Groupon to Supersonic Pivot

A story about how a former Groupon product manager transitioned to founding a supersonic jet company by following his passion.

"After two years at Groupon, he quit. On his LinkedIn profile under his Groupon position, he wrote 'Nothing like working on internet coupons to make you yearn for doing something you truly love.'

He wanted to start a company but didn't know what to do. His whole life he had been interested in flight - as a kid he was always interested in model airplanes, his parents took him to museums, and he even got his pilot's license. One of the things on his bucket list was to go Mach 2.

His method for figuring out what to do next was to write a list of all ideas, starting with what would be the most awesome if he did it. He figured he'd probably cross out the first five because they'd be unrealistic or impractical, and he'd probably do number five on the list. But number one was to create a supersonic jet.

He approached it methodically. He bought textbooks about flight, and calculated that they only needed a 30% improvement in fuel efficiency from the Concorde's design - which was created using slide rulers and wind tunnels. He took his calculations to a Stanford professor who confirmed the physics made sense.

He then took half of his life savings and started the company, managing to recruit top talent including the former chief engineer of Gulfstream. While the Concorde cost a billion dollars to make, he estimated they'd need about $200 million, though he wasn't sure where he'd get all that money at first."