“Pilots N Paws is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, intended to be a meeting place for volunteers engaged in the valuable services of rescuing, sheltering and adopting animals, and volunteer pilots and plane owners willing to assist with animal transportation. The intent of Pilots N Paws is to provide an environment in which volunteers can come together and arrange or schedule rescue flights, overnight foster care or shelter, and all other related activities.”

Many of the dogs and cats that I’ve flown have specialized medical needs, have been abused or neglected and need to find special homes or sanctuaries, or otherwise have a hard time finding what they need locally. My longest trip between South Carolina and Wisconsin with two cats, traveling over 1,100 miles in a day. And on one trip my son and I went between Wisconsin and Ohio to save a sweet puppy that was very scared and nervous but was very comforted by my son.

This is a great organization and both the pilots and rescue organizations are some of the best people. If you’re able, please make a donation!

By Melania Watson, Interview Editor

Celonis’ AI-powered solutions have been carefully designed to boost productivity and business outcomes sucessfully.

During an interview, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Alex Lowe, outlined the company’s vision for AI-driven decision-making.

A major benefit of AI agents, according to Lowe, is their ability to process vast quantities of unstructured data that traditional reporting tools struggle to handle. “A big part of where we see the help of AI, of LLMs, is in decision-making… in parsing through vast quantities of information,” he said. These AI-driven agents can evaluate large datasets, deliver actionable insights, and, in some cases, automate decisions that would otherwise require human intervention.

Lowe highlighted that this in particular is “significantly enhancing efficiency”.

“That decision-making can be outsourced to a machine that can do this really efficiently, versus one person having to go record by record or review document by document.”

Celonis has been researching how to apply AI and large language models (LLMs) for years. As Lowe explained, the challenge has been “ensuring accuracy” and “building trust in AI’s decision-making abilities”.

“LLMs are not always precise… how do you get the right amount of trust if this machine is going to make a decision for you that can impact your business?” he added.

The company’s research has led to the development of two strategic approaches. First, instead of trying to comprehend the entirety of a business, Celonis’ AI focuses on specific problems to ensure high-confidence results. This is where the Celonis Co-Pilot builder comes into play, allowing users to train AI agents to address specialised challenges.

“We do the Co-Pilot builder, so you can train and use [it] to solve specific problems,” Lowe explained. This targeted focus increases the accuracy of AI decisions while allowing companies to trust the technology for business-critical processes.

Lowe also stressed the importance of process intelligence in AI success.

“Process intelligence is something we’ve been doing for a long time to power humans so they’re powered with the right context to make decisions,” he said. Just as human decision-makers rely on relevant data, so do AI systems.

One of Celonis’ notable success stories is its work with Cosentino, a company that has used Celonis’ AI assistants for credit block management. Although Lowe was hesitant to dive too deeply into the technical details, he underscored the overall impact of such solutions. He said, “We see the biggest two business drivers of adoption, regardless of the use case, [are] driving more productivity and more throughput.”

A key to Celonis’ offering is the seamless integration of its AI tools into existing enterprise systems. The company has built its platform with composability in mind, allowing businesses to integrate its solutions with various AI and workflow tools. “We know that, working with LLMs, there’s a lot of vendors out there… we have built the APIs or intelligence APIs to enable that connectivity,” Lowe explained. This approach has allowed Celonis to collaborate with industry giants like Microsoft and IBM, making it easier for companies to adopt Celonis’ technology without overhauling their existing infrastructure.

These partnerships have proven vital in enhancing Celonis’ capabilities.

“The partner ecosystem is really important because it allows us to integrate and work really nicely with the Microsofts of the world, the Amazons, everyone else,” Lowe said. He also pointed to the evolving role of enterprise systems, which have shifted from monolithic structures to more modular, tailored approaches. This shift allows businesses to select the best tools for their unique needs, and Celonis’ composability ensures that their AI solutions fit seamlessly into these ecosystems.

At the heart of Celonis’ AI strategy is its powerful data stack, referred to as Celonis Data Core - aggregating data from multiple sources to provide an unbiased view of a company’s operations.

