Hi everyone, I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief contact officer of Who What Wear.
And this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting
aside their doubts or fears and what happens when they embark on their Second Life.
Today, I'm speaking with the CEO of PS Amina Porter.
For those of you who don't know it, PS is a private luxury airport terminal for commercial flights.
The service offers on-site TSA screening, elevated amenities and transportation directly to the
tarmac, allowing commercial passengers to bypass the actual airport.
PS currently operates in Los Angeles and the Flana International Airports and is set
to expand to Miami and Dallas by 2025.
Although Amina has always been drawn to travel and exploration, this is a woman who has lived
in seven cities and speaks five languages, she actually began her career working in finance in China.
In the six years she lived there, she even used her financial knowledge to consult on the opening
of the first boutique hotel in Shanghai.
Then, after getting her MBA from Wharton, she rose to Senior Director at Real Estate Investment
firm Lionstone and, in her limited free time, launched a line of laptop bags.
But in 2018, she experienced a personal tragedy that forced her to slow down and rethink everything.
She quit her job at Lionstone, ceased production on her accessories company and embarked on her Second Life.
Amina's story is so inspiring and I can't wait for you to hear it all.
Now, on Second Life, it's Amina Porter.
Amina, I'm so excited to do this.
You have such an interesting career, a backstory, and it's unlike I think anyone who we've spoken to
over the last five years, which is personally quite thrilling for me.
So, thank you for agreeing to do this.
I think it's going to be really fun.
Thank you, Hillary.
Honestly, this is kind of surreal for me.
I was telling one of my girlfriends yesterday, I was like, Hillary Kirsch, she's like,
that Hillary Kirsch?
I'm like, yes.
So, thank you for having me.
This is amazing.
I'm so glad.
Okay, so we always like to start at the beginning on this podcast.
So, what did you study in school and much more importantly?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I studied finance in undergrad.
I then studied finance again in business schools.
I have two finance degrees, which is like, I don't know why I thought that was a good idea,
but that's what I did.
Clearly, based on the answer, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
More so, I knew what I didn't want to do.
I didn't want an ordinary path, but I didn't want to just be corporate and work a really
long time at one company or like take a super traditional path.
I knew that much.
It was like, I was open to having something extraordinary happen career wise, and I kept
seeking that, and that took me to quite a zigzag of a career.
I'm excited to get into it, but first, I want to talk a little bit about your background.
So, you were born in Algeria and then grew up in the UAE and then decided to move to Montreal
for college, which feels like quite a difference, I would imagine, and also a fair amount of change
for someone who is still quite young.
Were you always someone who would just dive into new adventures?
Is this just part of your DNA or personality, or was that a little bit outside the box?
No, it was definitely par for the course from me.
I think it was a combination of two things.
One, I had no problem ever, still don't, being in complete foreign situations,
whether they're for a minute or for six years, which is the longest I kind of lived in a foreign
country. It feeds my soul. I love that.
I love the anonymity of being somewhere new and being like, I don't belong here, and this is
cool, and I can just kind of absorb this and do whatever I want and no one's paying attention.
I've always loved that. I feel kind of at home in that foreignness.
The other thing is I kind of wanted to get as far away from home as possible.
By the way, home was a great place in the sense that my family's great, so it wasn't about them.
It was just like wanting change, wanting to break away from everything I knew.
We traveled a lot as a family, so in a sense, nowhere really felt that foreign.
And now it was, right? It's different to travel somewhere than to live somewhere,
but it wasn't like I was super culture shocked. And frankly, I mean, we all knew this,
but the North American culture has been very well exported.
Yes. So I thought I was going to live in Beverly Hills,
90210 on an episode of that show. Now, obviously Montreal is not that, but like Hollywood prepares
you really well for moving to North America, I would say. That makes sense. That makes a lot of
sense. So why Canada of all places? So a few things. One, Canada makes it really easy to
immigrate to. Second of all, I'm Francophone. I'm a most ultra-insured Francophone.
Right. I had one aunt who lived in Montreal and my parents were like, we feel good about you
going there. I saw that aunt exactly once in the four years. I was in Montreal, but I guess that
doesn't matter. They slept better at night knowing she was there. And so it was kind of like a happy
answer for all of us. I like that. So you traveled a lot. You're very familiar with North American
culture in general, but what was it actually like moving to Canada? Like was it an easy transition
where there are certain aspects of it that were harder to adapt to or was it just Canadians
or lovely? This place is great. No problem. I love different weather. The weather was definitely
a problem. I think I'd seen snow like once barely. And then when you live in Canada, especially
in Montreal, you see it every single day from November to May. Nothing can prepare you for that.
But you know, you're in college. You don't care. I feel like we didn't even wear coats so that the
balancer would let us in. You feel bad for us. You know, and it's really hard for me to separate
what was a college experience and what was it moving to a foreign country experience, right? Because
it's all new and it's hard to distill what's what. But overall, it was like the best time ever, right?
