We started TicketManager on Sept 27, 2007. End of a quarter and end of year
We raised one of our rounds on Nov 1. End of year in final quarter
It’s a really small thing, but we’ve had to explain it quite often when talking about YoY trends
It costs nothing to wait until the start of a new cycle, quarter, or year. There’s plenty to explain along the way. I don’t need something else.
The great RFP awakening.
2023 was a year of correction for SaaS businesses. Growth slowed for many, NRR dropped, Net Expansion went off a cliff (see chart), layoffs were rampant, FCF was king, and profitability mattered once again
But something else happened too:
Discipline in services returned.
Growth-at-all-costs businesses learned that growth has a cost. And it changed customer expectations.
Customer after customer came to us looking to switch vendors. The problem, the deals they were offering were money losers. I saw it in so many businesses too, specifically SaaS, Agencies, and live events.
Investors were eating that loss in the name of future profits, only they learned those profits weren’t coming.
Now, those customers are wandering the market looking for someone to respond to their RFP terms.
Our answer has always been the same: No thanks. I suggest the same for you.
Business is best when everyone is healthy. We're not going to pay $100 for something and sell it for $90. We don’t care if the last vendor did…that’s why they’re the last vendor.
Covid tried to kill the multi-year deal.
SaaS TCV bookings targets got smashed this year as customers felt burned being stuck in multi-year deals over Covid.
See #2 on this one. Don’t break the math. Do what will grow your business into a healthy vendor your customers can rely on. Let your competitors repeat the mistakes of the past. Once in a one year, companies don't go to multi year.
Stars like confetti.
I hope you had a terrific holiday.
The fallen world is built to tear down beauty.
But when God shows it in moments, in people, and in nature, man is it breathtaking.
Under 51% may as well be zero. I traveled to the game with a highly successful friend. He’s one of those geniuses who isn't aware of his genius and drops life-changing knowledge like it’s commonplace. We were talking about businesses and common mistakes. He mentioned the advice he got early on in his company:
“When selling your business, just know anything which drops you below 51% is effectively the same as zero when it comes to control.”
In "How I Built This," the author tells the story of James Dyson losing his first patent and company after selling himself down to 30% ownership. He couldn’t do anything to stop it. Whom we sell to matters. How much we sell matters even more.
Stanford turning away superstars is an opportunity for us all.
Many colleges have been an economic grift, or absurd elitism, for a long time- though this isn't the outlet for that rant. A relic that survives thanks to social pressure as many believe companies will "only give the great jobs to the top universities." That hasn't been my experience recently. According to the WSJ, Stanford, considered a top institution by many, is turning away ~75% of the applicants who get a perfect SAT score. Other universities are getting as difficult. A close friend is a big Michigan fan and an alum. His son, who has nearly a 5.0 GPA and immaculate test scores, didn't get into his alma mater. The good news is that this is the real world, not academia, and results matter here. We can use this to our advantage. FWIW: My top two revenue drivers graduated from Sonoma State University - a school many outside of the area don't even know exists. And they're 10x'ers
Travel and start-ups.
One of the worst parts of the early years is the travel. Every single penny counts: the cheapest fair possible, the cheapest hotel possible, and lots of subway sandwiches. Don’t get me wrong, it's a good thing in the end. These days just flying coach at a regular hour, without connections, and staying at a Fairfield Inn feels like the good life to me.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7154124564531138560/ On layoffs, cuts, and downsizing - the worst part of competition for all involved (especially when we're the ones cut).
Surviving an attacking bear is a lot different than advancing a career.
Growing up playing sports, there were always tryouts. And, unfortunately, there usually weren't enough spots for everyone. A typical response when we don't make the team, get promotions, or get caught in downsizing is to focus on who we believe was the last man standing.
"They took 12 players, and I'm better than the 11th and 12th" is a trap. There are often reasons those last two are in their spots. An example: When I played club volleyball growing up, we had a team with invitation-only tryouts during my junior year. Nike had pulled together the best local players and started a club with only one team in one age group to win gold in 1997. The coach, flying in weekly from Los Angeles, took ten kids. I was tenth.
There were a lot of better players than me who complained, but I was taken as a project with potential. The following year, I was a starter. In my senior year, we took ten kids once again. One of them, my good friend to this day, played defense. We took him over a lot of outstanding players who could play multiple positions. They all whined, and still do, that they were "robbed by politics" and should have been on the team instead of him. They are wrong. He was the best teammate any of us ever had and an enormous part of our success. We're not running from a bear. We need to be at the top of the pack.
Trust me, I've been 10th out of 10. It's not a place anyone wants to be.
Cut to the clear line.
I learned a similar lesson from my better half, who was a competitive cheerleader growing up. Her coach would say there was no roster size; they would "cut to the natural line," which I find terrific wisdom. When we set out to hire X number of people for a team, we sometimes don’t find enough talented people. Hiring unqualified people to fill the class is poison.
But sometimes we find too many. The cheer coach's advice is perfect: Cut to the natural line. One of our best hires was an "extra" hire in 2013. She's on the executive team here today.
Sometimes, it's just not personal.
Everything is personal to us. It's who we are. But sometimes, it's not because we're not good enough; it's because someone is a better fit for what they're looking for. I was passed over for a promotion I desperately wanted and felt I'd earned at AEG.
I wish we lived in a world where we could hire everyone, and everyone made the team. But sometimes, not making it is the best for the future.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7156666142579712000/ How different forms of inflation are masking truths
Every game is the most watched ever!
"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, & Statistics"
We get sports business news every day at work. Nearly every day these days, we see announcements like "The Bills vs. Chiefs had 50 million viewers and is the most watched of all time!!!." Only one problem - it might not have been.
Nielsen, the yardstick that most media use to relay viewership made an enormous change to how they counted viewers in 2020. They now roll in a made-up number, called "out of home viewers," where they try to guess everyone who went to a bar or a friend's house to watch the game. Of that "50 million viewers," 17 million - 35% - were "new" viewers assumed to be out of home.
Net/Net: We have no idea if it was the most-watched game because we're using a different measuring stick.
That won't stop those in the media, on the teams, and leagues from trumping up unrealistic numbers (see what I did there?)
Ethan Strauss with a great piece explaining what's happening and how it impacts the major players in sports in the comments.
Record sales? Then why are you laying off huge swaths of staff?
A recession is defined as "a period of temporary economic decline identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters." So, by "definition," we're not in a recession.
But we were - in practice- in Q1 and Q2. Everything is more expensive, and enterprises spent 2023 cutting like it was in 2001.
Companies don't want to pay more. Period. Prices going up is hard. Even if it's just an inflation adjustment.
We're still growing and making money. A terrific blessing made even more important by what went on in early '23. Our numbers are higher than ever - as are most everyone's - but we need to look at it adjusted.
There are all kinds of new KPIs out there to justify investment. Just build a great business. The buyers will come. Companies aren't sold, they're bought.
Stolen valor and the inflation of importance
Title inflation has long been a problem in start-ups. Small companies where 50% of the staff is a "Vice President" are everywhere - and more power to them!
But one title inflation has been notable recently, and I'm going straight "get off my lawn" on this one: Non-founder CEOs claiming they're "co-founders" after the fact.
There are a dozen I know of who joined businesses that were around for years before them as C-level execs, who now are claiming they are a "Co-Founder."
Buy all the awards you want. Get all the press you want. But claiming "founder" status? That's stolen valor and even more misleading than the inflated ratings or revenue numbers.
Being a founder is one of the hardest things I've ever done. Real gangsters know what it takes.
Call yourself whatever you want - just know we're gonna call it out every time
Super Bowl Edition: Week 1 Ticket prices are high, even when adjusted for all the recent inflation, for a few reasons: a) the 49ers are a huge draw and only an hour’s flight away, but more so, b) rooms aren’t a limiting factor as they are most years. In the majority of the Super Bowl cities, rooms are very difficult to come by, which leads guests to pay $700+ per night, with a four-night minimum, for a courtyard Marriott on the outskirts of the action. Vegas is a totally different beast. The Super Bowl hardly makes a dent in the city. This is a city that hosts 600k guests annually for CES without blinking. Rooms are still available at the most prestigious resorts without a four-night minimum, which makes it easier to head to town and get tickets
Vegas is status and few events are more "status" than the Super Bowl. We are blessed to have nearly all of the major casinos in Las Vegas as clients and partners. They have customers who drive business we can only dream of. An example: in 2017, the LA Dodgers hosted game 7 of the World Series against the Houston Astros. The day after the game, I got a call from a friend at the Dodgers; one of their casino customers had sold their front-row Dugout Club tickets on StubHub, and they wanted me to call them and ask what happened. So I did. The answer I got, after the laughter, was, “Tony, that guy lost 7 million dollars at our casino last weekend. So we gave him the tickets. I don’t care if he wiped his ass with them.”
