Uber sells joy. What if someone did the same for airlines . Youd have to start with private jets, of course. A Cessna Citation or one of those new phenom 100s. And youd have to make the price within reach. Maybe a whole jet for the cost of a single firstclass ticket on the airline. And youd need a leaderment one with years of experience in leader. One with years of experience in the Airline Industry. Ideally somebody like alex wilcox, cofounder of Lowcost Airline jetblue. Alex wilcox, ceo of jet suite as noted, former cofounder of jetblue and king fisher in india. He got his start in the Airline Industry inest sw end esest making copies. Were joined, or guests from npr and adventure beat. Youre not just selling unused space on unused planes. Thats an easy concept. You actually have a fleet of planes. Yes. Yeah. So youre just an airline. Well, not just an airline. Were a private jet carrier. Who has a fleet of airlines, airplanes which make which carry people which makes you an airline. Thats right. Were the fourth largest private jet Charter Company in the country, in our fifth year. Weve got 21 airplanes that we fly across the country. Very fuel efficient. Were the lowcost populist private jet company if you like. People you need to further explain because i was think, well, how do you make it lower cost. So, basically we start with technology. The airplanes we fly are inherently more efficient. We burn about 90 gallons an hour versus 300plus like our competitors. We fly them more ochften. We fly more efficiently, the southwest idea. Weve doubled the market to 1 4 of 1 . Is the airbus 320, the really big airplane. The efficiencies come in making more people get into the airplane, not fewer. And so when youre having a four or sixperson jet, it would seem that thats making things less efficient no matter how little gas youre able to burn. For them its more people, for us its more hours. We go to over 2,000 airports across north america. We were in 700 airports last year. American airlines, by contrast, flew to 79. If you want to go to 79 cities, you fly american. If you want to go to one of 2,000 places much harder to reach, you drive for seven hours or take a private airplane. Im sorry who is mostly using the airline at this point . Our airline individuals and 50 50 in terms of business and leisure. It could be a guy going to a second house in sun valley or a Real Estate Developers take two or three people to visit malls around the country. Thats where it pays. You know, you save three days of travel, hotel rooms, you wake up and go to sleep in your own bed. What kind of costs are you talking about for these flights . Weve got a range of cost. Depends on the market youre looking at. A 300mile flight from here to l. A. , 3,400. When i say the cost of a firstclass ticket its six times the 500, 600 times the first class ticket. Youre getting an entire airplane. You could move a team of people. Its still expensive, but half the cost of competitors. Were efficient with respect to cost. Then we also sell empty legs, you know, dirty secret about the private jet industry is about 1 3 of our flits are empty. And so unlike other competitors of ours who would laugh if you offered them 500 to take you, if you call a jet suite and say ive got 500 some are fresno to lubbock or something you have to really need to go one way from fresno to lubbock. Or if you can get your own jet. You must have that a lot, though. If you have just 21 airplanes and youre flying to 2,000 airports, youre jumping all over the place, right . Were moving all the time. Yeah, all over the place. Between five and 20 empty legs. Is there a longterm plan about how to get the price down even more . Yes. The only way is to look more like an airline, am ties the cost over more seats. Thats going to mean it goes back to the bigger airplane. Yeah. Does, but the thing is, whats been lost in this country now is the shorthaul market, okay . Southwest last month in a magazine said southwest flew six million more passengers in markets under 500 miles in 2001 than last year. More people are driving than flying. Southwest is much bigger than they were in 2001. You know, our job is to recapture that market. If we have basically coagulated the vein of shorthaul air traffic, thats bad for the country, commerce, individuals. Less safe. Were on highways, more likely to get hurt than in an airplane. Is your organization selfprofitable . We are a fouryearold startup so no . Positive. And very, very close. We expect to be there, in fact, next quarter. Youre the fourth biggest private jet carrier, and you seem small for that. Private carriers overall must be not huge businesses. How big is the overall market . So, the the market is about 1. 2 million hours of hours flown, domestic u. S. Per year. We only did 14,000 hours last year. That make us the fourth largest because its such a fractured market. There are 800 operators in the business, but most only have one or two airplanes. Every airport has a local fpo and manages airplanes to on a flight basis very good. Let me ask you for a minute about your experience in the airline in general. You were with jetblue for some time. A couple of Airlines American airlines recently posted record profit. I almost dont think of airlines as being businesses that make money. Is it just that theyre good at hedging fall . Are they really just fuel company . No. Actually, you know, southwest, you know, zoont made profit for several years wouldnt have made profit for several years. Of the same bet against it would put you out of business. Japan airlines went out of business. The money today is in fees and so much capacity has come out of the market. Theres been so much consolidation with all the recent mergers. Theres