Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Welcome back. Next company up at the B of A Transportation, Airlines and Industrials Conference is BLADE Urban Air Mobility, and we have their CEO, Rob Wiesenthal, with us. Rob, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming again.
Thanks for having me.
Sure thing. You know, maybe just kick off, you know, based on conversations we were having right before coming up on stage. I think people know BLADE for maybe one reason, but probably not for the biggest reason that BLADE is in, you know, in terms of where BLADE's business has gone. So maybe can you start with just an overview of the business? Kind of I think you'll need to teach some people that it's a little bit more than a chopper service. So over to you.
Sure. You know, this is now our kind of 10th anniversary next week.
That's great.
So there's a, you know, and over the 10 years, we've built a global brand. It's probably the most, it's definitely the most recognized brand with respect to kind of vertical transportation and probably one of the most recognized brands in terms of, kind of, that kind of private aviation segment or, you know, small scheduled service business in terms of aviation. But, you know, I think that, you know, we've spoken in the past, and you've said that, you know, medical is now a meaningful part of our business. And I think it's more than meaningful now. It's core. And we're talking about a business that had 135% year-over-year EBITDA growth, 600 basis points of increase in flight margin.
You know, a really terrific business that leverages our core competencies and is clearly going to be the engine for growth of this company going forward. At the same time, the passenger business, which is clearly, you know, our DNA, we are the largest, we fly more people by helicopter for transport than any other company in the world, period. We do that in the three biggest markets, which is the greater New York area, Southern Europe, which goes literally from, you know, Monaco, Cannes, Nice, Saint-Tropez, Courchevel, Geneva, and then in Canada, between Victoria and Vancouver. Those are the big three markets that are important to passenger, you know, infrastructure, which is definitely a barrier to entry for others, since we have a lot of it.
You need places to land, and we basically, you know, decided we were going to go for the places that are the most convenient for the customers, that provide the greatest value in terms of not only how much does it cost to fly, but how much time it could save. And those are those three markets. You're never going to see a map of the world from Blade. You're never going to see us flying from Orlando Airport to downtown Orlando across eight-lane super highways because you save 20 minutes. That's not a business. There are other people who want to do that, that's fine. I think it's a lot of that you see is to showcase electric vertical aircraft.
But at the end of the day, we're about having a great experience and saving time on a cost-effective basis for our flyers in the passenger business.
Yeah, based on commentary from some conference attendees and the time that it's taken them to get from JFK into Midtown, I think I need to sign you up one of these years, at the conference.
Probably one of these days.
But could you provide just some stats for perspective, just in terms of revenue contribution, medical versus, yeah, passenger, maybe EBITDA contribution as well?
You know, I think that, you know, you know, right now we surpassed, we're running about $135 million in revenues on medical and about, you know, north of about $100 million on passenger, maybe a little north of that. And, you know, it is, as I said, the growth and the increase in margins on both EBITDA and flight profit line on medical is tremendous. I mean, on the passenger side, there's been a lot of investment in growth. The passenger business was a money-losing business for a very long time. It is now... We're a number of quarters of flight profit profitability. I think there were a lot of people who weren't sure we're going to get there.
Mm-hmm.
And it is a huge business for us. It is a great customer acquisition vehicle, and it is absolutely strategic when it comes to the transition to EVA, electric vertical aircraft, or you may call us, you know, some people call EVTOL-
Mm-hmm.
because these are the most busiest routes in the world. 28 million people go between the airports in New York City and Manhattan. We're flying, you know, kind of the tens of thousands, so we're not anywhere near penetration. But again, I think the engine for growth is medical. At some point, you're gonna make, you know, well, short term, we'll have profitability, but in and then hopefully in shorter, when you get certification of these aircraft, that's when you're gonna see the growth in that part of the business.
Got it. I guess infrastructure is the, probably the biggest, it's a big issue, right?
Mm-hmm.
I guess, I mean, you mentioned, right, Midtown Manhattan would be a perfect opportunity for you, but where do you find the space? Like, if you do find the space, what's the process like? How long would it take to actually get through boards, approvals-
Yeah.
Actually get up and operational?
Well, I think you actually, what you've highlighted is an incredible strategic advantage that we have.
Okay.
Because we have existing infrastructure, and there's no question that what's gonna happen is once we get certification, they will be landing in places where BLADE has terminals. And there could be a five-year gap between when they're landing at kind of around, in and around our terminals to when there's brand-new EVA-only infrastructure, and that gives us a tremendous opportunity. Because when we say infrastructure, what does that mean?
