2025 WORKS Accelerator visits Cirrus Aircraft facility in Alcoa
The seven participating start-ups in the 2025 accelerator program learned the importance of offering a curated customer experience.
For the second year in a row, Cirrus welcomed the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center’s WORKS Accelerator companies to its Alcoa campus for a behind-the-scenes tour and an in-depth discussion on customer experience. This year’s visit was led by Matthew Park, Cirrus’s Director of IT, and Rebecca Nash, the Customer Experience Team Business Partner. They also both serve as mentors for the accelerator.
Cirrus approaches customer experience in a way that sets it apart. When someone purchases a plane, the delivery process becomes an immersive, high-end experience designed to leave a lasting impression. It creates a powerful “wow factor” and builds strong brand loyalty.
Imagine this: You’re picked up at the airport in a luxury vehicle. As you approach the garage, your favorite song—one the Cirrus team has already learned—is playing. The garage door slowly rises in darkness. That same song is synced and playing inside the building. Your heart starts to race. Suddenly, spotlights flash on, illuminating your brand-new, gleaming private aircraft.
That’s the kind of unforgettable experience Cirrus is known for.
The company’s roots trace back to 1984 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where brothers Dale and Alan Klapmeier began developing their first aircraft, the VK-30. That model had its first flight in 1988.
In 2017, Cirrus opened the Vision Center Campus in Knoxville. The facility offers aircraft sales, delivery, flight training, maintenance, customer support, and design personalization—all under one roof.
The Vision Center is also home to the world’s only two Vision Jet flight simulators of their kind. These massive machines move in real time with the pilot and project realistic flight visuals onto a large screen, providing the sensation of flight without ever leaving the ground.
In addition to the tour, the founders engaged in discussions with Cirrus’s customer experience team about how to deepen customer-company relationships and enhance the digital experience at every touchpoint.
John Foust, the Director of Marketing and Design, and Tom Sederquist, IQ Product Manager, stepped in to lead the next educational session for the founders. Sederquist detailed how communication helps teams function with consistency in a fast-paced environment. And Foust added how technology and artificla integlligence can be a key tool for teams to do so.
The day wrapped up with a word from Park talking about how Cirrus has changed the private aircraft industry.
He said big things happen when companies can move out of the analysis phase and into the action phase.
“You have to get your hands dirty and make things happen,” Park said.
Read more about the WORKS Accelerator.
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