Author: Hannah Andersen

During the course of my life, there have been a handful of events and opportunities that have unexpectedly become profound teachable moments. One such time was my visit to the US Aviation team at OGG in Maui, Hawaii.

How many times have I boarded a plane, squeezed my luggage into the overhead lockers, and settled into my seats, without a second thought about the team of dedicated workers who prepped that very same plane just minutes prior to boarding? These are the workers who cleaned every seat, ensured that every seat belt was in working order, wiped every tray table, arranged all the front-pocket items, and cleaned and sanitized the bathrooms from the previous flight. For me, the answer was many.

My team and I visited the US Aviation outfit at the OGG airport in Maui for the purpose of telling the stories of these tireless workers and shedding light on what happens behind the scenes at an airport. Prior to our arrival, I had no idea just how impactful these stories would be.

As soon as we landed in beautiful, sunny Maui and breathed in the salty, warm air, we could feel that it was a special place. We were greeted by Corey Brown, the Station Manager for US Aviation, and Tyrone Duncan, a Cabin Cleaner. Tyrone had recently just completed his 1,000th mission emptying the aircraft lavs, and we were there to tell his story and meet his family. His openness and outgoing personality made our job easy. We followed him to the ramp and watched him as he completed his work. Emptying waste is no glamorous job, but he laughed and joked with his colleague, Lilly. Their spiritual, positive attitude helps them start every day fresh, free of yesterday and ready to do what is needed for their team.

After each mission, the teams go back to the hanger to wait for the next plane to arrive. This is repeated 10-15 times a day, sometimes more, every single day. From what I saw, it is all done with efficiency, dedication, smiles, laughter and a Shaka, the traditional Hawaii wave. They have an incredible work ethic, are thankful to have a job, and will do their best to get their tasks done on time so that passengers can board and the plane take off without any delays. As we watched the hub of constant activity – the carts and machines coming and going, bags being loaded, food being delivered, maintenance crews moving from plane to plane, flights being refueled, and cleaners attacking their jobs – we were amazed to see each worker moving with positivity and focus.

A team that works this closely together must have a great manager, and the secret, magic sauce at US Aviation comes in the form of the fabulous Corey Brown. I find it hard to put into words how incredible this man is. As soon as a plane lands, Corey coordinates the whole ramp and cabin workforce, which is no small feat. It is a logistical dance that he maneuvers with gentle efficiency and commanding presence. His phone never stops beeping and ringing with texts and messages with various issues, delays, someone calling in sick, or a truck stalling. The list never ends.

Even during our interview, he put out several fires, but would hang up the phone and laugh, which immediately dispelled any potential stress in the room. Corey’s laugh is the most contagious I have ever heard, and it made us all laugh until we had tears in our eyes. This man is a true gem of a person and his team clearly knows it and appreciates it. They all want to work hard to make him proud and to earn his trust and praise. When asked how he commands respect from the people who work for him, his response was, “If you give respect, you get it.” To Corey, It is as simple as that.

After his shift, we met up with Corey to get to know him more on a personal level. He took us to his local hangout where we ate delicious food, told stories, and laughed some more. I looked around and saw that everyone was smiling and everyone was welcoming us as though we were guests in their homes. It is clear that this is the Maui Way, and this Aloha Spirit is something that makes them all very proud. Whether at work or at home, they work as a team, and the positive Aloha Spirit guides their every move. Corey ended our evening by comparing people to the ocean: “We are all like the ocean, just coming and going, flowing and working all together.” Lessons for us all. In a time of general uncertainty and negatively in the world, this whole visit proved to be a huge breath of warm, fresh air.

I cannot wait to see what our incredibly talented videographer, Henry Dombey, and photographer, Paul Kirchner, put together. They not only captured the true essence of these amazing people, but woke up at 5AM every morning to photograph the sunrise, and rushed back in the evening to catch the sun setting over that same beautiful ocean.