The ticket prices may stay up just because the casinos keep them up.
The Super Bowl is spring break for the corporate crowd.
My kids are old enough to be aware of the reactions when they tell their small circle their parents are going to the Super Bowl every year. I get asked what it’s like.
For most guests, it’s spring break. One curated hyper VIP event after another. The whole weekend is a catered open bar where people gorge themselves and then stay out all night at exclusive parties. Grown men and women act like they're in college, staying out late, drinking a ton, and taking photos with Legends of their youth. In my younger years, I drank beers with Donovan McNabb, took tequila shots with Khloe Kardashian, and arm wrestled for $1k per match-up in a Clearwater lobby at 4 am.
That’s them (and it was me, to a certain extent, in my much younger years as I had to keep up with clients.) Those days are long over for me. For me, it’s wall-to-wall meetings and early bedtimes. I turn into a pumpkin at midnight (which is why I love East Coast Super Bowls; I can actually stay up at the events!). Thank goodness we have twenty-somethings to do the late shift for us.
Three Things I Learned from the First Las Vegas Super Bowl - Week Two:
Las Vegas will enter the new regular rotation.
In the old days, the Super Bowl regular rotation was (with the number of Super Bowls hosted): Miami (11), Southern California (11), New Orleans (10), Tampa (5), Phoenix (4)
Recently, the NFL has awarded Super Bowls to the rotation cities and cities with new stadiums. Las Vegas fell under the "new stadium" classification, but given the way the city hosted the game, the strength of the market, and the city's ability to handle inclement weather, there's no doubt Las Vegas will be in the rotation once a decade going forward.
From the looks of things, the rotation will be (from West to East) San Francisco, Southern California, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Tampa, and Miami
I failed at my promise
The first years of TicketManager (then known as CEG and Spotlight) were rough. We were broke, working every waking hour, and weary.
I played golf one day with an older pseudo-family member who was about to pull away from his business and enjoy retirement. I remember the conversation vividly. He felt so guilty doing the things he'd earned - like playing golf and working a (gasp) eight-hour day for a change.
I was adamant in my response and felt that I'd never feel guilty if we got through the dark times. And boy, were they dark.
All weekend in Vegas, my better half noticed I looked detached and like I wasn't enjoying the incredible access we had with customers and partners. I turned down dinner invites and passed on access and invitations to others. Truth is, I felt guilty.
We had a kick-off dinner for our staff on Wednesday night with our team. I didn't see our VP of Sales again until the NFL Tailgate on Sunday. I couldn't; he was hustling the entire time.
He was clearly exhausted at our wind-down dinner on Sunday after the game. I mentioned to my wife that, "I hope he gets everything he deserves. He works so hard and cares so much."
She stopped me in my tracks when she responded: "You do too. And don't forget it."
After dinner, I was talking to an entrepreneur friend. I asked him if he was taking Monday off. "No," he responded, "there's no point in it. It just delays the work I need to do anyway."
Me neither.
So many think being an entrepreneur ends with half-days and freedom.
It doesn't. Freedom has fangs. And the to-do list never stops. I wouldn't have it any other way.
We aren't part of the event when we work at the event.
Last week, I got to go to the Grammys, the Super Bowl, and the events around them. One thing stands out to me as strange: When the people who work the event post as if they're attending the event.
It's strange to me. We're the servants of the event. We weren't invited to have the fun. It happens at every Grammys and Super Bowl party.
Nearly everyone wants to be a leader.
We ask the same 11 questions in every final interview with our prospective teammates. When we ask where people think they want to be in ten years, nearly all candidates say they want to be leaders.
But the truth is, many actually want to do something other than the actual work of leadership. They want what many believe comes with being a leader: money, power, and prestige. But strip what society has adorned to leadership, and most people would choose another path.
Why? There are four things start-up leaders have to do that most people (really) don't want to do:
You can't be friends first. We promote from within a lot. Our first advice to a new leader: Your relationship changes today. You can still be friends, but you're their boss first. They're going to talk about you. They're going to criticize you. They're going to hurt your feelings. They will do all this because your relationship changes today, whether you like it or not. Pastor Ricky Jenkins shared, “The average person is betrayed 2 to 3 times in their lifetime. The average leader? 5-7 times each year." It's just different.
Everyone needs a coach, and few want one. It’s the hardest one today, and it's not close. Everyone thinks they're the 10xer. Everyone thinks they're the one who can work from home without any guidance. Everyone thinks they're the self-motivated exception. Only we're not. That’s science. And it's irrefutable.
In "Endurance," Alex Hutchinson explores the quest to run the two-minute mile. It is a study of human performance and what we're capable of. And they do some crazy stuff - like shooting up frogs with numbing agents and having them hop until their muscles give out - which is much later than they give out when not numbed. We all need someone to push us. Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, and Michael Jordan had multiple coaches. An interesting point in the book: Nearly every world and personal record has been set in competition- away from home and comfort.
A leader, by definition, needs to take people somewhere else at a good pace. Most people don't want to go. We all need a coach. Being a coach is really hard because most people don't want a coach. And most of us don't think we're in a position to be a coach.
Homework - and lots of it.
It takes an enormous amount of studying, and there often isn't time for it while on the job getting the trains to leave on time. I was a terrible leader for quite some time. I want to think I'm okay now, but it's only because a board member in 2012 pushed me to learn from others. I've read 100+ books on leadership and psychology since then. It takes a long time to find what works and then what works for you.
Less power, not more.
Leadership doesn't have the "power" people think it does - at least good leadership.
"But I told them to do it - I can't believe they didn't!" is the most common new leader complaint: "It's not my fault. I told my team to do it, and they didn't."
People don't work like that and never have, yet so many new leaders think their title and position are what demand respect and submission. They're wrong. Being a leader requires a lot of humility and submission to others. That's hard, and a lot of people don't like it.
There are endless ways to lead a group of people to great things. Telling them what to do is not one of them, yet it's what people do over and over.
Tony Robbins often jokes that people come to him and say:
I've tried everything!
Really? Everything? List everything?
Okay, I really tried the same two things over and over.
That is so true of leadership. It's different. And it is most certainly not for most people. So many will take that last sentence as if leadership is 'above' another job. It is not. It is just different. And that's the point. Society has made us believe otherwise, but that narrative is wrong.
A simple example- of which there are many like it: Who was more valuable to the Bulls dynasty, MJ or Phil Jackson? We all know the answer.
Cheating is defined in Webster's Dictionary as "to violate rules or regulations to gain an advantage."
Whether it's business or competition, you will have to navigate cheaters. I see them every day.
Only it isn’t as clear and straightforward as I thought.
Here are six things I've learned about cheaters while running TicketManager:
Where there is scarcity, there will be cheating. Guaranteed.
When I worked at the LA Kings, there were 11 sales reps in my department. One of them crushed the rest of us in sales. We couldn’t figure out how. He didn't work very hard, was barely on the phone, and was always looking for a shortcut.
Eventually, my boss’s boss looked into it.
Every morning, the sales secretary would check the voicemails to the sales line from the night or weekend before and assign the leads to reps.
He was paying her to give him the lion's share of the opportunities.
Worse yet, he was a ‘good crook.’ Marc (yes, that’s his name. Sorry, not sorry for naming cheaters) would make sure not to take all the opportunities, or else he’d get caught.
Cheaters will deny they cheated. Always.
Being in ticket sales in the early 2000s was challenging work. We hammered the phones with cold calls all day trying to sell the last place local hockey team with one exception: Every day, we got two hours where we could log into the inbound queue and take inbound calls.
There were only supposed to be two people in the queue at a time.
We could see the number of people in the queue. People cheated all the time.
One day, Kate (Again, no, sorry, her name was Kate Issel) saw a call on hold, and I watched her log into the queue, take the call, and make the sale. A cool $1500 in commission. In 2003, that was real money for my 24-year-old roommate, from whom the sale was stolen.
When confronted, she denied she did it intentionally. It probably still does. They all do.
There is rarely justice.
She paid no penalty. Neither did Marc.
None of us were made whole on the opportunities we were cheated out of.
