Lots of kids are graduating from school at this time of year, but how many needing a job create their own company and earn their own startup money? John Hill, 21, hasn’t quite graduated yet from George Mason University—that’s a week off—but he has found a high-tech way to handle the paperwork for aircraft refueling while preventing mistakes, and fixed-base operators (FBO) are listening.
Hill worked at a Leesburg, Virginia, FBO during school, and savings from that time are helping him start EasyFBO LLC, a new approach to aircraft fueling orders. Not surprisingly, his first beta test site is Leesburg. By the end of 2016 he plans to have 10 beta test sites lined up; two more start June 1. The cost for beta customers is a $2,000 startup fee that covers electronic tablets, and $500 a month thereafter. In 2017 he will be operational. It was developed in conjunction with a friend since seventh grade, now at Embry Riddle University.
His idea for the company was so good that he won the Dean’s Business Plan competition at George Mason in April that brought with it an $11,000 award. That money will be used to grow the company. He perfected the idea over past years by attending the National Business Aviation Association convention and asking FBOs and pilots how they would like to streamline the fueling paperwork process. He'll attend the convention again this year.
The system is already drawing rave reviews from Projet Aviation officials who said it was simple for existing employees to learn.