0:00

When you're staying at an Airbnb,

0:02

you might have wondered, wait, could my place

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be an Airbnb? And if so, what could

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it earn? That's something that Gil and St. Louis

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0:10

he realized his empty bedroom could be a great space

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it, but you might have an Airbnb too.

0:19

Find out what your place could be earning at airbnb

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dot com slash host.

0:25

Today's

0:27

episode is sponsored by GitHub. Today,

0:30

basically, every company is a software company,

0:32

not literally, but it sure feels like and

0:34

on GitHub, ninety million developers, some

0:36

of the world's most exciting startups and

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get bogged down in inefficient systems.

0:57

GitHub lets teams focus on what really

1:00

matters. making their vision a reality.

1:02

So maybe you're just learning the code or maybe you're

1:04

building your startup from idea to IPO

1:06

or even if you're already incredibly successful

1:08

with an industry leading business, no matter

1:10

what. GitHub is here for you wherever you

1:12

are on your own journey. It's place for anyone

1:15

from anywhere to build anything.

1:17

you can find a plan that works for you at

1:19

get hub dot com and let's

1:21

build from here.

1:33

Welcome to the Progyny Pod's office hours.

1:35

This is the part of the show where we answer your questions

1:37

about business, big tech entrepreneurship, and whatever

1:39

else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question,

1:42

please email a voice recording to office hours

1:44

at profgenmedia dot com. I have

1:46

not heard or seen these questions. First

1:48

question, Hi, Scott. My name is Nate

1:50

Chavez. I live in Bend, Oregon. I am

1:52

a pilot. I love airplanes. I also

1:55

love how passionate you are about new ideas

1:57

that are designed to change paradigm.

1:58

So I'm

1:59

gonna ask you about, boom, supersonic. My

2:02

overall question is, how does this business

2:04

still exist? And I

2:06

say that because I look

2:08

at their marketing and they will tout

2:11

Los Angeles to Sydney in seven

2:13

and a half hours. And,

2:14

yeah, that would be great.

2:16

I

2:16

just don't actually think there's any way to

2:18

do that, and I know that there's no way to do that

2:20

with the overture because if you

2:22

look at the range of the plane, it cannot

2:25

fly. from Los Angeles to Sydney.

2:27

It can't even fly from Seattle

2:29

to Tokyo. Also,

2:30

the plane doesn't fly at all. It doesn't

2:33

even have an engine. And

2:34

to really put a point on all of this,

2:36

I

2:36

started thinking about the point of the

2:38

overture and the plane that they're building,

2:41

and one of the things they keep talking about

2:43

is how there hasn't been any meaningful

2:45

innovation or something in aviation in the

2:47

last fifty years, which is not true, but

2:49

I I believe that to

2:50

the side for now. But

2:52

they're saying, we need to build a plane with

2:54

all this new technology. And what have they come

2:56

up with? The overture from what

2:58

I understand, flies only three

3:00

hundred miles further than Concorde,

3:03

but

3:03

it does it carrying fewer

3:05

people more slowly. How

3:07

does this company exist?

3:09

So thanks for the question. You put

3:12

me a little bit on my heels because I'm an investor

3:14

and I love this. And also,

3:16

I want to acknowledge that I think you

3:18

bring a valid point. The company

3:20

has not announced an engine

3:22

manufacturer. It hasn't solved the propulsion

3:24

Keep in mind, the expected launch

3:26

date is twenty twenty nine. They do have a

3:28

prototype. They have done wind tunnel

3:30

tests. They have very talented

3:33

people working on this company. The the

3:35

CEO was a former Amazon operations

3:37

person. They've hired a ton of people out of Gulfstream.

3:40

the management team reads like a who's

3:42

who of sophisticated aviation.

3:45

So they've got a good team. They've raised

3:47

a lot of capital and they

3:50

still have to figure out the propulsion or specifically the

3:52

engine manufacturer, but my understanding

3:54

based on investor updates is

3:56

they have several opportunities

3:59

or partners who are very interested and they'll be

4:01

making an announcement soon. I think

4:03

your point about LA to Sydney is a good one.

4:05

I don't know if the overture has the range.