“We are in a good position to aggregate all this data and give you an unbiased view of what’s actually happening in the business,” Lowe explained. He highlighted how this data, once collected and processed, gives businesses a comprehensive and actionable understanding of their processes, regardless of the complexity or scale of the systems involved. “The level of scale and performance to get that level of visibility really is unrivalled,” he added.

Lowe’s technical background informs his enthusiasm for Celonis’ process intelligence graph, a core part of the company’s product offering.

“The more we can get data into the system, augment that data using AI… the more knowledge we can bring into the system,” he said.

By structuring data the right way and enriching it with AI-driven insights, Celonis provides businesses with more meaningful dashboards, more effective AI agents, and smarter automation capabilities.

Looking ahead, Celonis is doubling down on enhancing the power of process intelligence and AI in tandem. “Process intelligence powers AI,” Lowe explained, noting that AI can simultaneously improve process intelligence. For instance, the AI Annotation Builder can analyse unstructured data in emails or PDF documents, bringing that information into the system to make better decisions. “AI can enrich the graph… getting more data, more meaning, more knowledge into it,” Lowe said.

Despite the technical complexities, Lowe emphasised that at its core, Celonis’ success comes from its people.

“The culture, the people behind Celonis are just so great,” he said, describing the company’s culture as one where “smart, humble individuals come together to create products that make a real difference for customers”.

“It all really starts with the people, and then hopefully that shines through in the products and our interactions.”

That last goal meant that my top priority was safety. I have a family (my wife and two young children) and I want to ensure that they are as safe as possible. A lot of the safely factor comes down the pilot proficiency and good decision making, but that’s for another discussion.

My list of “must have” requirements included (in no particular order):

• A well maintained and cared for airframe and powerplant
• Seats for four and sufficient useful load for my family
• Low-as-possible operating costs so that the financial aspect wouldn’t cloud the joy
• IFR ready with a decent-enough GPS and autopilot to reduce workload
• Parts and maintenance availability and a community to ensure long term maintainability
• A sweet spot on the engine total time, nothing too young for the infant mortality of engines, but ideally <1,000 hrs. to have some more time

And some of the “nice to haves” included (in no particular order):

• Something pretty with a nice interior and paint job
• Something with great feel and power so it would be fun to fly solo
• Extra niceties with the avionics or glass
• Cruise speed
• Short and soft field performance and back country performance
• Low time on the airframe, want plenty of life on things that may be life limited like the spar in the Tiger, but condition mattered more to me

I also took to heart advice I had heard from my CFI and others, which after purchase I fully endorse now:

• Get a good and thorough inspection, fly the plane yourself and press every button and turn every knob
• Buy your second airplane first — think about where you’ll want to be in the next 5 years and buy that airplane
• Buy the airplane with the avionics you want — it’s tempting to buy a cheaper aircraft and upgrade, but you lose a lot of equity in the upgrade and you’ll have a lot of downtime waiting for the work to be done

Deciding on a make and model

I spent months and months researching and contemplating which aircraft to purchase, it consumed me. Obviously, I landed on the Grumman AA-5B and when the right one came on the market, I jumped on it. But here are a few of the other aircraft I considered:

• Grumman AA-5 and AA-5A, the Traveler and Cheetah – If the right one came on the market I probably would have bought it if the price was right. However, I wanted the performance of the Tiger, in the recommendation of “buy your second aircraft first.” Lots of tempting projects about upgrading the powerplant of these aircraft, but that’s so much more money all in and so much time grounded. So it wasn’t ideal.
• Grumman AA-1/A/B/C, the Yankee, Trainer, and Lynx – these are two place aircraft that are great fun to fly and much more affordable. I considered purchasing one of these to save on costs knowing that most of my flight hours would be solo or with one passenger. I could then rent a Cessna or a Cirrus for family trips. However, most of these aren’t IFR ready, and I wanted to freedom to take my family out on a day trip or to get some expensive brunch on a whim. The rental wasn’t going to allow for that. Had I gone this route I would have flown with my family probably less than half the time than I have now because every trip would need sufficient planning to get on the rental schedule. The Cessna 150 and 152 were also in this same category.
• Piper PA-31 Cherokee Six/300 – this aircraft was very high on my list and if the right one came available I probably would have purchased it. But the right Tiger came up for sale first. I really like the club seating, the useful load, the reliable dispatch, and the operating costs. The entry costs were higher than I wanted given all the desire I had for condition, avionics, and such. And it would be more of a truck vs a sports car feel.
• Cessna 172, 177, 182, 210, etc – there is a lot to like in the Cessna lineup. A lot of familiarity since I trained in a 172. Lots of support around the country. Six place options like the 210 were appealing for the family aspect. Easy to fly, good short and soft field performance. For me, a couple downsides (though not disqualifiers) were the handling, I really wanted something that was more responsive and sporty to feel more connected to the aircraft (I like sports cars and I wanted that feel); the up front costs, they are in high demand and prices reflect that; and there is just a fun factor that was missing, especially since I didn’t see myself doing back country flying.
• Beechcraft Bonanza – I considered various 35 and 36 model Bonanzas (also looked at the Sundowner) and these of course are amazing machines. Universally loved by owners and the community. The handling, speed, useful load, and heritage were very appealing. However, the up front and ongoing operating costs were more than I wanted to spend for a first aircraft. There is a Beechcraft tax and these are complex, high-performance aircraft with more cylinders.
• Vans RV-10 – Checks all the boxes except that the entry price was higher than I wanted to spend on a first aircraft. I also didn’t look at the experimental category as seriously. Three months in, and now having some of the small maintenance items to deal with, I have more knowledge and am a much bigger fan of the experimental category and wish I would have looked deeper into experimental options.

I chose the Tiger

The Grumman AA-5B Tiger turned out to be the right choice for me. It checked all the boxes I had, and ultimately what sealed the deal for me was that every review I read and all the feedback I heard was overwhelmingly positive. People love their Grumman’s and there is a small but strong community around the make. That gave me a lot of confidence in the choice. After watching the online ads and forums for months and months, the right Tiger came on the market and I jumped on it. It was maintained by a Grumman specialty shop and had a single owner for decades. It was well loved and checked all my boxes and then some so I paid a premium for it. The extra cost amortized of the next 5-10 years is small relative to the benefit.

Learnings

After three months of ownership there are a few things I wish I would have considered more. I think I lucked into the right airplane in some ways and I have no regrets, but there are a few things I wish I would have thought through more:

• Soft field and short field — there are so many cool places to go to get into nature, to go camping, etc. The Tiger short and soft field isn’t terrible and people do it. But it’s definitely not the best performer in the lineup. There are several airports on my “places to visit” list that I may not be able to get into.
• Engine monitor — after I purchased the aircraft I learned a lot more about maintenance, and specifically Mike Busch and condition based maintenance. One of his “must have” suggestions is an engine monitor with the ability to download the data. I’m happy with the 4-cylinder EGT and CHT and the fuel totalizer for the time being. But an advanced engine monitor is on my list to upgrade.
• Engine heater and cold weather ops — mine has one but I got lucky and didn’t think about it before I found this aircraft. My home field is in Wisconsin and it gets cold. I flew in the winter as often as I could, with sub-zero temperatures and thank goodness I have the engine heater which I have hooked up to a remote cellular switch so I can start the pre-heat the night before. Cold weather ops was just not something I had considered, so I got lucky that the bird I bought was based in Illinois and was setup.
• Cabin configuration — I didn’t think about configuring the rear seats for different missions – hauling, camping, dogs. The Grumman turned out to be awesome because the rear seats fold down really easily. I take my beagle on flights with me and he can lay in his bend where I can see and pet him. I haven’t done it yet, but people bring bikes in the back and will even sleep in the cargo area. It’s like a minivan! And with the sliding canopy it’s really easy to get cargo and kids in and out.
• Experimental — after having some small maintenance items, I realized how limiting the allowed owner maintenance for certified airplanes is. I have an engineering background and have much more capability than the FAA allows me to work on. So this will be a big consideration for my next airplane.
• Test more — I received the advice to operate everything in the aircraft, and the Grumman knowledgeable CFI I met with for the demo flight said the same thing. I turned on everything and asked questions. However, there are some things I wish I would have dug into more — for example I tested some basic functionality of the autopilot but it turned out there were some other issues. There were also some other small things that I found after purchase that I should have caught with a more thorough test.
• I am really happy with the Tiger. The joy and the value I get from it has been worth the costs for me. I think one of the biggest values though is just owning the aircraft instead of renting it. There is a level of freedom and of comfort in aircraft ownership that I think any aircraft would have provided. If I take a long lunch I can go fly. If I’m free after work I can go fly. If we have a free Saturday we can go fly. It’s allowed me and my family to fly much more frequently and on a whim. I get more joy and build and maintain more proficiency.
• In addition, everything is where I left it. My headset is waiting for me. My flashlight, hand radio, charging cable, spare batteries, sunglasses are right where I left them. I worry less about other people abusing or damaging something that may affect me. I know things are being maintained and repaired when they need to be. So I can arrive at the airport and get to the runway much faster and with more confidence than with the rental.

