Season 4, Ep. 41 – Founder to Founder: with Ian Villa, COO & Chief Product Officer, Whisper Aero

(THE FRONTIER THEME PLAYS)

Bill, via previous recording (00:05):

Welcome to another Founder to Founder interview from Gun.io, your source for hiring world-class tech talent. Today, Gun.io’s CEO and co-founder, Teja Yenamandra, sits down with Ian Villa, COO and chief product officer of Whisper Aero, a world-class team of aviation experts creating cleaner, quieter, and more efficient electric propulsion systems, you know, for airplanes. Okay, here’s Teja. (THE FRONTIER THEME ENDS)

Teja (00:41):

So I think actually like, moving from San Francisco to Crossville is like, a good place to start. So how did that, like, how did that go for you, and like, what were your first impressions of Tennessee?

Ian (00:54):

I don’t think ever in my life I knew I was gonna move to Tennessee. (Teja: <Laugh>.) You know, I was born in Long Beach; I spent some time in Chicago as a kid. I grew up, middle school, high school in Southern California, and then went to school in SF, or Bay Area, and then had a small stint in Texas, but like, never thought Tennessee, but the reason why we picked Tennessee was, you know, my co-founder, Mark and I, we knew we wanted to start Whisper, and we knew we wanted to be as a hardware startup, have a lot of space, be able to be in a state that was business friendly, and sort of have as many advantages as possible to grow the business, because, you know, like, you’re set up to lose. Like, startups are not set up to win, otherwise we would see startups popping up every single day, growing into unicorns.

Ian (01:50):

That’s just not the case. (Teja: Yeah.) So Crossville was this happy accident where we were looking for spots all around the US. We looked at Texas, we looked in California, we looked in North Carolina, Georgia, and Mark stumbled upon this old resort that, you know, looked like a screaming deal, and it’s 20 acres, it’s on a lake, it has a beach, it’s got, you know, an 18 hole mini putt course, and a bunch of space we knew we could use for testing. So Mark pulled the trigger I think sometime in 2020, purchased the place, and then, you know, pandemic happened, and we raised our seed round, and it was off to the races, and [we] turned that resort into basically Whisper’s first secret lab during the pandemic. The cool thing was, because it was a resort, like, the starting team, we hired everyone in, you know, various parts of the country, literally moved to Crossville. So the entry into Crossville pipeline for hardware engineers was really, really high, and it’s like, much harder now, because of Whisper, but it just became this like, really cool innovation proving ground where we could live, work, play, the kind of future we’re building, and honestly, the bonds that we forge across the team have been so strong because of, you know, being in Crossville.

Teja (03:14):

Yeah, totally. Just like, the hang after work and just, you know, shooting the breeze. Like, that’s super important to building rapport. Makes work easier too.

Ian (03:25):

Well, it’s amazing when you wake up and then, five minutes in, you’re now in the lab like, working on something, and you need to take a break, and like, two minutes later, you’re on a, you know, a beach at a lake, and then later in the day you can go play beach volleyball, and then afterwards you go grab a beer, and you’re like, wait a second, we have this like, really good idea, and then next thing you know, it’s like, 2:00 AM in the lab, and we’re working on cool stuff. Yeah.

Teja (03:50):

That’s sick. Yeah. I mean that’s the dream of like, having a high performing, but also like, a fun team just to constantly like, grind with. (Ian: A hundred percent.) That’s like what every leadership team like, aspires to be, you know?

Ian (04:08):

Well, it’s dangerous too, right? Like, you know, it could have blown up on us. (Teja: Really?) Well, if you just think about it, like, think about it objectively. You know, you’re hiring people, and they’re now like, living and working in the same place. Like, if you don’t hire people that are aligned and exhibit, you know, similar cultural values and our culture adds, all of that can like, you know, turn into a pretty tricky situation fast, but I think what we found was we had a lot of people that were motivated and aligned, not only from the technical perspective, but also just from a team building perspective early on, (Teja: Yeah.) and then when you know you have to not only work with them, but also like, be their neighbor, you find that like, the hiring process, it’s not just a thing you have to do. It’s like, the <emphasis> thing you have to do to guarantee, you know, your happiness <laugh>, (Teja: Yeah <laugh>.) like, your wellbeing, and so it became this kind of like, virtuous cycle for all of us, and we found that we were able to bring together a really awesome team.

