CEOs You Should Know Stan Little Surf Air Mobility Long Interview Final Unbranded

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I grew up in a small towncalled Humboldt, Tennessee, which is about
an hour and a half outside ofMemphis. Basically, back then it was
a small farming community, but itwas the epitome of an American childhood.
So I have wonderful memories from Humboldt, Tennessee and still have family there.
I then went to undergrad at theUniversity of Tennessee, transferred to the University

(00:23):
of Mississippi Old Miss, and thengraduated Old Miss Law School, and sir,
because of those two schools, becauseI'm a sports guy, you've had
some pretty good football over the years. Let me tell you we've had We've
had two Mannings at Old Miss andone at Tennessee. So sure, and
I knew the third brother when Iwas at Old Miss. So Mannings all
around in the football round. Bythe way, I hear when you go

(00:44):
to a game at Tennessee, it'san extraordinary experience, it really is.
There. There is nothing like especiallythe opening, you know, the opening
of football at Tennessee in Nengland Stadium, and now it's over one hundred thousand,
you know. And then I gotso Miss and we sat thirty nine
thousand when I first got there,and now it's almost at seventy So it's

(01:06):
a great football experience, it sureis, it, sure is. Well,
Listen, we are here to talkabout surf air mobility and you being
the CEO. And there's a mergerthat we have to talk about too,
because two smart companies came together andnow you're the CEO of them. That
happened in twenty thirteen. But Iwant to give our listeners context before twenty
thirteen, because I know you dida lot of really cool things before that.

(01:26):
So out of school and before twentythirteen, what did you do you
know for I wasn't associated with theairline business at all. Back then,
I practiced law for fifteen years inMississippi, and if you go back eleven
years ago from now, I wasa lawyer, probably handling a case at
the courthouse, and I saw aneed when it looked like Delta was going

(01:49):
to shut down their hub at MemphisInternational, which was our our hometown airport.
There, I saw a need forpeople being able to get back and
forth on short haul trips, specificallydown to the Gulf Coast. So kind
of out of the blue, Icalled a college buddy of mine one night
and said, come on over tomy house and let's talk about something.
And he got there and I said, you and I need to start an

(02:13):
airline. And of course he thoughtthat was a complete joke. And let
me tell you, six months laterwe had our first flight sold out Memphis
down to destin On in the FloridaPanhandle, and the rest is history.
Well that's fantastic. So let's takeus all the way up to twenty thirteen.
You've got a company, there's anothercompany, there's a merger. Tell
us about how it all came together. You know, we really didn't have

(02:38):
a whole lot of association, really, not any with Surfair. Surfair started
the same year that we did.I think, actually we're the last two
startup airlines in the country. Youjust don't see new airlines getting started anymore.
But that group started on the Westcoast, based side of La flying
a lot to San Francisco and toBlake Tahoe, places like that. We

(03:00):
were in the South, hence thename Southern, and both going on our
separate paths until COVID hit. Andabout a week after COVID hit, I
got a call. I didn't recognizethe number and I thought, you know,
it's COVID. I don't have awhole lot else going on right now.
So I answered it, and itwas Sudan Shahani, the CEO of

(03:22):
Surfair, and he said, I'vebeen reading that you want to be the
first person, the first airline toput paying passengers on an electric airplane.
And he said, that's also exactlywhat we want to do at Surfair.
You and I should talk. Hesaid, so when COVID's over, come
out here to the West Coast andlet's spend a little time together. And

(03:43):
I said, you know, I'min the airline business. I don't get
to say we're not going to flyuntil COVID's over. We fly every day.
So I hopped on a plane thenext week, and within a matter
of a few short weeks, heand I had signed a letter of intent
to put the companies together and jointlybe the first airline to put a paying
passenger on an electric airplane. Well, it's a great story, it's a

(04:05):
great origin story, and I wanteverybody to buckle in literally because now if
you move forward ten years, afull decade, the growth has been incredible.
What you do is incredible and Thebusiness model is really neat too,
and we're going to talk all aboutthat, but I first want to ask
you just about mission statement. Whatis that when it comes to surf air?
You know, it's just what Isaid a moment ago. It's to

