Breaking the Sound Barrier with Blake Scholl from Boom Supersonic | E2186

Key Concepts

• Supersonic Transport: Air travel exceeding the speed of sound.
• Sonic Boom: The loud sound produced by an object exceeding the speed of sound.
• Boomless Flight: Supersonic flight achieved without a noticeable sonic boom on the ground.
• Ray Tracing: A computer graphics technique used to simulate the path of light or sound waves.
• Agile Hardware Development: Applying agile software development principles to hardware development.
• Slacker Index: A metric for measuring hardware productivity (time to get something divided by time to make it).
• Agentic Workspace: An AI-powered workspace that proactively assists users with tasks.
• AI Matchmaking: Using AI to connect individuals with shared interests or goals at events.
• Lead Enrichment: Augmenting lead data with additional information from various sources.

Boom Supersonic Interview

Breaking the Sound Barrier

• Boom Supersonic's test plane, XB-1, broke the sound barrier over the Mojave Desert, the same airspace where Chuck Yeager first did so in 1947.
• This was the first time it had been done outside of a government or military entity.
• It was also the first time a supersonic jet made with airliner-ready technology had achieved this feat.
• The company also cracked sonic boom during the test flight.

Airline-Ready Technology

• Concord, the first supersonic passenger plane, flew in 1969, but supersonic passenger flight regressed in subsequent years.
• Boom aims to make supersonic flight more economical than Concord, which had $20,000 tickets.
• Overture, Boom's scaled-up version of XB-1, will offer business-class-like tickets, around $5,000 round trip across the Atlantic.
• The seats will be nicer than those on Concord but won't be fully flat, as the flight duration (3.5 hours) doesn't necessitate it.

Space and Transportation Time

• The amount of space desired in transportation is inversely proportional to travel time.
• On long journeys like ocean voyages, people want suites, while a transporter beam would require no seating.

Speed and TAM Growth

• Speed is not just about time savings but about enabling trips that wouldn't be taken otherwise.
• Innovations that radically reduce friction tend to grow the Total Addressable Market (TAM).
• Supersonic travel, like the jet age, is seen as a platform innovation.

Flight Length Considerations

• Supersonic travel makes the most sense for longer routes.
• Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) is better suited for shorter distances like Boston to New York.
• The shortest reasonable flight length for a supersonic passenger jet is around 1500 miles.
• West Coast to Hawaii flights will allow passengers to leave San Francisco at 5 PM and arrive in Maui for sunset cocktails.

XB-1 Demonstrator Plane

• XB-1 has completed its mission, with 13 flights and all performance metrics achieved.
• The plane demonstrated reliable supersonic flight with no boom.
• XB-1 will be placed in Boom's headquarters lobby and eventually in the National Aerospace Museum.
• The entire team signed the airplane after its final flight to honor their contributions.

Sonic Boom Solution

• Boom's solution to sonic boom involves a software algorithm that computes the required flight trajectory using ray tracing.
• The algorithm uses weather data to determine the maximum quiet speed.
• The angle at which the boom comes off the airplane is a function of speed, not the trajectory of the airplane.
• By flying at a sufficiently high altitude, the boom makes a U-turn in the sky and never touches the ground.
• On a good day, the plane can fly at Mach 1.3, on a bad day at Mach 1.05, and on a typical day at Mach 1.15.

Symphony Engine

• Boom is building its own in-house turbo fan engine called Symphony.
• The first Symphony engine is currently in manufacturing, with hardware components being made.
• It is expected to run early next year.
• This will be the first purpose-built engine for supersonic commercial flight.
• Boomless cruise would not be possible without this powertrain.

Hardware Development Approach

• Boom is investing in reducing the cost of iteration and making new things.
• They are applying agile software development principles to hardware development.
• This involves embedding software engineers with hardware teams and automating tasks.
• They have a push-button airplane design suite called MakeBoom that redesigns the airplane automatically when a part is updated.
• Vertical integration of hardware is also crucial.
• Boom uses 3D printing to rapidly iterate on designs.

Timeline for Overture

• The target for Overture being ready for passengers is 2029, potentially slipping to 2030.
• They will start building the first one next year and expect it to roll off the line in 2027.
• The goal is to fly it in 2028.

Capital Needs and Product Market Fit

• The notion that hardware companies are more capital intensive than software companies is a myth.
• Hardware companies need to demonstrate product market fit short of shipping the product.
• Pre-orders are a way to demonstrate this, similar to Kickstarter.
• Boom has orders with deposits from United and American Airlines.
• They have stopped selling the airplane due to high demand, with manufacturing capacity pre-sold through 2034.
• United wants the 4,000 nautical mile, 62-seat supersonic airliner designed with business-class economics and the cabin layout that Boom is building.

