Stonks

Stonks, operating from the stonks.com domain, presents PilotGPT, an AI copilot for general aviation pilots. The product answers questions about regulations, procedures and aircraft-specific numbers by grounding responses in a pilot's aircraft Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH) and approved manuals, including flight operations manuals, minimum equipment lists and maintenance manuals. Airport data, VFR and IFR charts and approach plates are sourced from official FAA material. Functions cover route planning, weather briefs, checklist retrieval in the cockpit, map-based position awareness and offline ATC transcription.

The product is positioned against general-purpose large language models on the grounds that such models can hallucinate and are not reliable for aviation use. Stated differentiators versus ChatGPT include running fully offline on-device, awareness of the user's position on a map, training on a specific airplane's numbers, sourcing of all answers to official documents, and purpose-built design for pilots. Coverage spans more than 500 aircraft models across manufacturers including Cirrus (SR20, SR22, SR22T), Cessna (150, 152, 172, 182), Piper (PA-28, Arrow, Seminole), Diamond (DA20, DA40, DA42), Beechcraft (Bonanza, Baron) and Mooney (M20 series), with compatibility described as expanding weekly.

Under the same domain, Stonks was earlier described as a platform for startup demo days intended to widen access to early-stage venture deals for founders and investors outside established networks. It restricted participation in deals to accredited investors under Regulation D, worked primarily with incubators and accelerators such as Techstars, 500 Global and Draper, and reported roughly 6,000 VCs on the platform.

Founding story

According to the company site, PilotGPT was created by founder Murti Hussain, described as a pilot with roughly 500 hours and a couple of years of flying, out of the experience of solo general aviation flying while managing charts, regulations, checklists and ATC without a second crew member. In an earlier podcast interview, Ali Moiz recounted that the Stonks venture-deal platform began after he bought the stonks.com domain and ran pitch competitions on Clubhouse and Zoom in which founders pitched VCs who gave live feedback and sometimes invested; the first Zoom event involved about 30 investors and three startups with six figures changing hands, after which the format was productized.

Business model

Stonks operates a subscription software product, PilotGPT, priced at $49.99 per month with a discounted $29.99 per month tier for student pilots, certified flight instructors and pilots on an airline track; special pricing is offered to flight schools and aviation organizations on request. In its earlier deal-platform form, the company hosted demo days for incubators and accelerators and channelled deal access to accredited investors rather than operating as a Regulation CF crowdfunding platform.

Recurring monthly subscription revenue from pilots ($49.99/month standard, $29.99/month discounted) plus custom pricing arrangements with flight schools and aviation organizations.

Traction

The company site reports more than 10,000 flight hours logged, more than 1,000 pilots using PilotGPT and support for more than 500 aircraft models. For the earlier deal platform, a 2022 podcast episode cited growth from zero to $200 million in investments in five months and approximately 6,000 VCs on the platform, with accelerator partners including Techstars, 500 Global and Draper hosting demo days.