To the whole team at US Aviation: Thank you so much for taking the time in your immensely busy and stressful schedules to show us around and teach us about all the things you do every single day to ensure that any given plane takes off on time. To Tyrone Duncan and Corey Brown: Thank you for being so gracious and accommodating in allowing us to tell and share your stories. To me, you are the definition of Heroes. To Henry and Paul: Thank you for your ability to tell a story in such a natural, fluid, and meaningful way. To Hannah, aka ‘Hashtag Hannah’: Thank you for your support and never-ending positive attitude. And finally to our CEO, Doug: Thank you for trusting us with this important Springshot Mission. I feel truly lucky to have experienced the Aloha Spirit in person and I intend to keep it alive! Mahalo, Josephine.

When Numbers Align: Tyrone Duncan is living life bu the numbers, and those numbers are creating a full and vibrant story.

3, 13, 17, 5, 19, 1500, 3, 26, 715, 1000, 8, 1. To a bystander, this may seem like an unsolvable cipher or a math teacher’s idea of a cruel joke, but to Tyrone Duncan, each number is the symbol of a milestone along life’s journey. These are numbers life has handed him; numbers he’s folded into his pocket ever-so-carefully and carried with him to the next stop along the way. They represent birthdays, anniversaries, events – but they are only meaningful in context. When looked at in the context of the larger story, these numbers show a life ordered more perfectly than the one he would have chosen for himself. Now, with each number firmly in hand, this Maui-based airport Team Leader is living the Hawaiian dream with his family by his side.

Tyrone Duncan was born in Kansas, and he moved to Atlanta when he was a young boy. It was in Atlanta that, on September 3, his father died the day before he started high school. He was just 13 years old when he became the son of a widow now raising three children alone. Atlanta is also where the kid who loved to draw attended the Art Institute, where he began a 17-year career working at Kroger, and where his extended family still resides. Atlanta is home; and that home served him well when he found himself a single dad to a five-month old daughter and 19-month old son. His mother stepped in to help raise his two children, both too small to know that Grandma had now become Mom. To support his family, Tyrone took on a second job as a chef during the 1996 Olympics, unknowingly demonstrating a work ethic that would inspire his two small children.

Sometimes, seemingly innocuous events can pivot one’s life in a direction that is far beyond the bandwidth of the imagination. A few years ago, if someone had asked Tyrone where he would retire, he likely would have said Atlanta – but life had other plans. Every day, online gamers formulate a set of letters into words – much like Scrabble – and they lay those game tiles down on a virtual board against an unknown opponent. One day, that person was Tyrone, and his first play was a 1500-point word against a woman named Jennifer Gardanier, a Health Information Manager in Makawao, Hawaii. As soon as she took her turn, he messaged her, “Most people would have quit after a first word like that.” Her response: “I’m no quitter.”

Intrigued, Tyrone started a conversation, and that conversation turned to many more. Soon after, Tyrone found himself meeting Jennifer in person and, ultimately, proposing to her the moment he arrived at the airport in Hawaii, his one-way ticket in hand. They now share a son, Tré, who is the third child for each. Always the workhorse, Tyrone splits his time between two jobs, one at the Maui Airport, where he does fleet work to maintain the aircraft, and the second as a cook at Outback Steakhouse. He’s surrounded by more love, friends and family than he ever could have imagined, including his daughter, who moved to be with him in Hawaii on his birthday, January 26.

He has settled seamlessly into life and work in Hawaii, and life certainly isn’t done handing him numbers. Maintaining an aircraft includes things like ensuring that seatbelts are in working order, wiping down tray tables, and cleaning the lavatories and dumping the waste. It’s the last duty that workers shy away from, but that’s the very duty that Tyrone decided to master. He did this for every plane that he worked on and, one day, he noticed that his aircraft count was fast approaching Hank Aaron’s home run record of 715. Not to be outdone, he decided to aim for 1000 and, on the day that 1000th plane rolled in, his coworkers lined up to cheer him on as he marched himself into his own personal record book.

Recently, Tyrone started to draw again, and he drew a picture Tré when he was eight months old. Responsibilities don’t often leave time for hobbies, and he’s instilled that sense of responsibility into all of his children. His older son is now living in Pittsburgh and is a recent college graduate. He’s the first of the family to earn a degree, and the pride in Tyrone’s voice is evident when he shares the news. Investing in his kids was the right choice. He hopes that perhaps, some day, his son can join him on the beautiful island he now calls home. “People have to tell me to put my phone down because I’m always taking pictures,” he laughs. “But there’s natural beauty all over!”