Yeah.
It's not just a landing zone. That means a Blade terminal, where we're processing package, passengers, we are getting them through security checks, we're assessing luggage, we're checking them in, and you can have multiple flights happening at the same time. All those people have to be organized, and you have to turn those aircraft really quickly because you may have flights on a Friday that are going every five minutes, and you need to turn those aircraft. And you -- all of these preexisting infrastructure, the heliports, where we have strong presences, remember, they were just basically pretty old, private helicopter landing zones where big, you know, CEOs of big companies would kind of-
Mm-hmm.
wait in a small box, and, you know, the pilot would come out and say, you know, you know-
Let's go.
Yeah. "Andrew, come on, let's get on your helicopter and take you to wherever, you know, your next meeting.
Yeah.
They were never set up for by-the-seat passenger service. That's what we did. East Side, West Side, at a certain point, we had Wall Street, Monaco. We're inside the terminals of Nice International Airport, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Unheard of. We're doing security check, check-in, on the tarmac. So when you actually land from, into Nice from Monaco, you are getting processed on the tarmac, getting in a BLADE Sprinter van, going straight to your gate. That's the kind of infrastructure that cannot be replicated.
Yeah.
We have the exclusive right to fly between two countries, between Monaco and France and Nice. That's an exclusive on a by-the-seat basis. So that is all infrastructure. That are the kind of things that when EVA does come here, it can't be replicated. You're gonna have to start using it with us, cooperating with us, and then over five years, I think, then you'll get to the point where people feel that they're safe. They truly are emission-free. They have the capabilities in terms of payload and amount of time they can be in the air and comfortable with the public with safety. And then you'll start seeing, "You know what? We want this new-
Okay, so you'll basically use your current infrastructure as the proving ground.
Yeah
for the new concept, and then as it's adopted
You raise a really good point. Everybody's asking one of the two right questions. When are these things gonna be certified? But not many people yet are saying, "When are there gonna be landing zones for these-
Yeah.
that are beyond the existing infrastructure, which clearly is capping the growth for vertical transportation?
Right. Okay. Maybe moving on to medical, I'll admit a little bit out of my zone, being a transportation, airlines, kind of travel, travel analyst. But, yeah, I know, Rob, you spoke on the last earnings call about wanting to provide a lot more disclosure around the medical side of the business. What do you... You know, what are the key aspects of medical, maybe KPIs, growth opportunities that you think are most important for investors to understand?
Well, I think that, you know, the, you know, I think we have pretty good disclosure now when you take a look at, as I said, just the significant year-over-year growth in revenue, flight margin, EBITDA, the fact that because we're still predominantly asset-light, although we do own some aircraft, so much of that flows to the bottom line from EBITDA to free cash flow. It is, and then no marketing cost, or the core of our team is in Tempe, which is really cost-effective. You know, I think that those are the KPIs of the, our companies or, you know, us or our investors are looking at. You know, I think we're around, you know, 75-80 contracts, hospitals that we work with under contract and doing, you know, lots of one-offs every day.
I think that the growth, in my personal view, is a bit understated in the sense that we now have perfusion devices that are out there that allow organs to be out of the body for a much longer time. We did the world's longest organ mission between Boston and Alaska. That's never been heard of before.
Yeah.
So all these perfusion device companies, you know, they just supercharge our business because now the aperture of what an organ is, an organ that is suitable for transplant, has both changed in terms of because of perfusion and also the technology that you have on the medical side, just to assess whether a patient could be a recipient for that organ. So I'm expecting continued growth, and again, we're mostly heart, liver, lung. We don't even do kidneys yet, or very few. And I see, you know, the growth coming from not only kind of organically from heart, liver, lung, moving into also other areas of critical cargo. At the end of the day, we are a critical, you know, asset-light logistics-
Sure.
company for critical cargo, whether it be people or organs. You know, we're already moving radioisotopes. We're already moving tissue samples, blood samples, and I think you'll, you know, you'll see a lot more kind of leveraging those hospital relationships. You know, we started this thing called TOPS, which is our organ procurement service, which we've signed up, you know, hospitals to make it even more cost effective so we can actually help assess, be that front line of assessing whether an organ is suitable for transplant for surgeons.
