The Russian president of the startup “Uber for airplanes” was arrested in Florida

Фото: Depositphotos

The JetSmarter project, founded by Moscow-born Sergei Petrossov, organizes budget flights on private jets. The project is often called the 'Uber for aircraft ”, allowing program subscribers to occupy empty seats in private jets. Startup JetSmarter was founded in 2012 year and has already managed to gain fame, as well as popular investors, including the royal family of Saudi Arabia and musician Jay Z.

In December, 2016, JetSmarter closed an investment round of $ 105 million, which raised the company's total value to $ 1,5 billion, writes Forbes.

However, after this, the company was in serious trouble.

In February, 2017, on suspicion of fraud, arrested the company's president, Edward (Gennady) Barsky, right at his workplace in an office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. California court accuses him of deceiving investors of another project and fraud in the amount of $ 11 million.

Later the businessman was released with the condition not to leave the country, the court hearing on the case will be held in the first half of March. It will be decided upon when Barsky is escorted to California to participate in the criminal process on charges of fraud on a large scale.

Due to the current situation, Barsky left the presidency of JetSmarter, while Petrossov noted that the current president’s detention had no effect on the company's work.

"We are very sorry. But this (Barsky’s arrest) has nothing to do with the company,” Petrossov said, clarifying that after Barsky left his post, he himself was responsible for fulfilling his duties.

“I took on a little extra responsibility. This did not affect the business in any way,” said the head of JetSmarter.

At the same time for the year 2016 company changed several financial directors. Barsky was the financial director until January 2016, when he was appointed president. He was replaced by Joe Epstein, who worked in this position for the entire 10 months, as the financial director. In October, 2016, Edward Codispotti took his place.

Sergey Petrossov's parents immigrated to the United States when he was 4. Petrossov had several IT projects in the USA and Russia, writes Republic.

He founded a technology project - LiveContact, aimed at Western Europe and offering sites to organize customer support through chat, audio and video. Another of his startups, the Federal Distance Education System, was one of the first in the field of online education in Russia. But due to the bureaucratic processes in Russia, Petrossov handed it over to the state and left the project.

Even then, he used charter flights for flights, but the process of booking such flights, he said, was very long and complicated. A fax was used for this, which reminded the businessman of the “80's Exchange”. That is how the idea of ​​creating JetSmarter - “Uber for aircraft”, which brought real success to a businessman, appeared.

“The similarity between JetSmarter and Uber is that both services allow you to quickly and conveniently book a flight in a mobile application. With us you can do it in a few minutes, bypassing the chain of brokers, and fly away within a few hours. We calculate the availability of flights in real time, based on information directly from the airlines, ”said Petrossov.

According to the businessman, since the launch in 2013, the audience of the service has been growing by 15-20% every month, the number of flights booked through the JetSmarter app is over 10 thousand per year.

“Most often they fly in the so-called“ golden triangle ”- between Los Angeles, New York and South Florida. We focus on a wealthy audience, with a personal fortune of $ 100 thousand to $ 1 million, but in fact there are other users. I often say that we have one college student who bought a membership, breaking the installment into payments on two credit cards, ”said Petrossov.

The businessman admitted that, despite the fact that he grew up in the United States, he still did not break the connection with Russia and regularly visits his home country, where he has relatives and works with a subsidiary of 12 employees.

JetSmarter offers unlimited access to private jets for a subscription of $ 9 thousand per year. The initial membership fee is $ 15 thousand.

The company offers 3 different directions of work: JetDeals, allowing you to book a flight in a certain direction; JetShuttle, offering reservations in a multi-seat aircraft with a specific route; and JetCharter, with which the user can create their own route and select the category of aircraft.

The company operates around the world, except for military zones or routes that are considered dangerous for flights. Until the end of 2017, JetSmarter plans to operate in 100 countries of the world.

More information about the service can be found in ForumDaily about Sergey Petrossov and his startup.

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