more price discipline and less seats available. So youre going to pay more for seats that are there. The air industry doing a better job matching compass 270 demand. Unfortunately that means higher capacity to demand. Unfortunately that means higher prices for us. But ancillary fees, you mean fees for checking your bag, chips and soda 200 change fees, 25 for the bag is the cheapest ive heard ever i made that up. Right. I i have to say that, you know, we were talking about this a little earlier. Flying has become largely horrific. So i fantasize about ive taken a private jet here and there, but how nice it is. Thats why im like when are we going to get the cost down. Will we ever return to a time when it felt nice to get on an airplane . That is our mission. If you want to fly to lubbock. Yeah. For your birthday. Yeah. No, thats our mission. I mean, the reason those six Million People are driving or not going is because its such a pain in the butt. Right. To take off your shoes and do the schlep and wait in the crowds and pay 17 for a sandwich just to get 300 miles down the road when you can drive it in four hours. Maybe not save time. Is there room for the big carriers i mean bigger than you so virgin airlines, smaller carriers, jetblue, those things, where they can add in i just think that people arent willing to pay the extra 20 to be treated nicely or have the tv when they go on line. They end up with yucky, really big postmerger carriers. You had. Thats what they dont uhhuh. Thats what they dont like. Theyre not willing to pay the extra 20. And its the crappy Airline Experience no matter how much you pay. The same tsa for everybody, same wrong, congested gates for everybody, the same surly people serving you no matter whether you paid 2,000 for a first class ticket or 199 two months ago to sit in the back. Alex, let me ask you maybe the last question here. Is if you could recommend someone fly anywhere in the United States im not talking about the big places where where do the pilots like to fly . Wheres where would the cool, rich people go . Well, thats an interesting question. There are many places pilots like to go of our pilots love it travel. They dont like to go to one of the 79 airports. Theyre not like bus drivers who do the same thing every day. In terms of most popular, they like a challenge. Aspen has challenges. Its a oneway runway with you know maybe i wouldnt like it. Right. The outofthe way places in which not high tech or dont have high tech in in hong kong anymore. The outofthe way places that are popular, that are the places that i would want to take my private jet. You know, telluride is a popular destination in colorado. The mountains tend to be popular. I understand theres cheap beer in cabo. Plus the overnights in cabo, as well, another popular spot. It is very much places youve never heard of before. In fact, ive been in this industry a long time. Theres still new airports every day i learn about when were going there for the first time. You know, i think every pilot will tell you their most favorite airport is one they havent been to yet. You land for the first time, its like unwrapping a gift and having that experience that they never had before. May never be rich enough to throw a dart at a map. Thank you very much for being with us. Thanks. Press here will be back in a moment. Map welcome back to press here. Googles Venture Capital arm invested 100 million into a Company Called thumb tag that allows you to find a plumber, jazz band, or even a belly dancer on line. Now you say what you want, plumbers, musicians, belly dancers, they bid for your business. When you realize the photocopied flyer, the thing with the pull tags on the bottom with the phone number is still the primary way that some Small Businesses generate new clients, you realize how useful that thumb tax website can be. Marco recently deposited that 100 million google check. If the name sounds vaguely familiar, its because his dad, pierre luigi, founded lodge particul lig logitech. Do you get a check for 100 million it. Its ant climactic. You refresh the companys website, and its there. Okay. I asked our banker, is it going to fit . How is it like never saw a number like that. Did you celebrate . Yeah, its a big number and all of the thing we want to invest. N. Its not an end point but a milestone. Were proud of it. Whats shfl for people continued how it works. Say i need a contractor to do work in my bathroom. How does your service help me . So, you come to thumb tax and would be presented thumb tack and would be presented questions for bathroom remodeling, you would specify changing tiles, sink, basically itemizing your project. This project would then be broadcast out to the contractors who serve your area, and the ones who are right for you, who are available, interested and qualified, would get introduced directly to you. For the first time, the plumbers come to you. The contractors come to you. Its like a dating service. Im interested in this and this and this yeah. Theres a matchmaking aspect. And that happens in sort of dating. Also happens in the professionals that you need to hire. Now the contractors are paid to be on your service s. That right . Theyre paying to get introduced to customers. So they think that theyre such a good fit for you that theyre willing to pay for that introduction. How much do they pay . It varies by category. So anywhere from 3 to about 20. Whats the highend category . High end are general contractors and interior design, wedding photographers. A Customer Acquisition cost for them. Thats right. They see this as a way to grow their business. Cheaper at times than a google ad not only cheaper, but its something that works for them. What we believe is that they