Beacon
About us

Built by people who know the field

Beacon exists because general aviation airports deserve better than a spreadsheet and a shared inbox.

Our story

General aviation airports run on relationships and records — who called first, who moved up, who has been waiting three years for a T-hangar. Most fields track all of it in a spreadsheet that only one person fully understands.

We started Beacon to put that work on solid ground: a clear, defensible hangar waitlist, tenant records staff can trust, and reporting a manager can hand to a board without rebuilding it by hand. The Hangar Waitlist is our first product, and it is the start of a broader airport management platform.

Founders

Jen Diffenderfer

Co-founder

Jen has spent her career close to the operational side of general aviation, working alongside airport staff who keep hangar records, tenant agreements, and waitlists moving every day.

She started Beacon after seeing the same pattern at field after field: the waitlist lived in a spreadsheet, the history lived in someone's memory, and neither one survived a staffing change.

At Beacon she leads product and customer work, spending most of her time with airport managers to make sure every feature reflects how the job is actually done.

Eliot Danner

Co-founder

Eliot builds the software behind Beacon, with a focus on systems that stay dependable when a single record can decide who gets the next open hangar.

He came to aviation from years of building tools for small teams that carry outsized operational responsibility, where clarity and an accurate audit trail matter more than features.

At Beacon he leads engineering and platform security, keeping tenant data protected and every waitlist change traceable.

Want to see Beacon at your field?

Tell us about your airport and we'll walk through the Hangar Waitlist with you.

Request a demo