This editorial appeared in the January 30th, 2025, issue of the Topline newsletter.
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25 years ago I was a pudgy kid parked in front of an ancient TV - the kind where you had to wrestle with a physical knob to change channels - and I saw the Concord slicing through the screen at the speed of sound, like a silver arrow from the future.
In my world of analog simplicities - where our neighborhood dry cleaner still made his rounds on a donkey cart - this supersonic marvel might as well have been a spaceship from the Jetsons. I made myself a promise right there: someday, I'd be on that plane.
But dreams don't always sync with reality. Three years later, long before I could afford my supersonic adventure, the Concorde made its final descent into history. For all its speed and style, it proved too costly, too loud, and too technically complex for commercial reality.
If you'd bet back then that we'd soon crack the code and return to crossing the Atlantic in 3.5 hours, you'd have lost big. None of us realized we were decades away from even glimpsing that future again.
But this week, 22 years after the Concorde's farewell, that glimpse arrived. Over the Mojave Desert, Boom Supersonic did what seemed impossible: their civilian-built supersonic jet shattered the sound barrier 11.5 minutes into its test flight.
In today's frenetic news cycle, this milestone barely registered. But for builders and operators hunting for real inspiration, this is the story to study.
Zero to Mach One
Some founders run headfirst into the impossible - and win. Blake Scholl is one of them. A software engineer at Amazon and Groupon, he walked into the Concorde museum and walked out with an obsession: bringing back supersonic travel.
That he wasn't an aerospace engineer? Irrelevant. The endless technical and regulatory hurdles? Just problems to solve. A vision that would take decades to realize? All part of the plan. Blake had that rare energy you find in founders who change the world - the kind that makes the unreasonable seem inevitable.
Boom's mission wasn't just to resurrect the Concorde - it was to revolutionize air travel itself. In an industry that had become a wasteland of innovation, where carriers differentiated themselves through nothing more than loyalty points, Boom aimed higher: literally cutting travel time in half while making supersonic flight commercially viable.
Their approach was radical: slash ticket costs to 25% of the Concorde's prices, making supersonic travel as accessible as today's business class. They committed to sustainable fuel and chose to vertically integrate - "the SpaceX way" - controlling every element of development.
The market's verdict? Boom has already sold 10x more planes than Concorde ever did.
Culture: The Real Jet Fuel
Success stories like this make me reflect on what powers them. Early in my recruiting career, I became deeply skeptical of how companies talked about "culture." I'd sit across from leadership teams who'd rattle off their differentiators: cold brew on tap, meditation rooms, Taco Tuesdays. The works. It felt hollow, like confusing the wrapping paper for the gift.
The disconnect was stark. I spent my days talking to elite sales performers, and not once did these perks factor into their decisions to stay or leave. No top performer ever jumped ship because the snacks weren't good enough, and no one chose their next role because of ping pong tables.
What did they care about? Purpose that pulled them out of bed each morning. Colleagues who felt like co-conspirators rather than cubicle neighbors. Leadership that invested in their success like it was betting on a sure thing. This was real culture - not the window dressing that so many mistook for the main event.
That's why I'm obsessed with studying companies like Boom and SpaceX. These aren't just companies - they're decade-long bets on seemingly impossible futures. Boom launched in 2014 but won't see a commercial flight until 2030. When your mission requires that kind of patience and persistence, you can't sustain it with ping pong tables and free snacks. You need real culture.
What have these long-game players taught me? Purpose matters deeply - but only if you're relentless about hiring people who genuinely connect with that mission. Culture lives in conversations, especially those crucial exchanges between managers and their teams. And perhaps most importantly, performance and culture are inseparable. When things aren't going well, you want to see some fire in people's eyes - that mix of frustration, determination, and "watch me prove you wrong" energy. That's when you know you've built something real.
As AI drives the biggest platform shift in a generation, forcing us all to rethink our businesses, these cultural lessons become more than just interesting - they become essential. The difference between adapting and getting left behind might just come down to how well we build cultures that can weather long odds and stay focused on distant horizons.
