‘You have to sacrifice your personal life’
Vishal Hiremath, CEO and co-founder of JetClub, approaches his companies, JetClub and Jet It, with an undying passion. For the rest of his time, it’s food, bikes and US reality TV show Shark Tank. Words: Yuvan Kumar
‘You have to sacrifice your personal life’
Vishal Hiremath, CEO and co-founder of JetClub, approaches his companies, JetClub and Jet It, with an undying passion. For the rest of his time, it’s food, bikes and US reality TV show Shark Tank. Words: Yuvan Kumar
“IF I AM WORKING 18-hour days, 17 hours are spent on JetClub and Jet It, maybe one hour on exercise, and in between, I try to grab some food,” says Vishal Hiremath, CEO and co-founder, JetClub. He is not complaining. It is just one of the occupational hazards of being an entrepreneur, according to Hiremath.
He co-founded the US-based Jet It with Glenn Gonzales in 2018. While working at HondaJet the pair saw the opportunity to sell shares from one tenth to half of a HondaJet Elite. In 2020 they launched JetClub to take the business international.
JetClub starts with one eighth HondaJet shares and also goes to one half. Co-owners pay a fixed hourly fee of €2,500 ($3,000), including all landing and handling fees, with no repositioning costs when they fly, with the fixed costs shared between the other owners. JetClub’s first flight was in May 2021. It has already flown to almost every country in Europe. He is planning to launch in Asia next year.
Hiremath’s days begin between 5:00 and 6:00 am, with checking emails and making calls to team members worldwide. “We have team members based in the US, UK, Europe, UAE, India and elsewhere in Asia,” says the entrepreneur based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Remote working was Hiremath’s philosophy before it became trendy (or the norm). “It’s not about where you sit, it’s about getting the job done. My team has the freedom to live where they want and work from where they want.”
He has not yet met every member of the team in person. Virtual interviews were enough to hire. “It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had in terms of how we work together,” he said. Hiremath hopes to have his first team meeting – at JetClub’s Malta office – this year.
His drive to work on both companies is so high, that there is not much time for non-work activities in the day. He is on a morning walk during the interview, but “my social life is non-existent”, says Hiremath. It’s like the TV series Shark Tank, he says, where “you have to sacrifice a lot of your personal life” to make a start-up successful.
The foodie in Hiremath tries new cuisines on the weekend. His favourites are Japanese and Lebanese. And, as a former owner of a Yamaha 650 bike – a cross between a cruiser and a sports bike – he hires bikes and rides in his spare time. “It’s a form of meditation.”
Hiremath wants to grow the JetClub fleet and add electric aircraft as launch operator for Bye Aerospace in Europe and Asia. He adds: “The eFlyer 800 is the perfect aircraft for us.”
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