On-Demand Charter Company Magellan Jets Gets Super Personal

In a conference room at Magellan Jets‘ headquarters in downtown Quincy, Mass., just south of Boston, president Anthony Tivnan recalls how he and CEO Joshua Hebert first ventured into the private-aviation business with a web-based charter-�brokerage company�and how that company went through some name changes. “We started that business around 16 years ago,” recalls Tivnan. “We called it Bid Jet Charter. But think about a couple Boston guys calling around to prospective clients saying, ‘Hey, it’s Anthony and Joshua from Bid Jet Charter.’ People would say, ‘What? Chowder? What are you talking about, Chowder?’ We decided, all right, that’s not working.” Bid Jet Charter soon became Charter Auction, but that didn’t help much. “Eventually,” Tivnan said, “Jets.com became the name.” (Companies called Charter Auction and Jets.com are operating today, but they have no connections to Tivnan and Hebert or the company they founded.)