Nobody did anything.
The numbers stayed where they were in the sales standings, and they were both paid their full commissions for what they did.
Cheaters always justify it.
In Southern California, we have a high school football powerhouse that is notorious for playing old kids. Our local star quarterback at Newbury Park High School was 16…as a freshman.
My son plays on a hoops team that plays against "double holdbacks." His beach volleyball tournaments are almost 50% kids who are held back. Like the queue, we can see it. It's right on the player’s profile. 15U but playing in the 14U division b/c “there’s an exception for older kids who are still in the eighth grade.
The justification is always the same: everyone else is doing it, so we did, too. Or if my kid is so close, why should I have to follow the rules?
Never mind, this is why we have rules in the first place.
Which leads me to….
If you have the courage to speak up about it, and we should, many will turn on you.
I spoke up about Kate.
Her boss needed to stand up for Matt. He didn't, and I got a lecture to mind my business.
I spoke up when my co-workers at StubHub were stealing from the company.
I openly and vocally lament holdbacks who take opportunities from other kids.
And I get crushed for it. Almost always by the cheaters.
When Lance Armstrong cheated, he ruined the lives of anyone who questioned it. Few of those whistleblowers got any redemption in the eyes of their peers. Everyone who questioned him was also called a sore loser.
They'll call us that, too.
And I am one. I hate losing. But losing to a cheat? There’s not much worse than that.
But
It's worth it.
At TicketManager, we have zero tolerance for cheating. And our staff loves it.
Have the courage to stand up for what's right and suffer the blowback for it.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" - Gal 6:9
Vivid Seats reported strong numbers earlier this week (even after adjusting for the "adjusted" metrics - a more common trick these days, especially with live events stocks - see AOI), but it wasn't enough to curb a dropping stock on the news of Eric Vassilatos starting GoTickets. The stock buyback didn't prompt any questions during the Q&A. International seems to be the focus for Vivid going forward.
Cops, Judges, Firefighters…and entrepreneurs? When I was a kid, my dad would tell me there are few people as fun to be around as cops, judges, and firefighters. The why was the most interesting part: They see the human race at its worst more than the rest of us. That kind of exposure, he postulated, would either lead them to be horribly jaded/cynical and difficult to be around (I've met those- avoid them) or exponentially gracious and loving to those around them. He's right.
I've found entrepreneurs to be similar. Especially those who have "made it" but not exorbitantly. They have so many haters, so many people trying to extract from them, and so few places to turn to where they can trust the person isn't in the relationship for selfish reasons.
The stories are endless of what they've had to endure from others - all the way from a friend owning a local yogurt store up to the family troubles of a self-made billionaire friend.
Some of the best people I've ever met.
We make the same joke every time someone is trying to steal from us, hurt us, or attack us: "It's just another day on the Dutton Ranch."
Stand up to a-holes. In 2002, I left my job to make $10/hr cold calling for the last-place Dodgers. One day, a Tommy Lasorda lackey overheard I grew up a Giants fan when I was talking to a security guard I'd made friends with.
Two days later, that same lackey loudly yelled over the full press room of staffers eating lunch, "Hey Tommy, there's that Giants fan I told you about."
I stood there, with my tray of $6 food, expecting some light locker-room-style ribbing. I was a 22-year-old kid in a suit that didn't fit me making no money selling season tickets to the last-place Dodgers.
Instead, he made a scene and tried to dress me down in front of everyone. He even came chest to chest with me, which is absurd as I'm a foot taller than he was.
He, and his buffoon lackey, were visibly shocked when I responded, chest up and chin out, "You two have to have better things to do. So go do them," then turned my back on him.
We all have bad moments. I'm not judging his character. But, in that moment, He was being a bully. And I was a defenseless mark.
I was terrified. I was sure I was going to get fired.
You'll be surprised by the courage you find on the other side of standing up for yourself.
Pizza Friday - A hands on lesson in running a business
One day last summer I came into our office with my lunch and saw some of our team enjoying a pizza. They had ordered it together and were splitting it.
I liked the idea and told them I'd buy pizza for the staff every week and the company will pay. Only one caveat, they had to do it and they had to look out for everyone. No help from Ashley, Mallika or the PoPs team, who usually does our staff incentives.
It was the perfect opportunity for a hands on experiment of just how difficult it is to serve a team - a lesson I've learned by watching Ashley, our head of People Ops, masterfully accomplish for a decade now with incredible patience. One thing I've learned watching them: It's really really hard. People complain about everything - even when they're getting something for free which was never mentioned or negotiated.
So what happened?
Within seven weeks, they quit. They didn't want the pizza anymore. Why?
The first week they ordered way too little pizza. Half the team was left out and we had to step in and order more.
The next week they tried to give everyone exactly what they wanted, which led to way too much pizza and cost. We had pizza combinations I'd never heard of (Bacon Cheddar Ranch?)
As they tried to figure out how to get the right amount of pizza, and what kinds, the staff began to argue about WHERE to get the pizza from. If, for whatever reason, their choice wasn't honored, they were being personally slighted. Feelings started to get hurt and the person in charge got more frazzled.
Twice I got to the office late and there was nothing left =(. That's just a personal complaint from me.
People started getting tired of pizza. Maybe we only do pizza every other Friday? What if we get something else? What is that something else? How do we vote for it? What if the team suspects favoritism. How much would different food cost? Remember, I offered to pay for pizza, which is cheap, not Chipotle Friday every week. We do have a budget here and already cater meals on Monday morning and Wednesday lunch
As it does so often, The Office perfectly summed up the experiment in the episode where Michael leaves and Jim tries to put all the birthdays together. Life imitated art at TicketManager. Jim Almost Ruins Creed's Birthday - The Office
We learned a lot from Pizza Friday- check out the five lessons in the linked Substack:
It is impossible to make everyone 10/10 happy. If you try, you will leave people out and upset them… or spend way too much money.
Order four kinds of pizza: Cheese, Pepperoni, Everything, and Vegetarian. Wings with sauce, wings with no sauce. Garlic bites salad . That's it.
Nobody is 10/10 about most of those four kinds of pizza, but everyone will eat one of them and enjoy them without feeling left out. They are all standard and what most would expect at a pizza party.
This logic applies to everything. The food, drinks, parking, chairs, paint in the office, and perks offered. Think of it like planning a wedding meal: A steak, a chicken, a fish, a vegetarian. That's it - no matter how much you like sushi or whatever.
One of my favorite stories is when a friend of mine worked at the law firm Foley. They had free snacks in the break-room. The lawyers complained so much about the snacks, the firm took all of the snacks away! A few months passed and they brought back the snacks. There was no more complaining. So yes, even the highly educated behave like children from time to time.
Never take a vote in public. The extroverts will bully their way to what they want. Your job, if you're in charge of the ordering, is to be a voice for everyone. Some people are really uncomfortable voicing a dissenting opinion to the "popular" or "louder" office clique. They'd rather just not eat and rifts begin to form which impact your business. A positive, free pizza!, quickly becomes a negative. Be sure to offer an outlet where the introverts can be heard without fear of ridicule.
Don't take your event planners for granted. Ever. It is such a hard job and it is so very important. The “little things” are not little. And the good ones know it.
Most people won't voice their discontent b/c they're polite. It’s usually only those on the extremes who are loudest. An example: when we under order, few will speak up they would eat more food . They're polite and say they're fine when they would likely have two to three more pieces. Those pieces cost very little to us, and it means a lot to our team.
Once you introduce an incentive, it is taken as law. Even if it was meant for a short period. Know that if you introduce pizza Friday, or work from home Friday, or you give your staff tickets a few times, or cover the tab at lunch - it will be appreciated for about a day. Then it will be expected. By everyone. In every office. An example: we have work from home Wednesdays for our more tenured staff. However, if they decide to come to work on Wednesdays at HQ, we cater lunch as an incentive. We’ve had no fewer than a dozen people demand, not ask, we cover their lunch at home. It’s just how it is. No good deed goes unpunished.
It all seems so trite and trivial. Trust me, it matters. A lot.
And thank You to our POPS team, who is incredible at what they do.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7176966038947835904/ I spent last week in Ponte Vedra for The PLAYERS. It is essentially the Super Bowl for the PGA TOUR, where all sponsors and partners come to town for meetings about the upcoming year. What I learned during an interesting time for the golf industry. All eyes are on the Masters this year The LIV vitriol was much more intense than I'd expected.
