Silicon Canals
TRENDING
  • Mobility
  • AI
  • FinTech
  • Software & SaaS
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • COVID-19
    • Startups
    • Scaleups
    • FinTech
    • AI and chatbots
    • Travel & Mobility
    • Software & SaaS
    • Health & Medtech
    • (Crowd)funding
    • Blockchain
    • Internet of things
    • Hardware
    • Accelerators
    • E-commerce
    • Cybersecurity
    • Gaming & Virtual Reality
    • Drones
  • Features
    • Promoted content
    • How-to
    • Knowledge & Insights
    • Guest Contributions
    • Scaling-up in Europe
  • Amsterdampartner
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Jobs
  • About
    • Partner with Silicon Canals
    • Team
    • Contact
  • Home
  • News
    • COVID-19
    • Startups
    • Scaleups
    • FinTech
    • AI and chatbots
    • Travel & Mobility
    • Software & SaaS
    • Health & Medtech
    • (Crowd)funding
    • Blockchain
    • Internet of things
    • Hardware
    • Accelerators
    • E-commerce
    • Cybersecurity
    • Gaming & Virtual Reality
    • Drones
  • Features
    • Promoted content
    • How-to
    • Knowledge & Insights
    • Guest Contributions
    • Scaling-up in Europe
  • Amsterdampartner
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Jobs
  • About
    • Partner with Silicon Canals
    • Team
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Silicon Canals
No Result
View All Result

Vince Meens, CEO Jetwise, shares why all-you-can-fly startup crashed

Stam by Stam
September 13, 2016
in Travel & Mobility, Startups
0
Vince Meens, CEO Jetwise, shares why all-you-can-fly startup crashed
13
SHARES
LinkedInTwitterWhatsAppFacebook

Last week, CEO Vince Meens announced that his all-you-can-fly-platform JetWise filed for bankruptcy. The Amsterdam-based startup offered a subscription based model where clients could take unlimited seats on scheduled flights with private jets from the Dutch capital to hotspots like Cannes and Ibiza for 10.000 euro’s a year.

Shared economy

The idea was simple and straightforward: bringing the shared economy mindset to the skies. Research showed that 95 percent of private jets almost never left the airport hangar, when at the same time there was a market for people who desired to fly custom routes at specifics times that weren’t operated by regular airlines. Vince Meens saw an opportunity and took it.

 - Partner content -
Cost of software - The Software house
The cost of building software
Marek Gajda, CTO of The Software House, shares his insights on building high-quality...Show More
Marek Gajda, CTO of The Software House, shares his insights on building high-quality software. Show Less
Read more

Jetwise

Pivots

But since the promising launch, Jetwise made several pivots. The company started as a marketplace for private jet charters, pivoted to a business model that was focused on operating pop-up flights with private jets to special events and eventually changed to the subscription-based model with fixed routes where it all didn’t match up and forced everything into a halt. We all know that pivots are expensive and risky; they not only cost money, but also take time to develop, create awareness and trust – not having enough money & runway (time) to go through this it put the business under enormous pressure.

“The original marketplace model cost a lot of money to develop and was profitable, however since it’s only relevant for a very high-end audience, it’s very resource- and time expensive to get to the volume where you can run a good business based on it,” says Meens. “The pop-up model was cheap to develop but very risky at the execution to be profitable. It’s like running a traditional airline: If we didn’t sell enough seats to fill the aircraft we would have to pay the difference to charter it.”

Jetwise

Risk

Meens continues to say that the final subscription-based model was easy to develop, but lot’s of risk was involved cost wise with the execution. “This model works at a certain scale when you start to get all kinds of benefits from high utilisation and bulk discounts and start to behave like a normal airline. There was a lot of interest in the market in the beginning but the majority was a bit held back by if we would actually fly, optimists as we were we therefor launched on a smaller scale than we modeled, so the model didn’t start to work at full efficiency. On the other side we didn’t have the money or predictability of demand yet to bulk purchase our flights.”

Future

Meens believes that although the company didn’t make it, there is a future for this specific business model. “Our clients loved the convenient timing JETWISE provided. We departed at five in the afternoon on a friday, and since you could arrive fifteen minutes before your flight, no time was wasted at the airport. The relaxed, guaranteed seats, free parking and carefree travel lead to nice friendships and business.”

JetWise

Distance

For now, Meens is taking some distance to reflect on his turbulent journey. “But I am still intrigued by aviation and still see massive opportunity in changing the existing models: besides the discounter-model, pretty much every aspect stayed the same throughout the years. But like every industry, the desire to do things differently is necessary to grow and innovate.”

Featured image, far right Vince Meens, far left co-founder Robert van Monsjou

close

Want to stay on top of the latest rounds, coolest tech and hottest startups?

Subscribe to our free, daily news blast and stay up-to-date!

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

 - Partner content -
Nebula CTO Andre Witte
Cloud spend management 😱
Tracking cloud spend can be tricky. Learn from Nebula's CTO Andre Witte how to keep the...Show More
Tracking cloud spend can be tricky. Learn from Nebula's CTO Andre Witte how to keep the costs at bay in 2021. Show Less
Read more
Tags: jetsJetwisesharing economyvince meens
Share1Tweet3SendShare5
  • About Silicon Canals
  • Partner with Silicon Canals
  • Contact us
  • Newsletter
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms & Conditions Silicon Canals

Silicon Canals 2014-2020 | Website: Bright Idiots

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • COVID-19
    • Startups
    • Scaleups
    • FinTech
    • AI and chatbots
    • Travel & Mobility
    • Software & SaaS
    • Health & Medtech
    • (Crowd)funding
    • Blockchain
    • Internet of things
    • Hardware
    • Accelerators
    • E-commerce
    • Cybersecurity
    • Gaming & Virtual Reality
    • Drones
  • Features
    • Promoted content
    • How-to
    • Knowledge & Insights
    • Guest Contributions
    • Scaling-up in Europe
  • Amsterdam
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Jobs
  • About
    • Partner with Silicon Canals
    • Team
    • Contact

Silicon Canals 2014-2020 | Website: Bright Idiots

X

This website uses cookies to ensure the best possible experience. We may share this information with our advertising and analytics partners. By clicking 'Accept', you agree to our use of cookies and similar technologies. More info