Blackbird Air Inc.; The Truth. TLDR; I worked for Blackbird. They…
By: Tegan Burns
Tags: Blackbird Air, Startup, Aviation, California, Air Travel

I started working for Blackbird Air September 10th 2018. It was my first job at a startup and I couldn’t have been more excited for it.

If you haven’t heard of Blackbird Air Inc before, their business model is simple. Uber, but for planes and jets. They connect a passenger with a pilot going to the same destination for a rideshare price point. From their website you “Choose a destination”, “Choose A Plane”, “Pick a Pilot”, and “Take to the Skys”. It’s one of those things that you think “why has no one done this before!?”.

After talking to Jamie Loberman, the CTO, via Angel Co. we instantly connected; having similar ideology on the future of the aerospace industry.

We agreed that in return for my work as in intern I would have the opportunity to sit-in on pitch meetings, build connections with others, and be on the inside loop of the funding process so I could later take this knowledge and apply it to my own company.

“How soon can you start?” he asked, incredibly eager to be a part of an aerospace startup I sat upright in my seat and responded, “I can start today if you want?!”. From then on out my official title as the newest intern of Blackbird Air Inc became “Problem Solver”. I was thrilled!

Throughout the next week I learned more than I could have imagined about the startup industry. I was making connections with my new co-workers, building email campaigns, even helping Jamie build his pitch deck. The work was extensive and nonstop, but I was here for it, this is what I wanted to do!

As weeks turned into a month, my workload decreased, and the company onboarded more and more people every week. I remember sitting next to Rudd Davis, the CEO, reading up on some Tensorflow documentation while I patiently waited for a team member to give me a new task.

Then a message popped up on my screen from Jamie asking me to have a quick meeting with him. “Finally I’ll have some more work to do”, I thought as I walked to one of the glass conference rooms. With a monotone voice and a distressed undertone Jamie began to inform me that I’ll begin working from home. He reasoned that he will be spending more time with the new employees and won’t have as much time to work with me one-on-one anymore.

Slightly shocked, I took a moment to think. “This isn’t that bad. Everything will be the same except I won’t have to commute any more.” I naively thought to myself. We discussed a few of the tasks I could complete when I get back home. I was set, I handed back my key and RDIF card back to Jamie and hurried home.

The work was still slow, but a few coworkers kept me busy responding to emails and collecting data that would help us understand our competitors so we could better target our ad campaigns.

While responding to a customer’s email I was suddenly logged out. Weird, but no reason to be concerned. I tried to log back in a few time but I had no luck. The next day I had the same issue. Confused I emailed Jamie asking if he knew why my account was deleted or if there was a miscommunication between us.

He responded, “Just looked into this and looks like one of my admins removed it thinking you didn’t need it any more.” There were no “admins” he was the admin, after all he was the CTO.

Disgruntled, I responded asking what had happened to our agreement to which he responded “ I don’t even sit in on investor meetings”.

That was it… Just like that I was let go. All of my work, time and money was apparently wasted.

With few options for recourse I slowly fell back into my daily routine at my other job. Again, more time passed, as I passively accepted my loss.

As I was casually browsing Linkedin I saw a post from Blackbird Air. They had secured another 5 Million dollars. I thought to myself, “5 Million Dollars” as I compared it to my $16/hr current salary. That’s not fair, they secured another 5 Million dollars with the same pitch deck that I worked on, in the same room where I setup the the Apple TV and with the same website and app I worked on.

So I did what I should have done the day they let me go, I got a lawyer. After gathering all the evidence I had on my computer she built a case. She told me that they’d attempt to reach out before going through the courts because It was not as messy and costly but Blackbird was silent. The emails were being received, the letters had made it to the company, but there was no response.

My lawyer then suggested multiple options. 1) Take them to court and pay a significant amount of money upfront for what may be minimal or no recovery of my assets or 2) Take my case to the Department of Labor which would be more time consuming but would have a higher chance of recovering more of my assets.

I didn’t want to take the risk of losing more money and had time to spare so I chose option 2. I believe it took approximately 6 months to finally get summoned to a mandatory hearing where the Department of Labor was to attempt to mediate a negotiation between myself and Blackbird.

Unsurprisingly, Blackbird didn’t show.

I was informed that due to Blackbird not showing they defaulted on the next hearing with the judge where a verdict would be reached. I was also told that I would take approximately 2 years so see a judge. Just my luck!

Stuck again with minimal recourse I decide to take a different approach and report the company to the FAA. After following up with my report, I received this email from a FAA employee….

“ I received a reply from the Hotline Complaint department. They received your complaint and it has been lumped with 8 to 10 other complaints on the same business. These complaints have been assigned to a special team for investigation. They said they may not contact you to process the complaint since they have already gathered enough information to take action.”

This clearly told me I was not the first, not even the first employee, to report this company.

I hope my story serves as a message to anyone searching the internet to learn more about Blackbird Air Inc. I would advise against using their charter services as it’s clearly a danger to yourself and others. I would also highly advise against investing in the company or working for this company as it seems they will be going under soon and/or they will simply fire you.

TLDR; I worked for Blackbird. They fucked me. Still trying to recover my assets. They’re operate an illegal and dangerous charter operation that is actively being shut down by a special team at the FAA. Be aware of this company, it’s executives (Jamie Loberman, Rudd Davis, Caitlin Silva and Brian Nichols) and investors ( Andrew Swain; CFO of Lending Homes, Francoise Brougher; COO of Pinterest).