Started from Zero at 33 — Now He’s Building a $1B Airline | Blake Scholl

1. 0:00 – 0:54

   Teaser

   1. MMMarina Mogilko0:00

      So you worked at Amazon?

   2. BSBlake Scholl0:01

      It was just an absolutely incredible place. They were paying me very well, and I was 33. Groupon had, like, acqui-hired my first company. Uh, I was running the world's largest spam operation.

   3. MMMarina Mogilko0:10

      Do you have a family?

   4. BSBlake Scholl0:11

      Yes, 14-month-old daughter, and, like, twins who had just been born.

   5. MMMarina Mogilko0:14

      And you decide to quit your corporate job and start something completely new?

   6. BSBlake Scholl0:19

      I guess. There has not been a startup in aviation for a century. There is opportunity, and we have to take advantage of it quickly enough. We raised $150 million from, like, some of the most amazing investors: Paul Graham, Sam Altman, Y Combinator, Bessemer-

   7. MMMarina Mogilko0:31

      Congratulations

   8. BSBlake Scholl0:31

      ... Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman. Like, all of those people put in at least $10 million. The world is very open to supersonic right now. Now we've got runway, and then we broke the sound barrier, and it was 24 hours from breaking the sound barrier to being in the West Wing of the White House.

   9. MMMarina Mogilko0:43

      Can you give advice to someone who's stuck with their idea of building a Boom-sized company-

   10. BSBlake Scholl0:48

       Mm-hmm

   11. MMMarina Mogilko0:49

       ... but they just can't take this leap of faith? They have a family.

   12. BSBlake Scholl0:52

       Oh, yeah.

   13. MMMarina Mogilko0:53

       Blake,

2. 0:54 – 2:12

   His early career, 14 years in tech

   1. MMMarina Mogilko0:54

      thank you so much. I'm so excited about this conversation because you did something [chime] a lot of people are dreaming of, but they don't have enough courage. And I wanted to focus, um, this conversation on basically how you changed your mindset and went from a corporate job at Amazon to building the next-generation airline. So you worked at Amazon, right? You were a tech guy for 13 years?

   2. BSBlake Scholl1:20

      Uh, I was at Amazon for about five, and then another startup, and then a startup I founded, and then that got acqui-hired by Groupon. But so yeah, I was bopping around tech for, like, 14 years. I started my first company in my parents' basement in high school, and, uh, and I always just wanted to go where the most interesting stuff was happening and, like, build something new. It was one of the things that was sort of a, like, mind fuck for me is, like, I didn't see myself as radically different. And the decision... I remember really struggling with the decision to, to start Boom. And, uh, and it was like, this is- like, if by going and starting a supersonic jet company, I'm almost, like, telling the world that I'm different. Uh, because if it succeeds, it will, like, by definition, be historic. And I'm like, "Who am I to do this? I don't have the resume for this." Um, like, and then I, I... T- the way I kinda got my mind around it was a couple

3. 2:12 – 3:31

   "People have to declare big things for big things to actually happen."

   1. BSBlake Scholl2:12

      things. One was I was very inspired by that 1997 Apple ad campaign, where the, the tagline was, "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world-

   2. MMMarina Mogilko2:21

      Uh-huh

   3. BSBlake Scholl2:21

      ... are the ones who do." And it's, it's really true. And then, and then I thought of Bill Gates, you know, who had started Microsoft in the '70s and had set a goal of, uh, putting a computer in every home and on every desk running Microsoft software. And, and it was- like, at the time he said that, that was, like, absurd. A- and yet he did it.

   4. MMMarina Mogilko2:41

      Yeah.

   5. BSBlake Scholl2:41

      And I was like, "Wow, okay." So people have to be willing to declare big things in order for the big things to actually happen. And the ones, the ones who try and succeed, you know, we k- we know who they are. History knows their names. You know, it's the Wright brothers, who were bicycle entrepreneurs turned i- inventor of literally the airplane.

   6. MMMarina Mogilko3:01

      Yeah.

   7. BSBlake Scholl3:01

      You know, Jobs, Gates, like, everyone else we know at that level. And, and there's probably also, like, a dark matter of entrepreneurs, the people who, the people who tried, and they didn't succeed.

   8. MMMarina Mogilko3:13

      Exactly, and we don't hear about those people, right?

   9. BSBlake Scholl3:15

      We don't hear about them. And I was like, "Okay, really my choice is, like, do I wanna be in that category if I fail, or would I rather be in the category of people who didn't try?" And once I saw it that way, like, I was like, "I'd rather be in the dark matter of entrepreneurs than in the, like, didn't try."

4. 3:31 – 7:38

   Working at Amazon with Jeff Bezos, the lessons he learned there

   1. MMMarina Mogilko3:31

      Did you have an opportunity to work with, uh, Jeff Bezos directly when you were at Amazon?

   2. BSBlake Scholl3:33

      I did a little bit. Like, you know, I was approximately engineer number 200. So it was, it was after IPO, like, the place was established. You know, I think I got in two weeks before the dot-com hiring freeze.

   3. MMMarina Mogilko3:45

      Oh.

   4. BSBlake Scholl3:45

      So the bubble, the bubble was, like, imploding as I was, like, rushing in the door. [chuckles]

   5. MMMarina Mogilko3:50

      [chuckles]

   6. BSBlake Scholl3:50

      Um, and yeah, I was something like engineer number 200, and the, the... Like, Amazon, um, I mean, I don't know what it's like now, but, like, back then, it was just an absolutely incredible place. And, uh, everyone worked hard. There was, like, more important stuff to be done than people to do it, which, um, makes it very apolitical. There's like, no one's, like, competing for what work and projects. So, like, projects are, like, sitting on the floor, and if you wanna do one, just, like, pick it up and just do it. And so I got to work on something that, that Jeff cared about, uh, just 'cause I was excited about it and did it, and it was basically doing, um, Amazon's first ad buy from Google. This was, like, 2003, so it wasn't obvious that web search was gonna be important. It wasn't s- uh, obvious that, like, search engine marketing was going to be important. And, uh, and we ended up building this thing that was the first automated ad management system on the internet. Um, and it, at one time, I think it was responsible, at the same time, for 7% of Amazon's revenue-

   7. MMMarina Mogilko4:43

      Wow

   8. BSBlake Scholl4:43

      ... and 7% of Google's revenue.

   9. MMMarina Mogilko4:45

      Wow!

   10. BSBlake Scholl4:46

       And, and it was just like... Like, I, I managed to, like, extract my, you know... I sort of visualize it as I'm standing next to a rocket, and my, like, jacket, like, gets caught on the rocket, and the rocket launches, and I'm, like, up there with the rocket, like, kind of hanging on.

   11. MMMarina Mogilko4:57

       [chuckles]

   12. BSBlake Scholl4:57

       Like, wow, can I... You know, and I, like, you know, so, like, Jeff cared. It got a lot of visibility into Amazon, and I always felt like I was just, like, an inch from screwing it up enough that they would fire me and put somebody who actually knew what they were doing in charge of it. [chuckles]

   13. MMMarina Mogilko5:08

       What was your key learning? What- you did this amazing project with Jeff.

   14. BSBlake Scholl5:11

       Yeah. I mean, there was, like, a bunch of key learnings out of it. Um, and like, one was sort of the, the experience, um, is it re- reflecting back on it many years later, uh, the, the experience of looking at a space, everyone's doing it one way. So back, back then, search engine marketing, it was all done by hand. Like, people would, people would choose their keywords, write their ads, and so they could only have a few keywords and only a few ads, and Amazon had millions of products. But, like, most of the competitors would, like, they'd buy, like, the keyword, like, camera or, like, cellphone, and those, those would be, like, bid up with tons of ads on them. But there were 300 million unique searches per month. Most of them had no ads.... I was like, "Oh, we should just buy, like, ignore the popular things."