It’s clear that the artist in him still lives, and perhaps he will draw more often in the future. But, for now, he’s happy to capture each moment in photos, and he’s excited to see what the next number in his life will be.

At Springshot, we are thrilled to partner with organizations who view their people as their most important asset. To those who have had the pleasure of flying on one their jets, it’s no secret that JetBlue is built on this very premise. Each day, this airline delivers the best possible customer experience by placing its crew members front and center and acknowledging the amazing service they offer their guests. As a testament to this, JetBlue crew members recently gathered at a lunch and learn hosted by JetBlue ventures to hear presentations about up-and- coming technology for the travel workforce. Employees could then choose their favorite platform, and Springshot was voted the winner.

To help keep JetBlue at the forefront of aviation excellence, the airline recently established JetBlue Ventures, an investment fund located in the heart of Silicon Valley. JetBlue Ventures seeks to partner with, invest in, and accelerate the growth of the best emerging travel technology companies. Their team is searching for innovative solutions and, so far, has been approached by over 400 companies. Of the 400, four were invited by JetBlue Ventures to present at JetBlue’s New York headquarters, one of which was Springshot.

Over 300 people expressed interest in attending the lunch and learn and, on the day of the presentations, more than 150 JetBlue employees jammed into a room designed for 100. Each company was given ten minutes to present and answer questions. JetBlue employees were curious, engaged, and excited about each company throughout the entire event. At the end, when employees voted for the platform they liked best, Springshot was named the winner. True to our vision, our presentation focused on cultivating productivity by empowering and celebrating the people on the front-line who strive to make JetBlue an amazing airline each and every day. Based on the audience participation, it was clear that JetBlue has built an authentic, employee-first culture, and that its values are culturally-aligned with ours. The combination of engaged employees and the creation of JetBlue Ventures is a testament to how hard JetBlue has worked to ensure that it continues to grow its cultural vision.

At Springshot, we are incredibly humbled that our message resonated with an organization of this magnitude. We look forward to continuing our partnership with such an incredible team.

At Springshot, we’ve always had a vision of combining the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley with the mission of focusing on what matters most: people. It’s been our primary goal to build a workforce optimization platform that genuinely engages and validates those performing some of the most arduous and backbreaking service jobs.

Over the last five years, we’ve been incredibly humbled by the thousands of travel and hospitality employees who have used Springshot to feel both seen and heard. We’re proud to share that Springshot has now been recognized by technology innovators, venture capitalists, and travel industry peers as the best company of the Plug and Play “Travel and Hospitality” accelerator program.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Plug and Play is a vertical-focused startup accelerator and coworking space founded by tech entrepreneur, Saeed Amidi, who has invested in companies like PayPal, Dropbox and Lending Tree. Since 2006, it has created opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs by giving them access to mentorship, networking and funding. After identifying the technology gap in the travel and hospitality industry, Plug and Play crafted a three-month program that was designed to mentor and accelerate the best up-and- coming technology and entrepreneurs in the space. It was immediately clear that they had struck a chord when over 800 companies applied to participate.

Plug and Play was then charged with narrowing the pool of applicants down to 40. Those 40 companies, including Springshot, presented to the Plug and Play team, with 20 being selected for the program. During the three-month period, the Springshot Team met with numerous airlines, travel companies, and investors, in an effort to gain further insight into the technology needs of the industry as well as exposure for its platform. The program culminated with an Expo, where each company had the opportunity to pitch their brand in front of airlines, venture capitalists, hotel brands, and online travel sites. After the presentations, attendees voted on their company of choice. Springshot was voted the winner.

Being recognized with such a high honor is both humbling and validating. Why? Because our presentation focused on people, and that message resonated most. The Springshot vision has always been about delivering technology that allows companies to invest in employees first. When a company puts employees first, it creates an engaged and more productive workforce that delivers a winning customer experience. We’re proud to demonstrate each day that workforce technology doesn’t have to be “big brother,” and when you connect, empower, and reward front-line employees, everyone wins.