Teja (05:17):

Like, what was the hiring process like? Because, to me, like, I would love if I could just stack my neighborhood with people that I work with. They probably wouldn’t like it, but it would be dope for me. So like, how did you…’cause that, I mean, maybe I’m just like, not from San Francisco, so like, this seems…this culture is like, way more common, like, in the Bay Area, where like, you’re living close together, you’re hanging out, you’re basically working 12, 16 hours a day together. That’s not how like, the southeast generally operates. Like, culturally, that’s kind of like, unfamiliar here. Like, we’re trying to bring it, but I remember one of my co-founders, he’s like, he’s living in Oakland. He’s now in Finland, but I remember he came to visit Nashville, he went to the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, and like, there’s nobody there at like, 5:30 PM. He’s like, “When do people work here?” right, (Ian: <Laugh>.) and I was like, “Dude, I don’t know,” <laugh>.

Ian (06:07):

Yes. Stuff has to get done. (Teja: <Laugh>.) Our interview process is not unlike what you’d find in the Bay Area. You know, when we were building Whisper and like, writing up the initial business plan, it was mission, vision, and then values of the company, and these cultural values continue today. There’s 14 of them. It’s on our job board, it’s on our website, and the cool thing about establishing that is it now provides you a really great way to assess people’s skills, and their fit, and then also to align the work and the way that we work together, not just the end results, but how we get to the end results. It allows us to align that, and be reflective, and use those as a way to, you know, grade ourselves. So, you know, when we were interviewing people, and when we still interview people, we have these two phone screens: one that’s focused on the cultural side, one that’s focused on the tech side.

Ian (07:12):

We use those, after both of those screens, put our heads together, try and see like, okay, is this someone that we could see ourselves working with that we feel, you know, is strong enough to bring in for an in-person interview? If that is the case, then we bring ’em in. They have two to three, you know, separate interviews, like, one on tech, one on culture, sometimes one on product or an associated area, (Teja: Right.) and then we have a jam session. So they get a project related to, you know, what they would be doing on the job, and, you know, these aren’t easy. These aren’t something that, you know, you can pick up, and you can Google, and this is the answer.

Ian (07:53):

Like, they’re meant to be challenging and oftentimes like, impossible to solve in the time that you get, but that’s good, because like, a lot of the things we’re doing are really challenging, and we wanna see people who are up for that challenge and are gonna take, you know, their best shot at it, and you find that people oftentimes, you know, the best jams that I’ve seen are the ones where, you know, we think that they’re only gonna kind of scratch the surface, and then they go so deep, and then we all learn something from it. So, you know, from all of that, the whole goal is like, we want a good sense of can we work with this person across all of those different dimensions, and then similarly, like, they should be leaving feeling good about, you know, whether or not they can work with us. (Teja: Mmm <affirmative>.) I guess maybe the biggest difference between how we do it and how you might do it in the valley, is when you get a tour of the office, it’s not just a bunch of desks and, you know, snacks, but you actually get to see the hardware. (Teja: Yeah.) We’re not shy about spinning stuff up. It’s like, look, you gotta see it to believe it. You gotta hear it, to believe it, or not hear it, and you know, when we were at the resort, you know, you get to tour the resort too.

Teja (09:15):

When do you introduce like, the concept of like, all right, like, we’re not only working together, but like, we’re also gonna live together, so I’m gonna know exactly like, what you do all the time. (Ian: <Laugh>.) <Laugh>.

Ian (09:26):

Well, that was never the case, and like, to be clear, we’re no longer, you know, all living together, but, you know, it’s undeniable. Upfront, even before people flew out, it’s like, look, the team’s out here in Crossville. (Teja: <Laugh>.) Like, not gonna be shy about that. Like, here’s a photo. When we announced, you know, our seed raise, one of those photos made its way to our first article in Bloomberg. So there’s no surprises. Like, you Google us, you see a big resort in the middle of Tennessee, and yeah, there’s no point trying to shy away from it, because no matter what, like, if they’re a good candidate, they’re gonna come on site and see it, so you might as well mention it upfront, and it’s just part of the thing, and if you really want to be a part of this team that’s gonna change the world, like, you’ll take the plunge.

