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.

A Serial “Data” Entrepreneur’s Journey: Bassel Ojjeh, CEO of LigaData (Part 2)

Bassel Ojjeh: Backing up, what’s really important when I started my career at the database company in Ohio was coming in and saying, “We’re working out of someone’s house.” At that time, we shipped products. You put it in the box and put it out the door.

We had to stop whatever we were doing at 4PM to make sure that we go to the shipping room and be ready for UPS. I saw the company grow from there to the point where UPS would send empty trucks on an hourly basis to load up all the boxes we had every day. I saw how we grew to that point.

Flying Through Turbulent Skies: Joel Thomas, CEO of Stratos Jets (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Entrepreneurs seldom discuss the emotional and spiritual trauma of things going wrong.

Joel’s story is a deeply felt and authentically told one where he shares how he survived immense setbacks and found the courage to keep going in his Stratos Jets journey.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by going back to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

A Serial “Data” Entrepreneur’s Journey: Bassel Ojjeh, CEO of LigaData (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Bassel is a serial entrepreneur in the data world and talks about his exciting startup journey.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: This $68,000 that this guy paid you, what value did he receive for that? It’s not like there were lots of other jets that he could fly on. 

Ferren Rajput: The membership locks you into x number of hours that you can utilize. Every time you book a flight with us, you would pay the discounted direct operating cost of that flight.

Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I’m going to need you to start at the point where you’re launching this company. How did you set up the pieces of this business? How did you get jets? How did you get seats on jets? How did you get customers?

Ferren Rajput: I got engaged with a source through which I could see who’s flying and who owns planes. I was providing a service. The service was a brokered service. All I had to do was get a client who wants to fly on a private jet.

Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to 2010 when you launched the company. What did you launch with?

Ferren Rajput: When I came out, a friend of mine was looking at a car dealership. It was a Jeep dealership. He said, “You just do this until you get yourself back up on your feet.” I did that for a little while. I was able to talk to people at this private jet airport in Denver.

Climbing Out of Despair Through Entrepreneurship: Ferren Rajput, CEO of Book A Jet (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happened next?

Ferren Rajput: This is late 90s. I started my first mortgage company in 1997. Money was starting to come in real good. I ended up getting married in 2001. My mortgage company really flourished.

As an entrepreneur, I was always pushing the envelope. I got into a position where I ended up with an IRS situation. It was about a million dollars’ worth of IRS debt from 2000 to 2002.