   15. MMMarina Mogilko5:50

       Mm-hmm.

   16. BSBlake Scholl5:51

       "We'll buy, we'll buy all the rest of them and do it with automation." And so at the meta level, it was this experience of, like, looking at a space, everyone's doing it one way. There's actually a completely different way. Let's go do that, and then we actually made it work. And I, I hadn't really had this thought until right now, but probably that, like, ticked something in me of like, "Okay, we can go look at a space, think differently about it than everyone else has ever done-

   17. MMMarina Mogilko6:12

       Yeah

   18. BSBlake Scholl6:12

       ... and, like, make something successful."

   19. MMMarina Mogilko6:13

       [upbeat music] When I was preparing for this interview, I jumped on a call with the CMO of Boom, and I was fascinated by the strategic approach they used to build the company. She told me that before they actually designed the passenger seats, they researched what their target audience might like, what type of seats they prefer, what type of service they prefer, and only then they build the product, the airline. And this customer-first approach should be the foundation for every company's product strategy. If you understand how important marketing is, you will find this report by HubSpot very interesting. It's HubSpot's newly released marketing strategy report for 2025. It unveils cutting-edge trends, powerful tools, and proven strategies that will boost your 2025 marketing approach and help you stay ahead in an AI-first world. They interviewed over 1,200 marketing leaders across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and this report offers practical strategies for seamlessly integrating AI tools into your marketing workflow, data-backed approaches to ensure success in both B2B and B2C marketing, actionable steps for building content-driven, social-first strategies that resonate with your audience. It's not enough to just keep up with the AI in marketing. You need to lead it. Download the report now, and turn these cutting-edge insights into immediate results for your marketing efforts. It's absolutely free. Link in the description below. Do you remember

5. 7:38 – 8:20

   What led him to transition from a corporate job to starting Boom

   1. MMMarina Mogilko7:38

      that day when you woke up, and you thought, like, "I want to take this leap and build an airline?"

   2. BSBlake Scholl7:43

      Oh, yeah, a couple threads that connected up to it. Like, one was I'd seen a Concorde in a museum in my 20s, and I'd set a lifetime goal of flying supersonic, and I put a Google alert on it. That was, like, one thread. Like, another thread was, uh, every time I would get on an airplane, I would ask, "What would this be like if somebody like Johnny Ive had designed it, not like whoever actually did at Boeing?" And so that would, like, rattle around my head, and I, I sort of had in my head, like, "Oh, I wanna become an internet billionaire and then start an aviation company." And then the, the first part never happened. [chuckles] And so I had this thing on my to-do list that was like, "Figure out how to start an aerospace company," and, like, nothing happened with it-

   3. MMMarina Mogilko8:17

      Wow. [chuckles]

   4. BSBlake Scholl8:17

      ... for 10 years.

   5. MMMarina Mogilko8:18

      [chuckles]

   6. BSBlake Scholl8:18

      Uh, and eventually,

6. 8:20 – 9:06

   Why he quit his stable job at 33, with newborn twins and a toddler daughter

   1. BSBlake Scholl8:20

      you know, uh, Groupon had, like, acqui-hired my first company. Uh, I was running, I was running, like, the world's largest, like, spam operation, and it was just so demoralizing.

   2. MMMarina Mogilko8:30

      Mm.

   3. BSBlake Scholl8:30

      And I... And like I, I... They were paying me very well, and I was, like, saving up money. In my head, I was saving up money to buy myself an airplane. And at some point, I'm like, "It's not worth staying here longer for the airplane to be better. I'm just gonna fire myself and, like, go do something else." Um-

   4. MMMarina Mogilko8:45

      How old were you?

   5. BSBlake Scholl8:46

      I was, uh, 33.

   6. MMMarina Mogilko8:47

      33.

   7. BSBlake Scholl8:47

      33.

   8. MMMarina Mogilko8:48

      Do you have a family back then, or?

   9. BSBlake Scholl8:50

      Uh, I had just... Yes. Uh, I think I had s- a 14-month-old daughter-

   10. MMMarina Mogilko8:56

       [gasps]

   11. BSBlake Scholl8:57

       ... and, like, twins who had just been born.

   12. MMMarina Mogilko8:59

       And you decide to quit your corporate job and start something completely new?

   13. BSBlake Scholl9:05

       I guess. [chuckles]

7. 9:06 – 9:44

   How much money he saved for his startup

   1. BSBlake Scholl9:06

      Uh-

   2. MMMarina Mogilko9:06

      Were you scared? Like, for me, I have a three, a three-year-old and a five-year-old for us-

   3. BSBlake Scholl9:10

      Mm-hmm

   4. MMMarina Mogilko9:10

      ... with my husband.

   5. BSBlake Scholl9:11

      Yeah.

   6. MMMarina Mogilko9:12

      To, like, change our lives completely, just unimaginable right now.

   7. BSBlake Scholl9:14

      Um, it didn't feel so crazy to me at the time. Uh, my, my then wife was like, "Well, okay, honey, you've got a year to screw around with this jet thing."

   8. MMMarina Mogilko9:24

      Oh, she gave you a year. [chuckles]

   9. BSBlake Scholl9:24

      "And then, and then, you know, and then I expect you to get a job."

   10. MMMarina Mogilko9:27

       Yeah. [chuckles]

   11. BSBlake Scholl9:28

       [chuckles] But I, I'd saved up enough money that... I, I, I think this is actually important. I had, I had saved up enough money. In my head, I'd budgeted for two failed startups.

   12. MMMarina Mogilko9:35

       Mm.

   13. BSBlake Scholl9:35

       So I, I could, I could, like, start one, seed it with a little bit of money, fail, start another one, seed it with a little money, and fail before I'd actually have to get a job.

   14. MMMarina Mogilko9:42

       But it's also about time, right?

8. 9:44 – 10:30

   How he managed his time with family while building a startup

   1. MMMarina Mogilko9:44

      It's not just about money, 'cause-

   2. BSBlake Scholl9:45

      Right

   3. MMMarina Mogilko9:45

      ... at a startup, you work, like, what? 20 hours a day?

   4. BSBlake Scholl9:49

      Uh, you know, maybe 28 some days.

   5. MMMarina Mogilko9:50

      Yeah, but, like, [chuckles] how, how do you manage that with kids?

   6. BSBlake Scholl9:54

      Um-

   7. MMMarina Mogilko9:54

      Do you, do you regret, like, missing that time when they were so young, or you were able to?

   8. BSBlake Scholl9:58

      I mean, I str- I struggled with it, uh, for sure, and in some ways, in some ways, I was a very reluctant father back then. Um, and then, uh, you know, a- a- along the way, you know, I got divorced, and it actually made me a better father. Um, 'cause I, I realized, like, when I... You know, I, I only have the kids half the time, and when I have them, I wanna be really present.

   9. MMMarina Mogilko10:16

      Yeah.

   10. BSBlake Scholl10:17

       And, and so I think it, you know, it's not like this is the situation I ever would've designed, but it probably actually made me a better father and a better CEO, and it sort of forced just getting efficient. Uh, like, "Okay, I'm not gonna be the dad that spends the most time, but the time I spend

9. 10:30 – 12:57

   How he started a company without formal education

   1. BSBlake Scholl10:30

      better, better be good."

   2. MMMarina Mogilko10:31

      Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so you decide to start an airline company with no formal education in aerospace engineering whatsoever.

   3. BSBlake Scholl10:39

      Mm-hmm.

