A Chauffeur-Services Founder on How He Helps the Ultrawealthy Travel

• Nathan Foy is the founder of Fortis, which provides ground transportation for the ultrawealthy.
• Fortis’ clientele are millionaires and billionaires, typically business travelers.
• Foy guides his clients through cybersecurity concerns, cultural norms, and weather delays.

When Nathan Foy founded Fortis in 2001, his original business model was selling prepaid credit cards to college students at major East Coast universities looking for a safer travel option than walking or driving themselves to use on taxis. But after 9/11, he told Insider, he began working with a travel-assistance company whose clients requested private chauffeur services, specifically for transfers to and from private jets.

“In the wake of 9/11, private aviation was growing by leaps and bounds and needed a solution for pickups,” Foy said. “We spread by word of mouth and networking.”

Seeing an untapped market, Foy pivoted to secure-transportation and concierge services, like VIP hotel check-in, personal shopping, in-car beverage requests, and more, for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, which is still the focus of his business today. Foy’s knowledge of various markets and cultures around the world allows him to protect his clients — or principals, as Fortis calls them — from cybersecurity threats, give them access to top-of-the-line medical care, and advise protection measures on their trips. The mission, Foy said, is to help the client travel more efficiently.

Fifty-eight cities make up 80% of the business, Foy said, and its top markets include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, and Paris. In total, he added, Fortis completes 25,000 chauffeured car rides per year and works in 141 countries, and the company’s core client is worth a minimum of $600 million.

The majority of Fortis’s clients need transport to and from their private jet or for the duration of a business trip as they go from meeting to meeting. For transfers in a premium sedan, trips cost $230 per hour, while trips in a Mercedes S-class or SUV cost $500 per hour. Costs go up for major events or additional services.

With private-jet travel increasing, Fortis has been busier than ever — Foy said the last six months have been the busiest the company has ever seen.

“We’ve had new clients coming in, as well as existing clients doing more than they’ve ever done,” he said. “There’s even been new markets, like Park City, Utah, that aren’t typically that busy that are now suddenly hot.”

Foy said its 6,000 contracted chauffeurs go through rigorous training to meet the standards that Fortis’s discerning clientele expect, such as risk assessments, situational awareness training, and standardized vehicle sweeps. They use customized intelligence feeds to perform their jobs in every location they operate in, and they manage operations 24/7.

Here’s a closer look at how Fortis works with clients to ensure they have a discreet, comfortable, and secure trip.

The safety and security measures taken during each trip are thorough

Keeping clients safe is a top priority, Foy said, and Fortis offers a chauffeur-security certification that many of its drivers are certified in.

“One of the biggest security concerns is a post-vehicle sweep of everything that takes about 15 minutes, and the chauffeur confirms the vehicle is swept in the Fortis app,” he said. “This is usually for people leaving a smartphone, a planner, or something they need for meetings. For people of this caliber, leaving something like that is a huge deal.”

Another security measure is booking multiple cars for various members of a family, both for efficiency and added protection. For example, Foy said, one of his clients from Chile books a car for him, his wife, and his chief of staff when they travel together. This is so he can go to meetings all day, his wife can shop, and his chief of staff is on-call to handle any last-minute requests or emergencies.

In some regions like Central and South America, there’s an elevated risk of kidnapping. But because 90% of Fortis’ clients aren’t well-known celebrities, Foy said, the company’s never specifically encountered kidnapping situations.

Drug cartels in Central America do pose a threat in terms of robbery or violence. Once, Foy said, a New York-based client who has a couple hundred former NYPD cops on his security staff was going to Mexico and requested an S-class Mercedes-Benz to take him from Mexico City to a destination two hours away at 3 a.m.