I went to my first LIV event during the Super Bowl weekend. Nobody mentioned the Tour once. They were all talking about the experience, the players, and how to improve it. There were no slights, no personal attacks, just golf. Last week in Ponte Vedra was different. Everyone was dumping on LIV - from the format to the politics to the desire for OWR points. LIV was the topic of conversation everywhere. I think that's a huge mistake, personally. Very little positive comes from trashing competition, especially from the incumbent. It made everyone look worried. Which leads to The Masters. One of the arguments made was that the LIV field, with no cuts, is not rigorous enough. But the concern mentioned repeatedly: what if they dominate the Masters? Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and the Mark Steinberg golfers (JT, Colin, Rose, etc) will be carrying the Tour on their backs next month in Augusta. I can't wait. It'll be exciting TV.
Don't make it hard for your customers to boomerang A few years ago, we saw some customers leave us. So far, in the past six months, most have either come back or are in the process of coming back. Turns out the promises made to them were dishonest, and the service level doesn't compete.
We make it as easy as possible to return. In talking to some at the Tour, they still believe that a LIV golfer returning to the Tour would be punished by a fine or suspension. That's crazy. And wrong. Why would you punish someone who could be your spokesperson? They've experienced both and chose us! If Brooks Koepka decides to return, let him. And make it easy. Instead, all I heard over and over was concern about what would happen if Rory or Scottie left for LIV. Why not make it a two-way street?
The Little Things Matter We had 24 meetings in two days. One, in particular, stood out. After talking to the host, we found out why. Steve has a suite for 120 people at the island green 17th hole, where he implements "everything he learned from the book 'Unreasonable Hospitality.' Steve arrives prior to the event, where he's had tables removed to create more flow, had the bar relocated, eliminated the closet, and plans the number of guests per day.
On tournament day, Steve arrives early to meet with his hospitality staff to ensure the experience will "feel like a five-star hotel." No chair is untucked. Nothing is laying out. Trash is picked up immediately. It is noticeable.
The Dinner Bill https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7179488019391938560/
We were broke and bootstrapping the first two years of TicketManager. We went months without pay. When we did get paid, it wasn't much (I made about $900 a month for the first two years).
Every single penny mattered.
At the end of 2009 we were starting to get traction. We had a few teams nibbling around working with us to introduce us to their customers - something that would never have happened if not for the hard economic times we were in. Remember, in 2009, everyone was cutting everything. Companies didn't want to be seen entertaining customers during such hard times and some sponsors even took their names off of events they already paid for.
There was an NHL league meeting in Las Vegas, and our new friend Jeff (who is a dear friend today and one of the best people I know) worked for the league and offered to help us with some intros to teams at the meetings. We scraped together what we had, and Aric and I flew to Las Vegas. We were going to join their happy hour and then take Jeff and his teammate Beth to dinner as a thank you at a nice steakhouse.
The happy hour couldn't have gone better. Multiple teams showed up, and we made friends we still have today.
Jeff started inviting others to join us for dinner. It was great, and we encouraged it. Only one problem: It was too great.
We had less than $75k in the bank for our entire company. That's payroll, insurance, everything. And now we were having dinner with nearly twenty people at Strip Steak in Mandalay.
The dinner was terrific. As the bill went up, we got more nervous.
Aric texted: "That's a $1k bottle of wine." Tony: "That Japanese Wagyu for the table is going to be $2k." Aric: "I hope this works" Tony: "Fear emoji"
We were going all in. Unplanned. In the moment.
I know that sounds silly and not a lot of money, but that's the way it was then. The tab ended up being just north of $7k. Roughly 10% of all the money we had!
And then...
Jeff had paid the bill. He was insistent.
What I learned from the dinner bill:
Be ready to go all in
That dinner was three years’ worth of work. It literally was the food off our table, but those are the stakes. When the moment comes, we have to be ready to bet on ourselves and the good ones.
Pay it forward
What Jeff and Beth did for us helped change our lives. Whenever I help new companies, I'm always asked what they can do to reciprocate. Nothing. I owe it to Jeff. It's his tab and he already paid it.
I'm not very smart, but I have made a lot of mistakes, and I know how hard it is to get started. At the very least, I can help people avoid making the same mistakes.
Never Forget what others did for you
Build a good product, get it in front of good people, and look out for each other with honesty and integrity. It works. The good ones often rise to the top for a reason. Find them.
The Top 11 Sporting Events I’ve Been To Live Thanks To My Job https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7182060832388755459/ 1. The Greatest Game Ever Played: USC - Texas Rose Bowl 2006 2. The Helmet Catch 3. Kobe's Finale 4. Tiger Wood's One -Legged Major 5. Super Bowl LIV - Chiefs vs Niners 6. The Fastest Knock-out in UFC History 7. Bama- Clemson 1 - The 2016 Fiesta Bowl Shootout 8. World Heavyweight Title: Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder 1 9. Corey Seager's Heroics - 2023 World Series Win Amidst Loss 10. The Infamous Plaster-in-the-Gloves: Cotto vs. Margarito 1 11. * Jason Lezak’s comeback - The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
Please excuse that we didn't have cameras on our phones until 2007, and even then they were pretty bad, so I don't have the best pics of each event. Next time we see one another, I'd love to hear yours - along with a list of the top 5 in history you'd go to if you could
Competition is a part of life. It would be great if there was enough for everyone to be wildly successful, but despite many wars, we haven't figured that out yet.
When someone else is striving for what we want, and there is a limited supply, the easiest thing to do is dehumanize the other person and make them "evil" or "bad." It's human nature and the default position of so many people. Rivalries begin for no reason when 'that' kid is playing 'their' kid's spot.
But it isn't necessary. One of my closest friends for the past 20+ years I met when we played the same position at USC. We competed every day. Another friend was a fifth-year Senior in the same position when I was a freshman. I got playing time (he did, too). It's easy to see, though, that if I weren't there, he'd have gotten more. I'm still friends with them both today, and our families have become friends.
Just because someone sees the same opportunity you do doesn't make them evil.
One caveat: Ryan and Trent are honest men who competed fairly. If others are not competing fairly or legally, it's necessary to use the resources you have to defend yourself and those you're responsible for.
Nothing works harder than grateful
I'm often asked a great question at the end of the interview process. It's usually a version of: "What characteristics make people successful at TicketManager?"
I've spent a LOT of time considering the answer: People who want to be here.
I have been doing this for sixteen years - and have led teams at StubHub and AEG as well. There are so many diverse characteristics which can be very successful. Everyone is so unique. But all super-successful hires share the one characteristic that they have a choice as to where they will work and they really want to be here. It's not just "a little bit better" for them than elsewhere.
If we can find that, we can build around it.
I love my job so much that when I hear others talk about theirs, I immediately think, "I need to go work even more." I'm so thankful for it.
Sometimes, your faith will get you into an uncomfortable situation, and it's only that same faith that'll get you out.
Enjoyed a lesson on Daniel. His faith is what caused those around him to turn on him and throw him in the lion's den to die. That same faith was the only thing that delivered him safely.
Keep the faith and do the right thing. No matter how hard it can be in the moment.
To that end, the Three Things will be taking a break until after Memorial Day for reasons I'll share then.
I shared back in April that I had to take a hiatus until after Memorial Day "for reasons I'll share then."
Well, we were in a jury trial for nearly a month. I'll be sharing a LOT about that experience later. But for now:
Three things I learned about telling the truth during the most stressful month of my life:
You cannot hide who you are in court.
In a trial, everything is public. Your emails, slacks, instant messages, texts, and even your personal notes. This trial looked at everything that happened between 2010 and 2020—ten whole years.
Witness after witness got up and tried to bend the truth. They'd be shown an email they wrote themselves and then try to explain why it "doesn't really say what it says."
Some were so absurd they'd claim entire sentences were "typos".
It would be silly if it weren't so tragic.
Tell the truth—all the time. You'll have nothing to hide when you end up on the stand, like I did for an entire day.
"He doesn't know what to do!"
Lying and deceiving are standard operating procedure for the vast majority of people. We sat and watched one person after another knowingly lie. They couldn't even look us in the eyes in the hallway.
But that can work to our advantage.
We only know the world we know. When they strategize, they think of what they'd do and say in certain situations, such as cross-examinations.
They read emails through their own corrupted lens. They can't fathom we'd actually get up and tell the truth.
My favorite moment of "The Miracle On Ice" is near the end of the game. The Soviet Union's coach doesn't pull his goalie. Coach Herb Brooks turns to Craig Patrick and gleefully shouts "He doesn't know what to do!"