shouldnt have to learn how to do online marketing. Theyre great plumbers, they great drum teachers, theyre not marketers. We send them customers. They would say your first name, details of your job, they would see is this a customer this i would serve well, am i free. If so, they would like to pay and get introduced directly to you. It seems like what youre doing is going to depend heavily on being able to recruit lots and lots of Service Providers in many local markets which is very, very fragmented across the country. Yes. Very hard to reach all these people. There are two companies that spring to mind that have done something similar. Someone groupon, the other is yelp. You will have enormous costs to spreadond skput get into that spread out and get is on that. Thats why you need the 100 million. How will you do that . Thats a great question and appropriate. Actually, weve been able to achieve what we have without a sales force. We now have manufacture professionals, active paying professionals than yelp. Youre not going to hire a sales force . We may for the sort of few businesses that we cant reach in other ways. Weve created something that they understand, that we dont have to push on to them. We dont need to get on the phone and sort of cram it down on to them. They get. We do buy ads and build Awareness Among professionals that this is a great solution for them. Then its completely selfserved. And we believe its that first solution that theyve had that really just resonates and works for them. Thats why weve been able to get as big as these sort of giant companies who have been at it for decades, in yelps case, and our models only 18 months old. Heres my sort of not i dont gripe, the place where i feel like the model might not work for me. I recently did need a contractor for my bathroom. You know what i did . I have a friend whos an architect. I said, i have this job, who would you recommend. And i trust my friend. When i was in ireland, theres a Company Called skill pages which is trying to basically take that and put that on line. Uhhuh. Theres no social component. I dont know i mean, they may bid the best price. Face it, when it comes to contractors, we all know, weve all had the here youre trusting them with my bathroom . Im going to have to live with im going to have to live with them and my bathroom if they mess it up. Yeah. Trust is huge. Thats why you would go to your architect friend in the past. Its why we work so hard to pull in all the credentials we can find, the biography of these businesses, what theyve done, and also our own set of reviews. On top of that, what will come in the future is that social component such that we can layer on for you whether friends of yours have used this person or people in your neighborhood thats where yelp would be good. Doesnt mean ill get in with the plumber or hell have the best price necessarily. But if there are 50 four and fivestar reviews for the plumber, hes a good plumber. But is he free . Does he do the type of job . Is he going to come out on a saturday at 2 00 p. M. When you need him . You think your advantage is i have this specific these are my criteria, and theyre able to say, yes, thats something absolutely. Yelp is a great product. When you answer the question where can i go to get my hair cut, to eat chinese food, its perfect. All those plays will take you. Its places will take ump its not a double optin relationship. When you ask someone to come to you to do a job, you dont get to just pick. They have toic you, too. Can i try to pick you, too. Can i triangulate before i pick one . Can i see enough information that i could look up their reviews on yelp . We give you everything. Once we make the introduction, we pull all the reviews we have, all the reviews from yelp, the pictures the we have. Basically every piece of data we get our hands on, and we present it in an easytodigest way. One of the things thats encouraging particularly to entrepreneurs watching saying i wouldnt mind getting 100 Million Investment from google, is youre kind of late to the game. I mean, it seems as if this was, you know, an industry that got solved angies list, yelp, things weve talked about. Yet, you have found some point here that was able to be disrupted. Im not asking you to compare yourselves to angies list and yelp, but the encouraging idea that there are still industries that i as a young entrepreneurs can take advantage of. We live in an exciting time. The fact that we get to reimagine how an old interaction, hiring a plumber, finding a contractor, we can remake that using modern tools and the technology that we have. Its special. Were lucky to live in this time. And its not just us. You see it in uber and a bunch of other companies. Marco, thank you for being with us this morning. Thanks for having me. Welcome back to press here. Were here with laura seidel of npr, and dylan sweeney, editorinchief of venture beat. Weve got apple ahead. Im predicting an iphone 6. Im going out on a him limb this is the thing about apple rumors, it reaches a point where theres such a fewery that it turns out its true. This generally ive been covering them for so many years, the rumor is and i believe its probably true that theyre going to introduce two new phones, and theyre going to be bigger. Apple has finally moved and decided despite what steve jobs said steve jobs couldnt understand why you would want a bigger phone. Now that we dont talk to them that much, we text thats right. Imagine the day which we didnt talk on them. Right. Exactly. What so really what we want on my way here in the car, somebody else was driving, i was doing work. I thought, i would like a bigger screen right now. Im reading things, im researching things. And i kuehl dont