Jet Set Go: VC’s going charter way

While jet ownership is nothing new for captains of industry, what seems like a vast expense falls into proportion when you consider that in the Valley a small house can go for the same price as a King Air plane. Plane-owning venture capitalists invariably say that buying an aircraft isn't about status. It's about convenience. It's about time management. It's about family values.

"I can go to a meeting in San Diego in the morning and one in Orange County in the afternoon and be home in time for dinner," says old-school VC Pitch Johnson, who has a Galaxy Asta SPX and a time pilot on tap. "Which is important if you like your wife."

IVP's Reid Dennis, Sequoia's Don Valentine and Doug Leone, Sierras Jeff Drazen and Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr and Joe Lacob are all known for their private jet-setting ways. While Hawkers and Citation IIs are most common, the $18 million to $35 million Gulf Streams, Falcons and Citation Xs that can traverse the country in a single bound are the ultimate status symbol. "Tom Stephenson at Sequoia has a G-IV," says the envious investment banker. "It's sick, it's so nice."

"No, no, not everyone has a plane," protests Mayfield fund partner Kevin Fong, who boasts two: a Citation II and a King Air. "Well, I do know a lot of people who have at least fractional ownership." After thinking for a moment, Fong eventually cedes the point entirely: "Most of the people I know do."

And who hasn't dreamed of bypassing the ever-worsening airport experience. You get to drive straight onto the flight line, toss the keys to a valet and dash aboard a plane set to take off. This can be yours even if you only partially own an airplane. Fractional-shares programs like Net-Jets, a savvily (and, in 1986, presciently) named program, are available for less-successful VCs who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for partial ownership of a jet. But that's a far cry from the real high-flyers for whom the pinnacle of status is the plane you don't have - yet. Fong has had his Citation II for a year and a half, but he is on the list for a Raytheon Premier, which is still completing the FAA certification process.

But as many of the startups they've invested in take a nosedive, even the flashiest VCs fear backlash. Although three partners at Sequoia have planes, nobody there wants to talk about it. When pressed, Sequoia spokesman Mark Dempster laughs nervously and says: "Coach. For business they all fly coach."