So there's just so much to do, and I think we just have to be really tactical about it and try not to boil the ocean and go one by one with each of these new verticals and leverage the infrastructure we have, which is great technology, showing chain of custody, teams that are up kind of 24/7, pilots that are trained and can have duty hours that are, you know, unconventional, kind of sometimes midnight to 6:00 A.M.
Mm-hmm.
Again, it also feeds back. There's a feedback loop to our passenger business because the same helicopter you may fly to JFK from Manhattan is probably the same helicopter that is moving an organ at night. So that is basically taking, you know, a cold storage device and a surgeon to a hospital.
Okay.
And so what that allows is the operator of that helicopter to amortize their cost of insurance, pilots, maintenance across a 24-hour time wheel, as opposed to just kind of, like, 8 hours a day, making their costs lower and making it easier for us to offer the lowest possible cost.
Got it. So, you started off the presentation saying about 10-year anniversary of BLADE. Can you provide a little bit more color on the medical side? When did you get into that side of the business? How much has it grown? And I think early days of medical, you grew a little bit more through some M&A.
One M&A.
And now... Right.
Right.
Now you're speaking to a little bit more organic growth. Like, how do you maybe speak about how that side of the business has evolved over the last 10 years, and then kind of your goals in terms of being able to source additional business for that organic growth?
Sure. So, you know, we started this, you know, started that business. We obviously started in the passenger business, and on the East 34th Street Heliport, it was right next to Langone Hospital. I knew that one of our board members, David Zaslav, who's the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, had a good relationship with Ken Langone, and I said, "You know, there's got to be something to do here.
Mm-hmm.
You know, is it medevac? Is it something else? And when we spoke to them, they said their biggest need was actually organ movements. And frankly, medevac, we were very apprehensive about because, as some of you may know, that is, you know, those are paid for by insurance companies, and largely, there are lots of instances where a patient can't pay, and the company that operates a helicopter or provides a service ends up eating that. And you've seen some bankruptcies in the past of companies like that. So we like the organ procurement service because we are paid by the hospitals. We are not paid by the insurance companies. And immediately, I won't say immediately, but over time, I'd say months and maybe over a year, we became the largest air transporter in New York area.
Then we met the folks at Trinity. They were doing a lot of ground, lights and sirens, ambulances. We clearly had a lot of throw weight in terms of aviation. We were already doing, you know, a fair amount of fixed wing work. And then I think we really, you know, this was one of those great, you know, my career, great M&A deals, where you really were able to kind of help supercharge the acquisition and make it, the company, even better than it was before, leveraging resources in terms of capital, technology, to help chain of custody, access to aircraft, and then improving their mix of different types of vehicles. And today, we started in just helicopters. We're now a lot of jets, eight of them owned.
The vast majority of our missions are done on, in terms of, non-owned aircraft, keeping our asset-light model, and still helicopters and even, lights and sirens SUV. So we need to cover that whole, gamut, you know, on the medical side.
Mm-hmm.
And I think it's working, and I think that it's based on relationships with these hospitals. I think it's working also because the team at Trinity in Arizona, you know, maintains those relationships. They can help us locate aircraft around those hospitals and make it even more cost effective for the hospital. So it makes it very tough, it's very tough to compete with Blade in medical right now.
Interesting. That was going to be my next question. Like, with the organic growth that you see ahead, when you go into these hospitals and you pitch the BLADE business, who are the other operators that you're competing against?
Well, you know, it started, and if you think of, like, Langone, I mean, they would have, you know, maybe, you know, literally could post a note on a supervisor's desk, a transplant coordinator's desk saying, you know, "Call Joe's jet company if you need a jet." I mean, in fact, I think about the cost-effective nature. You know, one of the things that we've, you know, we looked at some of the stories that we heard. We know Langone actually was taking ambulances that cost $2,000 to Teterboro, flying people in a G4 to Philadelphia Hospital, getting the organ, coming back with more ambulances and the G4 back, and it'd be, like, a $65,000 mission. We would do that between $4,000-$6,000, taking off from Langone, landing on top of Philadelphia Hospital.
So by using this, you know, complex of multimodality, we are able to optimize, you know, the best set of logistics and forms of transportation-
Interesting.
For the mission, period. I don't think anyone does that better. And, so that's made it really, you know, cost effective. And in terms of, you know, growth, you know, we've looked at a lot of acquisitions, but, you know, essentially, if you're in a situation where you're just buying contracts and you're growing so much organically, you know, something. When we do the analysis, and at the end of the day, we are looking at rates of return, deals that are accretive day one. We're very firm about that. Sometimes build is better than buy.