Teja (10:19):

No doubt. Yeah, the people who are not comfortable with that will self-select out somewhere through the process, through (Ian: Yeah.) like, basically ruling, yeah. Why did you guys decide not to go like, the traditional, like, you know, go to YC, do the seed, then do the A later? It seems like you guys just like, took a seed, skipped the whole incubator stage, and then went straight for the Series A.

Ian (10:47):

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we had no pre-seed. Part of it was, you know, before Whisper, Mark and I were at Uber Elevate. Mark actually co-founded Uber Elevate and pitched the idea to TK, and then, you know, me, I was employee number seven there, and it was literally the startup within the startup, and we were fighting for resources. Success and survival is not guaranteed. (Teja: No doubt <laugh>.) Yeah, right? It’s like, okay, we’re, you know, fulfilling rides, we’re serving, you know, deliveries through Uber Eats, and then flying cars. I went, “Okay, board. What do you think stays on the docket?” Like <laugh>, (Teja: <Laugh>.) you know, so we had a pretty awesome run, and honestly, if you look at a capital efficiency perspective, if we could unravel the books, the amount of value just marketing…forget the tech that we develop, marketing value alone relative to the spend, we were like, consistently for I think three years in a row, the highest, you know, positive, beneficial marketing, comms, whatever for Uber and consistently like, the lowest spend <laugh> compared to all the other groups, right?

Ian (12:10):

Like, there were no incentives that we were dishing out for, you know, eaters. There was no, you know, it was a really lean org. So anyways, we cut our teeth in that startup environment, and then at the same time, you know, fast forward to 2020, when we were finally given the directive by the board to, you know, offload Elevate, Mark and I had some serious conviction around what the future of aviation looked like. You know, Mark was the director of engineering at that point. I was the head of strategy and all systems simulation within Uber Elevate, and what we had completed was we built this simulation system that combined billions of Uber trips, billions of non Uber trips, you know, vehicle models, performance models, operations models, airspace, noise, weather, all into this holistic framework to peer into the future in any city around the world that Uber was operating in, with any kind of vehicles that, you know, Uber Elevate wanted to operate in air mobility context.

Ian (13:22):

The thing that we found, no matter what city we looked at, no matter what kind of technology we are bringing to bear, is that people were still just, you know, these vehicles, they were still too noisy. (Teja: Mmm <affirmative>. If you wanted to get to a solution, a product that people, everyone could use, right, that was closer to UberX or even Uber Pool pricing, you wouldn’t be able to get it unless you could take off and land every single minute of every single hour of every single day. (Teja: Interesting.) Even the innovations that were coming out at the time, they still were too noisy. So our big “what if” was, you know, if you could develop this system, this propulsion system that was cleaner, quieter, more efficient than anything else, and also scaled for things as small as drones and as large as aircraft, you would win, because, you know, in the history of flight, every big step change in flight was preceded by a step change in propulsion.

Ian (14:12):

So that’s what we see ourselves as: this next generation propulsion company that paves the way to true, you know, electric air mobility at scale for all use cases, from drone delivery, to cargo delivery, to regional you know, air mobility, to, you know, next generation DOD, you know, drones and aircraft. That’s really what was the kernel for Whisper, and we had so much conviction, we were already cutting our teeth at Elevate, and it’s like, why slow down? Let’s use this momentum and keep pushing harder.

Teja (14:59):

Gotcha. So I like, I’m like, barely holding onto this thread. I just like, it’s so interesting. So basically, you guys discovered that noise was like, the key, I don’t know, like constraint barrier…

Ian (15:16):

Barrier to scale.

Teja (15:16):

Okay, and being able to scale usage of Elevate, and basically, you guys believe that if you could actually make like, air travel quieter…

Ian (15:30):

…and more efficient.

Teja (15:31):

…and more efficient, it could be more widely adopted and scaled to like, every increment of usage. So not just commercial, but maybe like, personal things like that for drones….