It was like being far away, being free, surrounded by people your age. I mean, so much of that
quintessential college experience was so amazing that whatever hurdles I faced by being foreign
were completely overshadowed by just the beauty of the college experience. I will say, however,
is I moved to Montreal on September 8th, 2001. Oh, three days later, the world changed. And when I
say the world changed, the world changed in that, I'm Algerian, I grew up in the UAE. Like,
I was viewed a little bit like a bad guy. I never felt any outright discrimination at all. But
there was an us versus them. I think that was created. And it was very clear that I'm not North
American. I'm from that side of the world. And that was just like an odd time to have just moved
here. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you studied finance. You said you didn't really know what you wanted to do. But
as graduation day drew closer, what were you thinking were like your main paths ahead?
So I didn't even go to my graduation because I was on a flight to China and I moved there.
I had this finance degree. And finance used to be a pretty, I think it still is a pretty paved path.
You study finance and undergrad. You do an investment banking internship. Then you get an investment
fitting job. And I did do the investment banking internship. And I was like, this can't be it.
I tapped out of that path in my senior year. And I was like, there's got to be something else for me.
So I was studying Mandarin. I don't remember if I got a minor in Mandarin or not. But I had this
tool, which was super valuable and interesting at the time, which was I spoke Mandarin and China
was on the rise and China's exploding and growing at 9% GP year and all this stuff. And one of my
professors of macro economics, I remember talking to him after class, when he's like, what are you
doing? Which investment back are you joining after you graduate? And I was like, none. And I'm trying
to figure out what to do. And he was like, don't you speak Mandarin. Just go there. Go to China.
And honestly, I just needed someone to tell me what to do because I was like kind of floating and
wanting an interesting idea to like fall from the sky. And in that moment, it did. And so I
signed up for a language program, which started a couple days before graduation or whatever. So I
did that. And I stayed. I stayed for six years, which wasn't the plan, but there was no plan. So
might as well have been the plan. What were those early days like in China? And at what point did
you start thinking about maybe I'm going to find a job job and stay here for a minute?
Yeah. So it was so exciting. It's like nothing you're used to. Everything is an experience
because it's all new. And I just really loved that. And my language program was like three or four
months. On the last day of my language program, I was having breakfast at an American quote-unquote
restaurant with a mutual friend. And I was talking to her. And at the table next to us was a man,
American accent on the phone, who's kind of like losing his mind a little bit. And he's like,
this isn't going to work. We need to restructure the deal. What's the IRR? And like throwing all
this finance jargon out. And he hung up. And I was like, hi, mister, I'm at Mina. I just moved
here three months ago. I'm finishing up a language program. I hear you talking finance talk. I'm
looking for a job. And he's like, oh, interesting. And he's like, come meet me tomorrow at his office.
And I went and he gave me a job on the spot. And so then I stayed. I stayed. And by the way,
it was a finance job. But like that's what I was positioned to do, I guess. But it felt different
than it turned out that like the environment was really important to me. And it was kind of a startup
fund. Anyway, it's a long story. But it was very exciting. And one thing led to another,
and it ended up being the hotel industry in China. And I'm working with a couple of friends as they
were building a boutique hotel company in China. So it was just so exciting because it was the
right time to be there. It was like the rocket ship was just taking off. And you could feel it.
And the type of foreigners that it drew, we were just all these like renegade mischiefs
from around the world that were just like, this is fun. And six years happened in a minute.
And then I woke up one day and I was like, I need to get out here.
Yeah. Well, but it's an interesting point about an expat community anywhere. And there is
something to it as someone who has lived in a couple of other countries. It is wild how you sort of
find other people like that. And you realize that it's a very specific sort of person who feels
comfortable picking up and leaving and going somewhere quite far away. And it's really fun.
Exactly. Like this was age 21 to 27. It was so much fun.
So you started as a financial analyst for a hotel investment fund. Talk to me about that job
was it what you expected? And then how did you start working for a boutique hotel in Shanghai?
I'm curious about those skills that you were honing at that point in your life. And then
what you really loved about your career at that point in time.
Yeah. And that first job was really formative. And it was really formative because it was a new
fund that was starting out. So I was the only analyst. And so I did it all. And the type of
exposure I got allowed me to kind of see the bigger picture versus if I had joined a big investment
bank. I got to do things and be exposed to things and sit in on meetings and on conversations
that I would never have at my level and age. And that was partly because of the actual
opportunity itself at being small. But it was also because of Mitch, who was a man I talked to who
and admire me, who became a mentor and is my mentor to this day, who just took me under his wing
and was invested in me in my career and my learning. And like, so find yourself a Mitch, right? Like
that makes a massive difference. And I was just lucky. And it was super, super formative.
And it taught me really quickly that the people are the most important part of work. That's
the first thing. And the second thing is that the importance of understanding the bigger picture.
