Our Story
Relationships Are Everything
Rarefied Air was built by executives who have spent more than two decades immersed in performance marketing, media buying, client strategy, and growth.
For over 20 years, we operated a full-service agency and worked with more than 3,000 clients across a wide range of industries. Along the way, we learned something important: the best results happen when strategy, media, data, and measurement are aligned around a single objective—real business performance.
Over time, we found ourselves becoming increasingly focused on the part of the business we loved most: performance media buying, audience intelligence, and measurable growth. Not the noise. Not the layers. Not the unnecessary complexity. Just disciplined execution that creates meaningful outcomes for clients.
But something else happened during those two decades:
When you spend 20 years building and working alongside a team of 75 talented people, you create more than a company—you build lifelong relationships, deep trust, and a shared understanding of how people think, create, and solve problems. Over time, you realize that this kind of chemistry becomes rare. The work becomes faster, smarter, more intuitive, and far more creative because the people around the table truly understand one another.
Along the way, we also built deep relationships throughout the industry through partnerships, ad tech conferences, speaking engagements, and years of conversations with some of the best operators, strategists, media buyers, and creatives in the business.
Rarefied Air is the result of bringing together those relationships, that experience, and that shared philosophy.
We have intentionally assembled a highly curated collective of people we believe are among the best at what they do—individuals with deep expertise, strong character, and a shared commitment to performance, creativity, and results. The result is a more rarefied experience for our partner brands: senior-level thinking, disciplined execution, collaborative alignment, and a team that genuinely enjoys building exceptional outcomes together.
We are not trying to replace your full-service agency. In fact, one of our greatest strengths is our ability to work alongside agencies, having operated our own for more than 20 years. We understand the pressures, expectations, and realities of delivering performance for demanding clients.
Most importantly, we genuinely love what we do.
We enjoy solving difficult problems. We enjoy helping great companies grow. And at the end of the day, there is something deeply rewarding about knowing we delivered a solution that truly helped a client succeed. That standard matters to us. It allows us to sleep well at night and continue doing work we believe in.
The result is a rarefied experience for clients: senior-level thinking, collaborative execution, disciplined measurement, and a team that understands both performance and partnership at a very high level.
We enjoy helping great companies grow, solving difficult challenges, and creating real impact. Our deepest reward is delivering results that genuinely helps our client succeed — and that standard guides everything we do.
Brian Kraff – Founder, Managing Partner, CEO
Brian founded Rarefied Air to create a unique position at the intersection of AI and digital advertising—this time focused on the luxury market.
And why not? Brian Kraff has spent more than 30 years capitalizing on digital transformation trends. He also missed working alongside the team of mentees and business partners he helped build throughout his career.
In 2003, Brian founded Market Hardware, a digital solutions provider that has helped more than 40,000 businesses adopt online marketing. He scaled Market Hardware’s growth through partnerships with more than 50 Fortune 500 companies and associations, including GE and IAC. During his time at HomeAdvisor, he led the launch of new business lines across search, mobile, social media, and digital advertising, expanding the reach of HomeAdvisor’s massive lead-generation business.
Earlier in his career, during the pioneering days of the internet, Brian built eStudentLoan, the first and largest comparison marketplace for student loans. The company partnered with the nation’s leading banks and served more than one million users. eStudentLoan received prestigious recognition from Forbes and The Motley Fool.
Brian holds a BA from Cornell University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. In 2006, he was named to MindShare, the Mid-Atlantic’s prestigious Tech CEO Forum.
When not working on Rarefied Air, Brian can often be found with his band in recording and rehearsal studios throughout New York City. He recently released his solo album, Up from the Cellar, and is currently writing a follow-up. His favorite “non-work, non-family” story is about a day he found himself in Wilco’s loft recording a song with Grammy Award-winning artist Jeff Tweedy.
Abbas Naqvi – Partner, Performance Media
Rarefied Air Media
Co-Developer, RarefiedAir.Ai Technology
Abbas Naqvi is a data-driven marketing expert with more than 15 years of experience in programmatic media, audience intelligence, and performance marketing. As the founder of Stillwater Media and former Agency Director at GWP Inc., he specializes in building and executing high-performance campaigns focused on customer acquisition cost (CAC) efficiency and return on ad spend (ROAS), particularly within ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) and premium consumer segments.
Abbas has worked extensively across private aviation, luxury, and premium consumer categories, developing highly targeted strategies that reach and engage high-value audiences. Through our Stillwater brand, his work includes campaigns and growth initiatives for luxury clients such as flyExclusive and PXG. Previously, as Agency Director at GWP Inc., he designed and led marketing initiatives for companies including Arauco, Mecho, and Stanton, driving measurable growth through strategic, data-led execution. A marketer’s marketer, his long-term results speak for themselves.
At Rarefied Air, Abbas applies this same performance-focused approach to the luxury and private aviation industries. As Co-Developer of RarefiedAir.Ai, he helps translate complex audience data into actionable marketing strategies that enable brands to identify, reach, and engage high-value consumers with greater precision.
Outside of work, Abbas serves as a Cub Scout Cubmaster, leading a pack of 70 children. He is also an avid hiker and camper who enjoys spending time outdoors with his family.
