Startup Airlines, Democracy & Artists 🚀

It's so cheap, it's tempting...

For most new carriers, the focus is on low-cost models that tap into the “visiting-friends-and-relatives tourism market”. With salary-cuts and inflation, people obviously won’t be able to afford luxury airlines. And the Covid-fueled demise of many carriers has allowed new airlines to pick up laid-off pilots and cabin crew at reduced salaries. 

Not just this, but barriers to entry into the industry are currently very low. The drop in oil prices last year reduced the break-even point for carriers. Used aircrafts are available at “almost giveaway prices” and rentals at a fraction of what they were pre-pandemic. Monthly lease rates have slumped by as much as 40%. The availability of used Boeing 737 and Airbus SE’s A320 family, both popular for short-haul and regional routes—has more than doubled since the onset of the pandemic. Flypop managed to lease Airbus’s A330 wide-body jets at record discounts.

Large organizations and artists across the country are offering a helping hand to small businesses struck down by the pandemic.

One such artist is Sophia Yeshi, commissioned to design customized "open" signs under Well Fargo’s campaign We Made A Way. Yeshi was tasked with illustrating bold and inspiring representations of small businesses to celebrate entrepreneurs in the pandemic and motivate them to keep going. She has designed some beautiful pieces to represent millions of women and minority business owners who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. 

After hearing entrepreneurs' pandemic struggle stories, Yeshi made sure to capture the best elements of those businesses through her art. As a queer artist of color and a small business owner herself, her focus revolves around shining a light on Black women, women of color and folks in the LGBTQ+ community of all shapes and sizes.

One of the great things about the online equity crowdfunding market is that it has opened up startup investing to commoners who previously could not access this asset class. Regardless of experience, retail investors can now make direct investments in exciting startups. 

Beginning in May 2020, the number of monthly investors grew by 45% — jumping from 83,000 to more than 120,000. That growth held steady through the remainder of 2020 and continued in the beginning of 2021. April 2021 has been the strongest month on record with more than 300,000 investors participating in online equity crowdfunding. On average, around 250,000 investors are funding startups each month in 2021. 

This is a clear indicator that retail investors are interested in diversifying their portfolios beyond traditional stock market investments.

Google posted its highest sales growth in more than a decade. Its revenue increased 41% to $65.12 billion - its highest in 14 years. It made a profit of $21 billion - three times what it made before the pandemic. 

And small businesses have a big part to play in this. As online shopping surged during the pandemic, small companies infused heavy money in digital ads aimed at online shoppers. 

Google also made some policy changes in conjunction with Apple which made business prefer Google ads over Facebook and Snap ads - causing a decline in performance of the latter. 

Google is close to generating as much revenue this year as Netflix, valued at nearly $300 billion.