How I Got $5 Billion In Preorders For A Supersonic Jet Company

TL;DR

Blake Scholl founded Boom Supersonic after realizing that Concorde failed due to poor fuel economy, not lack of demand, and that improving on 1960s technology by less than 10% could match business‑class economics.

Key insights

• Concorde failed because of poor fuel economy, which kicked off a vicious cycle of high fares, low utilization, and even higher fares. The root cause was fuel burn, not passenger unwillingness to pay f
• To match the total economics of a flatbed in business class, a supersonic jet only needed to beat Concorde’s 1960s technology by less than 10% – a threshold that seemed very plausible given that Boein
• The bystander effect applies to business ideas: unique, compelling problems get ignored because everyone assumes someone else would already be solving them if it were possible.