“We tried to convince him to not do the trip overnight,” Foy said. “He didn’t want to change the schedule, so we insisted that if he wanted to have an S-class that he should have two S-classes. The reason is that if you’re going high profile, you might as well go strong high profile. If there are two or more vehicles on a Mexican highway at 4 a.m., that’s a show of strength to the bad guys that you probably have security personnel or backup, and it’s not worth messing with you. He took our recommendation and it worked out, but if he didn’t, I think he very much would’ve been endangered.”

Cybersecurity in certain countries can also be a concern. For the World Cup in Russia a few years ago, he said, he provided burner phones for his clients because there’s no data security in Russia. If they were using their own smartphones, Fortis had its security personnel use Beartooth devices, where you could turn your mobile phone into a walkie-talkie that has a 10-mile range.

When clients travel to Aspen in the winter, there’s usually terrible weather and planes have a tough time landing. Foy said that he always has cars waiting at both the Aspen and Denver airports, so the client can make it to their destination if their plane needs to land in Denver.

“The clients we serve are tremendously focused on conquering mountains, and if you can show them that you can help them to conquer a mountain, their ROI is so valuable that they’ll never leave Fortis,” he said.

Foy receives many unusual requests from clients

In addition to needing assistance with business travel, some clients reserve Fortis’ chauffeur services for unique personal reasons. One of Foy’s clients, for example, would book Fortis’ services to hop from city to city and look at real estate as he drank tea with two women. Another, Foy said, would pilot his own plane and throw parties on the tarmac by night.

Part of Fortis’ goal is to help clients achieve their goals, whatever they may be, but not every request receives a “yes” answer, Foy said. Instead, Foy might provide advice as an expert on the topic.

“One of the most difficult and challenging parts of our job is that a lot of times people don’t understand that what they’re asking for is actually going to make things more difficult,” he said. “For example, a client wanted a safe installed in the back of an armored SUV that was matte black, but I told him that a matte black vehicle isn’t the best way to blend in.”

Knowledge of local culture and impeccable presentation help to keep clients coming back

Credibility and long-term relationships are what make Fortis’ clients keep coming back. Foy said a big part of this comes down to presentation, and that the contracted chauffeurs he employs must “pass the eye test.”

“What I think the world’s most discerning travelers have in common is that they size you up in 20 seconds or less, and they’re generally really accurate,” Foy said. He added that he had a Chilean client whose assigned chauffeur, who was very well-trained, showed up in a t-shirt and jeans. The client fired him on the spot. “That led us to training the introduction for a chauffeur when a principal arrives that it matters how you present yourself,” he said, adding that after that a required uniform was implemented, which is a dark-colored suit and tie.

Another client of his, a female media personality, was traveling to Mumbai when riots broke out. With the help of Mumbai connections, Fortis decided the trip was still viable, but the client needed executive protection. She was then assigned an executive protection agent who had contacts with the police, spoke Hindi and English, and had insider knowledge of where riots typically happen in Mumbai so he could suggest alternative routes to take so she could get to her business meeting on time.

“She was still able to have a productive trip because of him,” he said. “This is a good example of pushing back on a billionaire when they’re skeptical about something — in this case, suggesting they receive an executive protection agent — who said that having an executive protection agent was a lifesaver.”

Knowing some general rules of thumb in a country is important. India, where many of his clients travel, is a relatively safe country, but it is known for violence against women and traffic can be horrendous, Foy said.

“If you are a woman traveling alone in India, there’s a frank conversation that needs to be had about what you’re doing and how we can support you while you’re there,” he said. “The main thing is that we aren’t upselling our services — we actually care about what our clients experience.”

He educates women about the appropriate dress code (as to not offend a culture) — typically long sleeves and more modest clothing.

Also he advises on where they should or should not travel to alone, whether it’s a market or a certain neighborhood in a city.

The same client was traveling to Saudi Arabia and thanks to a local facilitator, someone who helps coordinate chauffeurs and travel schedules, she was able to pack accordingly.

“He had to go through what she was planning on wearing and what she knew about Saudi Arabian culture,” he said. “This individual, as much as the world adapts to her, still has to adhere to certain cultural norms.”