And I was lucky to have that. Then I made two friends, both ex-bats, who were extremely entrepreneurial,
who had just tied up this building in Shanghai with a vision to create the first boutique hotel in
China. And this was 2006 or seven. So this is a time where boutique hotels were like all the
rage in the United States. And there weren't that many of them then. But you know, the Mondrian,
the Nadella known, all that stuff. And so Shanghai was just about to be I think like the fifth or
fourth most traveled to city in the world. And yet it didn't have a boutique hotel. So the gap
was super clear. And they're like, come on, join us. You know how to do financial analysis,
which is like barely, but like, sure, fine. I'll do it. So like we could use someone like you
and say, jumped on their team. And it was the three of us and raised capital, redeveloped the hotel,
operated the hotel, branded the hotel, and then did two more that were more operating
grievance. So we didn't own the real estate. But it was super fun. If there was any kind of canary in
the coal mine of a recession coming, it was like three 20 year olds raising money to build a
boutique hotel in China. Like no one should have funded us. It worked out. But like that's how
loose the capital markets were at that time. Right. But it was great. And what a learning experience.
Because at our high right before I left, we probably had 120 employees, not huge, but you know,
I was 25 and like learned so much from the people side of how to motivate people, how to manage
people, how to lead people. It was amazing. Such a good experience. It's interesting because hearing
you talk about it, it feels like some of the same skills that would be who you when you're moving
across the world to Canada and then across the world again to China, those fundamental skills,
like curiosity, resourcefulness, figuring it out as you go, that's all feels very linked to me
in a way that I hadn't really considered it before. Yeah, it's a form of resilience, I think, which
has served me well in my life. Sometimes in small things like moving different countries and sometimes
for major life events as well. Yeah, it's interesting. Okay. So you are living a wildlife in so many
ways, all these employees dealing with these new hotels, it must have been so exciting and overwhelming
all at the same time. You're now almost six years in in China. At what point did you decide,
you know what I need? I need to go to business school. Penn is calling. Let's go. So I caught
swiden flu. Let's start there. It was rough, but I say that because what it did is it forced me
to stop and slow down and stop reflect. And I was contained in my apartment and Shanghai. And I
wasn't distracted by friends and work and parties and whatever it is you do in your twenties.
And that changed my life because I sat there and I was like, what's my plan? Because when you're
on the hamster wheel, you don't have a plan, especially if you're enjoying the hamster wheel,
I was loving it. So I didn't feel like I needed a plan. But that forced me to kind of reflect and
say, 27, what's a plan? Am I staying in China forever? By the way, you can't as a foreigner. So
that wasn't even an option so far from my family. I also felt like I was not confident about my skills
because I was like, no one's really taught me anything. I just kind of like made it all up and
it's kind of working. But like wouldn't be nice to like learn how things are supposed to be.
And then I could still reject them if I want to but at least have someone tell me how things have
been done and leave it up to me to choose what to do it that way or not. And that's when the thought
of business school came up and really Mitch, same mentor, was like, you should go to business school.
It's created in a lab for people like you. And so then I was literally in those 10 days of quarantine,
I stopped, I reflected, I made a decision to go to business school and I applied to business school.
Like I was very productive. So by the 10th day, I was like, I'm going to business school. Like
I put in my applications and it was just a waiting game. And once I had made that determination,
I was really fixated on it where I was like, I need to go. This is what I need to do. And it turned
out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. Why? Because business school allowed me to do more
of that, more of the stopping and reflecting that I'd never ever ever done. I was just kind of rolling
with everything. And business was two years of that is saying, like, do I want to sit in on this
cluster, that class? Do I want to work on this project or that project? With no real ends, like,
you're going to graduate anyway, hopefully, right? But you have a menu of things every day that you
can choose from to nourish your soul in your mind. And I just needed that. I'd never had that before.
Everything was like a climb, including college. And you're doing it with other people like you.
So it was again, recreating that expat experience almost with a completely different cohort of people.
But it's again, it's a self-selected group. Most people go to business school, share a lot of
attributes. And so for me, it was really fulfilling to be around people that was like me, but very
different than the one I had spent the last six years with. Did it make you feel like you were pulling
the curtain open in the sense of, like, you had done all of this stuff organically. And I'm curious
if you ever felt like, oh, wow, I already knew all of this. Or if it was comforting to understand
the language. Or, you know, there's, I just feel like there's a lot about business that is
idiomatic. And if you don't speak it fluently, people look at you a little funny, even if you're
talking about the same thing. Yeah. And so it gave me the confidence and the comfort that I needed.
I felt like right or wrong, I could speak more intelligently about the things I already knew.
Yes, it gave me the terms of jargon and the framework. Like, my mind was never blown by the
actual content. You know, some stuff. But like, I was like, oh, there's a fancy word to describe
this. And now I can use this fancy word and sound fancy. But to me, that was valuable. Because
I was a cowboy. I was rough around the edges. And I needed that polish. And I felt like
Wharton was exactly what the doctor prescribed for me. And I just felt better coming out of it.