4:08

But I think most of the desired routes I've

4:10

talked about and the most popular route would imagine

4:12

will be New York to London. They do have it. I'm

4:14

not an engineer. But

4:17

if you had supersonic technology fifty

4:19

years, it means the avionics, the

4:21

propulsion, and

4:23

the materials would all be dramatically

4:25

better now and that supersonic travel

4:27

should be a better and cheaper now.

4:29

I just think that logically in terms of the

4:31

cadence of technology, And

4:34

the data I've seen on it is that they are

4:36

continuing to hit milestones and are

4:38

looking to have a fully functioning prototype

4:41

by twenty twenty or twenty twenty six

4:43

and have their first one in operation in twenty

4:45

twenty nine. I also just think the

4:47

economic opportunity is enormous you

4:49

have people flying private. The number of people

4:52

who have entered the private aviation market

4:54

is up something like ten or fifteen fold in the

4:56

last decade or two decades. It's

4:58

just exploded, especially through COVID as

5:00

it's brought in a new group of people

5:02

sort of the not the just the wealthy,

5:04

not the Uber wealthy, and private aviation

5:06

used to be the playground just to the Uber wealthy.

5:09

who will spend fifty, seventy five, a

5:11

hundred grand to go one way in a private plan

5:13

from New York to London. So

5:15

I think you're going to see a huge market for

5:17

people wanting to pay ten fifteen twenty five

5:19

grand to get to London in three

5:21

and a half hours. And if the Concorde could do

5:23

it with very,

5:25

you know, technology was developed in the sixties.

5:27

I can't imagine that boom's not gonna be

5:29

able to do it. It sounds like you

5:31

know what you're talking about. I will

5:33

acknowledge that I don't think they have

5:36

proof yet around the LA to Sydney

5:39

route in terms of the legs you

5:41

need for that. But I have seen the

5:43

data around the plane itself, the

5:45

avionics, But in addition,

5:48

people much smarter than me, specifically

5:51

big airlines, United and American

5:53

airlines who have very sophisticated engineers,

5:56

and due diligence committees

5:59

have put down hard cash

6:01

money orders with

6:03

boom. So I'm

6:05

super excited about this. I think

6:07

it's overdue. I

6:09

find the innovation and aviation has been

6:11

fairly uninspiring. I think it

6:13

takes longer to get from New York to Dallas now

6:16

commercially than it did fifty years ago.

6:18

Most I think of the innovation has been around

6:20

economics. and that is trying to save

6:22

money to get people from point a to point b

6:25

as economically as possible. I find

6:27

flying to be a near inhuman experience.

6:30

especially in coach, the way you have to sit for

6:32

an extended period of time, that

6:34

the staff has overworked and underpaid

6:38

So I'm not I I think there's enormous opportunities

6:40

for innovation, and I think a lot of it comes down

6:42

to speed. And that is if I can get I'm in London right

6:44

now. If I could get back to New York and call three and

6:46

a half four hours. I would probably go next week

6:48

because I have a few meetings I go for two or three days.

6:51

But I'm not going now because of the jet lag

6:54

and you know, the eight hours or seven

6:56

hours, whatever it is, it's just too much.

6:58

So we will agree

7:00

to disagree, but I think being a

7:02

little bit pessimistic. You sound a little bit

7:04

like me. I get the sense we get along.

7:06

But I put a substantial amount

7:08

of my own money in this. sort of

7:10

a multimillion dollar investment, which is a big

7:12

investment for me because I think it's time

7:14

for supersonic travel again,

7:16

and I'm excited about it. But I

7:18

guess we'll see. But I will see you next to

7:20

me. As we go to Hawaii in,

7:22

like, I don't know, two hours. And we get lays,

7:24

when we get there. They say congratulations. We're

7:27

putting a lay on you. You got here so fast, wouldn't

7:29

that be nice? By the way, new seasonal

7:31

white load, it's gotta watch that. Anyways,

7:33

thanks for the question. Question number

7:35

two. Hey,

7:36

Brogye. This is Mark calling from Mississauga,

7:39

Ontario. My question is

7:41

about Amazon. Currently, it's

7:43

trending at a fifty two week low.