   4. MMMarina Mogilko10:40

      Can you walk me through this mindset where you're like, "Yeah, I can just learn it by myself?" [chuckles]

   5. BSBlake Scholl10:44

      A- a- again, I think it mattered that I'd sort of given myself a year to wander around. And, um, you know, I sort of thought, "Okay, supersonic jets would obviously be great. No one's doing it." Conventional wisdom says that means there's something wrong with the idea. Like, you get told that in Silicon Valley all the time. "If your idea is any good, there are three or four teams already working on it." And by the way, it's total bullshit. It's terrible advice.

   6. MMMarina Mogilko11:09

      Thank you. [chuckles]

   7. BSBlake Scholl11:09

      Terrible advice. Um, as-

   8. MMMarina Mogilko11:11

      It's great to hear that.

   9. BSBlake Scholl11:11

      What, what, what happens-

   10. MMMarina Mogilko11:12

       Refreshing. [chuckles]

   11. BSBlake Scholl11:12

       ... what that does is it creates a herd mentality. On one hand, it's like, oh, like, you know, there's a zillion people building ChatGPT wrappers. Back in the day, there was a zillion people building photo-sharing apps, and then there are entire things that have nobody working on them, and nobody will work on them 'cause they don't want to be alone. Or they, they figure, "If this were good, there'd be another team," and it's just, it's just terrible advice. And so, um, I thought, "Okay, well, it probably it will be a bad idea, but I wanna know for myself why." And the internet was full of conventional wisdom about, um, why supersonic jets couldn't exist. You know, like, oh, people won't pay more for speed, and it's inherently more expensive, and you can't have a big enough market unless you can solve supersonic flight over land, which is technical and regulatory.... and so decades of R&D is going to be required to solve all these things. And, uh, observe those are all qualitative claims about quantitative questions. Like, supersonic flight costs more. Okay, why, and how much more? People won't pay more for speed? Well, that doesn't seem right.

   12. MMMarina Mogilko12:12

       Yeah.

   13. BSBlake Scholl12:12

       People pay more for direct flights than connecting flights all the time.

   14. MMMarina Mogilko12:15

       Yeah.

   15. BSBlake Scholl12:15

       It's a question of how much. Um, the market's not big enough for that supersonic flight over land. Is it? How big is big enough? It's a measurable thing. And so, uh, and so I just started building spreadsheets.

   16. MMMarina Mogilko12:26

       I like this approach. Quantify everything.

   17. BSBlake Scholl12:28

       Quantify everything-

   18. MMMarina Mogilko12:28

       Yeah

   19. BSBlake Scholl12:28

       ... and don't accept other people's conclusions about quantitative questions. I've seen that over and over again, where, like, yeah, there are these, like, claims, and like sometimes I still make the mistake of accepting them, and then I go build the spreadsheet model, and I find it's very surprising what the real truth is. So at any rate, I discovered that if you could build, um, basically a single-digit efficiency improvement, um, like just a few percent better than Concorde designed in the 1960s, you could build a supersonic seat with the economics of a business class flatbed.

10. 12:57 – 14:30

    How he moved from theory to practice

    1. BSBlake Scholl12:57

       And then-

    2. MMMarina Mogilko12:58

       And then once you had those calculations, you're like, "I need to hire the best people?"

    3. BSBlake Scholl13:01

       Well, there was a little bit more. Like, that was a three-line spreadsheet, and it was like, okay, it doesn't... On the face of it, it seems plausible. At that point, I bought every textbook I could find, and I started reading it. I did remedial calculus and physics, 'cause I hadn't had any since high school, and I started building a more detailed spreadsheet model of the airplane and a more detailed spreadsheet model of the market. And in the middle of '14, I, you know, kind of had it developed a bit, and I took it to a professor at Stanford, 'cause these things are sometimes, like, assumptions in-

    4. MMMarina Mogilko13:27

       Yeah

    5. BSBlake Scholl13:27

       ... you know, conclusions out, but the, the, the quality of the answer is only as good as the quality of the assumption. And, you know, there were assumptions in there about, like, lift-to-drag ratios, which is aerodynamic efficiency, specific fuel consumption, which is, like, how efficient an engine is, and, like, where could we get on a couple of those key parameters would impact whether the end product was practical or not. So I took it to a professor at Stanford who had done a bunch of supersonics research, and I'm like: Dude, I have not... You know, I've been at this for, like, two seconds. I don't know what I'm doing. Like, you know where R&D is at on these things now. Are any of these assumptions reasonable? And he said, "Blake, if you're gonna do this, you need to push your team way harder, because all of these are conservative." And I remember, like, leaving his office in this, like, like, stupor in a way of like: Wow, I don't know how it could be that I'm the human that, like, stumbled across the practicality of supersonic passenger flight when nobody else did, but either I have no courage, or I'm gonna go find some people and, like, see how far we can get this. Um, and, and it... That decision really did come down to just... It, it felt like a choice of courage.

    6. MMMarina Mogilko14:29

       How

11. 14:30 – 15:50

    Challenges in hiring the right people

    1. MMMarina Mogilko14:30

       was it hiring people from major airline companies-

    2. BSBlake Scholl14:34

       Yeah, the, the-

    3. MMMarina Mogilko14:34

       ... without having the experience, right?

    4. BSBlake Scholl14:36

       So people, people think that, like, the engineering of building a supersonic jet must be really hard, and, you know, it, it is in a way, but it's, like, the third-hardest thing at Boom. Like, the third-hardest thing at Boom is engineering. The next-hardest thing is financing, and the actual hardest thing is team. And, and the reason team is so hard is that, um, there has not been a startup in aviation for a century.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko14:58

       Oh.

    6. BSBlake Scholl14:58

       Like, literally-

    7. MMMarina Mogilko14:59

       Yeah

    8. BSBlake Scholl14:59

       ... the last new commercial airplane company was Douglas Aircraft, founded in 1921. So all the founders retired in the 1960s, which is a big part of why we don't have supersonic already. Um, and then, you know, and so these, and so then you've got the founders, and then the founders retire, and then you've got the people who work with the founders, and then those people retire, and then, God help us, the accountants take over. Um, and, uh, and that's, uh, that's very much the story of Boeing, but, like, the, the Bo- there, you know, there's PayPal mafia.

    9. MMMarina Mogilko15:27

       Yeah.

    10. BSBlake Scholl15:28

        Right? There's, like, Amazon mafia. There is no Boeing mafia. [chuckles] Like, there are no entrepreneurial-minded people who come out of these big companies, and so we had to, like, find people from bizarre other corners of the universe-

    11. MMMarina Mogilko15:40

        Mm.

    12. BSBlake Scholl15:40

        ... um, uh, or find people who had, like, gone to Boeing and are- were still early in their career, and we could, like, rescue them before they were destroyed.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko15:48

        Was it hard to persuade them?

12. 15:50 – 17:18

    "When I told people I was building a supersonic jet, they said, 'Are you crazy?'"

    1. BSBlake Scholl15:50

       Well, yes and no. Like, the, the, the... When I would tell people I'm building a supersonic passenger jet, the first question was always, "Are you crazy?" [chuckles]

    2. MMMarina Mogilko15:57

       [chuckles]

    3. BSBlake Scholl15:58

       And, and they, they didn't always say it out loud-

    4. MMMarina Mogilko16:00

       Mm-hmm

    5. BSBlake Scholl16:00

       ... but I could always tell-

    6. MMMarina Mogilko16:01

       But you could tell. [chuckles]

    7. BSBlake Scholl16:01

       I could tell it was the real first question.

    8. MMMarina Mogilko16:03

       Mm-hmm.