Well, I would imagine you felt better on a number of ways because you also fell in love
when you were in school, correct? I did. I did. I met the man that would become my first husband
at Wharton. And so an extremely formative experience to like not only go to school like that, but,
you know, meet the man you would marry. And so we then moved to Houston together. You know,
when you meet someone in these formative times where you're both in flux, it takes a lot to like
make it line up, right? Because it's like, yeah, let's find a city that works for both of us and
like both our careers and all that. And Houston did exactly that for us. And it'll forever have a
special place in our heart. So what did you end up doing in Houston back to finance? But it was
so much better this time around because it all made sense because it was like finances, financing,
entrepreneurialism and financing businesses. And so at the core of it, you have to understand and
have an appreciation for the businesses that they're poor. And you start to see it in color,
not just in black and white. And that comes with education and experience and maturity, right?
And so I had a bit more of all those things. And so I worked in private equity at a real estate
private equity fund where we invested in all sorts of massive projects that had a real estate
component, but that ranged from office buildings and apartment buildings to senior housing and
student housing and things like that. And it was awesome. It was really amazing to then be able to
apply the combination of real world experience in China and academic experience in the classroom
at Wharton and bring it to life at a really high level. That challenge was really amazing.
So this is line stone that we're talking about, right? Yes. So you worked your way up.
I love that you were there for five years. What was it about this company that kept your attention
for that long? The people. And I knew it from the first interview. Or I was like, these are my
people. It was a combination of everyone was extremely smart and motivated and all those great
things. But people were warm and human and casual and pretty casual person. And like the people
were amazing. So again, it's like I found a new tribe of people. I'm like, I belong here. I'm
excited to spend, you know, 14 hours a day with these people. And like, yes, 80% of the time we're
super serious, but 20% of time we could muck around and like have fun and not take ourselves too
seriously. And it was really great. And those people to this day are some of my closest friends.
So I also read that at the same time that you're working like crazy and having this great career,
you're also creating laptop bags for women with your best friend. In what extra time were you
doing this? And why were you doing this? What was the pull of the entrepreneurial world that you
felt the need to do something on the side at this juncture? I think a lot of us have this friend,
which is the friend that you just sit on a couch and like dream with, right? And you say,
what if we did this and what if we did that? And sometimes it's talking about travel and sometimes
it's talking about like a business idea. And so my friend Felicia is that friend. And one of the
100 million things we've ever said on the couch grew arms and legs and like became a thing. While
we were at Wharton, we were schlepping from the part town center sitting in Philly where all the grad
students lived to campus. You know, it's a 30 minute walk. It's not a big deal, but you're carrying
a laptop, you're carrying some books. And all the guys were carrying laptop bags. And we were
carrying totes because like we wanted to look cute or whatever. And we're like, why are there
laptop bags for women? Like what are we missing here? And that's how it started. And so it was one of
the 100 million things that we probably said that day. But that one stuck. And we both lived in China.
So we felt like we had a bit of an edge where we could contact factories directly. And we did that.
And next to you know, we set up a supply chain. And next to you know, we set up a website in the
Kickstarter. Our goal was like $20,000 or something. And we did like $120,000. People wanted these bags.
And it was called Bartel short for the Bartelt Godwit, which is this little little bird that has the
record for going the longest distance. It migrates to New Zealand to I believe the West Coast
of the United States every winter. And it does it nonstop. So that was kind of a metaphor for you
know, a bag that helps women go the distance through the day. And it was just such a fun project. And
it flexed a part of my brain that I didn't know needed flexing. It was creative. It was fun.
It was kind of risk-free in a way that like, yeah, we put a little money into it. But like the money
we put, we were willing to lose. Yeah. And so it was like, this is a risk-free, just fun thing.
And if it takes off, it takes off. And like it kind of did. Now the limiting factor for it was our time.
Unfortunately, we both had very demanding jobs. And so there was only so much time we could put into
Bartel. And I wish there was more. We eventually shut it down because time was even more scarce.
But to this day, I mean, I just saw our couple of weeks ago, she was here in LA. I'm like,
should we revive Bartel? She's like, on what planet are we reviving Bartel? She's like, you have a kid,
you run a company. I run another company of two kids. Like, when have time then, we definitely
don't have time now. And it's like maybe one day. I mean, there is that saying you want something
done. Give it to the busiest person you know. That's true. Okay. So life was really busy.
Is what we're saying, right? Yeah, it was really full. And then 2018 rolled around. And
that was a rough year. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, it was super rough. So
my sister was getting married in Paris in mid-June. And almost every summer, we would go to the Alps.
My late punchline, my late husband and I, Alex, we would go to the Alps every summer because he
his hobby was wingsuit based jumping. I don't know if you know what that is. Yes, please don't try it
at home. I think there's 250 people in the world who were there were at the time. There's probably
less of them now that did this sport. And he was one of them. And it was, I've never seen him happier
than jumping off mountains in the squirrel suit. It was what he did. He did this long before I met him.
So it kind of came with the package. It was just part of him. And that summer, we went to the Alps.
You know, it was three hour train from Paris for a few days before my sister's wedding in Paris.
And he passed away. He passed away kind of two days before her wedding, just in a crash.