(04:27):
put paying passengers on an electric orhybrid electric aircraft. Our goal in everything
we do is green energy and movinggreen energy and green transportation forward faster than
most people think is possible. Allright, So I'm fascinated by this because
I'm in the ev everything, andI'm always on board with the latest tech

(04:47):
windmills, solar power, electricity,and it's the future and we're gonna have
to do it. We don't haveto get into a climate change conversation,
but I like what you and yourcompany are doing. Can you tell me,
though, why you came up withthis idea and why it makes sense
for you and your customers? Well, Number one, it's a better for
the customer. It's a better experience. Think about how quiet an airplane would

(05:11):
be if you didn't have engine noise. It just makes think about how much
quieter your Tesla, if you drivea Tesla or any electric vehicle is than
an old school traditional combustion engine muchbetter passenger experience. But from the airline
perspective, it's one place where wecan control costs and where we can actually
reduce costs. We all know thatthe cost of labor is going up and

(05:34):
there's a scarcity of labor. Youlook at where crude oil is and I
find myself checking the cost of crudeon my phone three or four times a
day because that's so affecting the priceof operating an airline. The cost of
operating an airline, so to beable to do it with electricity instead of

(05:54):
being beholden to the price of oilis a major issue for us, and
that's what's going to allow us toopen up these new markets. So think
back Dennis to twenty thirty, evenforty years ago. How many more airports
had scheduled commercial service that don't now. It is a continually shrinking universe,

(06:16):
and that's because the costs continue togo up and you just can't afford an
airline, can't afford to put serviceinto an airport that's not going to supply
it with hundreds of thousands of passengersper year. We want to be able
to go back to that old modelof point to point travel. You don't
have to change planes at a hub. You can use your smaller local airport.

(06:39):
That's more convenient, and you cando it for the same cost or
less than what you would pay togo have a connecting flight through Dallas or
Denver or Chicago. All right,Stan, I know that you're LABA.
So what flight patterns and cities doyou do now and what's in the future.
You know, we're all over theplace right now. We're we're the
largest carrier enter island Care. You'reby departures in the state of Hawaii.

(07:01):
We fly about one hundred and fiftydepartures a day out there. We also
have daily service between Santa Barbara andSan Francisco, LA. And San Francisco.
We fly into the small airport atTruckee, California, which is just
outside It's on Lake Tahoe, Andin fact, my family and I were
there for vacation a couple of weeksago, and I can't tell you how

(07:25):
much more convenient it is to pullyour car up to a small airport,
going to a small terminal there wereprobably eight or nine people in the whole
building, and then walk straight outto your plane. And fly home.
We're also throughout the Rocky Mountains.We are at Denver and several small cities
around Denver. Same for Chicago,Dallas, Washington, Dulles. We're looking

(07:50):
to expand soon into Atlanta, whichI think is going to be a great
market for us in the next coupleof years. And then we've got projects
going on internationally, So don't besurprised if you see some surf airplanes down
in the Caribbean doing some island hoppingin the next few months. Outstanding.
And what about the size of plane. How many people do you have different
kinds of planes, different sizes forpeople. We do have different kinds of

(08:13):
planes. We have five different aircrafttypes in our fleet. But the backbone
of the fleet and the one thatwill be the first to be electrified,
is the Sesna Grand Caravan. It'smade by Textron, the largest general aviation
aircraft manufacturer in the world. It'sbeen made since nineteen eighty six, so

(08:33):
there are about three thousand of themin existence around the globe. This is
a workhorse aircraft. It's designed,as I said, for nine passengers,
which is where electrification is first.As you can imagine going to be possible.
You can't electrify I owing seven thirtyseven yet, so we're going to
make sure that on a regional basis, don't get in your car and drive

(08:56):
three or four or five hours.An airplane and for essentially the cost of
an uber will get you there,and will get you there with half the
carbon footprint. I'm super curious howlong does it take to charge one of
the airplanes that it depends on.It depends on which type you're on.
We're making two types. One isfully electric, so it's nothing but battery

(09:20):
power. The other is hybrid electric, so there is actually a turbogenerator which
is charging the battery throughout the flight. The hybrid electric can go NonStop for
pretty much the same range as atraditional combustion engine powered aircraft. The electric

(09:41):
will have a shorter range until batterytechnology develops to the point where it can
go longer, and we don't knowyet where that's going to go. Right
now, you're looking at about onehundred mile range on fully electric, and
then it will have to charge fora while before it can turn around and
make the return trip. All ofthat is still in the testing phases,

(10:03):
so I can't give you a goodanswer on that right now. But I
can tell you that every route wefly in Hawaii is under one hundred miles,
so that's going to be a greatplace to test this new propulsion system.
Understood, and thank you for that. I did want to circle back
on something that caught my attention,and as you probably know in this CEO
series that a lot of current leadersand future leaders listen to this and what

(10:26):
you have to say leadership, howyou run a company. But I'm fascinated
on your merger. You two hadthe same idea at almost the same time,
and yet somebody reached out to youand said let's be partners. That
doesn't always happen, so that's unusualone itself. But just tell me about
it for all the people that arelistening that are that business acumen, want

(10:46):
to start a company, or maybelooking to partner up with somebody. I
understand it was only in your perspectivein your situation, but tell us about
how a merger works and the dues, the don'ts, and the challenges.
But the good thing about it too, how did it all go down?
You know, it's interesting that youbring that up because Southern Airways, even

(11:07):
before we merged with surf Air wasreally the product of five different airlines.
So my college friend and I startedSouthern Airways, as you mentioned in twenty
thirteen, and along the way wepurchased or merged with five other commuter airlines
around the country. And one thingthat I'm really proud of is we selected
our targets based on what they couldbring to the table, not just from

(11:31):
the geographic footprint they occupied or theaircraft that were in their fleet, but
the human resources that were available atthose companies, and we brought them on
board. So I truly believe thatthe leadership team we have today is the
best and brightest of five other companiesthat were out there that said, yes,

(11:52):
we can make something better and biggerby doing it together than if we
did it the part, and thatreally has paid off off. And the
same thing happened with Surfair. Inour merger with Surfair, there was not
one layoff that occurred. There wasnot one job that was eliminated or one
person that was fired, because youknow what, we found that they had
such a talented resource pool of humansof people that they're now all part of

(12:18):
the team. So I think thatthere are a lot of companies out there
that say, can I find somebodyto merge with, achieve greater scale,
cut the ranks of the payroll,and thereby increase profits. Obviously, we're
looking to increase profits and that's alarge driver of what we or any company

(12:39):
does, But in this environment,human talent is one of the hardest things
to find, and we've done itthrough the merger process. Well, it's
an extraordinary marriage that you have.And I'm so happy to hear that nobody
lost their gig, because that's thebig worry when people merge. You worry
about all those layoffs and trying tosave money and do differently and different But

(13:01):
obviously the business model was there thatpeople were there. I'm glad you talked
about people because in this series two, beside the passion, the taking a
chance and the tenacity that all CEOsand founders have of companies, the backbone
of the company are people. Canyou tell us about the eight hundred staff
that are part of this company andjust a little bit about them. Sure.
Absolutely. We've got two headquarters forthe company. Corporate headquarters is in

(13:26):
la at the Hawthorne Airport, rightunder the I'm in the shadow of SpaceX
every day when I walk out tomy car and then our operations center in
Palm Beach, and we have areally talented group of leaders that are part
of that. And one thing Ihave striven to do from the beginning is
to get people that do have along airline background and a long airline history,

(13:50):
but also to try to have abouthalf of our leadership team be people
from outside the industry, so thatwe can look at every issue with a
fresh set of eyes, not justsaying, well, this is the way
it's always been done in the airlineindustry, but to say, how should
it be done in the future tomake it better for the company and better

(14:11):
for the passenger. And that's whatwe found in Southern Airways on is I
don't want to do things the sameway everybody else has. I'm starting a
company because I want a different productthan what everybody else has. And then
from looking outside of headquarters in leadership, you look at the six hundred people
who actually make the plane to runevery day. We've got about three hundred

(14:35):
pilots in this company, and I'mso proud that we are one of the
largest creators of new pilots in theindustry. We've all heard of the pilot
shortage. Everybody knows how we're goingthrough this crisis at the larger airlines of
a lack of pilots. Well,surf Air is not a consumer of pilots.
Surf Air is a creator of pilots. We're one of the best places.

