I am in aviation equity finance and have financed start-up companies in the past. I am personally incentivised to help finance aviation-related companies so: (1) even I would run a mile from this person and (2) I am “surprised” he hasn’t reached out to me or my firm for a meeting (not that I would waste my time having one)... Investors don’t invest in companies per se; we invest in experienced management who have their own capital at risk first. This guy is just smart enough to know better than to approach a serious investor; he will prey on less knowledgeable folks.
This is, as we all know, a risky business. I’ll admit I invested in Wow Air - new airline by someone with no direct aviation experience but he/the airline had some key attributes: (1) success in previous businesses, (2) invested his own money - a lot of it, (3) initially grew carefully (but then too quickly), (4) had a unique business model (not for everyone), (5) hired, paying of out of his own pocket, experienced aviation folks.
I would like to shut this Atmosphere bloke down asap before he hurts anyone (financially). Whether he is genuine or not (I suspect the latter), he has no experience attempting to run a large airline. Some joker/accomplice on LinkedIn called Oleg E is promoting this Unsworth character too so he should be investigated as well.
The shame of it all is that we collectively give this guy
PR and - to mis-quote Oscar Wilde - the only thing worse than bad
PR is no
PR...
Someone asked about “pie in the sky” airlines. Google: Avatar Airlines, LV Rising, Odyssey Airlines and Moon Aviation (by no means a complete list). They all promise the, er, moon but none has experienced aviation management. Oh, and none has taken off despite the market being on fire for the last 10-12 years. One of the “CEOs” mentioned above accosted me at a conference and - no joke - asked me with a straight face if I would either invest in his company or hire him into my company and wanted to give me both his business plan and cv...
The “good” news is that it unlikely Atmosphere will ever raise enough cash to do anything so the ability to rip off too many folks is hopefully limited. I hope no one quits his/her current job to join him.