Every day, thousands of people pass through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. Whether it’s going on vacation or visiting family, each person has a story to tell, and that is exactly why Luke Villamor enjoys working in the airport. As the Operations Manager for SAS Services, he sets up a game plan every single day to ensure that passengers have the wheelchairs they need to get to their next flight. Given his title, he knows the importance of a smooth, hiccup-free shift, which means he’s often stepping in and pushing wheelchairs, when needed. While some people might be opposed to rolling up their sleeves and diving in, this is exactly where Luke thrives. This Hawaiian native is always looking for ways to build rapport and cultivate relationships, and sometimes relationships start with gate to gate transport.

Growing up in Kalihi, Hawaii, Luke was always surrounded by family and friends. His personable and organized nature led him to work for SAS Solutions at the Honolulu Airport nearly two and a half years ago. During a shift, he helped push two elderly passengers who needed wheelchair rides from their gate. In that short period, he found out that they were high school sweethearts who had been together for 65 years. “No one stays together for that long!” Luke said. “It was so cool to hear how they met.” The San Diego-based couple has a second home in Hawaii and, after their conversation that day, they remembered him every time they passed through. With the kind of disposition where perfect strangers feel comfortable telling him their life stories, Luke has built relationships that stretch far beyond his network of family and friends.

It’s that very character that has served Luke well during his move from Hawaii to Las Vegas. His parents moved to Las Vegas to pursue bigger opportunities, and Luke and his younger brother soon followed suit. Faced with starting over away from the only home he’s ever known, Luke took it all in stride. At 22, the Operations Manager title that he holds is typically reserved for people much older, but he’s earned that title because he makes a concerted effort every day to build a strong bond with his coworkers. By building trust and respect, and going out of his way to invest in both his team and the people he meets, Luke has acclimated to the Las Vegas desert as seamlessly as possible.

There is, however, one thing he really misses about Hawaii. “The beaches!” he laughs. “I’ve never seen any beaches that compare to anything in Hawaii. Not many people get to grow up in a place like that.” He looks forward to his annual trip home to enjoy time with family and friends, as well as the opportunity to do some snorkeling or body boarding. In the interim, he gets his beach fix by making the drive to Los Angeles as often as possible. While the beaches don’t compare to the tropical shores of Hawaii, they are a small taste of home for the now landlocked Hawaiian.

Now, as the former baseball player (left field) and avid Pittsburgh sports fan continues to forge new paths in Las Vegas, he’s excited about the people he’s met through SAS and hopeful that the Steelers can pull out a Super Bowl win. For now, he’ll have to be content with the Penguins’ Stanely Cup, which isn’t so bad. “He’s only 28,” Luke says, referring to Penguins Captain, Sidney Crosby. “So he’s got a few more good years left in him.” At 22 and with the world at his feet, the same can be said about Luke Villamor.

This soon-to-be mother of two is working to build a better life for her family, and she wakes up (early!) every morning with a renewed resolve to conquer it all.

Often, our present lives don’t look the way they did in our minds when we were planting seeds and tending dreams – but there are times when we look back at each individual piece that directed our paths, and suddenly life makes sense. Those tokens, picked up along the way, serve as reminders of the journey and make us proud of where we are today. This is how Arleny Perea-Nobles, a Dispatcher at SAS Services, feels about her life and mission every day. She’s seen her fair share of ups and downs, but she keeps moving forward with steadfast resiliency.

Each morning at 3.45am, she arrives at work to organize and mobilize a team at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a dispatcher, and her team ensures that disabled airline passengers have wheelchairs ready and waiting to take them to wherever they need to go. She knows that if her team fails, passengers may miss their flights, wreaking havoc on an extremely busy airport. While it sounds simple, flight delays, gate changes or staffing shifts threaten to derail their ability to get passengers the wheelchairs they need. To avoid this, they must run a tight ship that is both nimble and organized. Some people might buckle under the pressure, but Arleny thrives on it.