He didn't know to pull his goalie as he'd never been in that situation.
We had a similar moment when their attorney was attacking me in cross-examination. The truth was going to deliver us. They didn't know what to do.
If you are inauthentic, people can see it. Even if you worry they can't.
We were so nervous. We knew we were telling the truth. We knew the evidence was clear. We knew who was being paid through "consulting agreements" to testify.
But we didn't know if the jury would see it.
They did. The jury saw right through the lies.
Our lawyers got to talk to the jurors after the trial ended and, to a person, the jurors wished us the best and expressed their hope that their verdict would help right some of the wrongs done to us.
I wrote in April that it was Daniel's faith that got him thrown in the lion's den and only his faith could get him out.
I lost my father four days before I took the stand. He was the most honest man I've ever known. I watched people take advantage of his integrity time and time again my whole life. But he never wavered - he always did the right thing and told the truth. No matter the cost.
And when we needed it most, the truth was our most powerful weapon.
In 2004, I worked at AEG as a sales person. AEG had just finished building the Home Depot Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park). It was a multi-use sports facility with a professional stadium for the LA Galaxy with training facilities for track, tennis, cycling, baseball, and more.
The AEG brass had a big idea: We could bring companies in for a team-building company Olympics. The market for such events was big and we could leverage the entire property for a daylong event. They laid out the plan and we, AEG's internal staff, were going to be the guinea pigs.
I can't properly relay how much of a disaster it was.
In the first softball game, I was standing on deck when the sales coordinator hit single to the outfield. The outfielder, a former safety for Notre Dame, decided to throw to first base even though the first baseman wasn't looking. When the ball hit her in the head, it sounded like a watermelon falling off a five-story building. Why she wasn't wearing a helmet, who knows. She was out of work for the next two months.
An hour later, my buddy Eddie was chasing the ball in a soccer game when the CEO in-front of him, Tim Leiweke, blew out his Achilles. He turned to Eddie and asked why he kicked him before realizing what happened.
Oh and another guy ruptured a testicle. No joke.
The injuries piled up. One after another as weekend warriors who work in sports were quickly reminded their days were behind them.
In the softball playoffs, one of my close friends struck out in a key moment. Instead of being welcomed back to the dugout, he was chided by his terrible manager and then benched for the day. So much for team building.
In the end, we won a few medals, everyone drank way too much, feelings got hurt, shoving matches happened, rivalries were formed, and AEG decided to kill the idea.
What I learned and have learned from the event:
Internal competition is playing with gasoline next to a fire. There is nothing more petty and dangerous than spite. Managers and coaches often try to pit people against one another to "get the best out of them." Bad managers just end up creating enemies, cliques, and toxic cultures.
The Olympics tried to put some fun into the internal departmental rivalries. It made them so much worse
Test everything! No matter how good the idea, product, or event looks, always test it first. Seems so simple but thank goodness we did it internally first. I can't imagine the lawsuits had we sold it to someone else.
Move. Seriously, move a lot. 12k-14k steps per day. "95% of people over 30 will never sprint again in their lives." Watching people drop like flies was a great life lesson. We've had people talk about races in the parking lot, softball teams, and hoops. Cover your butt b/c people are going to get hurt.
Wyc Grousbeck and his group are selling the Boston Celtics. I had an experience with Wyc years ago, which I learned a lot from. This week's Three Things: Three times someone powerful was overly gracious to me for no reason and what I learned from it. "I’m a half hour late." In 2015, we ran a process to raise a Series B. Wyc’s company, Causeway Ventures, had invested in SeatGeek, so they called for a meeting in Boston. Knowing how valuable their time is, I planned to get to his office 30 min early My Uber driver took a wrong turn into the tunnel, and it was closed. Even though I was only 2 miles away, I was trapped. I couldn't get out and walk (it was a tunnel). I called and apologized, then arrived half an hour late. We spent two hours talking about the industry. I apologized at least a dozen times. What I remember from that meeting was how insistently gracious he was. He was totally understanding and sympathetic. I could see why people wanted to work with him.
"Take care of him. He’s one of us." I’ve written quite a bit about my AEG experiences. I left AEG in 2005 for StubHub. I was a low-level salesperson, insignificant. Honestly, none of the executives had any reason to know who I was or care. In 2010, a friend from the Cavs took a big-time job at AEG and moved to LA. We met for breakfast. He told me he’d mentioned to Tim Leiweke, the AEG head at the time, that we were meeting. Tim told him, " Help him out; he’s one of us.” He had no reason to even remember who I was.
We’re sitting where? One of our seed round investors, Jim Pallotta, was a part owner of the Celtics back in 2010. I met Jim during our roadshow at his offices at Rowe's Wharf. On one trip to Boston, we sent a note to Jim’s assistant that we’d never been to the TD Garden and if they had any tickets in the rafters, my co-founder and I would love to catch a game. When we got to will call, there were floor seats and super exclusive club passes. We were broke. We weren’t sniffing the floor anytime soon if not for Jim. But that’s how Jim treated us. Whenever in NY, he’d insist on us using his office. He always took care of us, and I wasn’t sure he even knew my name. Be gracious. Take care of your own. And share your blessings. That’s what Wyc, Tim, and Jim showed me. And I honestly believe that's a big part of their success.
They really will steal from you.
In the early days of TicketManager we’d get calls from “Strategics” looking to “learn more” or “invest.” They’ll say things like they “have sincere interest” to get you to let your guard down.
Everyone around us told us this was normal. Don’t be too guarded. Just build and trust they won’t steal from you. They almost shamed us for being so arrogant as to think others would take their time to steal from us.
They were wrong.
They all stole from us.
GMR feigned interest and even attended our customer conference. They hit the market with a copycat just over a year later
MSG took us to the contract phase - even assigning a project manager - then built a cheap copy which looks exactly like our tech the UI is so similar.
A private equity software currently for sale told us, after we rebuked their interest following two months of diligence, they were going to build a competing product. I respect they did.
Vivid Seats spent months in diligence with us then, in the StubHub case six years later, tried to testify they didn’t have “any real interest” in doing the deal and their IOI was “just preliminary.” (On the bright side, they were a star witness for us. They tried to bury us and it was so gross it backfired.)
And StubHub spent two months feigning interest in us before deliberately trying to crush our business, leading to four years in court and a $16m judgment.
Investors and bankers are wrong. Interested parties will steal from you. So don’t share anything you think differentiates you. Guard it all and protect yourself.
Yes, some sell and that’s the process, but others are just phishing. Protect your fish as best you can.
"I don’t give blow jobs but I know when it's being done wrong"- Bill Maher.
Starting a business, or becoming a new leader, brings so much pressure to let your team do their job and to trust the experts around you. And that's great advice - most all of the time. But….there will be times those teammates or advisors have bad ideas. And you know they're bad ideas.
When that happened, I found it hard to stand up for myself. But we have to.
An example: Back in 2013, right before we signed our largest customer, two of our advisors were adamant we sell the business for $10m and "find something more scalable." They spent an entire drive to dinner trying to convince us it was the right course of action and leaning on their vast experiences. I'm glad we didn't listen.
Scott Galloway is wrong: Part one million
Walking through baggage claim on Wednesday returning from the All-Star Game I mentioned to my wife I'd be working long hours the next few days as I'd been out of the office Monday and Tuesday.
Her response: "Tony, I didn't see you. You were at work events from the minute we landed"
Ignore the cynics. They only know their own path.
Do what you love and you won't work a day in your life.
63 -65. Three Things Paris did fantastically well and how LA 2028 can respond:
The ticketing market has come a long way since I started at the LA Dodgers in 2001. Back then, tickets were underpriced and sold to season ticket holders and "insiders" (read: brokers) for major events. In the mid-2000s, the NFL caught on to the price vs market disparity and created a program called "On-Location," where consumers could buy tickets bundled with a room and hospitality for a price exponentially higher than face value. Simply: They could charge the actual market price for the tickets and hide the difference in the package. Nobody could break out what costs what. Since then, hospitality has exploded with private equity stroking huge checks to get in the game (Sixth Street & Legends, Arctos & Elevate, Endeavor-via-Bruin Capital & On-Location, Liberty and Quint, and so on) Three things I've learned from being in/seeing all the hospitality at all the biggest events:
Skimping on F&B is a killer I've been to hospitality, which cost $500-$2000 on top of the ticket, only to have cold sandwiches, a pasta bar, and middle to low-shelf booze with only a handful of choices. I was at an event with a $10k ticket where the same four food options were available multiple days. It was essentially buffet-style. And the drinks were worse. Four liquors and three mixers. That's all. It's a bad experience, and customers will not return. The best examples I've seen of F&B done right: ✅ The NFL House. Exceptional from start to finish. Full bars. Top-shelf booze. Dozens of food options are switched out regularly. ✅ LIV Golf. The experience is exceptional. The food is unique, there are plenty of options, and the attention to detail is meticulous in all of the hospitality areas. ✅ Legends House. Thanks to terrific friends, we had the privilege of attending a few of these. Every detail is attended to, and it feels VIP ✅ 1968 Room at the US Open ✅ NFL Tailgate: Yes, a tailgate. The food is terrific, the drinks are okay, but the entertainment and the early access through security is worth every penny.
