t engineering: building the team for a century-stagnant industry
He argues aviation startups are rare because the “founder lineage” in commercial aircraft ended decades ago, making entrepreneurial talent pipelines thin. As a result, hiring requires rescuing early-career talent from incumbents or sourcing from unusual backgrounds.
- •Claims engineering is only the third-hardest challenge; team is the hardest
- •Notes last new commercial airplane company (Douglas) founded in 1921
- •Says large incumbents don’t produce a ‘Boeing mafia’ of entrepreneurial alumni
- •Hiring strategy: find mission-driven talent outside traditional aviation tracks
Ignore “experts,” but eliminate ignorance fast: first principles over lore
Blake critiques industry experts as repeaters of conventional wisdom and institutional incentives. He distinguishes between “ignorance” and “first-principles learning,” recommending founders seek teaching and underlying mechanics rather than opinions.
- •Argues many experts recycle lore instead of doing first-principles analysis
- •Incentives matter: incumbents promote narratives that preserve their advantage
- •Best entry strategy: ask people to teach you what they know, not what they believe
- •Favorite interview prompt: “Teach me something” to test true understanding
Near-death moments: cash crises, down rounds, and ‘founders fail when they give up’
He recounts intense periods where Boom neared bankruptcy, losing board members and facing recapitalizations. His takeaway: startups don’t truly die from lack of money—they die when founders decide to stop fighting.
- •Describes getting down to 7 days of cash and preparing for bankruptcy scenarios
- •Board and employee attrition becomes a ‘commitment filter’ during crises
- •Down round/recap cited as one of the most painful experiences
- •Paul Graham call: refuses to shut down even with weeks of runway—“I’m not giving up.”
Where Boom is today: breaking the sound barrier and the path to passengers by 2029
Blake situates Boom’s progress: XB-1 demonstrated private, civil supersonic capability outside government programs and did multiple supersonic passes without audible boom. He outlines the scale-up plan and timeline to fly paying passengers by the end of 2029.
- •XB-1: first non-government supersonic jet program to succeed at this level
- •Broke the sound barrier multiple times, including ‘boomless’ demonstrations
- •Built on proven ‘airliner technology’ to learn what’s needed to scale safely
- •Target: first passenger flight by end of 2029 (about four years)
Regulation, politics, and the White House moment: replacing a speed limit with a noise limit
They discuss the US/Canada supersonic overland ban and how Boom aims to change it, arguing the rule should be based on noise impact rather than Mach number. Blake shares how social media momentum and meetings in DC led to rapid White House access and bipartisan interest.
- •US/Canada have an outright supersonic ban; other regions differ
- •Frames current rule as a ‘speed limit in the sky’ that should be a ‘noise limit’
- •Believes political timing could shift quickly—potentially in weeks
- •Shares the story of being invited to the White House shortly after the boomless announcement
Sustainability, pricing, and why speed matters: energy abundance and a broader future
Blake addresses concerns about higher energy use and carbon, arguing for an abundance mindset paired with sustainable aviation fuel and synthetic fuel pathways. He then explains pricing aims (business-class level initially) and makes the case that speed enables entirely new behaviors, markets, and cultural connections.
- •Acknowledges supersonic is more energy-intensive; designs around sustainable aviation fuel
- •Advocates ‘energy abundance’ plus minimizing downsides, including synthetic fuels
- •Positions initial fares around business-class (e.g., ~$5,000 round trip) rather than Concorde’s luxury niche
- •Argues speed is often binary—enabling trips, trade, and relationships that otherwise wouldn’t happen
Founder mindset close: no days off, fear of failure, and advice to his younger self
He describes operating at extreme pace due to a narrow window of opportunity, while trying to stay present with his four kids. He advises would-be founders to accept failure as survivable, fail honestly if it happens, and pursue meaningful goals—ending with a personal reflection about family.
- •Reports going months without a day off; urgency driven by regulatory and market timing
- •Advice: visualize failure, accept it, and act—failure is rarely career-ending
- •Ethical standard: ‘fail honestly’ (don’t deceive), but also don’t quit
- •Message to younger self: talk to his grandfather more and value those relationships