Ian (15:42):

That’s right. Like, the efficiency in the noise piece, the reason why they’re important is because ultimately those unlock the unit economics everybody wants. (Teja: Right.) Like, cool electric aviation technology? Awesome. You know, like, my background’s in aircraft design, engineering degree, like, you don’t have to sell me on that, but what you have to sell everybody else on that doesn’t, you know, care about air airplanes and really just cares about like, “Am I gonna get my McDonald’s chicken nuggets on time?” (Teja: <Laugh>.) is the fact that all of this is affordable, right? If we build all this stuff, and it only works for the select few, the privileged view, we haven’t really done a service for the world. (Teja: Right.)

Ian (16:27):

We knew that we were in this really cool intersection point where we’ve seen the tech, we knew the market case. Not many people could say that they were in that unique intersection, and it’s on us to put this together, and like, if we don’t do it, who else will? So that’s why, you know, we push for Whisper. I think incubators are great for a lot of founders that want to go out there and build something new. I think a big part of building a successful startup is just figuring out the rules, and that’s what incubators help you do. Like, you figure out the rules really quickly in a really, like, challenging but also concentrated environment. Mark and I were just lucky to have Elevate, which was effectively our incubator that was non-dilutive <laugh>. (Teja: <Laugh>. Right. Yeah.) Pretty sweet, right?

Teja (17:23):

Yes, that’s true, and there’s no control over it into the future. Yep, (Ian: Yeah.) cool. Awesome. So like, so you guys met each other at Uber Elevate. Where were you based when you were at Uber? In SF?

Ian (17:42):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uber Elevate’s team was based in SF. I actually moved from LA to SF for the opportunity. Prior to Uber, I was at Northrop Grumman’s advanced design team. This is the team that designed B-2, B-21, X-47B, a bunch of the flying sneaky aircraft that you see out there, or don’t see, (Teja: <Laugh>.) and then Mark came from NASA, so he spent 32 years at NASA developing the tech. He is the godfather of electric aviation. You know, Google him. He’s got tons of papers well published. He is, well, one of the authors of the Uber Elevate white paper that basically unlocked billions of dollars of funding into this urban air mobility space, and he is, you know, one of the sharpest guys you’ll ever meet. You know, he will still in meetings check you on, you know, engineering or technical analysis, and it’s great. You need that kind of energy.

Teja (18:50):

What’s that go down like?

Ian (18:51):

Most recently, like we were in an aero meeting looking at some CFD. There was like, flow separation off the backside of something we’ve been looking at, and it just looked funny, and if you didn’t look at the flow results, and you just looked at the end numbers, like, the integrated, you know are we generating the lift? Does the profile look right? (Teja: Right.) You know, you look at that graph, and it’s like, okay, I can maybe accept that, but if you look at the flow result, you know, and you had a sharp eye, like, that doesn’t look right, and Mark was the first one to point that out in the room. So things like that, you know, just getting really in the weeds with the numbers, all of us here at Whisper, you know, are pretty technically-minded, and we’ll dive in deep, and it’s good to see that, you know, whether you’re an engineer, or a designer, or a technician, or you’re all the way at the top, like, everybody has this like, really firm metrics-based (Teja: Mmm <affirmative>.) dedication and passion to getting the product right.

Teja (20:00):

Mmm <affirmative>. How have you sort of like, adapted and grown in this environment? Because it seems like you were sort of more in the operational space at Uber Elevate and, you know, sort of working on the actual product at Northrop Grumman, but now you’re on a podcast, you’re on Forbes’ 30 Under 30, like, you’re getting a lot of like, shine, and it seems like you’re doing like, a circuit like, around media. I don’t know. How have you kind of like, adapted to this new role? Because like, you’re leadership now, right? Like, it’s part of your job to sell the mission, the vision, the story of the company.

Ian (20:37):

I wanna caveat. Like, I’ve never fully hung up the technical (Teja: <Laugh>.) piece of this, and especially, you know, when you pursue something like Whisper in deep tech, in aviation, I think teams that don’t have technical founders, you’ve got a much tougher time. (Teja: Yeah.) I won’t say it’s impossible, but I’ll say it’s like, makes it harder for me to bet on them. (Teja: Yes.) I’ve always had like, a very entrepreneurial spirit. Like, this came from my upbringing. Like, my dad. My dad and my mom, they weren’t engineers. They were in finance and were really good with numbers, and my dad was always, you know, he had his own business, and I think that kind of grittiness that comes with that…you know, helping him out as a kid, making cold calls. Like, I made cold calls, I put reports together.