Any inconvenience is too inconvenient Providers are pushing the limits on where the hospitality is. A short walk is understandable. Or the heart of a busy center. Too often, the hospitality is more than a quarter-mile from the event in a temporary structure in a parking lot. What's supposed to be a benefit is now a hassle.
Access vs Luxury Many customers are fine paying more for the ticket with the understanding that's what they're paying for. The hospitality is a throw-in in which doesn't matter. If the hospitality, however, is marketed as "VIP," but has worse food and fewer drink options than a local chain restaurant, it hurts the event. I have a feeling a sizeable number of customers have bought hospitality which they won't consider again.
The US Open is booming
Our timelines are full of inflation.
Everyone is setting a "record" these days. Even though it's virtually impossible not to with the inflation we've had in currency and in how sports measures engagement.
But the US Open is different. It really is growing exponentially.
We've been going to and supporting the event for over a decade and the change in the event, the demand around it, and its stature among the corporate entertainment crowd has exploded in the past five years. It's a case study on how to tastefully grow an event without overdoing or watering down the offerings.
Find a megaphone
We all know who Michael Wilbon, Brian Windhorst and Tony Kornheiser are. They're incredibly talented at their jobs and are household names to sports television watchers.
But talent needs a megaphone.
Windhorst got that megaphone when LeBron was drafted by the Cavaliers- in Cleveland, where Brian was a beat writer.
Kornheiser wrote his "Bandwagon" columns about the then-called-the-Redskins 1991 Super Bowl run. He worked with Wilbon, who was the top sports columnist.
All three were tremendous talents, and circumstance amplified their voices so we could appreciate them.
I've been in the sports business for 25 years. It's no different.
Careers have been launched into the stratosphere by LeBron, Curry, Brady, and now Caitlin.
Are the people who were there when those athletes joined their team that good? Yes. I know them. But their experience got amplified.
Get on the rocket ship.
Buy low and never let go - the sponsorship Valhalla.
Sitting in the bowl at the Open, one of our guests asked about the sponsors and how long they'd been there.
We have a very large contingent at the Open. A number of our sponsors use our software to manage their tickets and suites. But we also have customers who are direct competitors of the sponsors who buy a ton of tickets to the event.
The sponsors got their names there first. Everyone else is trying not to be left behind.
Now that's a category exclusivity worth paying for - when your logo is prominent at an event, your competition is entertaining at heavily.
Bonus one: It's not "allergies." You're sick. Please don't bring those "allergies" to the event =)
Three Things I Learned at SBJ Drive in Dallas this week:
I used to go to conferences all the time. When we were building TicketManager, conferences were a vital part of our growth. We had to get the word out and we didn't have much marketing budget. So we hit the road.
I made so many friends along the way. People who are now CEOs and titans of industry. At the time, we were all just kids trying to sell our wares. We've seen some hit it big, and some take big hits. But there's something reassuring about seeing those familiar faces from time to time. What I learned this week at the SBJ Drive conference in Frisco:
Ticketing Needs New Ideas
When we started TicketManager, we'd go to all the conferences. Every SBJ conference, every NATB, Tickets.com, ALSD, Ticketmaster, NSF, and on and on. We really started to hit them in 2010. Back then, the big ideas were seat upgrades, group sales, and opaque ticket sales. The companies were Experience, Split Season Tickets, ScoreBig, and FanSnap. We'd see them on every panel, everywhere.
We don't have any new ideas.
The conference was overwhelmingly the same stuff. Opaque ticket sales have been renamed consolidation and have become a billion-dollar business. Seat upgrades are back, and there are a number of companies getting into that game (again), and group sales has gone from Groupmatics to Spinzo to Fevo.
But where are the new ideas?
Everyone was throwing around the term "AI" with very little understanding of what AI really is. Your superfast bot is not AI. It's a superfast bot.
We need new ideas in the space. Especially now with the DOJ looking to mix things up (which I don’t agree with)
Sponsors have overwhelmed too many conferences
This isn't an SBJ thing. It's an every-conference thing.
Having a title sponsor who gets thirty minutes at a keynote makes sense. Or a panel here or there.
I understand these shows need to turn a profit as they're not user conferences - they are for profit.
However, too many of these conferences have given the sponsors too much control and too much content. The panels are becoming infomercials, which is fine, but it is also driving away guests, and the competition of the sponsors have no interest in attending.
Cosm is cool
That's kinda obvious, but can they sustain as a real business? Beyond being cool, they're powering 700 planetariums and their tech is being licensed out. Will be interesting to watch them grow.
Ticketing companies are gearing up for a seismic shift
Just about every ticketing company or PE I spoke with said the same thing this week: They think the DOJ may break up Live Nation or impose sanctions on them. And ticketing may shake up quite a bit. I heard it from primaries, secondaries, and consolidators. All are positioning themselves to pounce if something shakes loose.
The Origin Story - Part 1
17 years into our business, the question I get asked the most is: What led to the beginning of TicketManager.
It is a simple story.
Part one:
In 2006 I was working for StubHub in Corporate Sales. My job, simply put, was to get companies to buy and sell tickets on our new marketplace for sports, concert, and theater tickets. Nobody knew what StubHub was and we would refer to ourselves as "you know - the stub of a ticket and the hub of a bicycle."
I would cold-call companies and offer them a discount for using our website to buy tickets. We'd even offer a higher level of service.
I was working out of the San Francisco office pretty much every week - commuting from LA. One day, I had a lunch meeting with a prospect from Bowne named Noah. Bowne was a financial printer - a highly competitive business who took customers to games often.
Noah had come to the meeting with an ask: If he told all his reps (about 12 of them) to buy all their tickets through StubHub, could we give him a report of everything they bought at the end of the month. He wanted to use that report to see who was getting the most business from their tickets by comparing their sales numbers.
So we did. And he liked it.
A few months later, I was in New York City meeting with a C-level exec at CBS, Charlie. He had an enormous office and we were sitting at his conference table as I went through my sales pitch. He stood up, mid-sentence, walked over to his desk, and opened the bottom drawer. It was full of baseball tickets (remember, this was 2006, e-tickets weren't a thing yet. The iphone would be introduced a year later.) And then he said the sentence that would change our lives:
"That all sounds great but I can wallpaper my office with Mets tickets at the end of every year. You solve for that, and I'll consider buying more tickets from you."
The problem: Charlie has tickets he can't get used. Noah wants to know which tickets work and which don't so he can better use his budget.
It was that simple.
And it changed our lives
From that point, every meeting I took, I'd go through the usual pitch, then I'd ask "what if we had a way to better get your tickets used and track them?" After a while, I had to stop. They'd get so focused on the management idea they wouldn't pay attention to what I selling at that moment.
My co-workers and I, Aric and Joe, had been looking for something to venture off and do on our own. And here it was.
September 27th, 2007, seventeen years ago today, was TicketManager's first day.
What I learned from the origin story - Part One:
The idea is the hardest part.
I think about the idea the most. What a blessing. And for it to be in sports and tech? That was my dream when I got into the industry. I see so many talented people starting businesses. The only problem: they don’t' have a good idea yet.
Be ready to move fast when opportunity knocks
When we started TicketManager, there were other companies in the ticket management space - we learned this after we put Noah and Charlie's needs together. But their vision was different than ours. They didn't track purchasing. They didn't make distribution easier. They weren't looking to build a platform.
If the problem was that obvious to us, others would see it too. They did. But moving when we did gave us a huge advantage
The best ideas are in the wild
All the best ideas we've had in building TicketManager came from clients, customers, partners, and friends. Get out. Meet people. Talk to them and ask lots and lots of questions. #bethere - on-site. Always =)
I'll share much more on this topic in the coming weeks. For now, Happy Anniversary TicketManager!