However, if you think about the horizontal stuff, you know, in terms of these other businesses we can get into, if we found something that was really interesting in critical cargo, if we found something that was really interesting, you know, on, next flight out in terms of kidneys, which means, like, those kidneys, for those of you who don't know, can live outside the body much longer than, hearts, liver, lungs. They can kind of, you know, one day, even two days, sometimes.
Wow.
There's sometimes there are instances where they need to get there quickly. But you—there are forms of transportation, using couriers, commercial aircraft, things like that, where, you know, the kidney business can be a viable, you know-
Okay.
Business. If we found businesses that were in these adjacent industries where we can make the companies better and leverage our hospital relations, offering more services to our hospital clients, those are good acquisition candidates.
Right. Okay. Interesting. I think you said you have contracts with, was it 75, 80 hos-
Yeah.
80 hospitals? You were using the Langone kind of Philadelphia example. Where are those hospitals are they concentrated in a particular geography?
They're all over the country.
They're all, all over the country.
All over the country.
So, in terms of your network or reach, there are no geographical limitations?
No. No. And then once you, once you're, you build a relationship with the customer, you properly position aircraft for them. You obviously, you help build out, you know, a relationship, and you make sure that you're, you just, you know, incredibly cost effective, you know, with what you're offering to, to them. And again, the growth, I believe, personal opinion, understated, when you take a look at UNOS data in terms of number of transplants, just because of all these perfusion companies that have great technology, we're flying on them all, you know, every day, with these perfusion devices. And then we have a lot of on-the-ground staff that help with these devices. These devices actually be put on board. You have to really think about the type of aircraft that you use.
Mm-hmm.
I think also, unlike our competition, we're using aircraft that are kind of $2.5 million that can have long distances. We're not purchasing $15 million aircraft that are meant for kind of high-end charter. So there's, like, a sweet spot that I think we've found with really reliable, low-cost jets that, you know, can service surgeons and cold storage properly. You don't need the kind of gold-plated, $15 million jet-
Right.
-that's brand new to do that, because your cost of capital on those, you're just not gonna make the numbers work. You're either gonna have, you know, a lousy return, or you're gonna charge too much to the hospitals.
Right.
Um.
Can you help me understand, so what Blade needs to do. So say you go in and you win a contract at a hospital in Houston, and you have no other presence in the, in Texas, right? What does Blade need to do in order to service that contract in terms of do you need to source more aircraft, move aircraft around? Like, just help me understand the logistics of a new contract in a geography that you don't already operate in.
Sure. We have, because we fly so many hours in the United States right now, both, you know, obviously for medical and then somewhat for also jet charter as well. We have operators that have passed our safety standards. We have about a six-member safety team that look at everything from, you know, their maintenance records to financial wherewithal, insurance requirements, pilots' hours. And we will use those off, kind of off-fleet aircraft.
Okay.
to accomplish those. And then we may enter into capacity purchase agreements where we don't own the aircraft and move some of those aircraft closer to the hospital to enjoy those kind of economics, so you have less kind of triangle-type flights, where you're picking up surgeons somewhere else and then going back to the hospitals and
Yeah.
kind of two directions.
Okay. Interesting.
It's a pretty quick launch.
Yeah, yeah. Seems like it.
I mean, there's kind of, you know, BLADE meability in a box. When we, in terms of, like, onboarding a new, you know, hospital, there's a real process to it, and we can do it very quick.
Interesting. Okay. Maybe transitioning now to the, excuse me, the consumer side of the business. Obviously, you cater to a much higher-end consumer than maybe other forms of, other forms of travel. Can you just give us a status update on kind of what you're seeing from a demand perspective? I think there are a lot of just general consumer concerns out there, probably less, a little less so on the higher end, but just curious to get your view as, you know, I guess Memorial Day weekend sits in a week, and I'm sure your business will be kind of up and running at a fever pitch by at that point in time. So just curious what you're seeing.
Sure.
in terms of demand.
Well, I think, you know, we're obviously a year-round business. When I think about, you know, the consumer, you know, you have to go from the most affordable kind of $195 aircraft flight, where with an airport pass for $795, you can fly for $95 year-round, beating UberX handily. Even without the pass, you're beating Uber Black. And we're one of one. People say, "Who are your competition?" Our competition when it comes to airport, is ground. And even frankly, for our leisure routes in New York, our competition is ground.