Which by the way, is somewhat inevitable in this sport. Like, you keep trying to push the
limits because the thrill comes from doing those extreme things. And you know, he flew too close
his son, I guess. And obviously, extremely traumatic, extremely shocking because even when
and people always ask me this, they're like, didn't you ask him to stop? Or did you think this
would happen? But you never think that's going to happen. He never thought it would happen. Or
else, he wouldn't have done it, right? And when you love someone, you think they're superhuman.
And it was such a big part of him that I would have never taken that away from him anyway.
It brought him so much joy. And so he passed away, you know, suddenly, obviously,
immediately right there. So I was 34 and he was 38. So very traumatic, obviously. And
that resilience that I talked about, that came in handy for sure. It wasn't everything, right?
But it definitely came in handy. And the other thing I'll say is that was the other time in my life
where I just stopped. Yeah. I didn't try to fight through it. I didn't go back to work. I actually
quit. Lines down. I quit Bartel. That's when we shut it down. And I was like, I need to just stop
and sit in this. And I did sit in it. And my family sat in it with me and my friends sat in it with
me. And we all just kind of sat in it. And you know, this is maybe a controversial statement,
but if you're lucky, which I was, you see some beauty that comes out of grief, which is people
coming together and kind of reuniting friendships and family relation and deepening them. And I was
lucky that there was that piece of grief that kind of came out for me, which was there was,
there was some beauty in it. But I was lucky that was able to stop and sit in it.
I mean, that is just world shattering on so many levels. At what point did you start to process
enough to think, OK, I have to get through this. And at some point, I will need to move forward.
You know, I remember when he passed away, I remember having kind of three hypotheses,
sort of where I was like, I'll never laugh again. I'll never be happy again. And I'll never find
love again. And I don't know why I was like so dogged about those three things. I was like,
this is my life now. Like, I'm going to laugh again. I'm going to be happy again. I'm going to
find love again. That's OK, kind of. And then I'll remember about a week and a half after he
passed away. So it's all still raw and fresh and you're almost in disbelief. And like, I kept
imagining that he would come back and like, there was a mistake, you know, it's like you're still
very much delusional in it. But it was like about 10 days in. I had some girlfriends that came
to Paris to spend time with me. And we were there with my family and it was just like, you were talking.
And I remember someone said something or it was in conversation. And I was in stitches laughing.
Like, it was even like, I was like, haha, laughing. It was like a real like belly laugh. Like,
I don't remember what it was. It didn't matter. And I remember catching myself and being like,
well, I literally thought I was never going to laugh again. And like, we're 10 days in. And
like, I'm laughing. So maybe those three statements are wrong, right? Like, maybe I just
set myself up for disappointment. But like, maybe I will be happy again. And I will fall in love
again. And then the happiness thing also happens sooner than I expected. Because you think you're
going to resign yourself to life of like sadness. Yeah. And then I think that sadness is not the
opposite of happiness. Actually, you learn that you can have both things. But I remember then
in January. So, you know, six, seven months later, I was in LA, walking my dogs, a couple blocks
from where I live in Venice and the sun was setting and the sky was pink. And I remember being like,
whoa, I'm really happy. Like, truly, really happy. And that was just for me, really powerful,
to kind of negate my own hypotheses that are created for no reason and had resigned myself to.
And then two years after that, married, Josh, love my life. Second love my life. And obviously,
super in love with him, but also super in love with our son, who's 17 month old now. So it's
funny the things we tell ourselves. Yeah. Right? And it's like, I made up those three things and I
shouldn't have because I was wrong. And they were weighing down on me. I remember almost repeating
them to myself like a mantra every day. I'm like, I'm never going to laugh again. I'm like, why?
Who said that? I just made that up. But I'm lucky that I recognized that I was wrong.
So you were in LA. You had left your previous career behind. At what point did you start thinking
about something new? So there's something new actually led me to LA. So this business that I run
was started in 2017. It didn't have an executive team. It's kind of unusual. It was born within
another company that was private equity backed. And so it spun out and our private equity investors
were like, this is a separate thing that needs a CEO and a management team. And so they were searching
for pretty much a year for someone to run this. The funny thing is they had reached out to me
while Alex was still alive. And I remember reading the job description and talking to them and
being like, this is super interesting. Actually, I feel like I'm like designed in a lab to run this.
But like you're in LA. I'm in Houston. My husband's Houston. It's like too much of a stretch.
Forget about it. And they were like, yeah, we get it. We'll continue to search. And I'd
completely forgotten about it. Like it was, you know, yeah. And obviously a lot had happened
after. And a month after Alex died, I got a call on my cell phone from a member of the board of
PS. And he's like, Hey, I don't know if you remember me. But like, you know, we're still searching. We
think you'd be great. Would you reconsider? Honestly, Hillary, the movers were coming to empty out my
house in Houston because I was moving to London. By the way, I just made up London. I just need
it to move somewhere. I just need to go and do it all over again. That anonymity that I love.
