Before You Fly: Jacob Baumler on Building Trust in Private Aviation

You're listening to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most with Outfluencer, Dr. Wayne Pernell. Welcome to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most. I'm Dr. P, Dr. Wayne Pernell, your host, guide, and coach on this journey. I am thrilled to welcome Jacob Boundler to the show today. Jacob is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and systems builder who has spent his career solving difficult operational problems in complex, high-consequence environments. Today, as the founder and CEO of Coach Air, he is focused on a challenge most travelers never realize exists. How do we know a private charter flight is legitimate, compliant, and safe, and that our money is protected before the aircraft ever leaves the ground? Coach Air is built— it's building the verification and transaction infrastructure designed to bring greater safety, transparency, accountability, and trust to aviation commerce. And As private aviation and next-generation air travel continues to grow, that mission becomes increasingly important for operators, communities, and travelers everywhere. You're going to love hearing about Jacob's entrepreneurial journey, the experience that inspired Coach Air, and his vision for making aviation safer worldwide. Jacob Boundler, welcome to One Sharp Sword.

Thank you, Dr. Wayne Pernell. Happy to be here today.

I'm happy to have you. So I became a fan the first time I saw you because just your message and the mission really, I found quite inspiring. There's so many things about air travel that are— that's happening now. We are just the same way that AI has hit kind of everything we do. Air travel is changing finally. It's been very, very much the same for many, many, many decades. And now it's finally changing. And you're out there in front going, well, if it's changing, let's make it safe. I want to start with your, like, what got you into founding Coach Air? You know, Richard Branson had this experience where He got fed up with the way an airline treated him, so he started his own. You, as the founder of Coach Air, you had this experience where you were like, oh no, this can't be. There's got to be a better way. Talk a little bit about what happened and how you came to found Coach Air.

Yeah. So, I got the opportunity to scale my last business. I needed to fly private. And in flying private, I ended up experiencing an illegal charter, experienced fraud in the same transaction, and it was pretty scary. You know, I was— I didn't know what to do about it, but I knew that it was a big problem. So I started networking and asking everybody about and telling people about my experience and Lo and behold, I found that private aviation was fragmented. It is running on spreadsheets, phone calls. There's systems that exist, but they're not interconnected. Like I said, it's very fragmented. So, you know, one day I decided to talk to my wife, who's co-founder, and, you know, tell her about this experience. And she was just Throw them back. This is unbelievable. I can't believe you have a solution for this, Jacob. She's like, we need to do it. Let's do it. So we exited our last business and started Coach Air. Um, and what we're building is an aviation intelligence platform. We verify the legality of a private charter before a customer sees it and before the money moves, just like what you were saying in the introduction. We're, we're managing the movement of money through fintech and private aviation. And with that, we're collecting data from everything from the booking and dispatch to the wheels-down event, which creates a data trail for secure transactions to stop this fragmentation that I experience. That's just part of the solution. The next step is taking our technology into a partner-branded or white-label mobile app where every operator, broker, FBO, airport, or vertiport— anybody that's customer-facing that might have passengers or communities they want to, um, help and provide services to— we now have a mobile app in their brand where their passengers can verify before they fly And book using AI or aviation intelligence and have a safe, secure transaction and know that they're going to get back home safely. So going back to my story, Wayne, is I personally don't ever want to experience something where I can't verify before I fly. I don't ever want to be in question of All the things that led up to that experience.

Yeah.

And I don't want anybody else here in the US or around the world to ever experience that either. I feel like with the rising trends of urban air mobility, advanced air mobility, drone infrastructure, all the way to the core in private aviation, that a transformation needs to happen. And it is.

That's great. I want to back up because there's some details and there's some basics that I want to make sure that we have as a foundation for the conversation. The details are you got stuck, you paid for a charter. And right, this is like, for me, that was like, wait, you paid for something, you actually took the flight, and then the flight had an issue. And that's when you found out, like, once it landed sort of safely, it was grounded because it had this mechanical issue. And that's when you found out that there were no records. That, like, the record keeping for a private charter, you would think, is great, but it's not so great, right?

So yeah, exactly. So I mean, I found out there was filings on the dipstick after I already boarded an aircraft and that they needed to change the engine oil so we could get back safely. Nothing about that is safe.

No, no.

And, and because there was no way for me to be a subject matter expert in private aviation as a new flyer at the time, I didn't know to ask about A 135 certificate. I didn't know to ask for the insurance, the pilot's information. I— there's so many things that I didn't know to ask.

And these are the basics that I want to make sure that we, that we talk about, because none of us know to ask that, right? Unless you're in private aviation. And a 135 certificate, like, something I learned from you is And I, I mean, I found that worth sharing, which is why we have you here. If a private pilot, just a private pilot, hey, I got my private pilot's license. I, you know, go 200 miles away for lunch and I come back. Ta-da! If a private pilot takes a passenger and the passenger goes, hey, can I buy you lunch? Can I give you $100 for taking me? Can I whatever? That private pilot is no longer a private pilot. They're now traveling illegally, right?

That's correct. Yeah.

So can you talk about like, that's what the 135 certificate is, isn't it?

It is. So the 135 certificate allows a transaction to happen for services that are rendered.

I'm taking you, you're paying me. So even if you bought me lunch as a private pilot, that's a transaction.

That's correct.

That changes the designation, that changes the— like, that changes the regulations around who you are as a pilot.

Yeah, I mean, you can go out to lunch with a friend and they might own a private jet, but you're putting yourself in the hands of that pilot and the integrity of wherever they left the aircraft. It is not, and is not designated for commercial use at all. It is not designated or quantified that it's safe. You're just risking your life if you're paying money for a service for private aviation. There's rules and regulations and certifications. There's safety management systems that are in place. They're just not connected. And we're bringing all of that into a central hub of intelligence. to drive safety in private aviation.

That's huge, especially with where aviation is going. Now, the current regulations are tracked, you say, via what, phone and paper? What was the— what's your phrase?

The current—

like, and it's been done this way for decades. Like, nothing about the way regulations are tracked, nothing about the way certifications is tracked has changed in since how long?

I mean, it's since the Wright brothers, right? I mean, but, but, but kind of literally, I mean, I mean, there's, there's been, there's been revolutions since the Wright brothers from the paper, pen, and pad to a spreadsheet. And a lot of people are either still using the paper, pen, and pad, Or they're using a spreadsheet. So, I mean, to give credit to a lot of people, right? I'm saying spreadsheets and phone calls, but there's still paper process. I mean, people are still still using those means for something that you're putting all your trust in or blind trust today, but it should be verified trust.

Agreed, and and that's what Coach Air does is it it. It links it all together.

It links it all together under the brands you trust.

Right. So we'll talk about that. How is it that such a highly regulated system, right, that it's not like you're driving down the road, you have a little issue, you could pull over, you are flying. How is it that such a highly regulated system still operates on such a What's, what looks like or seems like an antiquated system?

It's like these are, these are, yeah, just, you know, that, that's, that's a very good question. And, you know, I asked myself that same question 7 years ago and asked myself the same question today is how, how can what we're building not exist? You mean, how do, how do, how does an industry with so many rules and regulations Not have a central hub of intelligence, right? How how how is there how is there not a way for the general public to verify before you fly? You know, just like many other industries, whether that be you know residential, whether that be like the Airbnbs of the world, the the eats apps that are out there, you know the the credit card services. They've all seen transformations. The time is now for private aviation.

Yeah. Yeah, it's changing. Uber and Lyft, I mean, you get into a stranger's car, right? So we trust commercial airlines. And if we fly something smaller, that's not considered commercial, but it's still, it's still what? I mean, what's the, what are the tiers? There's commercial, there's something else, there's private. Right?

Yeah. So you have 121, which would be a commercial airline, and they're held under the strictest rules and regulations of all the regulators that are out there.

So we trust that, right? We trust that because there's— there are huge regulations. They're in the news if they violate it. We trust that.

That's correct. The level down, we have to verify, like, so then you Then you move into a series of other rules and regulations, but really it stops at the 135 mark, the certification. And that's for business aviation, private aviation. And, you know, at that, there's just so much gray space with the rules and regulations that people like to bend those rules today. And at Coach Air, I designed a system that doesn't accept the grace spaces. Um, we like to verify before you fly. And then you have 91 and other certifications below that. That's just private air. Just, you can go out and get a pilot's license and fly an aircraft. You can get rated for, um, bigger aircraft and whatnot. And there's a full spectrum from experimental aircraft which is super exciting, you know, industry, all the way to things that have been cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration for transportation. Um, you know, there's, there's a spectrum there, but that spectrum does not quantify public use.

Yeah.

So 135 is, is that mark, and they're held to a specific standard, and, and that standard is safety. We just need to be able to have a system to allow the general public to verify before they fly.

That's great. That's where the trust comes in. I, you know, I see your business as a trust business that it's like you do the verification. So the same way that, you know, I trust the top major airlines that I fly with and I trust them to be living up to the standards and beyond, hopefully. And You've created this system that allows us to trust now the system so that we're tracking, or you're tracking on our behalf, this airline, this aircraft, this pilot, this—

The insurance. Right.

All the things that, and the, and the payment processing that they're not gonna take more. They're not gonna take your money until all those things. What— let's talk about what makes a charter legal or illegal. Like, how could a passenger end up on an illegal flight?

Yeah. So, you know, if you just talk to somebody that's a pilot or owns an aircraft and they're like, you know, hey, I'll take $5,000, but you didn't check any of the things that we're checking for, they don't have a mobile app powered by Coach Air under their brand. So, so you go out and you're like, here's the 5 grand, however you made that transaction. And they're a buddy, maybe. Okay. And you pay them 5 grand, but maybe it's, maybe it's more than that. Maybe it's 20 grand because it's a business trip and you're, you're now bringing other people that work with you on the aircraft. Let's make it a little bit more serious. So, so the aircraft He hasn't flown it for 2 months. There's some seals that are a little bit leaky. It's— that aircraft's not meant for public transportation at all. It's more of a hobby that now he's charging you for. And you get 7 miles off the tarmac and you don't make it. Now there's an entire group of families that all have to get the Dear John letter. And a knock at the door or that really bad phone call. And, you know, it's completely preventable. With the access for safety, for safe verified flights with our technology that's coming out soon.

Yeah.

You know, so we've built it. We're testing that technology right now, Wayne.

Cheers.

So we're using an early adopter program to, to test the technology before we go to market with our, our, our product, because we want to verify before people fly, right? We want to make sure it's, it's safe and everything's working.

That's great.

Um, you know, you know, we prevent situations like that, and those situations exist because access to private aviation is difficult. Um, you don't know who to talk to. Um, even if you talk to your local airport or your FBO, Um, there isn't a good means. And then, and then you'll find out if you Google, you're going to end up with the big brands that want to charge you a ton of money where it's almost not affordable. Uh, yeah, so there's this gap, and, and that gap creates the gray space, and the gray space, the gray space creates fraud and illegal charters.

Great.

So, you know, we're filling that, right? And with, you know, above and beyond all of this excitement in private aviation, we're right now, you're just talking about Jets and airplanes. What about helicopters, advanced air mobility, air taxis, drones?

I love that.

I love that. They all fall under one— they're all falling under 135 rules and regulations, and our technology provides better access and safety for every one of those transactions.

So I want to talk about a few things, Jacob. This is where I want to go with this is I'm gonna give you like 3 questions in a row.

Okay.

And, and you choose how to, how to sort through it. First of all, we've got the potential for illegal charter. You're tossing out numbers like, oh, it's $5,000 for a flight, or maybe it's $20,000. And there are people that are gonna be listening to this going, oh, must be nice. Um, right. And, and so The question, one question is, why should anybody else care? It's like, though, it's for, you know, only a certain group of people that can afford that. Why should anybody else care? What are the wider safety and the wider economic consequences? The other thing is, you said FBO, and I want to say fixed base operations, and I would love for you to just define what Fixed base ops center is, and and I'm gonna save the third one, which is I want to talk about air taxis because the drones are coming and they're amazingly exciting, at least for me. And I hope for the rest of our audience because they're they're coming. They're just like the Waymo taxis, just like right driverless vehicles. But drones aren't gonna— they may or may not be driverless, but we'll talk about that. First, why should other people care? Why should anybody care? And second, fixed base operations, FBOs. What do they do? What are they for? Where do we find them? Should we find them? All that stuff.

Yeah, so All across America, all across the world, there's airports. There's small airports that act as a fixed base operator or an FBO, and then there's larger airports that have multiple FBOs. The FBOs are the gas stations today for private aviation. It's where people fill up, they refuel, um, and, you know, a lot of times there's some hangar storage that's available. Okay.

But so that's what the group of— like, if you say FBO, it's fixed base operations. It's where an aircraft can do Whatever it needs to do to reset.

Precisely. But it's also where the general public comes through the doors to sit in the nice seats right before they board an aircraft. Okay. A vertiport, which is in the future and we're going to get there with the air taxis, is the FBO of the future where it's the recharging station and the place where people sit before they get on an air taxi. All right, so, so why should the general public care about private aviation? Because private aviation, it touches the past. It's where the problems lay in, in aviation. And, and as, as there's rising trends with advanced air mobility and access to a greater amount of people that can afford an air taxi occurs, The foundation and the principles behind removing illegal charter access and fraud from the transactions needs to be fixed at the foundation.

Agreed.

Before we multiply that problem with all the air taxis and the drones that are entering the marketplace, creating more access and usability to everyone that might spend $300 or less On an air taxi to get to work every day.

Amazing. Okay, so the way FBOs operate now, are you, are you leading a charge to change that given that air taxis, air taxis are coming like they're already out there? There are I just saw a new ad for, for a new company that I didn't even know existed. So—

It might be an Archer or a Beta or a Wisk or an Evair Mobility, you know, a Joby that's out there near you. There's all sorts of manufacturers that just like airplanes, right? These are aircraft. There's all sorts of different manufacturers that are coming to the market. But the FBO, to answer your question, Yeah, we're creating a new marketplace, right? We're creating better communication between the people that are refueling those aircraft, seeing the passengers, giving them the ability to create brand recognition to the FBO's brand.

Yeah.

Provide safe transportation solutions to their passengers and to their communities for anything from a private charter All the way to an air taxi and in the future, a drone or an unmanned device.

So this is, I mean, this goes back to you sell trust, right? You build the backend so that people can trust the brand. If you are building this infrastructure that an operator can use and then they put their name on it, it's like, yeah, fortified by Coach Air. Like that's, That's really what it's about.

Fortified. I like, I like that. I haven't used that in my verbiage, but you're absolutely right. Um, you know, verified by Coach Air, fortified by Coach Air.

Um, but you're really backing it up. It's like, you know, it's verified, cool, it's check mark, but it's like fortified. You are, you're holding it up, right?

It's like, I mean, I mean, if there's an issue within these people's You know, marketplaces under their brand, powered by Coach Air. All right. If there's an issue, the aircrafts are taken down and not not available to any of their passengers. In fact, they can't even book them if somebody calls until those issues are fixed and resolved. So there now there's better communication. So if there's an issue with an aircraft, no matter what it might be, they're picking up the call. They're communicating. They're your personal safety agent, your personal concierge behind the scenes. Making sure that the aircraft are taken care of. This isn't fully AI. We're using AI to build, AI to communicate, AI to check things.

Yeah.

But there's— in aviation, there has to be a human behind the scenes. There needs to be communication going on between the broker, the FBO, the airport, the vertiport, and the operators. You can't delete that. There's so many marketplaces that are popping up out there that there isn't a human behind the scenes. There isn't somebody you can call if there's a schedule change, a flat tire, maybe there's something wrong with the aircraft. There isn't good communication that happens, and that needs to be a human.

That's great.

And there needs to be somebody with the logic and the, and the common sense knowledge to take a look at an issue and and be able to communicate that in a customer service friendly way that drives safety and communication as to why something happened in regards to a current event. And we're providing that infrastructure, that communication layer that does not exist today.

So you will, by providing that communication layer, you've got call centers kind of thing set up, you've got It's a customer service team, right?

The call centers are our customers. They are the operators, brokers, FBOs, airports.

Gotcha. Okay, excellent.

It's not a call center. You're not calling somebody at Coach Air. You're calling somebody that's in charge of operations.

Awesome. Awesome. Shifting gears just a little bit. You— when I saw you speak, you said something that was like, I don't get shocked or surprised very often, right? You said something that was truly shocking. And that is, that is something that affects all of us. And that is the time it takes to scramble an emergency vehicle.

Wow.

So if, if there's a need for a life flight, if there's a need for a, a, uh, an organ transplant, it has to happen now, right now. And the statistics you gave were frightening because if there's like this major horrible thing that happens and a helicopter needs to land, it takes how long to get off the ground? And, and Coach Air is going to cut that time by how much?

Yeah, so right now the average response time is anywhere— the best response And when—

wait, when you say— I want to say response time is to actually get in the air, not to actually get to the scene of whatever's needed.

Not to get to the scene. It's to contact the people to initiate them to start to move.

So response time is just the contact time. It's not even— it's not even there in the air.

How long it takes to find the asset and say, yes, the asset can move to go save a life.

And the asset is either a helicopter or a plane, but that also has to have a pilot.

So, and it could be a plane, it could be a helicopter, it could be an air taxi or a drone. Okay, that's completing the mission.

And currently it takes how long?

12 to 15 minutes at max, the best times. But sometimes it takes up to 3 hours.

So to get like, there's an emergency, please Send your best, and it's like because because that dispatch is looking at spreadsheets.

They're looking at miscombobulated fragmented systems where they're trying to cross-check and they're calling and making sure people are available. But imagine, imagine this: an AI dispatch that shows them their assets, their third-party contracted assets, and all the verified 135 operators in their network. At their fingertips, that's the largest asset utilization in history to save a life or complete a mission. And we and we can narrow all of that down in the availability in seconds, like less than thirty seconds. And if we can take those dispatch times from twelve to fifteen minutes or longer down to seconds, yeah, our technology saves lives.

Totally saves lives. That's why I wanted to bring it up. I, that was the, that was one of the biggest pieces for me is like, wait, it takes 12 to 15 minutes just to say, hey, you should get in your plane. You should fire up the fire that, you know, helicopter up. It's like, wait. So you've got the system that says, okay, what are the local airports? What availability is there for which kind of aircraft? Where's the pilot? Go start that process now. Local, available. And within seconds, within moments, the aircraft could be in the air versus 12 to 15 minutes before they even figure out what's close.

That's right.

That will save lives. And that's, I mean, that's part of why I am a fan of You know, the way you think and, and, you know, the, the brand Cochlear. I think it's, it's like, it's gonna just be remarkable because it will save lives and you'll be tracking things that normal people don't track now. Um, and even specialists don't track now. So this is, it's huge.

And not only track, but, but We're verifying things that people don't verify today, and we're verifying before you fly.

Yeah, amazing. So the air taxi thing, let's go back to this for a minute because I think it's I think it's fun and scary and all those things. Like it's so new. We're gonna see the Jetsons, right? We're gonna actually like. Vertiports is what you called it, instead of airports where we're used to planes going down a taxiway or runway. We're, we're gonna see pads, but not the giant helicopter pads that we, we might have seen. It's gonna be really small, even driveway-based pads for Taking off vertically, right? That's why it's a vertiport.

That's right.

They could be on rooftops, they could be anywhere. So as popularity for these things increases, what's going to happen to our skies?

You know, you know, the, the United States of America has already put together billions of dollars in regards to improving the airspace. So, you know, considering the subject matter experts and the professionals that have come up with those solutions, I think that there's going to be a safe airspace for that. And so my concern isn't that. My concern is how do we drive adoption? How do we drive making sure that it's safe? Right? So if private aviation, you can't verify before you fly today, and, and we move into advanced air mobility with, you know, we don't— what we don't want to see happen with, with air taxis is a bunch of air taxis flying around illegally committing fraud. We don't want that. And, and, and how do we prevent that? How do we prevent that from happening? Coach Air, with our aviation intelligence platform, helps prevent that from occurring. Not saying we're not going to stop illegal air taxis and fraud from occurring, but if you're booking with an app powered by Coach Air, you're verifying the aircraft before you get on it and, and the transaction, the integrity, the legality of that aircraft, and And you'll have a peace of mind. There's better adoption with our technology for that industry and its growth.