    9. BSBlake Scholl16:03

       And I could persuade them that the answer was maybe no. Uh, then the second question is, "How do I get involved and help?" And I, I can... I'm thinking of, like, the person we hired as our first, like, chief engineer, um, and we met, um... Like, we, like, we, uh, we sort of networked my way to him, like, you know, like, the whole, like, six degrees to Kevin Bacon kind of a thing. And, uh, a- uh, and, and he, he and I, like, met in, like, the subway outside SFO, and, and I'm like: Hey, dude, I wanna show you my spreadsheet and, like, like, what I've figured out so far.

    10. MMMarina Mogilko16:32

        Oh, wow.

    11. BSBlake Scholl16:33

        And he's, he's like: "Man, I'm used to seeing all these internet people who have crackpot airplane ideas." Um, and he's like, "This is not a crackpot airplane idea." [chuckles] "And I had no idea you'd be this far."

    12. MMMarina Mogilko16:42

        Mm.

    13. BSBlake Scholl16:43

        And he's like, "This actually makes sense." And he's like, "I want you to hire me as a consultant, and I'll, like, consult with you." And I'm like: Nope, that's not an option. It's full-time or nothing. [chuckles]

    14. MMMarina Mogilko16:50

        Yeah.

    15. BSBlake Scholl16:51

        And, uh, and he's like, "Oh, I, I don't wanna do a full-time job. This will burn me out." And I, and I'm like, "Okay," and he... But he couldn't stop himself, 'cause he was, like, in love with the idea, and he comes back, like, the next week, and he's like, "I built a spreadsheet an order of magnitude, like, more sophisticated than what you built-"

    16. MMMarina Mogilko17:06

        Wow.

    17. BSBlake Scholl17:07

        "... and it gives the same answer."

    18. MMMarina Mogilko17:08

        Oh, that's awesome.

    19. BSBlake Scholl17:09

        Uh, and, like, it looks like this works.

    20. MMMarina Mogilko17:10

        So you had the first, like, actual industry confirmation?

    21. BSBlake Scholl17:13

        Yeah, yeah.

    22. MMMarina Mogilko17:14

        And then it just started from there, right?

    23. BSBlake Scholl17:15

        Mm-hmm.

    24. MMMarina Mogilko17:16

        Well, I remember I read something

13. 17:18 – 19:20

    Why you shouldn’t listen to industry experts and should check the information yourself

    1. MMMarina Mogilko17:18

       that the industry was still, like, criticizing you and saying it's not viable.

    2. BSBlake Scholl17:21

       Oh, they still are.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko17:22

       They... And they still are.

    4. BSBlake Scholl17:24

       [chuckles] Right.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko17:24

       How do you navigate this? This is one thing, you know, if general public says, "Oh, this is-

    6. BSBlake Scholl17:29

       Mm-hmm

    7. MMMarina Mogilko17:29

       ... not possible," but when the industry experts are like, "You know, we've been there, we've done that."

    8. BSBlake Scholl17:33

       Yeah. Industry experts don't know what they're talking about. [chuckles] Like, the, uh, like, the quote-unquote experts are, are often just repeating the same conventional wisdom and haven't done any first principles analysis. And, uh, and sometimes it gets fed by, like, the lore. Like, like, the big jet engine companies tell everybody that only the big jet engine companies can build jet engines, because of course they do, right? But then that gets repeated, and, like, people accept it as if it's like physics, but it's not physics.... like, like SpaceX started from nothing, and they put stuff into orbit. And by the way, they built their own rocket engines. And, you know, and I was very inspired by that. I was like, "Wow," you know, "Elon was an internet guy, and he put stuff into orbit," and like, that seems way harder than a supersonic jet. A- actually, it's not. I think the supersonic jet's actually harder, but I didn't know that back then.

    9. MMMarina Mogilko18:18

       Would you agree with the phrase that's kind of related to this, "Ignorance is my superpower"? Is it true or not, that-

    10. BSBlake Scholl18:24

        I don't think it's ex- I, I don't think that's actually true. Ig- ignorance is definitely not good. I think the superpower is coming into a new domain and seeking out first principles. It's about w- actually getting rid of ignorance quickly, and not by hoovering up opinions. Like, uh, the, the wrong way to come into a new domain is to go around and ask a bunch of people what they think.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko18:45

        Yeah.

    12. BSBlake Scholl18:46

        Uh, a much better way to do it is to go into a new, new domain and, like, ask a bunch of people to teach you what they know. And so my favorite interview question at Boom was, "Teach me something," and still is. By the way, you- I, I don't mind if everybody knows that, 'cause you can't fake your way through that interview question, even if you know it's coming.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko19:00

        Yeah.

    14. BSBlake Scholl19:00

        Uh, like, 'cause you can't teach something unless you actually understand it.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko19:03

        Absolutely.

    16. BSBlake Scholl19:04

        And so w- on one hand, this is a great filter for people who really understand. On the other hand, I learned a lot just interviewing people. And so my, my approach was not find out people's conclusions and, like, fit them all together into a picture, but rather, like, hoover up all that knowledge myself. So it was very much the opposite of ignorance is a superpower. I,

14. 19:20 – 19:56

    No one can tell you what you’re capable of, except yourself

    1. BSBlake Scholl19:20

       I think, like, getting rid of ignorance quickly is a superpower.

    2. MMMarina Mogilko19:23

       But also believing that you can crack a problem that a lot of people tried to crack-

    3. BSBlake Scholl19:27

       Y-

    4. MMMarina Mogilko19:27

       -and then gave up on it.

    5. BSBlake Scholl19:28

       Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I actually had that belief, and, like, some days I still don't have that belief. Um, the... I, like, a thing I believe is, it is impossible to know one's own limits except by picking something incredibly motivating and going all in. Like, what can someone do or not do? How do you know on day one? Like, the SAT doesn't tell you.

    6. MMMarina Mogilko19:46

       Yeah.

    7. BSBlake Scholl19:46

       Your grades in college don't tell you. Um, your friends don't tell you. The only way to find out is pick something you'll never give up on and see how far you can go.

    8. MMMarina Mogilko19:55

       I love that. What

15. 19:56 – 20:33

    The failures that can turn out to be winning moments

    1. MMMarina Mogilko19:56

       if you're later in your life? Like, because some people will tell, like, "Oh, if you're talented, you should have had some wins already," right?

    2. BSBlake Scholl20:03

       Yeah. Um, I think it's irre... My experience has been it's irrelevant. Like, I had some really big early wins, you know. Like, wow, I'm 24. I've got a P&L at Amazon. I got to work with Jeff, you know, and then, then bam, two failed startups. Um, and, uh, you know, so I could've been like, "Oh, I guess I'm not so good." Like, "I guess I shouldn't try anything." And I don't know. Like, it's- it could've been true. Uh, hell, it could still, still be true. We could, we could screw this Boom thing up, but we've gotten, you know, we've gotten pretty far so far.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko20:31

       What was your hardest day building

16. 20:33 – 21:17

    The hardest day at Boom

    1. MMMarina Mogilko20:33

       Boom?

    2. BSBlake Scholl20:34

       It seems like we have, like, a near-death experience about once, once a year. Um, you know, like, I'm thinking of last year. So l- la- last year we had... We got down to seven days of cash, and, uh, like, the HR team and the legal team had, like, a plan to, like, file for bankruptcy and, like, you know, like, you know, that we'd been, like, on the verge of for, like, a long time. And, like, everyone was nervous. Like, a bunch of people would quit over it. Like, I had board members quit over it.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko21:00

       Oh, wow.