As the sole provider for her family, she knows a thing or two about staying cool and calm in stressful situations. “Even as a kid, I was telling the other kids what to do and where to go,” laughs the pregnant, married mother of one. “I was assigning tasks from a young age, so it seems that dispatching was a natural fit.” Operating under pressure isn’t always easy, but her soon-to- be growing family is the motivation she needs to keep going every single day.

In looking back, she realized that life was directing her down this path, and she needed to be on board for the ride. Born in West Hollywood, her father moved her family to Las Vegas when she was just three years old. Soon after, when she was in fifth grade, a good friend’s mom who worked for a power company as a dispatcher invited the girls to come to her work and see her office. Arleny had never seen a maze of cubicles, and was in awe of the building. “They took us unto this room and it looked like something off TV,” she remembers. “It was like the inside of a spaceship – it was so cool!” After watching her friend’s mom work and seeing how things operated so seamlessly, she felt a pull towards becoming a dispatcher, and she later got her foot in the door with a Las Vegas taxi cab company. When the taxi market became unstable, she found SAS Services by randomly applying through a Craigslist ad. She loves her job and company and, most importantly, it allows her to keep her family afloat.

During her rare downtime, she’s been known to let loose at a Zumba class, be the friendly neighborhood pool shark, catch a lacrosse game, or rock out to her favorite metal band, The Devil Wears Prada. In fact, she’s such a big fan that she has the band’s name tattooed on her wrist! As she lives her life each day, awaiting the arrival of a new baby, she seeks to extract as much joy and opportunity as possible and to be a better person for her kids. Failure is never an option, and the life she has made for her family continues to drive her forward in both work and play. Her motto is to put one foot in front of the other, and she is proud of where she’s at and what she’s accomplished – and she can’t wait to see what the future holds.

An aircraft is an airline’s greatest asset, and that asset generates revenue only when it’s in the air transporting passengers to their next destination. It’s no surprise that the goal of every airline team member – from gate agent to baggage handler – is to quickly prepare each aircraft for its next flight. With flight delays alone costing airlines around $8 billion per year, it’s imperative that airline operations run smoothly.

Avianca, South America’s second-largest carrier, knows the importance of having the right crew available at exactly the right time to make this possible. When Avianca needed to optimize its workforce and gain complete visibility into gate-level operations, Springshot emerged as the solution to give the airline the right tools to keep flights running on schedule.

Headquartered at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG), Avianca must keep aircraft moving on time at one of the busiest airports in the world. “Above the wing” employees focus on indoor operations, which include ticketing and terminal needs. “Below the wing” ramp agents marshal aircraft into the gates, clean planes, dispose of sewage, refuel, load baggage, and transport catering. A shift lead is assigned to each incoming aircraft and that person is responsible for all ramp agent activity until that flight takes off again. Previously, shift leads would manually report information to terminal managers, but information was delayed, making it difficult to make necessary adjustments before issues would arise.

With the project Avianca is launching with Springshot, terminal managers will have the ability to identify time critical activities by shift leader, flight, and all ramp personnel for every Avianca aircraft that passes through BOG. Information will be reported in real-time directly to Avianca’s Hub Control, where team members can isolate where operations are most prone to fail by flight, market, or gate. Hub Control team members will be notified automatically of potential issues to which they may respond proactively to avoid costly delays. With Springshot, Avianca’s planes have a higher probability of running on time, which keeps more flights in the air and generating greater revenue for the airline.

Avianca is a forward-thinking airline looking for forward-thinking operations to match its corporate vision. Springshot is proud to provide the right technology to meet Avianca’s needs.

Alaskan homesteading, eight children, and a career in aviation have prepared Michelle McWhiter for whatever adventure comes next.

From the time her family moved to Alaska when she was three years old to the first time she flew a plane as a teen cadet to now, Michelle McWhirter has always had an adventurous, independent spirit.

The principles Michelle’s family lived by were persistence, patience and perseverance. “It served me well,” Michelle says. “I always had this sense of adventure and desire to see what was around the corner.”

