THE INNOVATION OF A BROWNIE
DIFFERENT It was time to celebrate... They were guests of Bob Sillerman, the president of SFX, for a boondoggle to the Bahamas. As he prepared for takeoff and buckled his seatbelt, he looked around the luxurious aircraft and then over at his partner. “ How do we get to do this all of the time ?” There were only three ways at the time to fly private: own, buy a fractional share with a five-year commitment, or charter a plane – none of which was very accessible to a large demographic. It wasn’t realistic even if you made $1 million a year. So he and his partner created an untapped market for people who wanted to fly privately a few times a year. The company was different. To get a deal with Warren Buffett’s private- plane operator NetJets, they marched Carl Banks from the New York Giants, music superstars Run-DMC, a top sports agent for NBA players, and a Wall Street guy who
owned his own firm into NetJets’ office. NetJets had a fleet of 500 planes. Their idea was to sell a 25-hour prepaid flight card to get access to one of NetJets planes... all of the benefits, none of the long-term responsibility. They brought the focus group to them and one by one each of these stars explained how and why they’d never buy a fraction of a jet, but they would spend $100,000-$200,000 on a jet card. Soon after, Marquis Jet was formed. Flying first class would never be the same. Berkshire Hathaway, the parent company of NetJets, bought Marquis Jet in 2009. That same year, Jesse took yet another step up. He created and founded the 100 Mile Group – a
Now he was picking and choosing which brownies he wanted to eat...
Jesse is now re-inventing business retreats
24 | September 2017
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