Yep.
We now have the, you know, I think most recent quarter, we announced that our average price per seat on airports is now up to $330. Why and how are we dealing with that, and why is it working? Well, I think that our view is you always want to if you're going to take advantage of price and elasticity, you better offer better service for that price. Because even if people do have money, they wanna see value, period.
Mm-hmm.
So if you wanna fly without excess luggage and a fixed ticket that is non-refundable, you could do it at certain times at $195. If you're flying at peak periods, you want excess luggage, you want enhanced seating, you want a car waiting for you when you land in Manhattan, that, that can come up to $330.
Yes.
or higher. And so we're really... You know, that seems to be working. We don't wanna lose people who are value conscious, but we also want to cater to people who have more, you know, who may not have as much flexibility and are willing to pay for enhanced flexibility, willing to pay for having more luggage on board-
Yep.
on such. So I think that's working.
Mm-hmm.
On leisure, especially when you think about the Hamptons, you know, we're talking about, you know, $1,000 a seat. And we have not... And that is incredibly, obviously, when you think about other forms of transportation, you know, expensive, but, you know, it is a very unique market.
Sure.
We have close to, we have 100% market share now. We started out with 10%. 100% market share by the seat, probably about 80%-
Really?
plus in charter. And, I think, you know, at the end of the day, you have a lot of people going back to work, which is good for us. And, you know, when people are leaving on Fridays and coming back on Mondays, or even if they're doing it on Thursdays, the concept of an additional eight hours on your weekend by flying instead of driving, amortizing the cost of your rental house or your
I like the sounds of that.
It actually kind of pays for itself. It can pay for literally if you did it every weekend, it could pay for, you know, an extra two weeks or more of your home. And also just the idea of like, you know, getting there in a non-stress basis, and so it's working, and it continues to work. I think we're kind of, as I said, you know, we're at, you know, maximum market share. There will be some probably, hopefully, like, single-digit growth there. I see a lot of opportunity, obviously, in Europe. There's a lot of overlap between our customers. We do have customers-
Yeah.
It's nice to be able to say customers who go to Europe and enjoy our service.
Mm-hmm.
In Europe, whether it be just to be in, you know, the south of France in August, or going to events like Cannes Lions, Cannes Film Festival, which is happening right now, the Monaco Grand Prix, which is in a week. So it's great to have an element of the business for that high-end customer, because we've built a great brand and a great level of service, and it works.
Yeah. I'm curious on what the take rate has been on the pass product, right? I think you said for $700, kind of-
Oh, on the airport pass product?
Yeah, the airport pass product.
Yeah. So, I don't think we disclose exactly the numbers.
Okay.
But it is extremely fast-growing, and what's really important to us is, for you to buy that pass, you're telling us you know you're gonna fly eight times, because that's the way it becomes value.
Yeah.
So we continue to sell a lot of those airport passes. And it's a great indicator for our investors that, hey, like, this is not a one and done. People really see the value, and not only people in New York, people who come to New York. So a lot of people think about us as BLADE, well, on the passenger side, it's such a New York-oriented business. It isn't. It's global. And it's not just global because we're in Europe and in Canada and New York, it's because everyone at some point comes to New York.
Right.
So London, where we're not operating, Asia, you know, they're all coming to New York, and they get to see the product, and they remember the product, they tell people about it, and it really kind of amplifies the brand, amplifies, you know, our, you know, awareness and the willingness for, you know, people talking to people about using this as a way to get to and from the airport when you're coming to New York City. We have deals with lots of hotels, deals with lots of corporations. We're a block away from Hudson Yards in terms of our West Side terminal.
Mm-hmm.
We also have an East Side terminal, and you could literally have, you know, lunch at, you know, around noon in Hudson Yards and be on a 2:00 P.M. or 2:30 P.M. flight to LA. That is just unheard of.
Right.
So we've kind of reinvented the red eye for a lot of people. So a lot of people will come from California, a lot of VCs in San Francisco. They'll land in New York, and they'll go check in early, check in with their hotel, take a nap, shower, relax, as opposed to kind of landing, fighting that traffic, going straight to a meeting, looking like you were on a bender all night. Right? So, you know, as I said, we definitely, you know, have gotten people more comfortable with taking those red eyes again.