The collapse of Lyte and why choosing vendors is high stakes
Choose who you work with carefully. It is so easy to get drawn in by whatever business you can get in the early days. Especially when times are tough- which they are for many right now.
We made a lot of mistakes, and have seen a lot of mistakes, since we started. In light of the collapse of Lyte leaving vendors and customers high and dry, here are three mistakes we made, or watched, when not properly vetting vendors.
Vet your customers!
In the early days of TicketManager we were living hand to mouth. Anything we bought for a client came out of our pockets personally until they paid for it. I made $16k that year - and that didn't count what I put back in.
Michelle Wing was stealing from her company to buy access to big events. We never looked into it as she was the exec assistant to the CEO, used her work email, and it all seemed legit. Until we got a call from the FBI. She owed us 20k. We lost it all.
Mitch Chirchick was a big customer of ours at StubHub who would buy lavish events. He took his business with us when we started. He would buy a suite for the Rose Bowl then show up with a boxing star and celebrities. Until he got indicted. And we were left holding the bag on $40k we didn’t have https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/man-gets-eight-to-20-years-for-scam/
Cy was a bigwig at our biggest early customer, CenterPoint Energy. We would marvel at how he’d throw money around at events. Once telling me to buy “all the Caymus” at the local liquor store and handing me his black card. I did. He was a great customer, until he was gone. Procurement let us know that none of the buying was approved by compliance. At least that one we didn’t eat.
All three of them seemed so legit.
But you know what they say about crooks: if they aren’t great liars, they aren’t crooks for long.
Vet your vendors.
Enter Lyte.
They’re not the only one.
If something is too good to be true, it isn’t true.
ScoreBig was everywhere. Every event. They had big time VC backing and paid out rips better than any marketplace.
Until they didn’t. They went under and left people holding the bag.
SpongeTech had sponsored everything in the late 10’s. It seemed impossible they could do all these team deals.
It was. They flamed out and disappeared as fast as FTX.
Lyte was going to change the economics of ticketing. They made bold statements and did plenty of press.
Those that believed are the most hurt.
If the deal seems too good - it's much cheaper, easier to buy, or flashy - be very wary.
Nobody can actually spot a cheat.
Gladwell's book “Talking To Strangers” examines just how terrible we all are at judging what is true and what isn’t. And the more certain people are they can tell what no one else can, the more spectacularly wrong they are. Don't take my word for it. Read the book.
$10k for the rest of your life.
One of the most common mistakes I see in entry-level hires, and one I was an inch away from making myself, was focusing on pay and title too early.
We get to work at the intersection of sports and tech. It’s the best. I love my job. And it attracts a lot of applicants.
Since we’re only a team of 175 people and our job is fun and sought after, we don’t have to pay as much as other soul-crushing gigs trying to mask the actual day-to-day.
Kids struggle with this. $10,000 is a ton of money in your early 20s.
The numbers grow later, but experienced applicants do too. They can’t understand why we wouldn’t match their comp plan at the Fortune 500.
I almost took a soulless corporate marketing gig at a national restaurant chain instead of the position at AEG in 2002. The reason is that the job paid 55k plus a bonus. AEG was 24.5k plus light commissions and tons of late nights. That was an enormous spread for me at 22 years old.
My dad calmly told me to “focus on where you’ll be in ten years. Don’t worry about today”.
And boy, am I glad I did.
I love my job. I’m so thankful for it.
I’m in my mid-40s, and I’m surrounded by people who hate their jobs.
They are well-paid, successful by the world’s standards, and taken care of. But they have the fuzzy handcuffs on. They spend most of their lives on things they don’t care about.
That $10k gap today….is it worth the rest of your life?
Fuzzy handcuffs are the hardest to break
Crappy jobs have to pay more. It’s because nobody wants to do them.
One of my more regular conversations is with someone getting paid a lot of money to do a boring job and looking to join us or make a career change.
I speed up the conversation because I know where the hurdle is.
They’re well paid. Well taken care of. Have been promoted. But they want to work in sports tech and are looking at a transition. The problem: many of the jobs they actually can get pay much less than their current role as they don’t have the experience needed for an executive role in sports.
This reality is lost on them.
Of course the current soulless corporation has to pay you more. That job is less fun and way less in demand.
The positive “negative” reviews
We have a long interview process. 4 to 6 interviews over a few weeks. This upsets a lot of people.
I don’t care. At all.
I’m responsible for the money entrusted to me by people I care greatly for.
I’m looking for people who want to be here. I understand they may take another job while we’re going through our process. That’s a risk I’m knowingly taking.
I also expect someone coming in for a fifth interview to have done their homework. Simple stuff: who are our competitors? What do you know about the team here? 15 minutes of web browsing would honestly suffice, though I’d like more.
So when someone shows up unprepared, we cut them. And if they go complain on an anonymous site, we wear it as a badge of honor.
Bullet dodged.
The money will eventually win.
Three of the final four teams in baseball had the highest payrolls and reside in the two biggest media markets.
For most of sports history, the biggest spenders have won.
People will actually try to argue this when it’s brought up, but the evidence is clear: The money wins the vast majority of the time in leagues without salary caps and spending controls.
In "The League," there are chapters dedicated to creating the NFL draft and the salary cap to try and stem the richest teams from winning a disproportionate number of titles. The NFL had a money problem.
In the English Premier League, only one team that wasn't in the top six in salary expense has won the title since the league's inception in 1992: The 2015-16 Leicester City squad. Still the most incredible sports upset ever.
The Dodgers spent a billion dollars on four players and won the World Series with the biggest payroll in the sport (Please don’t send me another chart counting Ohtani at $2m.)
There are outliers. There are disruptors. There is hope. But more often than not, the Moneyball A's lose to the Yankees. It’s just the way it’s always been.
There are two ways to win in Major League Baseball these days: 1) Buy a team or 2) bottom out, get a ton of high draft picks, then supplement by - buying a team in free agency. That's been the case with every World Series champion since the 2008 Phillies (11th in payroll)
Such is life.
It isn't any different in business.
Spending money doesn't always equal success. And there are plenty of stories of when spending fails terribly. Think Quibi or ScoreBig.
But more often, it makes winning much easier.
The money eventually comes. It copies. It threatens. It tries to buy. If it doesn't get what it wants, it looks to use its leverage (money) to beat you.
If you are having success, the money will not be far behind.
So run as fast and as far as you can while you have the advantage you've found. And do so with plans for what you will do when money enters the equation.
The Yankees and Dodgers couldn't have come at a better time for ticket re-sellers
StubHub and SeatGeek still haven't gone public. They can’t. The numbers aren’t there.
This year hasn't been a great one for the secondary ticketing world. The big event of the summer, The Paris Olympics, shut off re-sale completely.
The Dodgers vs. Yankees World Series is the boon re-sale companies needed to save the year.
We'll soon see just how good it was.
If you don't have anything productive to say, don't say anything at all.
Tuesday will come and go soon. Finally.
Every election will be "the most important of our lives" and "too close to call" from here on out.
Every candidate will be the “worst of their time,” or “garbage,” or “incompetent,” or “deplorable,” or “treasonous," or whatever.
We’ve had “war criminals,” “felons,” “unfit for office,” and on and on since Jefferson and Adams sparred with vitriol in the papers of the day.
It's just the way the machine works and always has.
Hurling insults at each other or venting into the void of social media changes nothing at anything in life.
It is wasted breath.
Good luck out there next week.
The empire is striking back.
It's a rough time to be in the ticket re-sale game, as discussed last week, and it is seemingly getting worse.
Vivid reported and it was grim, dropping the stock price to $3.57 at close.
SeatGeek and StubHub keeping feigning going public and can't.
A friend smarter than me is probably right: "They're mature companies. They're not growth companies anymore. And if that's the case, they have to make lots of money. And in that game, there aren't a lot of places to cut without alienating already non-loyal customers."
A dear friend just had his season tickets cancelled by the Dodgers for re-selling them. Only one problem: He's a lifelong fan, he's not a re-seller at all, and he has no recourse - likely for not using the official re-seller. The Guardians did the same to a customer we work with. Which is their right to do no matter what anyone thinks of the practice.
The game has changed, and I'm afraid the big three of Vivid, StubHub, and SeatGeek missed some of the changes along the way.