͠

This is a story of how industry moved from manufacturing-centric to customer-oriented, the moment product management duties moved from distributed company functions to an individual responsibility, and how the Product Management role emerged in Silicon Valley where it evolved and was codified.

The Research Department

I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Paul Smelser, our first non-linear thinker of the story.

In 1923, “Doc” Smelser, a PhD economist from Johns Hopkins University, joined the Procter & Gamble Research Department - tasked with forecasting commodity markets. While his colleagues put their economics degrees to work building predictive models, Smelser asked questions like “What percentage of Ivory soap is used for face and hands and what percentage for dishwashing?”

Smelser’s line of inquiry had a unique theme: what are the habits of the customer.

When these questions made their way to P&G management, they were at a loss for answers. This ultimately led management to an inevitable conclusion: that the “wives of the management were no longer representative of all consumers in the United States.” - Were they ever?

By 1924, enlightened executives asked Smelser to establish the P&G Market Research Department with a mission to gain a deeper understanding of the customer.

Smelser’s Market Research Department took a novel approach at the time: to learn about customer habits his team would interact directly with the customer.

A systemic research approach was devised. Dozens of young female investigators were hired to join a field research team. Investigators conducted door to door interviews nation wide; surveying users about household products and usage patterns. The investigative process was tightly orchestrated, but to the end user the investigators appeared as friendly, informal home visitors.

Over time, the Market Research Department expanded it’s scope of investigation. Research of retail distributers entailed surveying stores and uncovering minute details such as the size of shelving to understand how products would fit.

The Department extended to competitive research. Field investigators would apply their surveys and tactics to learn about competing products - a strategy so foreign at the time that at least one competitor accused P&G of being spy’s and filed a lawsuit.

Smelser’s customer oriented efforts provided a competitive advantage that enabled P&G to become a dominant force in consumer packaged goods. And it’s in this environment that our hero would rise.

The Soap

In the summer of 1925 in Cincinnati, Neil McElroy is walking door to door distributing samples of a new Procter & Gamble product: Camay soap. Neil had recently graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in economics and was saving money for an eventual return to Harvard Business School.

During his summer job, a supervisor recognized Neil’s hard work and took Neil under his wing. Eventually Neil was convinced to stay on at P&G full time, foregoing Harvard Business School.

Neil moved from handing out soap samples to working as a mail boy. Neil would quip that he learned about business by reading the mail he was delivering, and it wasn’t long before Neil joined the P&G Advertising Department.

Neil’s summer supervisor’s assessment must have been right, because by 1931 Neil became a junior executive at the Advertising Department responsible for the Camay soap he had previously handed out door to door as a new college graduate.

͠ Ivory soap was introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1879. Ivory is one of P&G’s first products and it dominated the market against competitors Palmolive and Lever Brothers. Ivory also competed (and won) against internal products such as Neil’s Camay soap brand. Camay faced even further challenges. Richard Deupree, President of Procter & Gamble, had enacted a policy that other internal products “must not be allowed to hurt, or to compete too directly and vigorously with, Ivory Soap.” Camay was at an institutional disadvantage.

Despite the challenges, Neil had a strong opinion that each P&G brand should be allowed to compete as forcefully with each other as they would with outside competitors. He believed every brand within P&G must be able to stand on it’s own feet, unencumbered by internal anti-competitive policies. And Neil wanted to make Camay soap successful.

Driven by this vision (and the ever present desire for more resources), Neil made a proposal to hire two new people in two newly conceived roles: the Brand Manager and Assistant Brand Manager (so-called “Brand Men”). This proposal was communicated in a 3-page memo in 1931.

