Zillow users spend an average of five minutes and 40 seconds browsing 11 pages per visit. Most never contact an agent during those sessions. They research mortgage calculators, explore neighborhood demographics, run affordability scenarios.
That self-service exploration phase generates sustained engagement. Prospective buyers return repeatedly, “window shopping” before initiating transactions. Users build familiarity with properties, pricing, and market conditions through independent research rather than broker-dependent inquiries.
Sergey Petrossov wants to replicate that behavior pattern for private jet ownership. His latest venture, Aero Ventures, launched an AI-powered platform designed around the same principle: let prospective buyers explore aircraft valuations, ownership costs, and market comparables before they ever speak with advisors.
Petrossov founded JetSmarter in 2012, building a mobile platform that aggregated private charter flights and reached unicorn valuation before Vista Global acquired it in 2019. Following the acquisition, he served as President of XO and Chief Growth & Digital Officer of Vista Global, roles where XO’s revenue tripled during his tenure.
Now he’s targeting aircraft ownership transactions above $10 million, merging AI with strategies similar to those that have made Zillow real estate’s most successful digital platform.
Strategy One: Self-Service Data Access Before Broker Contact
Zillow’s core innovation was simple: give users pricing data without requiring agent interaction. Before the early 2000s, home buyers called real estate agents for basic market information. Zillow aggregated public records, recent sales, and tax assessments to generate instant home valuations accessible to anyone online.
The move eliminated information gatekeeping. Users researched independently, arriving at agent conversations informed rather than starting from zero knowledge.
Aero Ventures replicates this approach for aircraft transactions. Where brokers previously spent days or weeks collecting transaction histories and comparable sales data, Aero Ventures’ system delivers immediate valuations by continuously processing aircraft specifications, recent sales prices, and market activity.
Users can examine current inventory levels and how quickly specific aircraft types are selling.
The pre-owned business jet market generates roughly $12-15 billion in annual transactions. Traditional brokerage has navigated that sizable market operating through relationship-based information sharing, creating advantages for insiders while leaving other buyers to make huge purchase decisions incomplete data.
Recognizing this disconnect, Petrossov told Sherpa Report that Aero Ventures plans to become “the trusted digital and human powered ecosystem for buying, selling, and managing private aircraft globally” within three years.
Strategy Two: Building Continuous Engagement, Not One-Time Transactions
Zillow doesn’t just show listings. The platform offers mortgage calculators, school district ratings, property tax estimators, and neighborhood crime statistics. Users return repeatedly, each visit adding familiarity with the platform’s data even when they’re not actively transacting.
This continuous engagement model transformed real estate marketing. Instead of one-off interactions when buyers were ready to purchase, platforms maintained ongoing touchpoints throughout research phases.
Aero Ventures presents a similar opportunity for prospective aircraft buyers. Users can test different scenarios for charter revenue, examine various financing structures, and compare tax treatment across ownership models. Someone might model flying 200 hours annually, then adjust to 400 hours to see how increased utilization affects the economics of using a particular type of plane.
“Clients don’t necessarily want to call their broker every time they’re curious about a Challenger 350 or want to run the numbers on different ownership models,” Petrossov told Corporate Jet Investor. “When they can explore on their own and simulate real scenarios, it sparks ideas and builds familiarity.”
A prospective buyer might log in repeatedly to compare aircraft categories or check market trends, building a relationship with the Aero Ventures platform before they’re ready to execute deals. That engagement strengthens advisory relationships. When clients are ready to transact, they turn to the platform they’ve been interacting with throughout their research.
Strategy Three: Combining Platform With Human Expertise
Zillow never eliminated real estate agents. The company generates revenue by connecting users with agents through its Premier Agent program. Users research independently, but agents handle negotiations, inspections, and closings.
The hybrid model acknowledges that complex transactions require human expertise even when data is freely available. Platform tools accelerate information gathering and preliminary valuation. Professionals complete transactions.
Aero Ventures follows the same structure. Users examine valuations and run cost scenarios through the platform before contacting advisors. When clients do engage, they arrive with baseline understanding of market conditions, aircraft pricing, and ownership economics.
This division of labor allows advisors to concentrate on negotiation strategy, due diligence coordination, and transaction structuring rather than collecting basic market intelligence. Advisors can interpret data through operational expertise rather than spending time gathering it and summarizing it for buyers at an earlier stage.
Aircraft transactions involve customized financing arrangements, detailed maintenance assessments, regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions, and insurance structuring. Automated valuations establish starting points, but closing deals requires negotiation expertise and discretion that AI-driven platform tools can’t necessarily replace.
Strategy Four: Capital Deployment to Accelerate Transactions
Zillow attempted to move beyond pure platform operations through Zillow Offers, a program that purchased homes directly for cash offers. The initiative ultimately failed, but the strategic logic has been successfully implemented in other sectors. Platforms like CarMax and Carvana successfully executed similar models in automotive markets, offering guaranteed purchase prices valid for seven days. They deploy capital to acquire inventory directly, capturing profit from eventual resale rather than just facilitating introductions.
Using this approach, sellers gain immediate liquidity rather than waiting months for traditional sales processes. Buyers avoid working through parallel transactions.
Aero Ventures incorporates this kind of capital deployment as a core capability. The firm provides cash offers within 48 hours for aircraft purchases. Sellers can receive immediate payment or structured arrangements providing upfront funds with participation in eventual resale gains.
Bridge financing enables buyers to secure new aircraft even when capital remains tied up in existing assets. A buyer upgrading from a Challenger 350 to a Gulfstream G550 can acquire the new jet before selling the old one, avoiding the missed opportunities that occur when perfect aircraft become available but funds are locked up.
Capital deployment combined with automated valuation positions Aero Ventures differently than traditional aviation brokerage. As Petrossov puts it, the firm aims to capture value through multiple revenue streams: brokerage commissions on facilitated sales, interest income from bridge financing, and potential profit from owned inventory resale.
He frames the strategy around eliminating friction points that have defined aircraft transactions. “By solving for the two biggest pain points, lack of information and slow delivery, we believe Aero Ventures will become the hub where the world’s most discerning aviation clients begin and manage every major ownership decision,” he told Sherpa Report.
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