How Sergey Petrossov, 29, invented a thriving billion-dollar company.
Sergey Petrossov is the CEO and founder of JetSmarter, a private-jet travel company founded in 2013.
One day, a friend of Sergey Petrossov introduced him to a private jet company in South Florida. The operator invited him for a flight, during which he discovered he discovered an old way of booking an expensive private plane.
It sounded funny; you had to make a call to get an invoice when booking a flight. You were supposed to sign, scan, and fax it back; there was no website or app to help book flights.
He realized that in a day, there were only 21,000 private, and 23,000 commercial flights in the US. The average plane was flying only 200, instead of 1500 hours a year, meaning many planes parked more than they flew. Of the 200 hours, about 66 hours had no return passengers. Those with passengers were only about a quarter way full.
The reason these planes flew less often is the archaic booking process. The few flight hours and few passengers kept the operation costs of a plane high. If the aircraft operated more often, flew more passengers, this would offset the fixed costs. It would make private business more profitable and efficient.
Sergey Petrossov developed the JetSmarter app in 2012 so as people could easily book private flights to whichever destination. The aviation feature in the app, which the community of flyers operates, allows you to create the trip you need, or you can join one that someone has started.
The sharing model by Petrossov allows passengers to pay less and enjoy a better flying experience. One of the company’s future goals is to decrease the cost of private flights until its comparable to commercial aviation. It will make travel more accessible and more enjoyable.