Neil’s great insight was to take product responsibilities distributed amongst different departments and consolidate them into a single job: the Brand Manager.

At this point in history, at a consumer packaged goods company like P&G, the brand is the product. The positioning and reputation of a consumer packaged goods product is more critical than the function or construction. The opposite is true of most modern technology products associated with Product Managers, though the principles still hold.

Neil’s Brand Manager is a seed of the modern Product Manager and we can see in his memo the consolidation of product functions into a single role. Notably, Neil writes about:

Understanding the Customer

“Study carefully shipments of his brands by units”

“Where brand development is heavy … and progressing, examine carefully the combination of effort that seems to be clicking and try to apply this same treatment to other territories”

“Study the past advertising and promotional history of the brand; study the territory personally at first hand - both dealers and consumers - in order to find out the trouble”

Go To Market Strategy

“Develop a plan that can be applied to this local store spot. …be sure that the amount of money proposed can be expected to produce results at a reasonable cost per case.”

“Prepare sales helps and all other necessary material … Work with the salesmen while they are getting started.”

Product Development

“Experiment with and recommend wrapper revisions”

“Make whatever field studies are necessary to determine whether the plan has produced the expected results.”

Consolidating Cross Functional Roles

“When [brand managers] have approached their fullest responsibilities, they should be able to take from the shoulders of the Division Managers and of the District Managers a very heavy share of individual brand responsibility.”

“This would leave the sales heads in a much freer position to administer the sales policies of the Company … without having to give such a large proportion of their time to thought on how to bring up volume on a certain brand”

The memo was circulated amongst executives until it finally reached the company President, Deupree, who endorsed it and Neil gained his new hires and new roles.

͠

Years later, Deupree took a dramatic step and completely restructured the company into business units with responsibility and accountability aligned to brands, a 180 degree shift from the protectionist policy for Ivory soap.

Neil went on to become President of Procter & Gamble when Deupree retired in 1948. And every Procter & Gamble President since then has been a Brand Manager, the mini CEO of the product.

By Tom Taulli

Angel financing has been critical for most great companies, such as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) or Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). It’s amazing that small amounts, like $50,000 to $100,000, can help to create empires.

So what are some ways to improve the odds of getting the interest of angels?

Well, I recently interviewed Alex Lowe, who just raised $400,000 in angel funding. And yes, he has some important lessons for entrepreneurs:

1. Plan to be patient. Angels are people, not investment firms, so there is a lot competing for their attention and their checkbooks. Timing has to be right for both the company and the angel if you want to get a check. Kids get accepted to expensive colleges, families decide they want to travel, or the stock market goes down. There are lots of reasons why “no” is really “not right now” with angels. We were fortunate enough to start raising angel money early before we needed it, because there were many angels that said “Yes” but couldn’t write a check for several months just because of timing of life’s events.

2. Build some history in your community. People invest more in teams during the angel phase than any other phase in the fundraising process. So if you have had a chance to build a reputation in the community to show your skills, determination and unique world view, you’ll be ahead of the game. And if you can put together a team that has a proven track record of success, even better. The angels aren’t just investing in you, they’re also investing in your team’s ability to execute your vision. I was fortunate to have a history in the Sacramento startup community to show that I wasn’t just a guy with an idea. I was a guy who loved startups, who could manufacture success and was in it for the long haul. It goes a long way to showing the angels there is a reduced risk by investing in you and your team.

3. Leverage angels’ expertise and build rapport. Angels can not only provide financial capital but also great intellectual capital to help establish or grow your business. Plus, everyone likes to be asked for advice. Angels invest in startups because they enjoy the journey - there are far less risky ways to invest money. Nurture the relationship and include your angels in the process of building the business, even before they have invested. As an entrepreneur with an engineering background, I have certain biases and strengths. By engaging with the local angels as informal advisors it allowed me to strengthen my weak areas, have sounding boards and build rapport ahead of raising the angel round. By engaging angels as part of the company building process they’ll have a sense of ownership and will also have a chance to see how you operate. Both of which will make writing checks easier.

Tom Taulli is the author of How to Create the Next Facebook: Seeing Your Startup Through, from Idea to IPO. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli.