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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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