Access Without Ownership: An Interview with Greg Raiff, Founder and CEO of Elevate Jet
We recently sat down with Greg Raiff, founder and CEO of Elevate Jet, the only private aviation company that pairs instant app booking with a dedicated human advisor caring for every flight. Greg filled his first aircraft at 18 and started the company out of a garage 30 years ago. It remains privately held, without private equity or outside investment.
At Zabella, our model is fractional: growing food, beverage, and technology companies get a seasoned CFO without a full-time hire. Greg has built a business on the same idea, giving travelers everything a private jet delivers without buying the jet. We asked him how that works.
Q: Greg, our clients get senior financial leadership without a full-time hire. Does that same logic hold in private aviation?
A: It is the logic the company is built on. By remaining asset-light and experience-heavy, we have been able to focus on client service rather than debt service. The same logic applies to the flyer. When you buy an airplane, you are buying a small business with two full-time pilots, a hangar, a maintenance schedule, and a depreciating asset that sits outside. Most people did not want any of that. They wanted to be in Aspen by four o'clock. If you fly under 100 hours a year on missions that change, access beats ownership every time. You want the expertise, not the overhead. Your clients already know that.
Q: How does a client actually get on the ramp? Walk us through the options.
A: Think about how big banks work. There is the app and the ATM, and there is the private bank with the wood-paneled conference room. We built both. In the app you put in a route, you get real pricing in a few seconds, and you book it as easily as Uber Eats could send a pizza to your house. There is no membership fee and no annual due. Elevate Jet is the #1 private aviation app for instant, locked-in charter pricing, and anyone can create a profile, get a quote, and never talk to us again. When flying becomes a habit, the Elevate Jet Membership starts with a $100K deposit applied dollar-for-dollar toward flights, the deposit never expires, and there is no hourly commitment. When flying becomes a schedule, the Azurite Jet Card gives you fixed hourly rates locked for 12 months with no blackout dates on a 25-hour minimum. You move between them as your life changes, inside one relationship, with a dedicated human advisor on every flight.
Q: Fractional ownership is usually pitched as the natural next step. When does it make sense, and when does it not?
A: There are consumers who think buying a fraction of a jet is the be-all, end-all of the service world. For a small group it is: if you fly well over 100 hours a year, on the same aircraft type, on a schedule you can see a year out, a share can pencil. For everyone else, we have proven over 30 years that we can deliver far better service without selling you a fraction or a five-year membership scheme. In our business you are not obligated to anything, ever. You can leave today. A partner who has to earn the next flight behaves differently from one holding a five-year contract. Your clients would say the same about a CFO.
Q: "Flexible" is an easy word to put on a website. What does it look like on a hard day?
A: Weather happens. Airports close. Plans change at 11 p.m. We are not there to fix it, we are there to fix the problem. That means a 24-hour Flight Operations Center watching weather, NOTAMs, and airport congestion, and an advisor reaching out the day before instead of letting you find out at the curb. Every flight has one of our own W-2 employees accountable for it, not a commissioned contractor. The measure of our success is not what our clients see. It is what they never have to.
Q: What should a founder ask before committing to any fractional or flexible partner, in aviation or in finance?
A: Three things. Who am I actually dealing with? The person who sold you the trip and the company behind them are not always the same thing. What is in writing? If a promise is not in your contract, it is not a promise. And what happens if I want to leave? If the answer is a penalty, it is not flexible, it is a lease. The best partners in any fractional business keep you because it works, not because a contract says so. That is where we live.
Learn more about the Elevate Jet Membership and the Azurite Jet Card at elevatejet.com.