7:45

looking at this company, I'm thinking,

7:48

you know, their dominance in the cloud

7:50

market hasn't significantly changed

7:52

in the retail market as well. but

7:55

love to get your thoughts here. Is this

7:57

a unique buying opportunity for Amazon?

7:59

Mark

8:00

from Mississauga, Ontario. Love the

8:02

Canadians. love the Canadians. We get a lot of

8:04

inbound interest for a lot of questions from Canadians.

8:06

They're friendly, they're smart. How do you get a

8:08

hundred drunk Canadian fraternity guys

8:10

out of your pool? Hey, guys.

8:13

you please get out of the pool? I love that joke.

8:15

I love that joke. Anyways, Amazon.

8:18

Amazon is one of my three or four

8:20

largest holdings I have owned it since

8:22

two thousand and I don't know. Nine, I

8:24

think. I've sold a little bit to pay

8:26

for a house in two thousand and thirteen,

8:29

but it's been an unbelievable gift even

8:31

despite the fact that it's been get this cut

8:33

in half. It's up forty eight percent in the

8:35

last fifty two weeks. That hurts, especially

8:37

if you bought a year or two years ago. with

8:39

the S and P down twenty percent.

8:42

Again, it's a growth company. They

8:44

over hired. They're going through layoffs. I

8:46

think they have more competition. It's

8:48

fifty two week high was a hundred and eighty eight. It's

8:51

fifty two week low was eighty eight. I don't

8:53

know where it's trading right now, but it went

8:55

below. It went sub a trillion dollars.

8:58

So look, I'm trying to get out of the business to

9:00

stock recommendations because the market is

9:02

bigger than any individual, and I don't want

9:04

people to lose money. based on

9:06

something I said, I'm more afraid of

9:08

that than the reward of them making money

9:10

on something I said. So I just tell

9:12

people what I have. I own

9:14

Amazon stock. I don't have any intention of selling

9:16

it. It feels to

9:18

me like it's not cheap, but it's

9:20

much obviously, it's insanely expensive

9:22

than it was. It's the number one e commerce

9:24

provider in the world. It has about fifty percent

9:26

share of e commerce. It's

9:28

also the largest cloud company in the

9:30

world. I believe I believe that the most

9:32

accretive action and what will

9:34

likely happen in the next two to three years if the

9:36

stock does not recover is that

9:38

Andy Jassy will spin AWS

9:40

because AWS in my

9:42

view is arguably one of the most

9:44

valuable companies in the world trapped inside an e

9:46

commerce company that is

9:48

maturing. AWS and

9:50

independent AWS would be a stock that you

9:52

buy. Little Rachel for a bad mitzvah you'd put

9:54

in your retirement account no matter how

9:56

expensive it was, you would

9:58

buy AWS, it'd be one of

10:00

those must own stock. So I think if

10:02

the stock continues to

10:04

underperform or goes down, I think they're

10:06

gonna spend AWS that would

10:08

be wildly accretive to shareholders because AWS went

10:10

unleashed from the confines of

10:13

streaming and an e commerce

10:15

company is going to soar. It's

10:17

going to store, like

10:19

the Boom overtur. Thanks

10:22

for the question, Mark. We have one quick breaker for

10:24

our final question. Stay with us.

10:27

This episode

10:29

is supported by Airbnb. Airbnb

10:31

lets you book rooms, apartments, and houses

10:33

all over the world. And when you're staying at

10:35

an Airbnb that's not so different and

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could, what could it earn? The

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or it's just a good general practice to think

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I love Airbnb. I love it as a

11:25

consumer. I love it as an investor. And as a

11:27

professor, I am inspired by the

11:29

management team

11:29

there.

11:32

Today's episode is

11:34

sponsored by GitHub. Today basically

11:36

every company is a software company, not

11:38

literally, but sure feels like it. And

11:40

on GitHub, ninety million developers,

11:42

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anywhere to build Anything.

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You can find a plan that works for you at

12:25

get hub dot com, and let's

12:27

build from here.

12:32

Welcome back. Question number three.