For Michelle, it’s been one adventure after the next, including a long period of homesteading in rural Alaska during her twenties. Using a generator for electricity and outhouses that her family built, Michelle also grew her own vegetables—including more than a thousand pounds of potatoes. Her family kept horses, pigs, chickens and goats, and the land was populated with spruces, poplars and birches. Surrounded by mountains, it was a picturesque place representing years of hard work.

As her family grew, Michelle eventually moved away from the homesteading lifestyle. “I have an alarming amount of children,” Michelle says with a laugh. Eight, to be exact—they span more than 20 years in age.

While she raised her children, Michelle took on a number of jobs to support her family. She sold crafts to local shops and markets, and even sewed thousands of booties for the dogs racing in the famous Alaskan tradition, the Iditarod. Michelle also pursued her passion for writing.

When her children were older, she began working at Fairbanks International for an aviation vendor that serves Alaska Airlines as a fleet acting supervisor. At the same time, she was also working as a certified medical assistant in long-term care. Between her two jobs, Michelle was working more than 60 hours a week.

Often there would be three planes on the ground at any given time, and Michelle had to coordinate all those crews.

When her company introduced Springshot, Michelle saw the immediate benefits it brought to her team and enjoyed helping her colleagues use the technology to track their work and keep in touch with each other.

Michelle recently moved to Anchorage and is ready for her next adventure.

Tower Director at LaGuardia Airport, Caroline Garcia has a strong connection with her family and a vision for her future built on their hard work.

Caroline’s story started many years before she was born when her mother, Teresa, landed at JFK in 1976. Teresa arrived expecting to meet her Aunt at the arrival gates. She knew no one in New York City, had never been outside of her home country, Ecuador, and struggled to speak English. After waiting and waiting, she soon realised that  no one was coming to meet her. She found herself alone in a foreign city, with nowhere to stay and no return ticket to fly home.

On her flight to New York, Caroline’s mother had chatted to the woman sitting next to her. Little did she know how impactful this small talk would be. As she was deciding whether to remain at the airport or catch a cab into the city alone, the same woman from her flight approached her, offered her a place to stay and a job to get started. This was the start of her new beginning.

As with many new immigrants in New York, Teresa soon found a community of other Ecuadorians with similar backgrounds where she could maintain her own cultural traditions while embracing the customs of the new country she now called home. She eventually married a native Ecuadorian and raised her family just outside of Manhattan in Queens.

When Teresa first landed on the tarmac at JFK, on that fateful day in ‘76, she had no way of knowing that 30 years later, her daughter Caroline would start working in the airport tower there, guiding planes and air control while watching people land everyday in The Big City.

Born and raised in Queens, Caroline is deeply grateful to her parents for everything in her life. They’ve shaped her outlook on life, and have always motivated her to keep moving forward. And now, as a 25 year old, Caroline values consistency, authenticity, hard work and hustle.

Caroline is proud and passionate about her aviation career that she started when she was 18. Thanks to her ‘work’ family, there aren’t many Mondays that Caroline dreads. Working across JFK and LaGuardia, she’s a familiar face around the airport and has many stories to tell. Between watching an entire airport go into quarantine (when a passenger accidently went through one of the side doors into the terminal), and seeing a plane come to a halt on the tarmac to let a mother turtle and her baby turtles cross, she’s seen it all.

While Caroline loves her job, she hopes she’ll return back to school one day to finish her studies in aviation to become part of the air traffic control team that has direct contact with the captains of the aircrafts. Her parents have always encouraged her to test her limits and strive to reach for the highest level in her field. Having both struggled in their youths, they form a united front behind Caroline, acting as pillars of strength and some of the best Pokeno players she’s seen.

Along with continuing her studies, Caroline hopes to visit more of her family in Ecuador to learn and understand more of her heritage and family traditions. Until then, she’ll continue to work at one of the biggest entry and exit points in the United States. One where her parents crossed long ago to start a new American-Ecuadorian generation and one where she’ll continue to pass as she explores the world and grows in every way she can.

Favorite movie: Interview with the Vampire
Most important travel item: Hiking shoes
If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or living) who would it be? Dinner with my grandparents because I never got to meet them, as they passed before I was born.
Favorite city: San juan, Puerto Rico