Great. You've invented, you've created, you— I know that you developed a drainage system for groundwater Which was an incredible thing to hear about. Now you're building this system for not terra firma, but right for the air. And it's all about safety on the ground first. Here's the thing, and it's a slightly personal question, Jacob, is you're about to, you've built businesses, you've exited businesses, you've built businesses, you've exited businesses, you've been a serial entrepreneur. Yeah. And it's, it's been an amazing growth trajectory for you. You're now creating this beautiful company that I see big things for. And it's not going to be a little operation. It's going to scale. So this is the personal part. Because a lot of on my podcast, One Sharp Sword, we talk about leadership, right? So as that scales, what do you see is your growth edge for becoming the next level leader? Like, what kind of leader do you see yourself becoming? And, you know, it's just like, this is— I like these kinds of questions because I believe that each of us is a leader, right? And it's like we're being watched and how we communicate, how we, how we relate, it matters. How, where do you see yourself growing as a leader?

You know, I see myself growing as, as coaching people. Um, and, you know, taking the name, our company name, Coach Air, and And be able to bring an entrepreneurial spirit to every single person. You know, I'm at where I'm at today because I challenged the status quo.

And that's a powerful statement in itself. And I love to underscore it, right? That it's like you've had this growth trajectory. Why? Because you chose to challenge the status quo. I love that.

Love that.

Thank you.

Um, you know, my goal is, is to build an organization of people that are passionate about a cause and passionate about driving new technology, about taking what I've spent as my passion project over the last 7 years and challenging the status quo, going— helping Coach Air go beyond an aviation intelligence into the next thing. And I'm not saying that we know what that is yet. I have an imagination and, you know, have learned things through this where I see more coming. But to help us go there, to go beyond and to create those relationships and, you know, grow a sense of community within an organization where we can rely on each other. to support other people's passion projects within our organization.

That's great. I was going to ask you about the culture, and I think you just started to define it. Like, what, what culture do you envision for Coach Air? And it's, it's community, it's engaging, it's supportive. I love that. That's great.

You know, all around, like, that public safety infrastructure, node, right? Like people that want to take a marketplace and make it transform into something that's safe and reliable for a greater part of the population.

Yeah, that's great. Let's talk about your vision for a second because you said, you know, you've got this vision for the future. And so 5 to 10 years out, right? There are Aviation has transformed. Coach Air has been at the forefront behind the scenes, fortifying the safety and trust. What do you want travelers, operators, communities beyond to, to be able to trust? What do you, what do you see 5 to 10 years out? What is— what does aviation look like and what do we as the end users experience?

Yeah, I mean, there's, there's rules and regulations that are in place. The market's very fragmented today. Our goal is to bring that together and then, and then to recharge that bringing it together with, with not only fixing Part 135 operations, But to move into other sectors where we can drive safety and resilience beyond just 135 operations. We, I mean, there's potential for space travel one day, right? I mean, there's, you know, people like Elon Musk that are making the unbelievable happen. How do we support that in the future? I'm not saying we're doing that today. But how do we support those efforts to make it more accessible and safe? I mean, that's a whole new set of rulebooks that haven't been written.

Right, right. Yeah, it's hard enough to think about. Yeah, you know what, I'll just call up the air taxi and I'll get, you know, I live, I live in Northern California and I live probably an hour outside of San Francisco, maybe depends on the, on the traffic, could be an hour and a half. I'll just, you know, get an air taxi to land in my yard and I'll Get into San Francisco in 15 minutes.

I mean, we're, we're, we're already doing things that are cooler than just that happening.

Like, wait, what's cooler than that?

Like being able to do that from your smart glasses or from your smart sunglasses and just saying, hey Meta, I'd like to go from here to there and it to be able to do it frictionlessly. Like it's an extension of your daily life.

Like, amazing.

Like drilling down into great user experiences where people just consciously know that the opportunity is verified before they fly. And, you know, it's something that they can rely on.