I need to recreate that for myself. And my answer at the time was London because my dad and my sister
live in Paris and it's new and it's exciting and I have friends there. And I was like, that's where I'm
going. The movers were coming to move me to London. And literally, I was like, just kidding, we're moving
to LA. That happened in like five minutes. I told the guy, I'm like, you know what? I'll do it
just so you know this happened. And he was like, what are you sure you want to come? I'm like,
I'm so sure. I've never been more sure. I'll be there. And my dad and sister who were with me
at the time helped me pack up. I'm like, Dad, change of plans. We're getting the car and we're driving
to LA. And so we took a week or so to road trip over from Houston. On the way, I was like on like
Zillow and whatever I'm like, where am I living? What am I doing? And like, when the 10 hit the
Pacific Ocean, it was like, I just remember bawling because I was just like, here we are,
new chapter, second life. And then I just cleaned myself up and walked into the office and here we are.
So I have been following the business for a while because you are such excellent marketers plus
it's such a cool idea. But for anyone who doesn't know PSAs intimately, who hasn't stalked the way
that I have, can you describe the business a little bit? Sure. Thanks, Hillary. PS is, and we're the
first business of this kind in the U.S. We are a private airport terminal for commercial flights.
So what that means, Hillary's, let's say you're flying from LA to London and you're flying on
British Airways or American Airlines. Instead of going to the airport and going to terminal ABC
or 123, you actually skip the airport altogether when you're driving down the highway. You go one exit
over and you pull up to kind of a nondescript secret terminal. And from the moment you pull up,
hopefully the experience is nothing like an airport because people hate airports. And it's more like
a members club or a boutique hotel. We value our car for you. We whisk your luggage away. There's no
counters. There's no crowds. There's no lines. You're never checking in. You spend time in
beautiful spaces. We have private suites. If you want the privacy for you or your group,
we also have the salon, which is kind of our busy social lounge. And you know, you can get
chef or paired food, craft cocktails, massages, manicures. Really you spend your time as you want it
instead of schlepping through an airport and stressing out about what gate you're at and whether
you have time to get a coffee and where the nearest restroom is and all that stuff. You're just kind
of hanging out. And then when it's time to board, we have TSA in our building takes four seconds.
We zip you through there. And then we still have to get you to your British Airways flight or whatever
that's a gate seat 32 at the airport because you're flying commercial, right? And so we drive
you across the tarmac past airplanes taking off and landing and pull up to your commercial flight.
As though it were a private flight, so pull up to it and walk you up the jet bridge stairs,
escort you right into your seats and the aircraft. So you never step foot into the airport once.
And on the arrival to the same thing in reverse, we have customs in our building for international
arrivals. And we service clients on every airline, every route, domestic, international.
That's what we do. So it's not private jets. It's really just a better way to fly commercial.
And it's so fun to be creating a category. Yeah, you know, it's very hard, obviously,
because you can't look to your left and look to your right and be like, what's everyone doing?
And we're going to do it 10% better or 10% cheaper or whatever. It's literally like there's no
one to our left or our right. So every micro decision matters. We're like, is the food free? Is it not
free? Is it like do we do massages? Do we not do massages to drive people to the plane and a bus
or a BMW? Like all these micro decisions are like them making not just of a brand but of an entire
category that we're defining. And it's super fun. And we're gearing up to open our second location
in Atlanta, which we're opening on September 6. So we're very, very excited about that.
And then we're going to start building Dallas and Miami at the end of the year and opening those two
next year. I mean, first of all, congratulations, because that is a wildly exciting business to
grow. And the fact that you have these three expansions on the horizon slash here. I mean, that's
beyond. I also can only imagine that it must feel pretty intense to lead the company as it's CEO
and to create a category because disruption is not a walk in the park generally speaking.
Obviously, you have so much experience in so many different ways. Did you feel particularly
prepared for this? You said it was like made for you in a lab. But I'm wondering if there are aspects
that you had to learn more or has it really just come very naturally from the get go?
So obviously, there's always learning and always challenges. But I feel like all the random stuff
I've done in my life finally makes sense. I feel like I can draw on financial analysis, developing
hotels, overseeing hospitality teams, being an investor in PE, selling a consumer product on
the internet and doing digital ads and all that. You mush that all together and somehow, I'm like,
yeah, I can do this. I've done the pieces of this randomly throughout the years. It never made
sense. That's exact. But now it finally makes sense. Having said that, still a challenge, still a lot
to learn so a lot of gaps. But like everything I've done has contributed to this in some way.
And it gives me the confidence to make the decisions I have to make, which are sometimes very hard
and sometimes a little unfounded, right? You just have to take risks sometimes. And I feel confident
to make them because of what I've seen and experienced. So how do you know two things? One,
where to go next as you continue to grow? And two, I'm just curious about what the tipping point is
for, okay, we're ready for a new city. How do you know you're ready for a new city? Is it the number
of people? Is it a particular revenue threshold? I'm not asking for exact numbers, but I'm curious
about what that tipping point is for. Okay, we've got this under control. Let's go for another city.