    4. BSBlake Scholl21:00

       Um, it was really obnoxious, actually. Um, and it was like a filter for people who are really committed is what it turned out to be. Uh, but, like, that was incredibly tough, and then we had to do, like, a down round and a recap to, like, get the company back together, and that was, like, one of the most painful things I've ever gone through.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko21:16

       Have

17. 21:17 – 22:00

    3 weeks from bankruptcy – What separates a successful founder from a failing one?

    1. MMMarina Mogilko21:17

       you ever thought of giving up, like, "Oh, it's not working?"

    2. BSBlake Scholl21:19

       Uh, I mean, there are all kinds of days where I'm like, I'm looking at a problem, and I feel like I'm staring down the barrel of a gun, and it's like, "That could be the thing that kills us." And then the answer has always been, like, "Don't give up." Like, I remember when we got down to, like, three weeks of cash, and I called, uh... I called Paul Graham, and I was like: Dude, I need your advice. We've got three weeks of cash. I'm trying to figure out a bridge our way to the next milestone. Uh, and he's like, "Aren't you shutting the company down? Usually, when people call me and they say they've got three weeks of cash, they're telling me they're shutting the company down." I said, "No, I'm not giving up." [chuckles] "We're finding our way through this. I don't know the way right now, but I'm absolutely not shutting the company down. I don't care if I have to take it through bankruptcy and restart it. I'm not giving up."

    3. MMMarina Mogilko21:57

       That's amazing. I think this is what really

18. 22:00 – 22:30

    Why 99% of startups fail

    1. MMMarina Mogilko22:00

       defines success for, for entrepreneurs.

    2. BSBlake Scholl22:02

       The... You know, some people say, like, companies fail when they run out of money, and in a certain sense, it's true, but I think they actually fail when the founder gives up. And, and so, uh, the whole, like, I'm just... You know, I will put myself through whatever quantity of hell it takes to succeed-

    3. MMMarina Mogilko22:16

       Yeah

    4. BSBlake Scholl22:16

       ... is really powerful.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko22:17

       Yeah. Yeah.

    6. BSBlake Scholl22:18

       I guess I could spend the rest of my life, like, foolishly failing, but, um, uh, I don't think that's what's gonna happen.

    7. MMMarina Mogilko22:24

       That's awesome. And t- let's talk about what's going on right now. You just had your supersonic

19. 22:30 – 24:00

    How close they are to launching

    1. MMMarina Mogilko22:30

       flight. Congratulations. Uh, the test flight, right?

    2. BSBlake Scholl22:33

       Mm-hmm.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko22:34

       Just, uh... So what's going on? How far are you from actually launching?

    4. BSBlake Scholl22:38

       About four years from carrying passengers. Our goal is first passenger on board by the end of '29. So it's, uh, it's not that far away. And to, and to just concretize wh- where we are right now, we, we've built and flown the first-ever supersonic jet outside of a government or military. Like, I, I think I asked ChatGPT a few weeks ago, "Which governments have made supersonic jets?" And ChatGPT is like, "Here are the seven governments that have done it, but there's an eighth that's not a government. It's called Boom." [chuckles]

    5. MMMarina Mogilko23:04

       Oh, that's awesome.

    6. BSBlake Scholl23:05

       And I was like, "I love you, ChatGPT." [laughing]

    7. MMMarina Mogilko23:06

       [laughing]

    8. BSBlake Scholl23:07

       Um, but yeah, so we, we- it's the first, um, supersonic jet outside of a government or military. It is the first, um, civil supersonic jet made in America. It's the first one since Concorde, and it's the first one made out of airliner technology. So we, we basically took 20-year-old proven 787, Boeing 787-level technology, and we said, "Let's go build a supersonic jet that is safe enough to put a person on, that it can break the sound barrier, and learn 100% of what it takes to actually do that, uh, technically, team, uh, management-wise, um, and, and then we can take it and scale up." And so that, that's where we are now. We've broken the sound barrier. We've done it on two flights. We've broken the sound barrier six times. We did it all six times without any audible sonic boom, and now it's time to take all those lessons, scale it up, and build the airplane that you and I can fly on.

    9. MMMarina Mogilko23:59

       And also,

20. 24:00 – 26:12

    Legal bans and challenges that stopped them

    1. MMMarina Mogilko24:00

       the legal ban, right?

    2. BSBlake Scholl24:02

       ... Yeah, yeah, we have, um, so we, we actually started the company with the assumption no new technology and no change in regulations. Uh-

    3. MMMarina Mogilko24:11

       Mm

    4. BSBlake Scholl24:11

       ... because otherwise it would just be, like, way too much for a startup to take on.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko24:14

       Yeah.

    6. BSBlake Scholl24:14

       And so our assumption was that, that we would not solve the sonic boom problem. We wouldn't solve it technically, and we wouldn't solve it politically, at least not for version one. And but it turned out as we got down path, there was a technical solution. Um, and it wasn't even that hard. Like, it- like, the problem was described as way more difficult than it actually is. Um, and, uh, a- and now when I look at, you know, the administration we have today and how the, the political climate has shifted in the last 12 months, like, I'm very confident that, that the, the supersonic ban, it, over the continental US is going to be lifted.

    7. MMMarina Mogilko24:47

       But then you will have to work with, uh, other governments as well, 'cause you-

    8. BSBlake Scholl24:50

       Well, it's actually, um, worse in the US than it is elsewhere.

    9. MMMarina Mogilko24:53

       Mm.

    10. BSBlake Scholl24:53

        Um, US and Canada have an outright supersonic ban, and it doesn't exist everywhere. Uh, the rules are a little bit different in the rest of the world, and I think the reason is that Concorde was a European project, and there was an American competitor, which got canceled, and only after the American competitor was canceled was it like, "Oh, we can't have this sonic stuff." So I think, I think the actual... You know, the, uh, many times regulations have, like, a moral cover story.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko25:19

        Yeah.

    12. BSBlake Scholl25:19

        Like, "Oh, we have to do this because sonic booms are bad," or, "This is to protect children," or whatever. But then the, the real li- reality is it's to protect Boeing.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko25:26

        Yeah. Got it.

    14. BSBlake Scholl25:27

        And but no one wants to say that out loud.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko25:29

        Oh, wow, okay.

    16. BSBlake Scholl25:29

        So they, like, they, like, invent the, like, you know, they just tell everybody booms are bad, and that's why we have to have the regulation. But it was a speed limit. Like, literally, 14 CFR 91.817 says, "Thou shalt not exceed Mach 1."

    17. MMMarina Mogilko25:43

        And that's, uh... Can you explain again?

    18. BSBlake Scholl25:44

        The speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound.

    19. MMMarina Mogilko25:46

        Okay. Mm-hmm.

    20. BSBlake Scholl25:47

        It's a speed limit in the sky, and what it should say is, "Thou shalt not make bad noises." [chuckles]

    21. MMMarina Mogilko25:53

        Mm-hmm.

    22. BSBlake Scholl25:53

        It's real... I mean, there it's a really, really stupid regulation. My suspicion is that the reason it's a speed limit and not a noise limit, because if it was a reasonable noise limit, a whole bunch of things would have passed.

    23. MMMarina Mogilko26:04

        Yeah.

    24. BSBlake Scholl26:05

        And, um, [lips smack] so, uh, so I think we'll get that changed.

    25. MMMarina Mogilko26:10

        How soon?

    26. BSBlake Scholl26:10

        And then we can fl-

    27. MMMarina Mogilko26:10

        What-

    28. BSBlake Scholl26:10

        ... And then we can fly coast to coast.

21. 26:12 – 26:20

    How everything can change in just 4 weeks

    1. MMMarina Mogilko26:12

       What are you hoping? How soon?

