Flying Through Turbulent Skies: Joel Thomas, CEO of Stratos Jets (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Talk about the next few strategic steps of how you put one foot before the other.

Joel Thomas: When I tried to incorporate, we didn’t have a merchant processor. If you’re working locally with people, it’s easy enough to get a wire. People who utilize our service are called unscheduled, on-demand air transport. People need this service last minute.

One of the hurdles that I had to jump through was trying to get a merchant processor who was willing to secure the transaction for $30,000. That was a hurdle to jump through. That is where my stepdad stepped in. He became the guarantor. 

Sramana Mitra: There is this notion of the first person who was willing to make that bet. Can you recollect how that first bet happened?

Joel Thomas: It happened with April who was my girlfriend at that time. She was the executive assistant.

Sramana Mitra: That one. So you consider that as part of this business.

Joel Thomas: It’s what got me to quit my job and to commit fully into what I’m doing. I didn’t really even notice that this existed. It opened my eyes. He continued to contact us and referred us to some other people. That was a catalyst to getting this started.

We developed confidence. We provided him the assurance that the airplane would be there, and we were able to help them find the best available aircraft at the best available price. He had a relationship with a local guy. That guy had his airplane being used by someone else when he needed to go.

Once he realized that he could go to me, he started going to us on a regular basis and telling some of his friends that we existed. Word-of-mouth is not a surefire way to build a business. It’s very slow.

One of the things that I did was, I bought a list of aircraft owners. They had this service that basically registers airplane owners and had contact information. I bought that list and that service. I contacted every aircraft owner in America and told them we existed and said, “If you ever had an airplane that’s down for maintenance and need access to another one, we’ll do the due diligence. We’ll contract it for you.”

It was four weeks of calling before I got my first request from a guy who owns a national freight company. Their chief pilot contacted me and requested a trip from Salt Lake City to Chicago. We put that deal together. I knew at that time that that strategy would work. I continued doing that until I hired somebody to come in and help as well.

Sramana Mitra: How long did you do the business just by yourself?

Joel Thomas: It was just short of a year before I hired somebody to join my team. My first hire was about a year in. We were working out of my house. He and I worked together for about nine more months. Let’s say he started in February. By October, I got my first office space at the Orlando Executive Airport. We were doing about 14 trips a month between the two of us by October 2008. 

This segment is part 2 in the series : Flying Through Turbulent Skies: Joel Thomas, CEO of Stratos Jets
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