The blame this quarter is on the weak concert schedules.
Maybe. But outside of the post-Covid free-money inflationpalooza boom, there hasn't been much good news in secondary for nearly five full years now. That's a long time.
It could just be that ticket prices can't go up much further for the non A+ events. And that's who the marketplaces really need.
"You'll learn who people really are when they don't get what they want from you."
Read this quote on X this week. So true.
People ask you for what they want. If you say no you’re the bad guy. A few years back we hired for a VP of Sales. We looked at some local talent and some not-local. We ended up hiring a teammate who was with us for seven great years and is TicketManager family for life. It was a terrific success. But he wasn't the only candidate. We had to say no to the other finalists.
One of them is a local man who has kids in school with my son. To say he doesn't say positive things about me and my family is an understatement. And, of course, he leaves out the real reason for the sore feelings. I've personally said no to a coach, dads, moms, and people in our community. It's just the sucky part of running a business.
"Winning is the best way to go viral."
Pat McAfee, in an interview with Uconn Head Coach and defending back-to-back National Champion Danny Hurley.
Certainly seems to be the case. Even when it doesn't happen right away.
Book suggestion: "The Perfect Pass" by SG Gwynne. To McAfee's point, the Air Raid offense was around for nearly thirty years before it took over football. People knew about it, but it wasn't until Hal Mumme starting winning with it that everyone paid attention. Enjoyable book.
"I will never feel guilty if this works." Part Two
In ten days, work has taken me to:
LAFC Playoffs in the directors box
Intuit Dome floor seats
Nobu dinner with clients
Thursday Night Football: Eagles vs Commanders in the Eagles suite
UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden
Palm Desert for a Big Horn Golf Outing
This is not normal. At all. That's a few months of events in a very short period of time. Most of what I do is pretty boring stuff to many. But everything just came at once.
And I felt guilty, and still do, about all of it, as detailed in the #18 thing I learned in 2024.
What I learned during a hectic two weeks.
Priorities change fast
When I was younger, all I wanted to do was get to a point where my job was to play golf at nice courses, go to fancy dinners, and, of course, go to all the biggest and best events there are.
Now that the invites come in, much of it is a distraction. Even when it is my job to be there. It is so easy to get hung up in the excitement, but my guilt hasn’t gone away. I love the events and the fun. But I miss my kids. A lot. I have work to do. And there are so many events anyone can get caught up in being a “professional CEO” instead of actually running the business.
All that to say, it’s not really what it seems. The stakes just go higher while at the events and I’m still riddled with guilt.
It is all about friendships.
Life on the road can get really lonely. When we first started, I didn’t have many friends in other cities, and I traveled a ton. I’d go city to city where I didn’t know anyone. I’d go on educational tours, visit museums, just about anything to pass the time until the next city (back then, we didn’t have any money, so I wouldn’t fly home; I’d just stay there until the next meeting in the next city).
But that has changed. Over the years I’ve made such incredible friends with the people who work with us. The teams, the vendors, and the customers. I can’t wait to get to certain cities. And when my team goes instead of me, I look at the pictures with a hint of jealousy. The events are fun. The friendships? The highlight of the trip.
I’m still bummed I got to Philly late and missed my buddy Nick’s tailgate with his buddy in their Eagles bus. Those are the memories that last the longest.
Eventually, it all blends to together.
Work-life balance is a must.
But when you do what you love, they blend together. Like when I go to the Eagles game and get to spend the last quarter with friends at the team. Or when customers turn out to be big UFC fans who want to come to the fights.
It is so rewarding and fantastic. I’m so thankful for the sales side of the business.
I keep a personal CRM of all my contacts. One of the fields is the source of the contact. I don’t bother between “business referral” and “personal” anymore. It’s all the same thing.
An extra one: Thank You to the team at TicketManager for earning us a Bronze Medal in the Best Places to Work in Sports from the Sports Business Journal!
Your number can't be my problem
Sales people have annual numbers.
Companies have annual budgets which either turnover end-of-year or fiscally
Deals get done in December. But there's a catch.
Salespeople get desperate in December. As such, they chase and push anyone who is considering the product. And that's great. We have tons of salespeople chasing us right now.
But sometimes they can push too hard. Salespeople can get frustrated with the prospect. They've told their boss they're going to sell them and it may not happen this calendar year. They grow resentful of someone who is actually trying to buy from them!
That's a trap and a rookie move.
We almost lost one of our now biggest customers back in 2012 by being impatient.
Unless you have lines of people trying to buy your product, every real prospect is a VIP. We have processes for spending money. Sometimes, that doesn’t follow a straight line.
It is a common danger where salespeople will scare off customers.
Speaking of scary….
Scary or Boring
In an interview this week, one of the candidates I met with mentioned two very different career paths as her future goal: Work for a pro sports team or start a company as an entrepreneur.
She seems to want the latter. When I asked further, she responded: "I guess I'd choose entrepreneur." So why not lead with that? "It's scarier."
25 years in and I learn something new every day.
She's right. So much of the careers of the people around me come down to two choices: The scary or the boring. The exciting or the safe. Uncertainty or certainty.
Yes, "boredom is the greatest luxury," but I'm not sure that applies to one's life work.
"Sitting on a beach earning 20%"
When I worked at AEG in the early 2000s, HR had us do one of those tedious exercises where we'd map out our career and talk to them about what our goals are - as if I trusted them.
There were a series of questions asking where we'd like to be "in five, ten, and fifteen years."
I answered them and thought nothing of it.
A few weeks later I got called into my boss Justin's office. HR was there. There were angry. I was scolded for "disrespecting the exercise."
My crime: As my 25 year goal I put: "Sitting on a beach earning 20%"*
And that, right there, is scary vs boring. The HR rep couldn’t fathom my worldview and I couldn’t fathom theirs.
I'm not sure I'd hire anyone who wouldn't align with aspirational goals. Middle management is no career goal.
To the younger readers, don't let 'em keep you down. Yes, I'm not sitting on a beach earning 20% - but I don't want to be. And I get to the beach quite a bit 😁
2024 was the first normal corporate year post Covid.
We sell to companies. We partner with teams. We talk to each other a lot
It is my belief we had a recession which was hidden in inflation after the false bump of 2021.
The cost of everything went up 30%. Wages, for most, did not.
Companies cut a lot in 2023. Teams were under pressure as customers asked for shorter term deals - which don't pencil out for teams - and layoffs were the norm
2024 was the most normal year we've seen. Companies learned from Covid and the following recession. But they're back to investing in growth.
We are nowhere close to clear of the inflationary policy mistakes and printed money of the Covid era, but the waters are more normal than they've been since the "pandemic."
This Super Bowl will be the most expensive of the 2020's. And That could be a drag for Lions and Bills fans.
I'm all for the Super Bowl being the economic boon it has become. As seen in today's SBJ, New Orleans is a monster destination. People want to go, it is centrally located. The stadium is small (under 70k seats). Companies are spending money. And the front-runner teams have rabid fan bases who travel. The only "light" traveling teams left are the Chargers, Rams, Cardinals and Ravens.
Everyone else will travel and they will spend.
Detroit and Buffalo have two of the best fan bases in sports. But, they are not known for big spending. It would be unfortunate if this were the year they made the game and played one another as the ask of the fan will be quite substantial in investment.
Lions vs Bills isn't exactly Wall Street vs Silicon Valley.
The "overstory" has changed
In his new book, "Revenge of the Tipping Point," Malcolm Gladwell talks about the influence the "overstory" has on the zeitgeist. He uses the example of "Will and Grace" and how that show was an important driver in the broad acceptance of gay marriage.
I have high school kids. They had a big to-do "Dancing With The Stars" event a few weeks back where the dance team and the athletic teams get together for a dance off contest. As is usual at these things, the two most popular kids are on the mic. They look like you'd think they would. My assumption, this must be the Class President and Class Whatever.
They introduced themselves as the "Class Influencers." This was an elected position.
Z doesn't watch TV.
Z doesn't swim against the grain. Every single boy at my kids homecoming dance wore the same thing and had the same haircut. A sad editorial on individualism dying at the altar of the social media norms.
It's more winner-take-all than ever.
And that's sad.
I never thought Punk Rawk would die. It did. And it was replaced by every single kid having the exact same haircut and then telling us they were the ones not conforming. Sigh. I’m not sure many of them can even understand what it is to be an individual anymore after staring at an army of kids in black shirts, black pants, white shoes, and the same haircuts.
I've never felt so old.
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