talk on the phone and i actually dont talk on the phone that much. When i do, i put my headset in. It makes sense that apples doing this. Maybe steve jobs didnt like that idea. The other thing here, theres another rumor i dont know if it will be now or in the future thats an iwatch. Yeah. Although were pretty sure its not going to be called iwatch. Some kind of probably fitness tracking thing that ties in with this Cloud Service that apple has called healthkit. Yeah. Which will enable in hery e theory to collect health and fitness data, send it to your doctor. A way to find out how Jennifer Lawrence is feeling. Undoubtedly that will be hacked, too. How did that hurt them . I dont think its good at all. A good way to take a stand. Did you see it yesterday the stock went down. I think what emerged is that the kind of hack that was probably used to get these celebrity photos was a back door in ieuclicloud which has been open for two years. The you can set up twofacauthor awe then tinicthennication, but authentication, but you can write in and get anything you want. Thats been open for two years. There have been highprofile stories in wired, david hoague got hacked. Theyve done nothing in two years. I think the stock is being punished. I didnt realize it was that bad. I did that me either. I said, you know, im confused, and they were so friendly. And i answered some now in retrospect, fairly basic questions. It takes three minutes. Right. Particularly if youre on the internet and a present on the internet. The other thing, the thing is theres a problem that isnt just apple. I was talking to Security Experts. You know, our data is stored all over the place, right . Youve got in the cloud, its google, all of them. And all these places have keys to the data. They not of that company, these are separate companies. In the case of the celebrities third party various third parties all over have Encryption Keys into the data. So say celebrity information, thats worth a lot of money. Right . Yeah. By default, most phones now, iphones but also android, by default will back up every photo you take. You have nog and say please dont back up my photos. You cant do it on a casebycase basis. Celebrities were surprised. Someonehead, my goodness, i delete someone said, my goodness, i deleted those pictures. Yeah, off the phone. Its not your fault as a consumer if youve done a reasonably good job of looking through the settings and things and things are happening behind the scenes that you dont understand. To this day, i dont understand the icloud account, may apple i. D. , thats apparently different it is. And my itunes account. Those are three Different Things that appear to be going weve had itunes for ten years now. Yeah. Thats an email address you shouldnt have to be concerned about the difference. Like apple should be able to take care of this for you. And a big part of what they promote is its really easy. You know, just back up all your stuff to icloud, dont worry, well take care of it. If theyre going to do, it they have to make security rock solid and make the settings as easy to deal with it as uploading stuff. Apples being punished in this instance, but its all of these companies. Absolutely. Every single one of these companies that are pushing us to the cloud when were at a moment when the security really isnt up for it. The Security Experts i spoke yesterday said, i would never store anything ever in the cloud. And if you know a lot about security, youre not going to store anything anywhere. Nothing is 100 secure, right . I think she was saying she was saying in particular, id store it on my home computer, but im not going to store it in the cloud. At this point there are so many access points. I saw an advertisement, it was your own personal cloud at home. And it was a hard drive. And i dont think it was being ironic. I dont think they were being silly. I think they were thinking, well, this cloud thing is popular. We ought to sell this thing where its a personal storage at home. For apple, i think this was now that were coming on, you know, theyre having to big event which, of course, they tonight tell us about. Everybody has their ideas of whats coming. For apple i think this couldnt have happened at a worse time. And you know, its apple, i think the other thing that will be interesting is whether or not they can really break open the wearable market. If you look at apple historically, apple is the company that there were mp3 players on the market when the ipod came out. Apple made it simple, easy to use. There are wearables. Im not wearing one, but i have a fit bit. There are things on the market. And many look like theyve captured our imagination. I have to break in. Laura, we look forward to listening to your coverage. And dylan, youre a new guest for us. We appreciate you being here. Im happy to be here. Thank you. Come back again. And you come back in a moment. Thats our show. My thanks to my guests. Thank you for being part of our sunday morning. Hello, and welcome to comunidad del valle, im damian trujillo. Today the legendary Gabriel Monzo is on, the lead guitarist. And also saving pal. This is your comunidad del valle. Nbc bay area presents comunidad del valle with damian trujillo. We begin with a San Francisco latino Film Festival which is right around the corner. With me on comunidad del valle are Ileana Carter plays lucy in cry now and anthony lucero, director of a film called east side sushi. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. I want to ask you first, ileana, how big of a deal is this for you to be showcased at the San Francisco latino Film Festival . Im really excited about it for several reasons. One, like iai
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