    2. BSBlake Scholl26:13

       I d- I don't know how to predict this, but the, the, th- things are moving-

    3. MMMarina Mogilko26:16

       Are you less, less than four years or more than four years? 'Cause you have-

    4. BSBlake Scholl26:18

       Oh, I mean, it could be four weeks.

22. 26:20 – 28:58

    How to navigate the challenge of 3x the carbon emissions that jets use

    1. MMMarina Mogilko26:20

       Okay. Oh, okay.

    2. BSBlake Scholl26:21

       Yeah. But, like, it's...

    3. MMMarina Mogilko26:21

       Yeah.

    4. BSBlake Scholl26:21

       It could ha- We'll see, but it could happen very quickly.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko26:23

       Fingers crossed.

    6. BSBlake Scholl26:24

       Fin- fing- fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed.

    7. MMMarina Mogilko26:26

       Awesome. I had another question about carbon emissions, 'cause when I posted a story of your talk from that party, people were like, "But this is, like, three X more carbon emissions than, like, a business class seat."

    8. BSBlake Scholl26:36

       Yeah, so it's, it's, um... [lips smack] Supersonic is more energy intensive, and, um, we... We're designing around next-generation sustainable aviation fuel, uh, so that when enough of that is available, actually, the carbon, the carbon could potentially go all the way down to zero-

    9. MMMarina Mogilko26:51

       Mm

    10. BSBlake Scholl26:52

        ... on syn- synthetic fuel. But a, um, it, it, it is more, it is more energy intensive. And I think there's a big mindset question around this. Like, you know, the, uh... And it's one of the reasons why we haven't had supersonic already is, in the, the '70s, humanity shifted from an abundance mindset to a conservation mindset. And there's this amazing chart. Like, up until about 1970, there was an exponential increase, like a Moore's law of energy. Uh, like, energy per human is going up rapidly. Standard of living is going up rapidly. Um, all kinds of new technologies are possible because we have energy abundance, uh, including, by the way, things that make climate livable, like air conditioners and heaters.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko27:30

        Yeah.

    12. BSBlake Scholl27:31

        Um, and, and then the mindset shifted, and it got into a conservation mindset. The exponential curve flattened and became a linear, like a s- a, a small-slope linear growth curve. And, and I, I, so I think it's very, very important that we, like, plan for and create an energy abundance future and then find a way to do it that works out writ large for humanity and for the planet. And, and we can do that. And by the way, if you look back at the history of energy, it shows it over and over again. At some point, somebody invented fire or discovered it.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko28:00

        Yeah.

    14. BSBlake Scholl28:01

        And, uh, and then like, oh, but fire has, you know, it has the obvious pro, we don't freeze, and it has these cons. Like, it's actually not super healthy to bring in this, the... breathe the smoke, right? Oh, okay, so now we invent the log cabin-

    15. MMMarina Mogilko28:11

        Turn it off, yeah

    16. BSBlake Scholl28:12

        ... and the pot-bellied stove, and we put the fire in the stove, and there's a smokestack. You know, and, like, okay, that's much, much better. It's much healthier. It's much better for our environment. My point is, every generation of technology, uh, has pros and cons, and as you go from generation to generation, you can increase the pros and decrease the cons, and that's the story of why, like, we're not in a cave anymore. And, and so I think that's where we have to go with energy and supersonic jets, and it's okay to use more energy. It's a good thing to use more energy. Let's figure out how to have more abundant, reliable, cheap energy, and let's minimize the downsides, and let's, you know, if there's a, if there's, like, too much carbon, great, let's figure out how to synthesize jet fuel. Let's figure out how to synthesize it more affordably than you can pump it out of the ground. And there is, there's good work happening on that. It's difficult to do, but it's progressing.

    17. MMMarina Mogilko28:55

        Yeah. So that gives me hope. Uh, what do you

23. 28:58 – 30:18

    The costs of flying on a supersonic jet

    1. MMMarina Mogilko28:58

       think, uh, would be the cost for the average person?

    2. BSBlake Scholl29:01

       Yeah, so our ultimate goal is to make supersonic flight attainable for anybody. Um, but there's a question of, where do we start? And, and Concorde, marvelous technical accomplishment, but, you know, like, we talk in the Valley about product-market fit, and this is a great example of something that never had product-market fit. There were 100 seats on the airplane. They're really uncomfortable. Like, if you s- we have some Concorde seats in our office. You might think they came out of, like, the back of a Ryanair or Southwest jet. Um, those are really small, and, uh, and yet it's $20,000 a ticket. And so Concorde was for, like, rock stars and royalty, and especially with '70s, '80s, kind of-

    3. MMMarina Mogilko29:37

       And back in the day, $20,000 back in the day, that was-

    4. BSBlake Scholl29:39

       Well, that's adjusted for inflation.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko29:40

       Oh, adjusted, okay.

    6. BSBlake Scholl29:40

       But it's still a lot, right?

    7. MMMarina Mogilko29:41

       Yeah.

    8. BSBlake Scholl29:42

       Like, like, who wants to pay $20,000 to go somewhere really fast? Well, it's not nobody, but it's rock stars and royalty.

    9. MMMarina Mogilko29:47

       Exactly.

    10. BSBlake Scholl29:48

        And it only kind of works on a couple routes, 'cause you can't, you can't fill 100 seats.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko29:51

        Yeah.

    12. BSBlake Scholl29:51

        Um, and, and so with, uh, that was kind of no man's land. And then Overture one, it's like the Model S of supersonic jets. It's not for everybody, but it's for a whole lot of people.... and, uh, and so the fares will be like business class. So I think like $5,000 round trip-

    13. MMMarina Mogilko30:08

        Nice

    14. BSBlake Scholl30:08

        ... would be a typical fare.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko30:09

        It's gonna be a nice seat.

    16. BSBlake Scholl30:10

        Be a nice seat.

    17. MMMarina Mogilko30:10

        Lie flat.

    18. BSBlake Scholl30:11

        Well, not lie flat-

    19. MMMarina Mogilko30:12

        Oh, no?

    20. BSBlake Scholl30:12

        ... 'cause that, 'cause that was the whole unlock-

    21. MMMarina Mogilko30:13

        Oh, 'cause you don't need-

    22. BSBlake Scholl30:14

        You don't need a lie-flat bed-

    23. MMMarina Mogilko30:15

        Yeah

    24. BSBlake Scholl30:15

        ... for a three or four-hour flight.

    25. MMMarina Mogilko30:17

        So it's gonna be three to four

24. 30:18 – 32:45

    Why increasing speed is important and how it can drive growth in other fields

    1. MMMarina Mogilko30:18

       hours from New York to London, right?

    2. BSBlake Scholl30:19

       Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko30:20

       Fascinating.

    4. BSBlake Scholl30:21

       You know, you know, but also just not, not just New York to London, Miami to Madrid, and Seattle to Tokyo, and DC to Paris, right?

    5. MMMarina Mogilko30:27

       That's in four years, or this is like a-

    6. BSBlake Scholl30:29

       Like, it could- like, it, it will all be possible in about four years.

    7. MMMarina Mogilko30:32

       That's awesome.

    8. BSBlake Scholl30:32

       Um, and now, now we won't have enough of the jets yet, 'cause we'll be, like, starting-

    9. MMMarina Mogilko30:36

       Mm

    10. BSBlake Scholl30:36

        ... production.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko30:36

        Yeah.

