From Software to Supersonic: How Blake Scholl Built the First Independent Jet Company

Boom Supersonic founder Blake Scholl explains how he went from Groupon product manager to building history's first independently developed supersonic aircraft.

Key Takeaways

• Blake Scholl transitioned from tech product manager to aerospace founder by following passion over perceived expertise, proving credentials matter less than motivation
• The Concorde failed due to economics, not technology—requiring a $20,000 inflation-adjusted ticket price and flying half-empty with uncomfortable seating
• Fundamental airplane performance can be predicted with just four inputs: aerodynamic efficiency, propulsive efficiency, structural efficiency, and Mach number
• Networking from zero aerospace connections required recursive introductions, starting with a Groupon colleague's hockey teammate who worked at SpaceX
• Boom's 50-person team built the XB-1 supersonic jet by hiring young, passionate engineers before they became "corrupted" by big aerospace bureaucracy
• The bystander effect prevented others from pursuing supersonic flight—everyone assumed someone else had good reasons for not doing it
• Overture aims to carry 65 passengers at Mach 1.7 on sustainable fuel with sonic boom mitigation, starting passenger service by 2029
• Small, high-caliber teams outperform large organizations through constraint-driven innovation and freedom from institutional inertia
• Founder motivation matters more than day-one skills because passionate people can learn anything required for their mission

Timeline Overview

• 00:00–01:30 — Introduction and XB-1 demonstration: Blake introduces Boom's historic supersonic jet in the Mojave Desert, explaining its role as prototype for passenger aircraft
• 01:30–02:36 — Supersonic aviation context: Overview of the Overture passenger jet specifications and how it improves on Concorde's limitations with modern technology
• 02:36–04:31 — Origin story and motivation: Blake's journey from setting a supersonic flight goal in his twenties to realizing no one was building new supersonic aircraft
• 04:31–05:59 — Career background transition: His path from Amazon software engineer through mobile startups to discovering passion matters more than perceived expertise
• 05:59–08:10 — Economics and technical analysis: Deep dive into why Concorde failed and the spreadsheet modeling that proved supersonic passenger flight could work economically
• 08:10–11:02 — Industry networking strategy: How Blake built aerospace connections from zero, using recursive introductions to find the world's best supersonic flight experts
• 11:02–12:40 — Team building philosophy: Boom's approach to hiring young, passionate engineers while avoiding aerospace industry veterans who believe innovation is impossible
• 12:40–End — Founder advice and motivation: Blake's insights on why ambitious founders should pursue meaningful causes that provide intrinsic motivation through inevitable challenges

The Passion-First Career Philosophy: Why Expertise Is Overrated

Blake Scholl's transition from software engineering to aerospace demonstrates how following genuine passion creates more sustainable motivation than chasing perceived areas of expertise. His experience challenges conventional wisdom about staying within established skill domains.

• After selling his mobile e-commerce startup to Groupon, Blake realized that "chasing what I thought I knew gave me a sense of competence but no sense of purpose or drive"
• His first company emerged from combining his e-commerce and mobile app experience, but the logical skill combination failed to provide lasting motivation for difficult challenges
• The key insight came from recognizing that "knowledge and skills are variable" while "what you can't change is your passions"
• Smart people consistently underestimate what they can learn when properly motivated, making initial expertise less important than sustained interest
• Blake's aerospace education involved buying textbooks, taking airplane design classes, and completing remedial calculus and physics through Khan Academy after avoiding math since high school
• The decision to pursue supersonic flight came from asking "what would personally make me the happiest if it worked" rather than analyzing market opportunities or skill alignment

This passion-first approach provided the intrinsic motivation necessary to persist through the inevitable technical and business challenges of building an aerospace company.

Economics Over Technology: Why Concorde Really Failed

Blake's fundamental insight came from analyzing Concorde's failure through economic rather than technological lenses, revealing that supersonic passenger flight remained viable with better execution rather than breakthrough innovations.

• Concorde's $20,000 inflation-adjusted ticket price created an unsustainable business model that required flying half-empty with only 100 uncomfortable seats
• The aircraft's fundamental problem was economic efficiency rather than technical capability, as the basic physics of supersonic flight remained sound
• Blake's market analysis involved creating comprehensive spreadsheets covering "every route on the planet" with passenger volumes, pricing, and speed advantages
• Airplane performance can be predicted accurately using just four technical inputs: lift-to-drag ratio, propulsive efficiency, structural efficiency, and Mach number
• Stanford aerospace professors confirmed that Blake's assumptions were "conservative," suggesting even better performance was achievable than his models predicted
• The key breakthrough was determining how much efficiency improvement over Concorde would enable business-class pricing rather than first-class luxury positioning

This economic analysis revealed that supersonic passenger flight could work with incremental improvements rather than revolutionary technological advances.