12:34

Hey,

12:34

Scott. This is Mike in Dallas. After

12:37

listening to your interview with Richard Reeves,

12:39

I've been giving more and more thought to having my

12:41

high school son take a gap year

12:43

between graduation and heading off

12:45

to college. I do have concerns

12:47

that institutes of higher learning will

12:49

look at this gap year negatively, much

12:51

like an employer would if there was a one

12:53

year gap in employment. So,

12:55

what advice would you give him to best

12:58

use this time, whereas potential

13:00

universities would look favorably upon

13:02

this decision? Thank you.

13:04

Oh,

13:04

hi, Mike from Dallas. Thanks for the

13:07

thoughtful question. So in some Richard

13:09

Reeves points out that an eighteen year

13:11

old male has a prefrontal cortex

13:13

sort of equivalent to a sixteen or seventeen

13:15

year old girl. And that is they

13:17

just mature later.

13:20

and the kind of gas break or executive functioning

13:22

of a young man just isn't

13:25

as isn't as developed as

13:27

a young woman. And as a result,

13:29

they oftentimes don't do as well in

13:31

school and can run into more

13:33

emotional problems. I have personal experience with this. I

13:35

showed up to UCLA when I was seventeen.

13:38

this is back in sort of the space race. I

13:40

was born in the mid sixties

13:42

when my mom was super excited that I

13:44

was so smart that I was

13:46

sent to fifth grade for when I was in the third

13:48

grade for English and math, and the idea was

13:50

skip a grade and become like a doogie

13:53

Houser. And is it's totally flipped

13:55

and that is now in

13:57

wealthy neighborhoods, people

13:59

are holding their boys back and lying about their

14:01

ages. because it ends up in

14:03

research at the smallest point of class is

14:05

much more likely to be depressed as an

14:07

adult who's more insecure. he

14:10

has less confidence. He's more

14:12

likely to be bullied. I mean, all that

14:14

stuff. Right? So I think red

14:16

shirthing for a year Richard Reeves refers

14:18

to it as a really good idea. So what to

14:20

do? Something, a

14:22

job, something in national service. I wouldn't

14:24

say traveling, I mean,

14:26

maybe some traveling have some fun,

14:28

but have something. I mean, it's pretty obvious

14:30

it'll be impressive to the

14:32

University of volunteer work, getting

14:34

a job. doing

14:37

something, you know, exploring some sort of

14:39

artistic endeavor. He's gonna have

14:41

to show something. He wants to be more

14:43

eligible for school after

14:45

those twelve months, which means he's gonna need to show

14:47

something for it. So I would encourage

14:49

it, but I'd have a plan and he

14:51

needs to get on that plan right

14:53

away because a year goes really,

14:55

really fast. Also, there's

14:57

some data. I think ninety two percent

14:59

of kids who are planning to go to college

15:01

and take a gap year, still go to college.

15:04

And that's every parent's worst fear is

15:06

that if he doesn't stay on if he doesn't

15:08

keep tracking, he's not gonna end up at college.

15:10

That's not true. The majority of kids who are planning to go

15:12

to college, the vast majority who are planning

15:14

to go to college and take a gap year still end

15:17

up going back to college. And two,

15:20

Colleges don't mind the gap year. And I know NYU

15:22

doesn't and I'm pretty sure most universities

15:24

don't, we're fine. We're down

15:26

with the gap year. We think it makes sense.

15:28

I'd like to see national service that makes

15:30

it easy for kids to do a gap year and bring

15:32

some structures so they don't have to sit down with their

15:34

parents and figure out how to be productive, but at the same

15:36

time enjoying myself same time find

15:38

something attractive to admissions

15:40

directors. I mean, that's a pretty difficult

15:42

needle to thread. But in some

15:45

in some gap year, I it's a great

15:47

idea as long as he's on board with

15:49

it. But yeah, I'm a big

15:51

fan. Thanks for the question, Mike. That's

15:53

all for this episode. Again, if you'd like

15:55

to submit a question, please email a voice

15:58

recording to office hours at prop gmail

15:59

dot com.

16:02

Our

16:09

producers are Caroline Shaver, Drew

16:12

Burrows. Sammy Resnick is our associate

16:14

producer. If you like what you heard, please

16:16

follow, download, and subscribe. Thank you for

16:18

listening to the Progyny Pod from the vox media

16:20

podcast network. we will catch you

16:22

next week. Support for

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this podcast comes from Dash Hudson.

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