Below is our recent interview with Ryan Hartman, President & CEO at World View:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: World View is an Earth-focused space company that exists not to explore new worlds, but to share a better vision for our own. With our space tourism division, we’re turning space tourism into Earth activism through multi-hour, edge-of-space experiences from some of Earth’s most amazing natural wonders. Through pre-journey educational experiences, jaw-dropping onboard vantage points from the stratosphere and post-journey activism activities, participants come back to Earth not just inspired but empowered to improve our planet. Our remote sensing division provides state-of-the-art stratospheric vantage points for government entities, corporations, NGOs to more precisely understand, monitor and improve our planet.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: The offering has been eagerly embraced on social media and in the media, which has translated to several hundred deposits placed within the first two days, with several hundred more who have expressed interest.
Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: As the leading stratospheric ballooning company, World View has launched the first-of-its-kind edge-of-space tourism experience — the most affordable and accessible in the world. We believe that in order for us to truly inspire the will to respect and conserve all life on Earth, we must make space tourism as attainable and impactful as possible. We’re not waiting for commercial operations to commence before we start impacting the world. We have developed content-driven experiences so that we can educate the world on the fragility of Earth and provide activation opportunities for people to start making an immediate difference.
Q: What can we expect from your company in the next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: Within the next 6 months we will be unveiling our capsule prototype, introducing an editorial content series around protecting and preserving the planet, along with continuing our pre-sales process.
Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: Two things:
As an Earth-focused space company, our mission is to help people rediscover the beauty and fragility of the Earth so they may change how they interact with it. That goes not just for our participants, but also for how World View interacts with the Earth. We are committed to and invested in sustainability because it’s good for the planet, it’s good for our communities, and it’s just all-around good business. Immediately, our commitment to sustainability is three-fold: 1) we provide emissions-free trips to the stratosphere, 2) we recover and recycle every single balloon into much-needed products in the communities near our spaceports, and 3) we donate 1% of all ticket sales to allied environmental organizations that we are currently selecting and vetting. Longer term, we are finalizing and will soon be releasing our 100-year sustainability pledge that will detail how we will be reducing our footprint and committing to living our purpose.