Yeah, I— that's really interesting to think about it as like being so integrated that it's like, this is what I want. Poof, it shows up. What I love about that also is kind of on a, on a larger perspective is we have the advantage— you're across the country from me— we have the advantage of meeting via Zoom, right? Or another, you know, another app that allows for meetings. And it's, it's great, but nothing, nothing is better than the in-person, right? There's this sense of, wow, the connection. And so being able to— like, that's why, to me, that's why air travel matters. Is I could do a lot of my stuff from anywhere. I could sit anywhere and do what I do, but I really love to travel to be in the room with. And I, you know, with, with all of that said, I see, I see air travel evolving. And obviously you see air travel evolving. And because I travel so much, it was like when you spoke, it was at an Economic Development Council meeting that I saw you and It was, it just lit me up. You know, it's like, wow, we're, our, our ways of doing business are changing. And I love that you're out there going, yes, and it should be safe. And you shouldn't have to think about it because we're thinking about it. Right? That's—

Precisely.

That's the, that's what Coach Air is. So I just like, I'm I'm singing your praises maybe more than you are, and it's like I'm just I'm a fan. Okay, so so there you go. Let me ask you a couple of questions. Like, were there things that just kind of in thinking about the conversation that we've had, were there things that you think I like? What didn't I ask that you would love to answer? Like, what other things do you want to bring up for our audience who may or may not know about aviation? And then the part 2 of this is, and if people do want to know more about Coach Air, how do they find you? How do they find, like, and know more about you? How do they find you?

Yeah. You know, the biggest thing, you know, is, is, you know, driving the message to the general public with the fact that you can't have blind trust when it comes to anything that's airborne. And there's a lot of things about verifying before you fly. In fact, I've put together large presentations this year and talked to people about that, not about Coach Air. It's just the process of all the things that you actually need to pay attention to. To be able to verify before you fly. And most people are like, oh my gosh, that is so much information. Why would I ever want to fly private if I have to do all of that? And then after you've coached them about how to today, through the paper, pen, and pad, through the processes and the questions, um, that you should be asking— now if you had a mobile app that allowed you to verify before you fly because these things were done for you, Wouldn't that be a lot nicer? Wouldn't that give you the peace of mind, your family the peace of mind, your business the peace of mind? So you would then feel safe to fly. And it's an absolutely. And, you know, when you can reach out to your local airport, your local FBO or your vertiport and be able to download their mobile app, that's powered with next-gen technology like Coach Air, then, you know, that access is gonna just be a lot better user experience, not only to you, but to the people that care about you.

Nice. So it's not that I'm gonna pick up an app and I'm gonna go, okay, did they change their oil? Click. Did they do this? Click. I'm gonna pick up an app and I'm gonna go, I wanna go from here to there. And your technology is going to go, cool, here are the safe aircraft that are available for you.

Yeah, actually there is some drill-downs. I mean, we're making it possible through their mobile app under their brand where you can actually see those information, those safety things. If you want to drill down and look at it, you can. And it— we're transparent. Um, it's been verified, so why don't we just show the information? We can show the operator, we can show the insurance, we can show, you know, the fact that there was maintenance done. We can show that they are holding their certificate and much more information. And I'm not saying that everything under the sun there is going to be shown, but the critical pieces to be able to have that sense of mind, once you've seen it many, many times on a mobile app, you'll probably just follow through with a 30-second transaction. And it'll be frictionless. But, but you'll, you'll already know that every one of those transactions were verified before you fly.

You know, I stay in hotels across the country, and every hotel has an elevator, and every elevator has this certificate that says it's safe to ride this elevator.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I get a little Like, there's something inside of me that twinges a little bit when that certificate plaque that is supposed to be in every elevator says, certificate available for inspection in the office. And it's like, well, why do I have to go to the office? Why don't you just post it? Right? And that's what Coach Air does for aircraft. It is.

What scares me most about the elevators is when you get in and they go err err. So you start looking for that certificate. You look at it; it was last updated in 2020, right?

Five, six years ago, seven years ago.