The Zero-to-Expert Networking Strategy: Building Industry Connections

Blake's systematic approach to building aerospace industry connections from complete outsider status demonstrates how persistence and clear value propositions can overcome initial credibility gaps.

• Starting with "filter industry equals aerospace, connection equals first degree" on LinkedIn returned literally zero results, highlighting his complete isolation from the industry
• His first aerospace contact came through a former Groupon colleague who had played hockey with someone at SpaceX, illustrating the indirect paths often required
• Blake's networking approach involved flying his own plane to meet potential contacts, which provided unexpected credibility and demonstrated genuine commitment to aviation
• Each conversation followed a structured format: explain the idea, convince them he wasn't insane, then ask "who would be your top five people on the planet to work on this"
• The recursive questioning strategy required only a few levels of introductions before reaching world-class experts willing to share knowledge and insights
• Blake's ability to pilot his own aircraft to meetings provided more credibility than expected, showing how adjacent skills can support primary objectives

This networking methodology proves that determined outsiders can access expert knowledge through systematic relationship building and clear value demonstration.

Small Team, Big Impact: The 50-Person Aerospace Revolution

Boom's ability to design and build a supersonic jet with just 50 people challenges conventional wisdom about aerospace development requiring massive teams and government-scale resources.

• The XB-1 supersonic jet was designed, built, and tested by essentially 50 people, proving that small teams can accomplish what was previously thought to require thousands
• Blake specifically recruited young engineers "before they were corrupted" by big aerospace companies, prioritizing passion and capability over extensive experience
• The team included many SpaceX alumni and early-career Boeing engineers who hadn't yet internalized industry limitations and impossibility thinking
• Small teams create innovation advantages through constraint-driven problem-solving and freedom from bureaucratic processes that slow large organizations
• Blake maintained a few experienced advisors "on speed dial" to prevent foolish mistakes while avoiding too many veterans who "know it's impossible"
• The hiring philosophy prioritized "smart, ambitious, hardworking, and incredibly passionate" over traditional aerospace credentials and industry experience

This small-team approach enabled rapid iteration and decision-making that would be impossible within traditional aerospace development structures.

The Bystander Effect in Innovation: Why Others Missed the Opportunity

Blake identified the bystander effect as the primary reason why aerospace experts failed to pursue supersonic passenger flight despite its apparent market potential and technical feasibility.

• Industry professionals assumed that since supersonic flight would "obviously be a good thing" and "nobody's doing it, there must be something wrong"
• The internet was "full of bad reasons why" including qualitative claims about quantitative problems like "people won't pay more for speed" and "the market's too small"
• Many supposed barriers were based on incomplete analysis rather than fundamental physics or economics, such as overstating sonic boom limitations
• Blake's advantage came from having "put aside a year of my life to just figure out what I wanted to do next" without immediate pressure for results
• The solution didn't require "amazing deep fundamental physical insight" or "20 PhDs to accomplish" but rather systematic analysis that no one else performed
• Industry expertise sometimes becomes a liability when it includes institutional assumptions about what's possible rather than first-principles thinking

This analysis suggests that many breakthrough opportunities may be "hiding in plain sight" waiting for someone willing to challenge collective assumptions.

Founder Motivation as Competitive Advantage: The Cause-Driven Approach

Blake emphasizes founder motivation as perhaps the most undervalued factor in startup success, particularly for ambitious technical projects that require sustained effort through inevitable setbacks.

• Daily motivation comes from believing "the world needs supersonic flight" and "passengers deserve it" rather than personal achievement or financial rewards
• Even on days when Blake questions whether he's the right person to solve technical problems, he never doubts that the cause is "worth giving it everything I've got"
• The comparison between his first company and Boom reveals that "ambitious founders are going to run at our personal red line" regardless of project scope
• Since the emotional intensity of building challenging companies remains constant, founders "may as well work on something really big" rather than incremental improvements
• Startups consistently involve "high highs and low lows" regardless of industry or technical complexity, making intrinsic motivation essential for persistence
• The advice to work on "the most ambitious thing you can get your head around" applies because execution difficulty scales with personal limits rather than objective scope

This motivation-first approach provides sustainable energy for multi-year development cycles that characterize breakthrough innovation projects.

Blake Scholl's journey from software product manager to supersonic aviation pioneer demonstrates that the most ambitious technical challenges often require passion and persistence more than credentials and industry experience. His systematic approach to learning new domains, building expert networks, and maintaining small high-performance teams offers a replicable model for founders pursuing breakthrough innovations in established industries.