How Craft Pod’s Investment Strategy Works

Craft Pod’s investment strategy combines personal aviation benefits with financial growth. Members pool their contributions (whether cash or stock) into a fund that acquires and operates a fleet of private aircraft alongside other investments. The goal is twofold: members enjoy private flight hours each year, and their investment strives to grow in value (with returns comparable to broad market indices like the S&P 500). By using a mix of income-generating aircraft and index-tracking ETFs, Craft Pod aims to deliver both luxury travel utility and competitive financial returns.

When you join a Craft Pod, your contribution (cash or even stocks) is added to those of other members to create a substantial pool of capital. Instead of investing alone, you’re part of a group that can purchase high-value assets together. These funds are used to build a diversified portfolio of aviation and market assets. In essence, you contribute assets to the Pod, and that value is converted into ownership of real, productive assets – primarily business jets – as well as complementary investments to balance the portfolio.

Once the Pod reaches its funding goal, Craft uses the pooled capital to purchase a fleet of business jets (and possibly related aviation assets). We select a mix of aircraft that best fit our members’ needs – typically modern, efficient business jets known for reliability and strong residual value. These planes become part of the Pod’s fleet that you co-own through your investment. Each aircraft is acquired under careful terms, aiming for a favorable purchase price and considering factors like maintenance history and expected depreciation. Over time, we manage the fleet to maximize its value, performance, and availability for members.

To produce financial returns (and help cover operating costs), Craft charters out the jets when members aren’t using them. In practice, this means during downtime, our aircraft are offered for private charter flights to third parties, bringing in revenue. This charter income flows back into the Pod’s finances, offsetting expenses and contributing to your investment return. Essentially, your jets are working assets: they earn money when idle instead of sitting in a hangar. By leveraging charter demand, we turn the fleet into a source of ongoing income for the Pod’s investors.

Another advantage of owning aircraft through the Pod is the potential tax benefits. Under current tax laws, business aircraft can be depreciated – meaning we can write off a portion of the jets’ value each year as a business expense. Craft Pod takes full advantage of allowable accelerated depreciation programs to reduce taxable income. For owners, this “depreciation deduction” can be significant, often front-loaded in the early years of ownership. The tax savings from depreciation and other aviation tax incentives improve the net financial return of the Pod. (Of course, actual benefits depend on individual tax situations and applicable laws, but broadly, investing in aircraft can provide write-off opportunities not available in typical stock investments.)

Craft buys late-model jets after their steep first-year drop, maintains them to charter standards, and refreshes interiors on a set schedule. Managed this way, a jet’s resale curve flattens so its value falls far less than it would if you owned a brand-new fractional share or a single whole aircraft on your own. In short, we aim to protect more of your capital by softening depreciation, not by betting the planes will go up in price.

A unique benefit of Craft Pod’s model is that investors are not just passive stakeholders – you also get to use the assets. Each member is entitled to an annual allotment of private flight hours on the Pod’s jets. This works similarly to a fractional jet ownership program: based on your contribution, you receive a certain number of hours you can fly on the Pod’s aircraft each year (without paying charter rates). You’ll enjoy the convenience, privacy, and time-saving advantages of private aviation as part of your return on investment. Whether it’s for business trips or family vacations, your membership converts into real flying time on a fleet of jets at your disposal. This benefit turns the investment into a personal luxury experience, effectively giving you dividends in the form of flight hours.

Craft Pod’s strategy is designed to balance personal utility with financial performance. On one side, you have the tangible lifestyle perk of flying private through your included hours. On the other side, your contribution is working as an investment – generating charter income, gaining tax advantages, and growing with asset appreciation. Importantly, you can choose what asset to contribute (for example, if you contribute stock shares, you’re diversifying part of your wealth into aviation). The Pod converts whatever you contribute into a stake in the fleet and accompanying investments. The result is a blend of portfolio diversification and personal benefit: you’re effectively investing in an alternative asset class (private aviation) while still enjoying liquidity-like benefits (through charter income) and consumption benefits (through flight hours). This model aligns incentives – Craft (and fellow members) want the fleet to perform well financially and be readily available for everyone’s flying needs. In summary, the strategy lets you enjoy your investment in a very literal sense, without sacrificing the pursuit of profit and growth.

A key objective for Craft is to ensure that investing in a Pod doesn’t mean missing out on general market gains. We aim to sync the Pod’s performance with a broad market index (like the S&P 500) by investing a portion of the portfolio in index-tracking ETFs. In practice, this means some of the capital (especially if you contributed stocks or cash not immediately needed for aircraft purchases) is allocated to low-cost Exchange Traded Funds that mirror the S&P 500’s moves. By doing this, we anchor part of the Pod’s returns to the stock market’s performance. Index funds and ETFs passively replicate the market, giving investors exposure to the full basket of stocks in the index. For our members, this strategy provides reassurance that their investment in Craft Pod will track the broader equities market’s trajectory over time. If the S&P 500 grows, the ETF portion of our portfolio grows with it, helping your overall Pod stake keep pace with traditional investments. Essentially, we blend the unique returns of private aviation (charter income and asset value changes) with baseline market returns. This approach helps balance the portfolio, reduce volatility, and ensure that Craft Pod’s performance benchmark is comparable to standard investment options like an index fund.

When you invest in Craft Pod, your contribution works on multiple levels: it buys into a fleet of private jets, funds a diversified set of assets (from aircraft to index funds), and unlocks exclusive travel privileges for you. Over time, you benefit from multiple streams of return: charter income, potential asset appreciation of the jets, stock-market-aligned growth via our index ETF holdings, plus the value of the private flights you take. The Craft Pod strategy is about making every dollar (or stock share) you contribute do double duty – as an investment that earns and grows, and as a ticket to a private jet experience. By pooling resources and carefully balancing our portfolio between tangible assets and market indices, we seek to deliver an experience that is as rewarding financially as it is personally. This way, members can enjoy the luxury and convenience of private aviation while building wealth and diversification for their future. It’s an innovative approach that turns the dream of private jet access into a sound investment strategy, aligned with both your lifestyle and your long-term financial goals.