Flapper's CEO Describes Wild Ride Driving Growth in Developing Countries

This week's episode of the Breakout Growth Podcast is brought to you by Rise with SAP and includes some incredible stories! Paul Malicki is the founder and CEO of Flapper, Brazil’s first on-demand private aviation marketplace, and his journey has been anything but boring. Hold onto your hats, as he tells Ethan and Sean about a negotiation he had in the Philippines where the other party placed a grenade and a gun on the desk and asked whether Paul was still not willing to budge from his proposed 70/30 revenue split?  

That story stems from his days launching Easy Taxi in developing countries, but the excitement has continued, as Paul moved from building a terrestrial taxi service to now building a taxi service of sorts for the skies. Paul’s vision is to turn private aviation into a mainstream travel option. From creating a marketplace where travelers can book empty seats on private jets and helicopters to offering on-demand charters, Flapper is blazing its own trail to breakout growth success.

In 2019 the business grew 251%, and even with the challenges of the global pandemic, Paul and his team still were able to realize ~100% year over year gains in 2020. Driving growth through the tumult required a quick pivot to leverage the skyrocketing demand for cargo and ambulance flights, but a scrappy, growth hacker’s mindset helped to keep the business on track through these difficult times.

Flappers ascent has been anything but easy. Aviation has traditionally been a tough industry in which to win, and Paul explains that it took 228 meetings to raise seed money for the business, and another 530 meetings to fund his Series A. But, he explains his determination very simply: “I was already here, I liked what I was doing, and it was a sexy business.” 

So sit back and enjoy one of our most fun and entertaining conversations of the year. We still get into the gritty details of team structure, growth engine, and all the other important elements of growth you expect from the podcast, but through Paul’s experience taking on challenges in developing, and not always friendly environments, we view growth from a unique and exciting vantage point. 

Before you jump in learn more about RISE with SAP S/4Hana Cloud here. If you have ambitious goals, SAP is the technology partner you need to scale and drive innovation. Instead of relying on stitched together solutions to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations, leverage the flexibility of SAP’s cloud-based ERP solution to gain the insights that will help drive your breakout growth success. 

RISE with SAP Link: bit.ly/3u27Ay6

Fasten your seatbelt for this one!

We discussed:

* A vision to change the way we travel (4:56)

* Why private aviation can be affordable (6:53)

* Learnings

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