Ian (21:33):

I’ve woken up at like, 5:00 AM to go to like, a FedEx Kinko’s and like, line these things and then get berated, because like, you know, the print was off, or like, (Teja: <Laugh>.) the borders on your image were not right. As a kid, I was like, “Why am I doing this?” (Teja: <Laugh>.) But you know, over time, right, you pick up these skills, and you realize why they’re important, and the entrepreneurial spirit plus like, this love for just solving really tough challenges never went away. So I guess like, today it doesn’t feel like a shift. It just feels like a natural extension of where I’ve wanted to bring this, (Teja: Mmm <affirmative>.) or at least where I’ve wanted to bring my career, and, you know, in college I realized I wanted to be more focused on aviation than, you know, space.

Ian (22:26):

I knew that if I wanted to, you know, be an entrepreneur in like, aviation, I would need to cut my teeth a little bit more. I had, you know, some failed efforts back in college too, and it just made me realize there’s a whole lot of value in getting experience out in the world, and after Elevate and seeing and building up those skills, not just in going zero to one on game-changing technology, but also learning the legal side of things, the ops side of things, the comm side of things, the marketing side of things. That gave me a lot more confidence to actually go step out with Mark and make Whisper a reality, and you know, along the way, I’ve also just been given great opportunities to still strengthen my technical skills.

Ian (23:17):

So, you know Northrop’s advanced design team, that was super technical, right? We were designing next generation airplanes, coming up with different design schemes to actually optimize and design, you know, aircraft and engines at the same time for brand new kinds of missions. Then when I joined Uber, you know, I was leading our aircraft partnerships, helped bring in Boeing, and Bell, Embraer, Toyota, Jovi into the fold, which it’s not just a B play. Like, that’s a part of it, but it really came down to like, can we assess what they’re building? Do we have conviction around, you know, whether this will meet our missions, and kind of like, what the Air Force does when they’re looking to acquire an airplane. Like, they have a team assessing, does that actually meet our needs?

Ian (24:13):

So within Uber, that’s kind of like, what we were doing. I was able to like, even further expand the aircraft design tool chest, and then towards the end of that, stepped away from like, pure aircraft design to actually look at software. So I was leading, you know, software engineers, data scientists, product analysts, operations folks to really figure out how do we actually solve the future of mobility? How do we go to market? So that gave me a much stronger background in products, in operations, in software design which, you know, has just continued to strengthen the tech side while also getting the experience and context for what makes a startup and how you grow and scale that startup.

Teja (24:59):

Hmm <affirmative>. What’s your impression of like, the tech ecosystem here in Nashville?

Ian (25:06):

Very med tech (Teja: Yeah <laugh>.) Yeah, very med tech. I think it’s really connected in ways that like, California isn’t connected, right? Like, you think about California and startup culture in California, it’s like, SF, LA, like, Silicon Beach, whatever that means. (Teja: Yeah <laugh>. Yeah, yeah, yeah.) Like, I still like, kind of cringe at the word, or the phrase, but Tennessee, when you look at the Tennessee startup ecosystem, you see the state in a very targeted fashion, investing, and then connecting all of these different hubs, whether it’s Chattanooga, or Knoxville, or Nashville, Johnson City, Memphis. Like, there are targeted efforts here, and the state, to their credit, through, you know, the economic and community development, you know, commission, Launch Tennessee, like, they are taking an active role in gluing all this, and so I think what you’ll find over the next few years is this tipping point where the combined efforts of all this creates a really awesome space to catalyze you know, a startup of all different kinds, right? Like, Knoxville, Crossville, right? (Teja: Yeah.) We can pull on, you know, Oak Ridge National Lab (Teja: Yup.) and a lot manufacturing stuff that’s there. There’s a lot of like, really awesome precision manufacturing jobs that have come to the state because of companies like Nissan, and Ford, and GM, and Denzo, and so, you know, there’s a base of med tech, there’s this collective kind of experience, and over time, we’re gonna keep growing that till, I think, Tennessee is gonna look really, really exciting.

Teja (26:57):

Have you built like, a good network here in Nashville, like, of local peeps?

