Ex Y-Combinator President on The Most Notable Founder He's Met | B&F Interview Clips
There's Name: Brian Chesky and Name: Alexander W, famous founders who have been a part of Y Combinator. However, I'm curious about some of the relatively unknown, or maybe just unknown at all, founders you've encountered throughout your journey.
What made them stand out to you? What were their stories?
Well, that's a particularly hard question to answer in a short time, Al. As you can imagine, I've met thousands of founders, and there are so many that stand out. Trying to sort through that list and think about who is truly exceptional is tough. However, there are a few people who have impressed me.
I'll name one founder who stands out: Name: Blake Scholl. This is not like the others, so if by some weird chance he hears this, he should know he is pretty special. Blake is kind of an outlier in that he wasn't really pursuing a mainstream Y Combinator idea. He pointed out that there hasn't been a commercially built supersonic jet since the Concorde, which was mostly designed in the 1950s.
He thought, "That's weird because it's 2015 now. What are we doing? We should be able to build an incredible supersonic jet." When I asked if he was an aeronautics engineer, he said, "No, I'm a software guy." It was surprising.
Despite that, Blake has gone on to establish Boom Aerospace. He has successfully built a supersonic jet, which is a one-person craft. They're currently in the process of developing their commercial jet, which they hope to have in production by 2029. It's an amazing story.
He went from a bizarre interview at Y Combinator to actually building a supersonic aerospace company from nothing, fueled by an idea and a strong belief system. There are many extraordinary founders I could talk about, but Blake's story is particularly noteworthy.
How did he manage to do something so ridiculously hard? By the way, Boom hasn’t made it to massive profitability yet because they need to roll out their new jet, but they are doing incredibly well and have been in operation for many years with considerable success.