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Alpha Kappa Psi Gamma Nu at Babson | The Rise of Discount Business Class Flights
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Connecting the Dots
Members of Alpha Kappa Psi helped transform what began as a prepaid travel experiment into one of the early internet-era discount business class ventures. Fraternity brother Barak Shibles introduced the prepaid travel concept to traders in Mexico, which soon expanded through Manhattan and Miami before connecting with David Sharpie, creator of the 1st-Air.Net domain. Sharpie had proven that 1st-Air.Net could aggregate international travelers online, but lacked the infrastructure and airfare expertise needed to convert inquiries into large-scale ticket sales.
That’s where Robert Laney and Alpha Kappa Psi Gamma Nu at Babson entered the picture. Drawing from a broad arsenal of airfare strategies—including AD75 owner discounts, contract fares, offshore originations and other premium cabin pricing tactics—1st-Air.Net quickly evolved from a lead-generation concept into a functioning international travel operation. A referral agreement with David Sharpie accelerated growth almost immediately. Early bookings came primarily from leisure travelers, but the business changed overnight when an unnamed Boston biotech company requested thirty business class tickets to Brussels. Within an hour, a $135,000 credit card authorization arrived, validating both the market demand and the scale of the opportunity.
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Members of Alpha Kappa Psi during the entrepreneurial boom of the 1990s. Centered at the top of the pyramid is Involuntary Reroute author Robert Laney alongside fraternity brother Dinos "The Greek: Hionides. Also pictured are Ara Hajian, Jon Kent, Robert Saba, Sean Joyce and Helen Maloney. The Babson and AKPsi network would later help fuel early discount business class travel ventures, hidden city ticketing strategies and the rise of internet-era airfare entrepreneurship.[/caption]
The Babson and AKPsi network had unexpectedly created a pipeline stretching from Mexico City to Wall Street and eventually into the emerging online travel economy. Long before startup incubators, LinkedIn and venture-backed travel apps became commonplace, relationships built through Babson College and AKPsi Gamma Nu were already connecting traders, entrepreneurs and early internet pioneers across international markets.
Before 1st-Air.Net formally took shape, another lesson from the Babson community would prove prophetic. AKPsi Gamma Nu brother Barry Osherow—an early participant in Spring Street Brewing and later Spring Street Capital—offered a warning that stayed with Laney for years: “When raising capital, don’t just raise money. Raise smart money. Steer clear of the dumb money.”
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March 9, 1995 Babson Free Press article featuring Alpha Kappa Psi Gamma Nu at Babson College. The story covered a proposed BISO bailout and reflected the entrepreneurial culture that defined Babson and AKPsi during the 1990[/caption]
"ITS PITTSFORD AND YOU NEED CAPITAL. AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, YOU’RE ALREADY AN INTERNET MILLIONARE. HOW ABOUT AN $11 MILLION VALUATION, A CAPITAL RAISE OF UP TO $5 MILLION AND YOU RETAIN CONTROL. KNOW WHAT I MEAN? BY NEXT YEAR, WE’LL RAISE YOU EVEN MORE MONEY AND YOU’LL BE WORTH 100 MILLON SMACKERS. HOW DOES THAT GRAB YOU? DON’T THINK, JUST DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!"
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