[MUSIC]
I grew up as a child, enthusiastic passion about doing things that were adventurous.
Getting out and exploring the planet, whether
that was motorcycles, or boats, or airplanes.
Flying was something that when I was very
early age, I found very Inspirational.
It was the ultimate freedom.
Aviation today is really about moving your body from A to B,
but when it comes to enjoying flying as an experience,.
It doesn't exist.
I spent about eight years in the Air Force flying F-16's.
When I left the military and I came back to Stanford Business School.
I was trying to get out of a flight suit and into a business suit.
I happened to notice one day in a magazine a little obscure rule change.
And it was the FAA saying that they were going
to announce a new class of airplane called Light Sport Airplanes.
It is a new class that is licensed for the pilot and
the concept was, to finally make airplanes accessible to the average human being.
Make them safe and affordable.
And a license you can get in a matter of a couple weeks.
So there was a moment when I realized what aviation could be.
And as an academic exercise, I was going to study it.
In each class, I would spin them towards something related
to this project, so the first one was a market analysis.
And an a-ha was whoa, there's a big market here, bigger than I expected.
The other a-ha moment was if a startup
does not do this, it likely will not materialize.
I had a business plan and I had thrown the switch to on.
>> Kirk and I met in a design
class, an engineering design class at Stanford and every
project we had, Kirk found a way to
turn that project into some kind of aviation experience.
We actually reconnected later on when I was teaching product
design at Stanford and he was back at the DSB.
We reconnected over, over lunch.
During lunch it hit me.
Can I show you a Powerpoint?
And he goes, alright, so I pull up my Powerpoint.
>> He basically detailed out all of the opportunity.
>> And I go, did I, I think you're the guy I'm looking for.
What you know about the consumer product design process.
What your teaching at Stanford.
What you lived and breathed.
The airplane world doesn't know.
I know enough about that to know I need somebody like you.
>> It's easy for me to go, okay, I can see where this could be in the future.
And that's why, as the story goes, you know, the next morning I'm calling him up.
>> He goes, I so get this.
He goes, I, I'm in.
I'm all in.
What do you need?
>> In a way you could say that the work Kirk
did it, the GSP, is directly leading to this product we have.
>> That's the beginning of the DNA of the company.
>> If you wanna take advantage of this
recreational opportunity, the best way to do that
is to bring recreational flying to the forefront,
and really make a powersport out of aviation.
By the time I left Stanford I felt confident
enough in my fundamental business acumen, understanding of things, so
that I could walk in any board room with
any business executive, and I felt comfortable having a dialogue.
And that confidence is important.
And the tool set that I got there was invaluable in the next phase.
And that is creating the company.
>> As we move from business strategy into
implementation and design, what should this airplane be?
What should it deliver?
What's the lifestyle?
How will people use it?
We quickly honed in on this notion of alright, we'll have an amphibious
airplane that allows you to fly and land on land or land on water.
>> It's not airport to airport.
This is airport to off airport.
>> So we have folding wings that allows you
transportation to move your airplane wherever you wanna take it.
It makes it more recreational.
>> Now you can taking it camping, fishing, exploring, wherever you want.
And so the company is more than an airplane.
It's about really honoring the human
experience and delivering you something that, that.
When you finally go out and fly you find that you can fly.
It's save, you can learn to do it in
a reasonable amount of time, you actually can afford it.
Our goal is for our customers when they come back from
the first time and they fly, they go oh my God.
>> But all those things tie back to that original strategy that came out of
the GSB which is we are going to create a power sport around recreational flying.
It's a two person one engine relatively lightweight simple airplane that a
new sport pilot can learn to fly in about two weeks very safely.
And you look at the airplane you look at the cock pit and you go
it's relatively simple, I can understand this
cockpit it looks like something I can do.
That doesn't happen by accident.
It happens by people who understand that process.
>> The design process at icon is really based on what we learned at Stanford.
And that's the classic ideate, build, test and repeat.
And you learn from that testing and then
you go back and you iterate that process again.
We're the first conventional aircraft that's
met the full FAA suspended resistance
standard, so what that means for you is that it is very safe.
>> What the A5 is is an unadulterated, unapologetic,
representation, an execution of what flying is romantically
designed to be, and that's this human aspirational experience.
>> I think both Kirk and I feel that Stanford
has been transformative in our personal lives and our careers.
>> I can say this infratically if it was not for Mike's appearances at
Stanford both in engineering and design school
and the business school, icon would not exist.
>> All the sort of Stanford networks and
connections and influencers that we still rely on today.
It's easy to say that without those
Stanford experiences Icon would not have been
an idea and it certainly wouldn't have reached the place where it is today.
>> I feel indebted because that, that experience was, was critical to
where we have come from today and where we're going in the future.
[MUSIC]