They have a certificate or had one, but it's not been updated. And that's the same thing in aviation. Just because someone says they have a certificate, is it actually verified through a federal you know through a you know, an organization that provided it? Can you check that? Or is it just some old sticker certification that they're saying that they had it at some point in time? Is it actually verified before you fly? I mean, maybe you want to get into a business to verify elevators before people get on them. But, you know, I'm more into the, you know, private aviation and air taxi side of things.

I just thought it was a great analogy that it's like, you know, because most of us ride elevators, a lot of people don't fly the same way as you and I do. And it's like, but that's what it's about, is just knowing that the mechanics and the maintenance and the structure and all of that that conveys you one way or the other, either in an elevator straight up and down or in an aircraft to your next destination. That it's all going to happen safely. And that, you know, what we didn't talk about was the fintech piece where that when you pay for it, that the aircraft's actually going to be there. You paid for something, they've taken your money. And I know your technology says we won't— we're going to hold the money in escrow essentially until you complete your flight. And that's when the operator will get paid.

Precisely. Yeah. So, so being able to do that, if the aircraft isn't there, if the service isn't provided, the money goes back to the passenger. Like, the technology protects the passenger, but it also protects the people that are providing the services. I mean, there's people out there with bad credit cards, or, you know, they, they rebuttal the credit card charge. There's, there's lots of games that can happen when it comes to that transaction process. But when it hits an escrow, It's locked solid, right? And the money's held there, and we're doing an auto-release of those funds upon a wheels-down event. So it's a guaranteed payment for anybody within that ecosystem powered by Coach Air. And that's a really good way to do business. It's protecting everybody, B2B2C.

I think any of these, it's almost like you have 3 or 4 businesses under the Coach Air umbrella, right? And it's like You're helping to make sure that certification and safety and compliance are all at or above standard. You're helping with emergency services. You're making sure that scramble is available fast, not 15 minutes, not 3 hours, 30 seconds. And you're helping with the transaction piece, the financial piece that is in itself a very separate business. And you've got this all integrated in the Cochlear technology.

And we did that. The reason I designed the company that way is because there's no foundational safety network that brings in all the different great things that are out there into one central hub of intelligence and stop that fragmentation. And the only way to stop the fragmentation is to provide multiple services that bring in all of that information and provide those services under the brand of everybody, not under my brand. I mean, Coach Air is in the background, right? We do the hard work and let everybody else be the hero.

Powered by Coach Air is going to be the slogan, and I love that. All right. So, how do people find out more? How do people find you? All those things, because you're also in this place where, hey, it'd be great to have a few investors. So, If this sparks you, reach out. You're in that space too, right?

Absolutely. So, you can reach out to me. You know, I've got my number on our website. We also have forms to fill out depending on what your interest is right on our website. You can reach us at www.gocoachair.com. And, you know, again, that's www.gocoachair.com. And, you know, when you go out to our website, you'll be able to see that high-level vision today. In regards to access to the technology, it's not available yet. It's coming, and there'll be a whole new face to our website. Right now, you know, we are trying to attract people in regards to help support us in the mission that we're executing on at the highest level right now from an investor standpoint. And You know, with that, we're, we're, uh, we're growing the company, we're growing our brand, and we're growing trust in aviation.

That's awesome. That's awesome. I appreciate you. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate what you're building. Um, I know it's the wave of the future, and I'm glad you're the one doing it because you care so much. Really great. Thanks for being here, Jacob.

Thank you.

Awesome. All right, my guest today is Jacob Baumler, and he is the CEO and founder of Coach Air. And you can find more about him and the company at gocoachair.com. And I'm, I'm deliberately splitting those words because it's really easy to, to hear co-chair, co-chair. It's like, no, it's Coach GoCoachAir.com. Uh, Jacob, again, thank you. This is One Sharp Sword, Cutting Through to What Matters Most. I'm Dr. P, Dr. Wayne Pernell, your host, your guide, your coach on this journey. If you've appreciated this episode, please like it, please share it, and, um, I will see you here next time. Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening to One Sharp Sword, Cutting Break through to what matters most with Outfluencer, Dr. Wayne Pernell. For more information, please go to onesharpsword.com. One sharp sword.