Ian (27:04):

I think so, but that’s a thing where like, I think the state has been focused on connecting the cities, and I think within the cities, like, it could use a little bit of infusion of that energy from like, SF, you know? (Teja: Yeah.) Like, you go to SF, and because people are always like, talking about their startup or, you know, what’s the latest AGI like, you know, thing that you’ve tried out. Like, there’s that energy that just kind of like, is viral and catches on, you know, and Nashville hasn’t necessarily happened yet. So I’m still finding connections. I’m still getting connected to new people every single week, and it’s refreshing, and like, there’s no way <laugh>, there’s no way I can like, have a new conversation every single day, but I think like, kind of like, what I was saying before, we’re rising up as a state in the context of like, American entrepreneurship, American dynamism, even, and so I think as more people realize that there are entrepreneurs here that are making an impact, the strength of that network and the connectivity of that network is gonna get even, you know, stronger.

Teja (28:21):

Yeah, totally. We need something like an Art Basel here, you know? (Ian: Yeah, totally.) You know, some excuse for people like, who work elsewhere to fly here, and just have fun, and like, have these spontaneous business interactions, you know?

Ian (28:37):

Launch Tennessee has definitely been trying with that, right? (Teja: Yeah <laugh>.) They have the Entrepreneurship, or Innovation Week, earlier in the year, and then they have the entrepreneurship kind of thing, 3686 Festival, towards the latter half of the year. I think those, to me, feel like really awesome moments to gravitate around. I think also just, you know, there’s been more and more VC interest in the city. (Teja: No doubt.) I’ve been surprised in the few months that I’ve been in Nashville, the amount of people that have come up and said, “Hey, like, have you heard ‘so and so’ was thinking of moving to town?” I mean, I literally just talked to Steve at Plug and Play, Steve Goats, I think. (Teja: Yep.) They’re thinking of setting up a, not thinking of, they are setting up a presence here in Tennessee and are looking at like, where they actually wanna plant their flags. Maybe it’s one, maybe it’s multiple. You know, that VC interest in having outposts here, that too will add to the gravitational pull.

Teja (29:40):

Totally, totally. Yeah. I’m excited about it. I mean, at least like, from like, a founder’s perspective, it’s like, there’s a difference in access to capital, what that does to valuation, what that does to the level of ambition that companies have, and then like, the downstream impact on like, the talent that’s here and like, the whole like, pace of the city. So like, I think we need a couple of more like, iterations over the next couple of years, but we’ll get there. I agree with you.

Ian (30:11):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t think it’s just like, iterations of startups. I mean, that’s certainly part of it, but a friend of mine, he said, you know, the one way we really get like, Nashville and Tennessee on the map is if, you know, we get more unicorns here, right? (Teja: Yes.) You know? When people are having this conversation of like, where am I gonna set up their startup, you know, Nashville isn’t top of the list. Let’s just be honest. (Teja: Yeah.) Like, there’s SF, there’s LA, there’s New York, there’s Miami, and then after that, people start to consider other outposts, but it’s always in the context of like, “Well, I could go there, but like, what else will they provide? Like, are there incentives? Are there other things?” And the incentives are great, but like, if you can establish a baseline where, you know, they would want to move here regardless of the incentives, that’s how, you know, you set up something for success, and I think the reason why people want to go to these areas is because there’s a track record of other successes, right? So it’s kind of on all of us, right, to be pushing and uplifting each other (Teja: Right.) to get to a really kind of fertile ground and, you know, a legacy of examples of startups that have like, really succeeded as a proof point for other, you know, entrepreneurs on their journey.

Teja (31:42):

Yeah. Well said. I mean, look at Seattle. Like, what a random city <laugh>, you know?

Ian (31:49):

Yeah. Microsoft, Amazon. Like, talk about…

Teja (31:54):

Starbucks? I mean, Starbucks, a ton of other companies, yeah. So what’s next for Whisper?