Yeah, interesting.
And then also, just actually to back on that also, you know, we talked about the hotels and the corporations, but also the airlines. You know, JetBlue, we have a deal with JetBlue, where on Mosaic Plus, you have four free flights a year. Mosaic, I think, one or two. TrueBlue, you get a discount. And then if you fly Mint from LA to New York, it comes with a BLADE flight at various periods during the year.
I fully appreciate it.... I, I don't think I need that.
Yeah. I think that's a great way for takeup. Again, this is not like, you know, one of these deals where someone said to us, "Give us flights, and we'll promote it." This is a flight bank that was purchased.
Mm-hmm.
Okay?
Right.
You know, we're very good at marketing, we're very good at brand building. One of our fastest-growing, highest margin business is brand activations, and, this is something that I think they, they thoughtfully saw what a great way to distinguish yourself from other premium carriers when it's integrated and, and harmonized with a helicopter.
Is that exclusive? Or if, I don't... I'm just thinking if Delta or if someone else came to you, are you able to provide a similar, similar type of service?
It's non-exclusive.
It's non-exclusive.
It's, you know, a non-exclusive. This is really specifically for their loyalty program also.
Correct, yep.
And then also in Europe, which we made an announcement yesterday, we now have an interline agreement with Emirates. You know, again, you know, you know, Nice Airport is this kind of incredible nexus for all of-
Sure
... Southern Europe. So now you can book on Emirates directly from Dubai to Monaco, so one ticket. And so when you land in Nice, you're transferred by one of our staff to the Blade, you know, the Blade terminal, getting quickly onto a Blade helicopter, completing your mission to Monaco, as opposed to the multiple steps.
Yes.
That's something we can't wait... It's interesting. It's something we can do in Europe, and we're gonna announce a lot more of these interline agreements. Something that we're working on in the U.S., a little tougher, but-
Why is that?
You know, regulatory-
Yeah
... various regulatory issues on, you know, the operator side here, but it'll happen-
Okay
... in the US. The more we get integrated with these airlines, whether it be a loyalty program or interline agreement, the more take-up rate, we're gonna have.
Why don't we see your service in, like, a London or...?
There's no place to freaking land.
Okay.
It's interesting. Yeah, I'd love to be in London. You have Battersea Heliport. And Heathrow, you can't land a helicopter.
Oh, okay.
If you actually went from Heathrow, you'd leave Heathrow Airport for 25 minutes, go to a landing zone 20 minutes away-
Yeah
... get in a helicopter, land in Battersea, and for most people, Battersea is not convenient.
Mm-hmm.
So my big analogy is that, you know, flying from Heathrow to Battersea is literally if I flew you from JFK to get into the city, and my landing zone was LaGuardia.
Right.
Doesn't make any sense.
Right.
But there are, from a private aviation perspective, jets that lands in Luton, other private airports, they do... There are people that do-
That do get around.
... that kind of mission. They also require, in large part, twin engine, really expensive, so it's a really high bar-
Okay
... for someone to save 30 minutes to pay kind of, you know, GBP 6,000, GBP 7,000 to fly. I mean, you really gotta wanna get in a helicopter. You know, we wanna provide a little more value. I mean, I think at some point, when EVA's here, that's obviously gonna open up, but right now it's a very limited market.
Okay. We only have a little over a minute or so left, but did want to ask you about kind of balance sheet. I know you recently put in a share buyback program, I believe, into the company. How are you thinking about using this in the future?
Sure. We've had, you know, $150 million of, or north of, cash. And again, you know, we wanna deploy that what's best for, to enhance shareholder value, obviously. We do see acquisitions. I think given where interest rates are now, the ability to be extra competitive with private equity, and not necessarily having to use debt unless it's favorable-
Okay
...gives us a real strategic advantage. Always believe kind of cash is king. At the same time, when we see momentary dislocations in the market, a real volatility, and we see an opportunity to, you know, buy our stock at levels that just make absolutely no sense, you know, we're gonna take advantage of those opportunities. But again, we always have to weigh it with short-term and mid-term opportunities, and we're seeing a lot of them every day, and it's a much better use of our capital to, you know, make strategic acquisitions that can not only be accretive in day one, have good return, but we can supercharge that return if it uses the platform of BLADE.
Okay. Great. Right on time. Rob, thank you very much.
Great. Thank you. Pleasure.