David Cornblatt – Operating Partner
David Cornblatt’s career has been defined by helping companies build stronger go-to-market engines, deepening customer relationships, and creating measurable long-term value. At Rarefied Air, David brings a rare combination of luxury-market insight, digital marketing expertise, and entrepreneurial judgment to clients in private aviation, yachting, and luxury travel.
David’s work is especially powerful in markets that serve ultra-high-net-worth audiences, where precision, trust, and relevance matter. He partners with clients to optimize digital marketing strategies, map customer data more deeply, and apply AI-driven analytics to improve targeting, messaging, and performance.
David has worked alongside Brian Kraff—founder of Rarefied Air, Redrock Investments, and Market Hardware—for more than 10 years, embracing and extending Brian’s operating philosophy, standards, and relationship-driven approach. As a Partner at Redrock Investments, he leads complex go-to-market activities for operational holdings, adding practical growth expertise and hands-on operational know-how.
David served as a Lead Generation Authority at Market Hardware, where he partnered with clients in health and home services to improve digital marketing performance and lower acquisition costs. He has previously consulted for major enterprise clients including IBM, Sallie Mae, Altria, Cable & Wireless, and Winstar.
David ‘gives back’ as a professional coach, metaphysical teacher, and business mentor reflecting his commitment to helping people and organizations move from where they are to where they want to be.
Devin Schain – Partner, Executive Network, Private Equity Relations
Devin drives impact. He excels at aligning sales and marketing around a clear go-to-market strategy and then applying AI and data to improve targeting, pipeline conversion, and productivity. A direct marketer’s direct marketer, he is an expert in launching structured pilots and testing frameworks that unlock growth.
At Rarefied Air, Devin works with Private Equity Firms to connect our team with the growth marketing teams at each firm’s portfolio companies. We then strategically assist with specific growth initiatives as ‘drop-in’ specialists.
Devin has driven growth at multiple startups, and his results speak for themselves. A natural leader, he helped achieve the growth trajectories that led to four companies being acquired by private equity firms and public companies.
Devin and Brian have worked together in various capacities since 1992. After more than three decades, they have learned how to maximize each other’s strengths. In his free time, Devin serves as a philanthropist and advisor to private equity-backed portfolio companies. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has been an active YPO member since 2001.
Rebecca Hussey – COO
Rebecca Hussey is an operations and process development professional with more than 15 years of experience building the systems, services, and internal structures that help organizations scale with consistency and confidence. At Rarefied Air, Rebecca brings a practical, detail-oriented operating mindset that supports both client-facing delivery and the internal processes required to make our premium service feel seamless.
Rebecca’s strength is her ability to turn new ideas into repeatable, well-supported services. During 12+ years with Brian at Market Hardware, she progressed through account management, operations, and special projects roles, ultimately serving as VP Operations & Special Projects. Across that tenure, she helped develop new offerings and built the processes, systems, documentation, and team workflows needed to support them from concept through execution.
At Market Hardware, Rebecca partnered with Alain Parcan to ensure the seamless integration of sales, marketing, billing, service delivery, and account management systems for core business operations and in support of our multi-company merger. She drove implementation of our Digital Asset Management solution, launched an inter-company process documentation library, supported OKR management across seven departments and 100+ individuals, and helped create transparency through practical tracking systems and process discipline.
Rebecca also brings deep customer service and account management leadership experience. She led and developed a high-performance team of 10+ account managers supporting a client base of more than 2,000 clients.
For Rarefied Air, Rebecca ensures operational follow-through. Her work helps ensure that client engagements are organized, service delivery is consistent, internal teams are aligned, and every process supports a high-quality experience. Her ability to bridge client needs with internal execution makes her a steady, high-impact contributor to Rarefied Air’s ability to serve our clients with precision and care.
Rebecca graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in Photography, where she was a duPont Scholar.
Alain Parcan –Partner, Go-to-Market Operations
Alain Parcan is a highly analytical, results-driven operator with deep experience in business operations, project management, and marketing technology. Alain brings the structure, discipline, and executional precision needed to help luxury-market companies turn ambitious growth strategies into measurable business outcomes.
Alain is our ‘down-to-earth realist’. He connects strategy to operating reality. His experience makes him especially valuable to Rarefied Air clients that need sophisticated go-to-market execution, tighter reporting, stronger attribution, and scalable operating processes.
Most recently at SymphonyAI, he architected and restructured a marketing technology stack across five global divisions. He pioneered the adoption of AI-powered go-to-market tools to qualify and route leads, enrich data at scale, and produce targeted messaging. He also delivered a unified attribution model adopted across five divisions for consistent C-suite KPI reporting, and reduced technology stack costs by 80%.
Alain also spent twelve years working closely with Brian at Market Hardware and EverCommerce, rising to become Vice President of Marketing. He drove sustained growth, overseeing more than $100 million of digital marketing, 300+ events, and 5 million pieces of targeted direct mail.
At EverCommerce he directed the integration of sales, marketing, billing, and account management systems during a five-company merger. His leadership helped double overall business revenue and EBITDA over three years, while improving customer analytics, campaign performance, financial accuracy, SOX compliance, and CRM migrations across HubSpot, Salesforce, and NetSuite.
Alain gives back through his volunteer work with Prospanica DC, formerly the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, where he served as Vice President of Digital Marketing. Since graduating with a scholarship to University of Maryland, he has dedicated time to advancing Hispanic business leadership through education, professional development, and community connection.