Ian (32:00):

That’s a great question. So the first two years of the company was based on, we were really focused on just proving out the tech. We had this idea of, you know, how you could achieve cleaner, quieter, more efficient thrust, how you can move some of the tones that you would hear typically up and away from like, human hearing into the ultrasonic. We proved that that works. The next thing we went and did was then we scaled it up. Like, we flew that 10 pound thruster through the air, but now we need to scale it up. We’d already done that, successful. So, you know, going into next year, we’re planning on taking that thruster and actually, you know, putting it onto a much bigger vehicle. I can’t say too much more outside of that, (Teja: Yeah.) but really excited to prove that out.

Ian (32:49):

We also, towards the latter half of this year, showcased a leaf blower. So it was kind of this happy accident, but it was on the product roadmap, even from the beginning, of a leaf blower, and the key on lock there is like, even if you’re cleaner, quieter, more efficient, can you produce these at scale? (Teja: Mmm <affirmative>.) We knew it was possible, but we didn’t know how soon you would get there, but turns out, it’s sooner than you think. So we are now working on trying to figure out how we’re gonna go to market with that. We have a prototype, and we’ve been in talks with some really, you know, big companies there, and we’re excited to be able to find a, you know, the right partner to bring that to life. Then outside of that, I don’t know if I can say much more, but we’ve got some much more exciting, I guess, expansion pathways for the tech.

Ian (33:50):

There’s the DOD side, there’s the, you know, commercial non-aviation side, and then there’s this aviation space we’re continuing to look at. We announced this initiative called “ReconnecTN,” focused on regionally connecting all parts of Tennessee through regional air mobility, and this has been a collaboration with, you know, TDOT, Tennessee Economic and Community Development, but also players outside of Tennessee, like Reliable Robotics, JSX, who is a part 135 regional air carrier, and a number of other, you know, folks in the state to make regional air mobility a reality, and on our side, as far as what we’re doing, now that we’ve proven out the higher thrust applications, I think you’ll start to see experiments, or proof of concepts, I should say. I’m being really careful with my words. I dunno.

Teja (34:58):

No, it’s all good. (Ian: Yeah.) I was surprised. Like, I was like, I mean, you probably were under clearance at Northrop Grumman. I was like, I wonder if that is allowed to be said <laugh>.

Ian (35:09):

It’s not. It’s not. (Teja: Okay <laugh>.) Well, I didn’t mean…a lot of people have clearances, but the things we worked on…(Teja: Yeah, yeah.) Yeah, can’t say.

Teja (35:18):

No doubt. Cool, man. Well, where can people find you and your company on the interwebs?

Ian (35:24):

Can find me on LinkedIn. This is really weird. I don’t think anyone’s ever like, stated their LinkedIn. LinkedIn.com/in/ianvilla.(Teja: <Laugh>.) It’s one word. Look it up. You can find me on Twitter, my handle’s @Ian, and then two underscores, Villa. Someone took the single underscore and the no underscore, so…<laugh>.

Teja (35:48):

I’m sure you’re the Ian Villa that’s doing the most.

Ian (35:52):

We’re trying. We’re trying. For Whisper, you know, we’re on Twitter, we’re on LinkedIn, we’re on X, sorry, we’re on LinkedIn. You can go to our website. We got a lot of cool stuff there too. Yeah, and we’ll be releasing more stuff. So we are big believers in showing, not telling. We do have some pretty awesome renders, but you know, that’s not what we try and put at the forefront, and when you see videos of our tech, there’s value there. You know, (THE FRONTIER THEME FADES IN) we’re not covering up our tests with, you know, music or Musak. (Teja: <Laugh>.) It is the real tech, and it only sounds better when you hear it in real life.

Teja (36:37):

That’s awesome. Dude, we’re so privileged to have you guys in the state.

Ian (36:41):

Thanks for having me, you know, on this, and like, (Teja: Yeah.) you know, we’re all doing our part to make Tennessee bigger and better.

Teja (36:47):

Totally. Ah, man. It’s like, this is the best part of the job, honestly, is to get to talk to cool people that are doing some dope shit. So thanks for your time today, man.

Ian (36:57):

Right on. Right on.

Abbey, via previous precording (36:58):

You’re listening to The Founder to Founder podcast, powered by Gun.io’s Frontier Network. We release a new episode every Thursday morning, so be sure to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you stream your music. Please leave us a review and share with your friends. You can follow us online at the Frontier Pod or drop us a line at [email protected] to get in touch about hiring world class tech talent.

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