And also, how do we pick that city? It definitely took us a wild to just understand product
market fit, which I think it does for any business. And it took us a wild to truly understand our
customer. I would say that turning point happened for us probably about two years ago. So, you know,
like three to four years into being open, where we're like, we 100%, you know, never 100% and 90%
get it. And then based on that, the roadmap is very clear. So the list of cities and airports we
should be in is extremely clear to us. And it's really a function of two things. One, the absolute
number of long haul first class seats. That's a barometer of how many customers we have in that
market. And the number two, obviously, the absolute number of ultra high net worth individuals,
because this is a premium product. Those two things combine. It's not a formula per say, kind of
size the market for us. Now, not all markets are created equal. New York would be the biggest.
And somewhere like maybe a Seattle would be the smallest that we would go to. But we want to be
in the Seattle to the New Yorks. There's about 10 markets there. They're pretty obvious. It's LA,
New York, Miami, DC, Chicago, San Francisco. And by the way, I'm not saying them in order, Atlanta,
Boston, places like that. But then the sequence by which we do them is not perfect. Like, ideally,
rather do the biggest one first and working right down to small ones. There's a lot of factors
that dictate our ability to go into an airport. This space available, the airport's kind of
willingness and understanding of what we do. And so the way that the cards kind of fall is we'll
take them as fast as we can get them. And like Atlanta, amazing. They got the vision. They had the
space. The stars kind of aligned. Dallas, same thing. Same with Miami. New York, we're going to get
there. It's going to take a while, right? No one's surprised by that. But we'll get there. And at
the end of the day, you know, what's in it for airports is every airport in a major city outside
the United States has something like this. This is not new. It's new in the United States. And it's
just one of the provisions on a menu that you can give a passenger when they fly commercial.
And this is kind of at the high end. And so that's what we hope to offer to major airports in the
United States. So aside from not loving the typical airport experience, what are some of the
reasons that your clients come to you? So, you know, one of the more obvious ones is privacy.
There are people who need privacy. If they go through the airport, they get hassle, they create
a bottleneck, honestly creates issues for other passengers, it distracts TSA, things like that.
So those people need it. And so we're a solution for them. And there's people who want privacy.
For whatever reason, they don't want to be with the crowds. They don't want to be around other
people. And the pandemic obviously increased the number of those people. So there's people who want
privacy. And then, you know, there's just a celebratory market. And I think this is a much, much
bigger market post pandemic. I think we see people splurging more on travel now because we don't
take it for granted anymore. Yeah. So I also read that you are considering and thinking through
how to move some of this experience down market a little bit so that the travel experience is more
accommodating outside of sort of this luxury positioning as well. What does that mean exactly?
Yeah, I'd love to find a way. You know, we started off with the private suite only. And those were
roughly $4,000 one way. It's a lot of money, right? So be $8,000 round trip on top of your
flight. Very few people can afford that. Now that was definitely more geared towards a privacy market.
We since two years ago launched the salon, which is a more social. So it's still much more private
than going to the airport. But you're not in your own suite. You're in a kind of a social lounge
around the bar. You know, there could be like 10, 20, 30, maybe people in there. And that's a
thousand dollars a person. We're not going to see here in pretend that's like super cheap or
affordable. It's still luxury by any means. But it's much more affordable than 4,000. What I'd
love to figure out and we're in the early stages of thinking about it is something more accessible
that is more of a pass through service because for us where it gets really complicated and expensive
is if we have to time everything perfectly. If it's like we have to have your dwell time timed
with when your flight leaves so that it's time perfectly so you get on the flight right before
it leaves. If we don't have to do that, then it opens up kind of a different category of service
that we can do, which is potentially like you would come as soon as you arrive, you would zip through
TSA and we would drop you off at your gate from the tarmac. So you're still at the airport,
you're at the gate but you skip that first part of the airport, which is the worst part of the
airport. So you're at your gate, you can wait at your gate, you can go to lounge if you've
access to that. You skip through that really stressful part and then that weekend probably service
at a much lower price because it's less operationally burdensome for us. And I think that could be a
good solution, especially for the people who have airport anxiety. It's like okay now you're here,
you made it, your flight's not leaving for another hour or whatever, you're good, spend your time
as you wish. That's sort of the thinking. We're not there yet, but watch this space.
So how do you really think about next steps or growth or improvement in a role like this,
where you have so many things to take into consideration, airport rules and operational things,
and the luxury market and the hospitality and the service like all of that is always changing
and evolving and what people want and staying on top of all of that. How do you navigate all of
those factors? Because with any business, there are the things that you can control and then the
things that you can't. And there's a large percentage of stuff that you can't necessarily control
that would feel very overwhelming, but also really exciting to puzzle through all of it.
I'm just curious a little bit about your process there.