    12. BSBlake Scholl30:37

        You know, the, the whole boom skeptic thing is gonna be like, "Oh, they can't build a supersonic jet." Oops, they did. Then it's gonna be, "They can't build a jet engine," uh, and then it's gonna be like, oops, they did. And it'll be, "They can't certify an airliner," but then be like, oops, they did. And then maybe, "They can't make enough of them." Like, oops, they did.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko30:50

        It gives me so much energy just hearing you say that, and I see how excited you are. That's awesome. 'Cause we fly so much, and that would be a game-changer for the travel industry. Awesome. So c-

    14. BSBlake Scholl31:00

        But actually, can I... I'd love to riff on that with you. Like, it's not just about making it faster. The thing a lot of people don't appreciate about speed, s- speed is not just like, oh, how efficient are we with our time? Speed is often the difference between doing something and not doing something, between something happening and not happening. So for example, before the speed of the jet, basically nobody went to Hawaii.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko31:21

        Mm.

    16. BSBlake Scholl31:21

        Took too darn long. Like, literally tou- tourism to Hawaii pre-jets was, like, tens of thousands of people per year.

    17. MMMarina Mogilko31:26

        Yeah, 'cause it was, like, t- a 10-hour flight or something?

    18. BSBlake Scholl31:28

        It was, like, 16 from-

    19. MMMarina Mogilko31:29

        Oh, 16.

    20. BSBlake Scholl31:30

        Yeah, 16 from San Francisco-

    21. MMMarina Mogilko31:32

        Wow

    22. BSBlake Scholl31:32

        ... on a flying boat, you know?

    23. MMMarina Mogilko31:33

        Yeah.

    24. BSBlake Scholl31:33

        And then jets kind of cut that in half. Um, you know, or like, uh, Nike got their start when Phil Knight fell in love with Japanese-style running shoes on a chance trip to Japan after business school in the 1960s. Couldn't have done it 10 years earlier. Japan was way too difficult to get to, and you wouldn't take, like, a random vacation to Japan without a jet. And so, like, the, the, the shoes that we wear are a result of the speed of the jet. Um, and, and I think that is... y- a- and it's whether we're talking travel speeds or, like, speed of iteration and development, uh, or s- or, like, speed of a supply chain, like, the speed is very, very important, and, like, latency is fundamentally evil, and it's not just efficiency, it's a binary thing of do you do something or not?

    25. MMMarina Mogilko32:17

        Yeah.

    26. BSBlake Scholl32:17

        And so I think speeding up travel... Imagine a future in which our kids have friends that they actually know and have met from other continents.

    27. MMMarina Mogilko32:25

        And they can visit them for a weekend.

    28. BSBlake Scholl32:26

        And they can visit them for a weekend, right? Like, they know each other in person, not just like, "You know, I watched a video about them."

    29. MMMarina Mogilko32:33

        Yeah.

    30. BSBlake Scholl32:33

        Like, that is a very different future for humanity, and we can create that future if flights are faster, and they're affordable, and they're convenient, and they're safe.
25. 32:45 – 33:35

    How he manages work-life balance while working at a startup

    1. MMMarina Mogilko32:45

       talk about your day-to-day. How many kids do you have?

    2. BSBlake Scholl32:48

       Four.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko32:48

       Four.

    4. BSBlake Scholl32:49

       Four, yeah.

    5. MMMarina Mogilko32:49

       And you're still able to take them on flights. I saw your pictures. You know, you're flying together.

    6. BSBlake Scholl32:54

       Yeah, I mean, it's, you know... i- I, I live a very full life. Um-

    7. MMMarina Mogilko32:58

       How do you balance that? Like-

    8. BSBlake Scholl32:59

       With, with great effort. [chuckles]

    9. MMMarina Mogilko33:01

       Yeah. [chuckles]

    10. BSBlake Scholl33:01

        Um, you know, I try to really be present when I'm with the kids, and, like, whenever I can find a way to kind of check two boxes at the same time... Like, as an example, I took my older three on a vacation a couple years ago that was like a f- like a road trip in the sky, and, uh, 'cause I love flying little airplanes, it's like my one hobby.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko33:18

        You fly yourself?

    12. BSBlake Scholl33:19

        Yeah.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko33:19

        Yeah.

    14. BSBlake Scholl33:19

        And so we, like, did four cities in seven days, and it was like, "Guys, we can't do that on United," you know? And, and now they're like, "Dad, when do we get to go on, like, Air Dad?"

    15. MMMarina Mogilko33:28

        Nice. How... So how many hours a week do you work?

    16. BSBlake Scholl33:32

        Oh, I have no idea.

    17. MMMarina Mogilko33:33

        Well, do you-

    18. BSBlake Scholl33:33

        It varies

    19. MMMarina Mogilko33:34

        ... do you have days off,

26. 33:35 – 34:40

    "The world is really open to supersonic right now. We have to move fast. I haven't had a day off in 4 months."

    1. MMMarina Mogilko33:35

       or...?

    2. BSBlake Scholl33:35

       I haven't, I haven't had a day off since, like, I don't know, four months or something.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko33:40

       How do you feel?

    4. BSBlake Scholl33:41

       A little tired, but-

    5. MMMarina Mogilko33:42

       Passion keeps you going, or you-

    6. BSBlake Scholl33:42

       Passion keeps me going.

    7. MMMarina Mogilko33:43

       Yeah.

    8. BSBlake Scholl33:44

       Yeah, I mean, like, 20, 2024 for me was, like, terrible busy-

    9. MMMarina Mogilko33:48

       Mm

    10. BSBlake Scholl33:48

        ... because it was, like, survival mode for the company. And, like, 2025, we got out of that. We raised $150 million from, like, some of the most amazing investors, Paul Graham, Sam Altman, Y Combinator, Bessemer-

    11. MMMarina Mogilko33:59

        Congratulations

    12. BSBlake Scholl33:59

        ... Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman. Like, all of those people put in at least $10 million in, in our, like, late 2024 financing, and so now we've got runway, and then we broke the sound barrier, and then we broke it again, and then we, like, did it boomless, and then it feels like we broke the internet. And people got really excited.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko34:13

        Yeah.

    14. BSBlake Scholl34:14

        And it was 24 hours from breaking the sound barrier to being in the West Wing of the White House. Um, and, and now it's like, holy crap, the world feels like it just cracked open for us, and the, the... There is opportunity, and, and we have to take advantage of it quickly enough.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko34:27

        Yeah.

    16. BSBlake Scholl34:27

        And it goes back to the same point I was making about, you know, speed is the difference between things happening or not happening. The world is very open to supersonic right now, and, you know, I think that, like, regulation change, it's either gonna happen quickly or it's not gonna happen. And so, like, I feel-

27. 34:40 – 37:00

    The story behind the Trump photo

    1. MMMarina Mogilko34:40

       So you've gotta move fast.

    2. BSBlake Scholl34:40

       We've gotta move fast.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko34:41

       Yeah. I, I have a question right away. Speaking of the White House-

    4. BSBlake Scholl34:45

       Yes. [laughing]

    5. MMMarina Mogilko34:46

       ... can you talk about this photo, how it happened, and-

    6. BSBlake Scholl34:49

       Yeah, so, uh, so I, I like to say, um, no, no, uh, no lobbyists were harmed-

    7. MMMarina Mogilko34:56

       [chuckles]

    8. BSBlake Scholl34:56

       ... in the creation of that photo. [chuckles] Uh, so it was Monday, geez, two weeks ago?

    9. MMMarina Mogilko35:02

       Two weeks ago.

    10. BSBlake Scholl35:02

        Two weeks ago Monday, um, we broke the sound barrier. Uh, we did it boomless. We announced boomless. Uh, and, uh, I was, like, in the Mojave Desert, and I'm, like, tweeting about, "We've got to repeal this silly regulation." And, like, Elon responds, like, "Yes, this administration will fix it." I was on a flight, a, a terrible, terrible flight, a, a pink eye flight to DC that night, uh, which we should totally speed up, um, and, uh, was planning to go, like, lobby the next day, and, like, by the time I landed in DC, I had an invitation to visit the White House.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko35:36

        Wow.