(15:00):
This is that a young pilot outof flying school, out of flight
school, can come to us andfly as a first officer, learned from
an experienced captain in the left seat, and become a captain himself within a
thousand hours or so of flight time. And then there are all the people
at our station's forty eighth station aroundthe United States in every time zone.

(15:24):
Some have been with us from thevery very beginning, some have been with
us since last week. But Ihope that what all of them will tell
you is it's a great place towork. It's a fun place to work.
Stan, thanks for sharing all that. And one thing really garnered my
attention, if I may get onmy soapbox just for a second, to
all the future entrepreneurs and CEOs outthere, that Stan went outside of his

(15:46):
company and not just relied on hisecho chamber to be yes people and I
love that about you, Stan,that you looked outside of the company to
get a freshet of ears and eyesand everything. And that takes somebody that's
checking their ego at the door,sir, and I know that goes for
a lot of your big team membersand your managers. And I just want
to say I thought that was verycool because I talked to a lot of

(16:06):
CEOs of this series and not everybodyfeels that way, So I think that's
pretty darn cool. Thank you.Thank you for saying that, And you
not didn't discuss this at all priorto this interview, but mentioning ego is
something we talk about regularly at Surfairbecause if we all walk into the office
every day and check the ego atthe door, it's amazing how much more

(16:26):
we can get accomplimented. Well,I feel the same way in my business
too, and we have people thatare on the air all the time,
so that's a real balancing act thatwe have when it comes to radio and
the entertainment industry. Well, listen, Stan, I want to leave the
floor to you and some final thoughtson the company in Surfair. By the
way, the website's gorgeous, we'regoing to give that in just a moment,
and it's beautiful to check out,it's easy to navigate. But I

(16:48):
did want to kind of leave atakeaway for all our listeners that are listening
to our great conversation. And wecan't tell you how much we appreciate your
valuable time. But if you wereto give a few takeaways to our listener
about Surfair, what would it be? Ste I think that what I would
leave the listener with is that changeso often occurs faster than people think that

(17:10):
it's going to and the electrification ofaviation, I believe, is one of
those times when it will We're goingto look up one day and find ourselves
sitting on an electric airplane and say, Wow, when did this happen?
Surfair Mobility is going to be thecompany that makes it happen. And I'm
really looking forward into being able toshow you that airplane and take you for

(17:32):
a ride on it two or threeyears from now, not ten or twelve
years from now. We're really onthe cusp of something great here. And
just like you don't even blink whenyou see a Tesla driving down the interstate
anymore, you're not going to blinkwhen you show up at the airport and
you can barely hear your airplane becauseit's running on an electric motor instead of
a combustion motor. I would alsosay Surfair is always looking for talent that

(17:56):
wants to be part of something special. We have job openings in just about
every department in our company. Soif you'll go to the website, take
a look around, see what we'reabout, and if you believe you have
something to contribute, send in anapplication. Stand what's that website address surfare
dot com. You can also accessit from iFly, Southern dot com or

(18:18):
mogal lately airlines dot com. Thoseare some of our brands that we operate
under, but surfare dot com iswhere you can find out everything outstanding.
Well, listen, this has beenmy pleasure. I geeked out a little
bit because I love anything electric orthat's great for the environment. It's a
brilliant idea. I know it's tenyears in the making, eight hundred plus
employees, and I love talking todisruptors, and I think that's what you

(18:40):
and your team are. So it'sa lot of fun what you doing.
I know the future looks bright.Stan We really appreciate your valuable time,
and thank you so much for joiningus on CEO. You should know it
was a pleasure. Dennis. Takecare,