Brehm: Commercial eVTOL deployment is definitely happening within 15 years
David Brehm · Venture Investing in Mobility + Tech with University of Michigan’s Early-Stage Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund · Jun 23, 2025 · at 11:49
David Brehm, Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund, discusses the timeline for commercial air taxi adoption supported by major airlines.
0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.6s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And when you look at the institutional VC backing and these legacy players like United, American, Delta that are actively investing in this, it tells you that this is very much going to happen in the next 15 years.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from David Brehm
Brehm: The eVTOL market will consolidate around Joby, Archer, and Vertical
“There's Joby there's Archer that are US-based, there's Vertical which is UK-based. I think those are your top three, and the way I see it is it's very synonymous to take COVID vaccines, right? You have your Moderna Pfizer, J&J, maybe a little bit of Novavax, b…”
Brehm: Avoid direct eVTOL makers; invest in aviation-adjacent infrastructure
“Now, as an investor, I wouldn't touch it, because I think there's going to be a lot of saturation, there's going to be a lot of M&A activity, but where I would go, where no one is really talking about, is what are the infrastructure adjacent things to aviation…”
Brehm: Cessna-to-CRJ pilot pipeline creates dangerous aviation safety risks
“And I think an area that people aren't quite talking about this just yet, when you look at pilot training right now what are they training in? They're training in these Cessna one 72 at these local airports, right? Like our aviation club likes to use to for ev…”
Brehm: Thought Leadership in Venture Is Founder-Driven, Not VC-Driven
“And I think when you talk about actual thought leadership, it's founder driven, it's not VC driven.”
Brehm: Cold outreach works better in VC than conventional wisdom suggests
“A lot of people will say, oh, just warm intros. No, do cold intros. Some of my best contacts are actually cold intros.”
Brehm: ZLCF secured a 90x return on a $50K Arbor Photonics check
“There was a company called Arbor Photonics, which is rebranded as Enlight. That company is actually publicly traded on the NASDAQ. We got a 90 X return on that investment. So we invested 50 K, right? And now it's the it's post exit was at four hundred fifty mi…”