    12. BSBlake Scholl35:37

        Uh, and so we had, um, had that first meeting, and, uh, uh, you know, we're starting to build support in the White House for it. It wasn't with the president. And then the next day I'm on the Hill, and, and, and we're sort of rapidly discovering there's bipartisan support for repealing the speed limit. Like, everybody agrees that we shouldn't have a speed limit, that we should have a noise limit instead.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko35:58

        Yeah.

    14. BSBlake Scholl35:58

        Um, and, uh, and then, and then Thursday, um, I had coffee with, uh, the Secretary of, of Energy-... uh, who I met because he- uh, so our landlord at Boom is friends with him, and so it was, like, me to our landlord to the Secretary of Energy.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko36:15

        Landlord meaning owns the-

    16. BSBlake Scholl36:17

        Owns the building that Boom is in.

    17. MMMarina Mogilko36:18

        Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

    18. BSBlake Scholl36:19

        Um, and, uh, and so, like, y- he and I had a great conversation. He's like, "I love this. I think the president will love it." He's like, "You should make a model of the airplane." And I was like, "Well, I actually have one in my hotel room."

    19. MMMarina Mogilko36:30

        [chuckles] Convenient.

    20. BSBlake Scholl36:30

        And I'm like, I'm like, "Do you have five minutes?"

    21. MMMarina Mogilko36:32

        Uh-huh.

    22. BSBlake Scholl36:32

        "I'll, I'll sprint and get it and bring it back."

    23. MMMarina Mogilko36:34

        Uh-huh.

    24. BSBlake Scholl36:34

        "And, uh, but the question is, how do we get it to the president?"

    25. MMMarina Mogilko36:36

        Uh-huh.

    26. BSBlake Scholl36:36

        And he's like, "Well, I'm seeing him later today. I'll give it to him."

    27. MMMarina Mogilko36:38

        [gasps]

    28. BSBlake Scholl36:39

        I was like, "Okay, how did this happen so quickly?"

    29. MMMarina Mogilko36:42

        Amazing.

    30. BSBlake Scholl36:42

        But, um, but no, I'm incredibly, incred- uh, that, that whole just getting people... Like, the, the, the magic of Boom is everybody wants supersonic flight to exist, and if we can show them that we're not crazy, um, then they wanna help.
28. 37:00 – 38:00

    Advice for someone who’s stuck with their idea of building a startup but is facing obstacles

    1. MMMarina Mogilko37:00

       someone who's stuck, uh, with their idea of building a Boom-sized company?

    2. BSBlake Scholl37:04

       Mm-hmm.

    3. MMMarina Mogilko37:04

       But they just can't take this leap of faith. They have a family. They're like, "I haven't had proven success yet."

    4. BSBlake Scholl37:10

       Yeah. Um, my experience has been is f- failure is never as bad as I think it's going to be. And, and, like, there's a little bit... Like, when I could get comfortable with the idea of failing, it was much easier to try. So, like, my first company, we were building a barcode scanning game, which is, like, the least inspiring thing anybody could ever choose to do. And, and I, I was doing it 'cause I thought I knew e-commerce from Amazon and mobile from this other startup, so I thought I should work on mobile e-commerce 'cause it's something I'm qualified to do. So I end up building this mobile e-commerce thing that I, like, care- I, I don't care about at all. And I, you know, and yet it's hard because, like, every startup is hard, and every startup could fail. And I would get up in the morning and think, like, "Ugh, I'm gonna screw this up. Um, I'm gonna lose all the investors' money. No one's ever gonna wanna hire me again." And, uh, and then e- effectively, the company did fail. Like, we acquired it to Groupon, and they shut the product down

29. 38:00 – 39:18

    Stop being afraid of failure

    1. BSBlake Scholl38:00

       and put us on other stuff. And, and yet, like, failure in that case was the best-paying job I'd ever had, um, a lot less stress than I'd had as a startup founder, a couple years where I could, like, reflect on what I'd learned and think about what I wanted to do next. And, you know, there were, um... And mostly, people respected me for trying. And so this notion I'd had in my head of failure would be, like, the end of my career really wasn't true. And, and, you know, and so, um, I think I, I learned to be a little bit less afraid of failure.

    2. MMMarina Mogilko38:33

       Yeah, so basically visualize the failure, what it looks like-

    3. BSBlake Scholl38:35

       And just accept it.

    4. MMMarina Mogilko38:36

       And just go all in.

    5. BSBlake Scholl38:36

       And then, and then-

    6. MMMarina Mogilko38:37

       Yeah

    7. BSBlake Scholl38:37

       ... and then m- move on from it.

    8. MMMarina Mogilko38:38

       Yeah.

    9. BSBlake Scholl38:38

       And, you know, like, a thing I tell Boom, uh, the Boom team is, "Look, there is no guarantee we're gonna succeed. We could totally fail. If we fail, just make sure we fail honestly. Don't fail like Theranos. Don't, don't fail by, like, being a jerk-

    10. MMMarina Mogilko38:52

        Yeah

    11. BSBlake Scholl38:52

        ... or being bad. Like, like, fail by giving it everything we have, and then somehow it didn't work. But also, don't give up. Don't fail."

    12. MMMarina Mogilko38:58

        Yeah.

    13. BSBlake Scholl38:59

        Like, you know, when XB-1 broke the sound barrier, I sat down with the team, and I was like, "Look at the airplane. Why is this here? It's, it's here because all of us didn't give up when it would've been very reasonable to give up. Like, in fact, some people gave up along the way, but those of us standing here today didn't give up, and that's why it's here."

    14. MMMarina Mogilko39:15

        Yeah.

    15. BSBlake Scholl39:16

        "Don't give up."

    16. MMMarina Mogilko39:17

        Yeah.

30. 39:18 – 40:15

    What he would say to the younger version of himself

    1. MMMarina Mogilko39:18

       What would you say to this small guy right here?

    2. BSBlake Scholl39:21

       [chuckles]

    3. MMMarina Mogilko39:21

       Any advice for him?

    4. BSBlake Scholl39:22

       Uh, you know, um-

    5. MMMarina Mogilko39:25

       Just words of encouragement.

    6. BSBlake Scholl39:26

       Like, talk to your grandpa more.

    7. MMMarina Mogilko39:28

       Yeah?

    8. BSBlake Scholl39:28

       Like, um, I... He didn't, uh, he didn't live to get to know his great-grandkids, really. And, uh, and he'd, he'd, um, he'd fought in the Pacific Theater in World War II. He'd actually repaired propellers. And I, I think back about, like, all the conversations I could have had with him that I didn't have, and now that I can have-

    9. MMMarina Mogilko39:46

       You inherited that, right? The love for, for aviation.

    10. BSBlake Scholl39:49

        Yeah, I didn't even realize I got it from him. I don't know if I did get it from him. Uh, I wish I'd talked to him way more.

    11. MMMarina Mogilko39:54

        That's, that's a great thing to say. Thank you. Thank you so much, Blake. You're amazing. A lot of inspiration. There are so many takeaways for everyone who's watching.

    12. BSBlake Scholl40:03

        Mm.

    13. MMMarina Mogilko40:04

        And thank you.

    14. BSBlake Scholl40:04

        Well, th- thank you for the fun conversation and the chance to just, like, I don't know, tell the real story.

    15. MMMarina Mogilko40:08

        Yeah. Thank you, and hopefully, in four years, we're all flying supersonic.

    16. BSBlake Scholl40:12

        Fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed.

    17. MMMarina Mogilko40:14

        Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

Episode duration: 40:15