00:58:56 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[00:58:56] S0: Yeah. Because they had fucked it up. Yeah. They, the, the, the, they had [00:58:59] S1: lost half their customer base because they gave shitty service. The planes lost capital. They never invested in the plane. So the seats were torn. I mean, it just, the name had a bad reputation and they were unionized. Yeah. And so this bad union reputation and so Flexjet was the much better way to go forward. [00:59:14] S0: Okay, what year do you, are you buying for 2014. 2014. [00:59:17] S1: Yeah, okay. Okay. It takes me the next four years to integrate the two companies, including getting rid of the union. Why four years? Well, culturally, the companies were different. Exactly the same size about, like 300 pilots each, 600 pilots total between the two customers. Remember, you got the shitty hawkers over at Flexjet and you have the nice challengers at Flexjet. I mean, the shitty fight options and the challengers at Flexjet. And the Flexjet customer doesn't want to be on the shitty hawker. So the integration of trying to get the systems, the economics of putting the systems together weren't that easy. [00:59:51] S0: It was a lot harder than you expected. [00:59:52] S1: Yeah. A lot harder. Culturally, Flexjet was like, we hate the union and everybody identified themselves. Well, I'm I'm a flight options pilot. I'm a Flexjet pilot. Just think about how do how do you get uniforms to 600 pilots? [01:00:04] S0: Yeah.
01:00:04 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[01:00:04] S0: Yeah. [01:00:04] S1: Right? What do you have to pick? Uniform crossover day. Like, so for a while, you got two different colored pilots flying. You got the blue pilots and the brown pilots. I mean, it just was it just was very complicated, But [01:00:16] S0: even though you're going through this difficult four year period, and this makes more sense now, I've got, like, the whole history of why you hate mergers and acquisitions, and you have a couple experiences that are bad. [01:00:25] S1: Yeah. I have one. [01:00:26] S0: Are still really... You you strike me as a a supremely optimistic guy. You're just like, yeah, I'm gonna sell this contract. I'll figure out where the 600,000,000 is coming later. [01:00:33] S1: Right? Yeah. [01:00:34] S0: Do you still have a lot of faith in the fractional ownership business? Absolutely. So you're like, do you know this is what you're gonna do for, this is like your life's work. [01:00:40] S1: Yeah, not for this program. But if I showed you the economics of how a charter operator works, how a management company works and how a fractional company works and showed you top line, bottom line and margin. It's the only operationally dynamic model. It's the best model. Rich Santulli, he invented this model and it was brilliant. [01:00:59] S0: Okay. So the four year period, now we're in 2018. [01:01:02] S1: Yeah. [01:01:02] S0: Now you're on the Flexjet. You have the uniformed pilots. [01:01:05] S1: The union's gone. The union's gone. [01:01:06] S0: The time we've ever...
01:01:06 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[01:01:06] S0: The time we've ever... [01:01:07] S1: Only time a union's ever voted to to for self representation in the history of pilots. Oh, wow. Okay. Only time? [01:01:14] S0: Yep. Now you have the planes that you want. Yep. The kind of planes that you want. Yep. Okay. The state of the business there though, I feel from, let's say, let's say that's eight years ago. Yeah. Has the business like doubled in size? Well... Quadrupled. [01:01:27] S1: Quadrupled. Quadrupled. Okay. [01:01:29] S0: It's a private company where I'm gonna get into the fact that you almost like, took it public and... Yeah. Fuck [01:01:34] S1: shoot me, but [01:01:34] S0: go on. Yeah. And you paid, like, I think $60,000,000 to [01:01:37] S1: get out of it. Yeah. It's a $30,000,000 mistake. [01:01:40] S0: Well, first of all, why why is it so important to you? Because I'm obsessed with, like, family owned businesses, private companies. Like, it's just like, to me, like, the ideal situation, you know, I have a bunch of friends that are public company CEOs. Yeah. And they all secretly hate it, by the way. But like, why was it so important to like, in addition to... Let's take away like the reporting and how difficult it is running a public company, but like, why did you wanna keep your company private?
01:01:40 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[01:01:40] S0: Well, first of all, why why is it so important to you? Because I'm obsessed with, like, family owned businesses, private companies. Like, it's just like, to me, like, the ideal situation, you know, I have a bunch of friends that are public company CEOs. Yeah. And they all secretly hate it, by the way. But like, why was it so important to like, in addition to... Let's take away like the reporting and how difficult it is running a public company, but like, why did you wanna keep your company private? [01:02:00] S1: Because I believe in a higher being. I think there's a purpose we have beyond wealth accumulation. Okay. There has to be, I've always struggled and of course I went to Jesuit high school. So of course I was, of course I'd have the guilt gene, but I always struggle with the question like, why am I here? It took me till twenty eighteen to really find who I am, why I'm here to all come into alignment. And it's crystal clear in my life today. I always struggled with it. I could go back to conversations in the late 80s and late 90s when I was starting the business and I'm asking, how does this business serve others? And I think fundamentally, I always knew my life had to be about serving others, but always shied away from wealth because that didn't seem like wealth doesn't serve others. It serves me, right? You can have, there's very, you know, wealth seems to be very tempting. So it took me a long time to find my life. Before we get to 2018, you're
01:02:00 · Kenn Ricci, David Senra
[01:02:00] S1: Because I believe in a higher being. I think there's a purpose we have beyond wealth accumulation. Okay. There has to be, I've always struggled and of course I went to Jesuit high school. So of course I was, of course I'd have the guilt gene, but I always struggle with the question like, why am I here? It took me till twenty eighteen to really find who I am, why I'm here to all come into alignment. And it's crystal clear in my life today. I always struggled with it. I could go back to conversations in the late 80s and late 90s when I was starting the business and I'm asking, how does this business serve others? And I think fundamentally, I always knew my life had to be about serving others, but always shied away from wealth because that didn't seem like wealth doesn't serve others. It serves me, right? You can have, there's very, you know, wealth seems to be very tempting. So it took me a long time to find my life. Before we get to 2018, you're [01:02:55] S0: figuring this out. Take me to some of these conversations where you're like questioning this. Like what's your inner monologue? Are you sharing these thoughts with other people?
01:02:55 · David Senra, Kenn Ricci
[01:02:55] S0: figuring this out. Take me to some of these conversations where you're like questioning this. Like what's your inner monologue? Are you sharing these thoughts with other people? [01:03:01] S1: Yeah. In fact, probably, you know, if you were to ask me like some of the most influence of people in my life, one of the most influential was Father Ted Hesburgh, who led the University of Notre Dame for thirty five years. You know, he ran this amazing institution. He grew it from going broke during World War II because they had no students to becoming one of the most prominent universities in the world today, right? And he did that over his thirty five year tenure as president. And he had an amazing business sense as well as being a priest. So, you know, he was an amazing resource and had amazing insights. And I remember going to him at a time, he retired from president, so he was very available. I ran the student government when I was there, so I knew him from my days at Notre Dame. [01:03:44] S0: And so you go to him.