The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 15 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 2 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Conventional wisdom that commercial supersonic flight is economically unviable is false
“Six years ago, when we were starting Boom, the conventional wisdom was no one would pay enough to be able to fly supersonic, that it would have to be really That the sonic boom was an insurmountable barrier that would take decades of R&D to solve. And it turns…”
VC pattern matching rewards SpaceX copycats over broader aerospace innovation
“The industry as a whole pattern matches very strongly on exactly what successes have existed previously. So for example, for today, it's really easy to raise money for a rocket company because SpaceX is a success, but that doesn't strongly translate over into …”
Groupon damaged its customer base by spamming emails for short-term targets
“Groupon honestly was very much the opposite. If a quarter was coming in soft, the response was often to, hey, send more email. You know, we'll pump up the short term, but it's a little bit like eating your stock seed because it burns up your core customer base…”
Boom Supersonic will take 10 to 15 years to carry commercial passengers
“Boom is a company that will probably be on the order of 10 to 15 years from founding to Carrying passengers in volume.”
Individual VC partners personally backed Boom after their funds passed
“It was very typical that we would make it to the full partnership stage, and the fund would end up passing, although individual investors in that group would come in personally.”
Boom's XB-1 prototype jet will fly and set records in 2021
“So that airplane will be finished this summer. They'll be flying and starting to set speed records next year.”
Boom's Overture airliner will fly New York to London in three hours
“And so that airplane will carry 75 passengers at business class fares on flights that are half as long as they are today. So think, you know, New York to London and three hours instead of seven, you know, fast enough, you can go across the pond, get business d…”
Founders must choose a mission they will never abandon
“If you want to be successful, you have to think about your personal motivation and pick a mission that you will never, ever give up on, no matter how hard it is.”
15-year startup timelines create an impedance mismatch for early-stage VCs
“And that time horizon, even though the IRRs and the multiples will be great, makes it an impedance mismatch for most venture capital funds in the early stages.”
Boom Supersonic rejects top technical talent lacking mission passion
“If you're not excited enough, we don't hire you because it's too hard, and if you're sane, you're gonna give up somewhere along the way.”
Group jam sessions reveal technical candidates' depth and leadership capability
“If you get a group of smart people talking about your problem space together in a room, you can quickly tell who really knows what they're talking about, And also, who has the personality and ability to lead in a room that you really want to go get in the tren…”
Boom rejected early candidates who couldn't teach something in their interview
“And if you couldn't teach me something, you didn't get hired at Boom.”
Stripe co-founder John Collison was Boom Supersonic's very first investor
“It was John Collison, the co-founder of Stripe. And this was in the relatively early days of Stripe before it was the massive success that it was today. John was a pilot. I met him through a friend and we went out to dinner or talking about what we were doing …”
Senior aerospace leaders with startup fit are the hardest hires
“The hardest thing to hire for is big leadership roles that require aerospace background. And that is because the background is crucial for us to have. If you're going to go off and build Overture, which is probably one of the most complicated safety critical t…”
Boom's early capital came from high-net-worth individuals and personal VC checks
“A lot of our capital as the company was, particularly on the young side, has come from ultra high net worth individuals. Many cases, well-known VCs who are investing outside of their funds where they don't have those timing constraints.”