Yeah, our business is very complex. Yeah, it's Department of Homeland Security, it's TSA,
it's CBP, it's the FAA, it's the airlines, we're driving BMWs on the airfield, like make sure
you do that safely, it's we're getting people to their flight, make sure you're doing it on time,
like it's very complex because you're running against time always and you're solving for safety
and for an amazing experience and it's really hard to do that. The goal is that you as the customer
never see or feel that complexity and that's something I think about all the time. We don't want
you to ever, ever feel the stress that we feel in the background trying to make the magic happen.
And so the more layers we can add to the experience so that you're as removed from that as possible,
I think the better of the experience. So that's where my head goes to at all times. You know,
one way to do that is to increase our network so that you can fly end-to-end and never deal
with the airport, right? It's like if I lay it in New York and back commercial and never step
into the airport, any of those four times, that's amazing, right? And so like the way we help you
do that is by expanding our network and making sure that the consistency of the service is there.
The second thing is what are we doing while you're with us and you're captive and you have an
hour? What are we doing to excite you to delight you? There's the basics, the food, the drinks,
the spa services. We're there. We have those down, but I'm like, what else could we do? I'd love for
PS one day to be like a place of discovery. We're like, when you're there, you're discovering new
books, new brands, new products, not in a product placement way, but just like you're there for an hour,
there's something exciting in a curation way, maybe an experiential way that delights you and makes
the most of your time there. Should you want that? Obviously, if you want to sit on the couch and
read on book, you can do that too. But like, how do you make that experience that much richer?
I think that's kind of the next level of thinking that needs to happen, not the second,
we're really busy, but soon. I totally see how this can expand and grow in so many ways. So,
congratulations to you and the team for building something that is interesting and there's such a
market for it and it's just cool. Thank you. Love everything about it. So, on this podcast,
as much as we like talking about the wins, we also like talking about the mistakes because
everyone makes them and we don't always talk about it, we just give our Instagram perfect
highlight reel and that is not the whole truth. So, I'm hoping that you can tell me about a mistake
that you've made at any point in your career and what you've learned from it. One of the mistakes I
made was overstaying my welcome in one of my roles in the sense that I wasn't happy there anymore.
I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do, but I was too scared to make a change.
I told myself I didn't know where to start, whereas like all I do is start changes. So, it's like
that's the one thing I know, right? But like, that was a self-talk that was happening then.
And I knew at the time that I was doing myself a disservice by not making moves and I dragged that
on for probably two years. And then it took a life event to make me stop and step back and be like,
I'm out of here. And like, don't wait for the life event. Make the moves when you know you
should make the moves. And to me, that was a mistake. It was not catastrophic, but it's still a mistake.
Time is precious and like two years is a long time. And I've also had the luck, I think, of having
experiences where I've loved my work. So, when I know that that exists, I've had it many times.
I think some people like they hit their first job and they stay in it forever and they think that
you're supposed to hate your job. And it's like, it doesn't need to be. It's like, I knew better,
but then I just didn't do anything about it. And that was a mistake. And I never want to let that
mistake happen again because work takes up so much of a time that you better love it. And there
is one that you love. And like, it's up to you to find it and to make it happen. So, that was a big
mistake. So, a lot of our listeners are in their first lives. They know they want to make that change,
but they're just a little bit scared. What advice would you give someone who is nervous,
but wants to leap? I would go down the path. I do this exercise a lot with myself and with people
of like, so then what? Right? So, it's like, okay, I want to move to Paris, but I'm scared. Okay,
let's pretend you move to Paris. Scared what? That I don't like it. Okay, so then what? Get back
on a plane and come back. Like the downside is a bit of waste of time and a waste of money. But like,
is that worth not pursuing? I mean, it's still a thing. I'm not minimizing it, but is that worth
not pursuing something that might be nagging at you that you absolutely want to try your curious
about? And I think we get paralyzed by the downside, even though the downside is often not that bad.
There are very few irreversible decisions in life, very few. Moving somewhere is not an irreversible
decision. Even leaving a job is not an irreversible decision. Most jobs, if you're good and you laugh,
then you change your mind. Most of the time they'll take you back or you can find something similar.
So I think asking yourself if that decision is truly irreversible is really important.
If it is reversible, it's probably worth a shot. So my last question is also my favorite question,
which is if you could go back in time and speak with your younger self at any point in her career,
what would you say? Slow down. Which by the way was all my parents were telling me at the time.
And yeah, I should have slowed down a little bit. I don't regret it, but like,
you notice things and you learn things and you absorb things differently when you slow down.
Mom and dad, they know a few things. There's not they know a few things.
Well, I mean, thank you so much for your time. This was such a pleasure on so many levels,
and it was just a delight to have you. Thank you, Hillary. This is awesome. Appreciate you.
That was the CEO of PS Amina Porter. For more inspiring interviews with women like Amina,
head on over to SecondLifePod.com where we have so many more for you to peruse.
If you like today's show, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your
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SecondLifePod. Our DMs are always open. I'm Hillary Kerr, and you've been listening to SecondLife.
This episode was produced by Hillary Kerr, Summer Hammeres, and Natalie Thurman. Our audio engineers
are at Treehouse Recording in Los Angeles, California, and our music is by Jonathan Leahy.