Starlink Analogy

• Boom has found its "Starlink," a shipping product that ships before the supersonic airliner.
• This product has over a billion dollars in orders.
• It is based on the same technology but is much faster to scale revenue.
• It is a hardware product for which the world is desperate.

Confy.te Pitch Deck Review

Problem Statement

• Event apps are now standard, but they often provide a static guest list with no way to search for the right people.
• Attendees don't know who they should meet or why.
• Event organizers can't easily capture attendee goals or prove ROI to exhibitors.

Solution

• Confy is an AI-powered data layer for the business events market.
• It helps attendees articulate goals before the event.
• It enriches the guest list with public and proprietary signals, including its own data set of attendees.
• Attendees can run AI searches to find relevant prospects and connect with them instantly.
• Event organizers can boost engagement and sponsor ROI.

Go-to-Market Strategy

• Confy uses a permissionless approach that engages attendees directly without requiring organizer buy-in.
• This has fueled consistent month-over-month growth and a cold email conversion rate.
• They are live on Luma, where they plan to charge attendees a subscription for unlimited access across all events.

Market Opportunity

• There are over 200 million conference tickets sold worldwide annually.
• Confy plans to charge attendees a subscription fee for unlimited access across all events.
• Exhibitors and sponsors spend six to seven figures per conference.
• Confy's proprietary intent data will enable them to charge pricing above $10,000 per exhibitor per event.

Team

• The founders are Techstars-backed with deep domain authority.
• They have delivered paid event software to 100+ companies.
• One founder drives growth, and the other is a full-stack and DevOps engineer.

Future Plans

• They are working to unlock self-scraping, which will let them automatically ingest data and service events they can't yet access.
• Their model projects $10 million in ARR within 18 months of realization.

Feedback

• The tagline at the beginning of the pitch was not effective.
• The problem statement was well-articulated.
• Showing the apps of other event platforms and explaining their shortcomings would be beneficial.
• Videos are more convincing than pictures, and pictures are more convincing than text.
• The AI matchmaking piece of the product is interesting.
• The concept of lead enrichment is powerful.
• The design of the product is currently mid-level and could be improved.

The Drive AI Pitch Deck Review

Problem Statement

• Files are spread across different shared Google Drives and tools.
• Users spend hours searching, organizing, and sharing files.
• File operations are tedious and repetitive.

Solution

• The Drive AI is an agentic workspace where all file operations can be done using natural language or voice.
• It automatically organizes files within a nested folder structure.
• It is a one-stop solution for all file organization tasks.

Traction

• The Drive AI started as a note-taking app for students and scaled to 20,000 users.
• One in three user queries are actionable queries.
• They have four letters of intent from companies.
• They are starting a paid pilot with one company at $500 per workspace per month.

Market Opportunity

• They are targeting consulting, engineering, and accounting firms.
• They only need 2,000 of these companies to reach $12 million ARR.
• The market is a $96 billion market.

Team

• The founder has built superhuman-level tenny checkers and alpha zero agents.
• They have extensive AI and reinforcement research experience.
• They recently hired a full-stack engineer.

Funding

• They are raising a $2 million pre-seed round to scale up their research infrastructure and go-to-market strategy.

Feedback

• The tagline "world's first agentic workspace" is word salad.
• The value proposition should be explained in plain English.
• The slide describing the user Ken is too text-heavy.
• The presentation should "show, don't tell."
• The slide on traction is too text-heavy and should be replaced with charts.
• The letters of intent should be removed as they lower credibility.
• The presentation should focus on the most important numbers, such as daily active users and paid users.
• The business model should be explained more clearly.
• The slide on the team should be updated to reflect the hiring of the full-stack engineer.
• The founder should own the fact that they are a solo founder and highlight the founding team.
• The company should consider building a layer on top of existing file storage services.
• The funding ask of $2 million may be too high at this stage.
• The company should consider going to an accelerator first.

Synthesis/Conclusion

The episode features interviews with three founders, each tackling unique challenges and opportunities. Blake Scholl of Boom Supersonic is bringing back supersonic travel by overcoming technological and economic hurdles, emphasizing the importance of product market fit and a "Starlink" strategy for capital efficiency. Mircha from Confy.te is using AI to improve networking at events, focusing on attendee engagement and data monetization. Bjan from The Drive AI is building an AI-powered workspace to streamline file management, highlighting the need for clear value propositions and strategic fundraising. The discussions provide valuable insights into hardware development, AI applications, and the importance of product market fit in attracting investment.