Photo Credit: Approved Experiences
Approved Experiences strives to deliver top-tier luxury experiences with great care and attention to detail – ultimately providing more value to their clients. Here, they talk about the company’s beginnings and where it’s going next.
Haute Living: What inspired the creation of Approved Experiences, and how does it differentiate from Approved Jets?
Aaron Wilson: We started Approved Jets back in 2019. Our primary focus was to be able to service individuals who were high net worth, ultra-high net worth, and professionals from private equity folks to physicians, attorneys, athletes, musicians, you name it – to provide them with exemplary service as it pertains to private aviation and concierge.
As time passed, we saw a huge market and demand for everything from private aviation to that which fell under the realm of concierge, luxury, and lifestyle. So, the car, the yacht, the fine dining experience, the villa, that’s how Approved Experiences, a sister company to Approved Jets, was brought to fruition.
Kelvin Mensah: What inspired me to get involved in the travel experience industry is that I’ve seen a gap in ensuring that people get the full experience when they travel from place to place. Aaron and I are driven by creativity and committed to making an impact in the industry and ensuring continued growth for our brand and the folks who fly, sail, and live via Approved Experiences.
HL: You talked about Approved Jets and Approved Experiences – How can you help your clients navigate all that under one roof, meet everyone’s needs, and ensure that every item and experience is great?Â
Aaron Wilson: At the end of the day, we operate as a hub for a diverse array of experiences and at a very high level in terms of clientele. This creates a dynamic where we want to focus on something called ‘KYV’, an acronym for ‘Know Your Vendor’. When you think about the financial services sector, ‘KYC’ is a part of that compliance layer where they think about knowing your client, knowing your customer, and being able to mitigate the risk.
Kelvin Mensah: I think knowing your vendor is just as important as knowing the clients that you’re servicing because the clients that we have, of course, are high-net-worth individuals, and you want to make sure that they’re getting the ultimate experience when they’re living these activities, taking on the excursions and they’re traveling.
HL: How do you ensure that sustainability, responsibility, and ESG-like compliance practices are weighted into your luxury travel experiences?
Aaron Wilson: That’s something Kelvin and I are always discussing. Even with some of our strategic partners (who are Fortune 100 companies), we’re having these kinds of conversations around ESG-oriented initiatives and what we can do to contribute to that arena.
A lot of our peers in the space may not hold acronyms like ESG and social responsibility in as high esteem, but for us, it’s very, very important because we can’t move the needle forward in the capacity that we’d like to if we don’t know who’s involved and how they’re treating their employees and how they’re operating with their strategic partners as well.
Photo Credit: Approved Experiences
HL: As an African American-owned enterprise, has the industry been inclusive to you? What’s been your experience as you have gotten into this?
Kelvin Mensah: Starting in the industry, from the private aviation side, was a unique experience. Regarding brand loyalty, for example, we have seen favoritism when it comes to different companies wanting to consistently work with vendors or brokers that they have a relationship with.
Make no mistake – We are pushing forward to see more African Americans enhancing these industries in the spirit of true inclusivity.
Aaron Wilson: Barriers to entry have always been very, very high in any competitive industry, specifically within the realm of luxury travel or private aviation. Those barriers to entry have several implications. Indeed, we don’t always get preferred pricing when working with some of our vendors. So, from a longer-term perspective, the solution to that will be vertical integration.
So, it’s not just relegated to only doing things as African Americans or individuals who are people of color, but more so also for women, also for individuals who are of different genders, different sexes. We need the playing field open to everyone as a whole in the spirit of a true 2024-era competition.
HL: Where do you see the future of luxury travel experiences, and what role do you see your company playing in that process?
Aaron Wilson:Â Over the next few years, I would see us leveraging technology in creative ways to create scalable solutions for some of the pain points that exist in the space. There are scalable solutions that we can provide to other brokers also that we already have in ideation, and we’re in the nascent stages of fleshing these out.
Additionally, we have some solutions for the vendor end user and the customer. So, I could see technology certainly being an integral part of our growth and the future of the industry. And we’ll say it now – we are looking at the start of a sub-sector within emerging technology called ‘Lux Tech,’ and we want to be at the forefront of Lux Tech.
Kelvin Mensah: I think not only will technology be a major factor, but I think you’ll also see the future of the mobilizing of energy coming into these aircraft and a lot of energy-based experiences coming to the forefront as well.
Aaron Wilson: We have been looking into other ways to fuel aircrafts.
There’s a little bit of apprehension towards electric-powered aircraft. However, other sources could operate as a substitute for the typical aircraft and how they are powered, some of which would consist of HVO, which is Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil; leveraging something that was already used and repurposing it to power these great aircraft.
Aaron Wilson: The Approved Experiences mobile application will be live in the Apple App Store as of February 15th, and from that point, you’ll be able to access our social club, which is a proprietary social club for the elite.Our proprietary news content feed, 24/7 concierge, and luxury marketplace where you can identify jets, yachts, cars, and villas and access empty leg charters every week – all of this is available at an affordable cost per month.
Kelvin Mensah: And, stay tuned – We look forward to the expansion of our travel routes to the regions of West Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai at the end of this year.
Written in partnership with Amsterdam
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