Patrick MacKenzie

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Clinkle: How to go from a soon-to-be unicorn to complete failure in one year
Patrick MacKenzie
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 5:53 pm
How to go from a soon-to-be unicorn to complete failure in one year

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On December 14, 2015, Patrick MacKenzie commented on Copa Airlines: high-yield / low-cost airlines do exist. :

Interesting post! I flew 4 flights on Copa over Thanksgiving, and each of them was on-time and comfortable! Really impressed by a few thing here, especially the sustained success and consistent executive team over the past few decades.

I’d be interested in learning more about their relationship with United, and the range of activities they collaborate on. As someone who knows United planes far too well, I did notice that the interior of Copa’s planes looks exactly like a United plane – same seat fabrics, for instance, was one of the first things I noticed – are they buying old United planes? Would guess there’s a lot more to the relationship than simply marketing and branding efforts, and I think this relationship (as well as its relationships with the rest of Star Alliance) key drivers of their ability to keep revenues high and costs low.

On December 14, 2015, Patrick MacKenzie commented on Robaina: A Model Cuban Cigar Brand :

Cigar factories – great idea!

Big question I have here – as the Cuban economy opens up more, perhaps some of the regulations, like the 90/10 rule here, may start to fall down. Is Robaina equipped to re-formulate their business model – perhaps by moving more of the value chain in house? Or will they/should they continue to operate in a similar fashion to how they do now?

On December 14, 2015, Patrick MacKenzie commented on Bridge International Academies: Rapidly Scaling Education for Kenya’s Poorest Children :

Very interesting article! Like DeJeune, I’m not yet sure of how I feel on the private sector’s ability to really achieve a double or triple bottom line, but I’d love to believe that it is indeed possible. My biggest question seems similar to Akash’s – though they’re able to scale, are they truly delivering a quality education? With the little that I know about the education systems in developing countries in general, I’d guess that simply getting students and teachers into the classroom is a huge improvement to the status quo, but how can they both achieve low costs while also ensuring quality learning? Secondly, though $6 does seem low, I’d also guess that it prices out a significant portion of the population. Are students who are unable to pay simply stuck in their public schools? Is there a way to build in any non-tuition sources of revenue? For example, a school that I volunteered at in Nepal had parents donate 5 hours per month to the school in place of tuition, and the parents would use that time to tend to a school farm, growing crops that could then be sold. Might something like this work for Bridge?