Where it all began
Ticket Evolution has quickly become one of the most recognized names in the secondary ticket industry. As the only ticket broker owned platform currently operating in this niche, Ticket Evolution has received overwhelming support and has been welcomed with open arms. We can’t thank the community enough for all of the calls, emails and assistance offered in order to guarantee the success of this platform. So where did it all begin…
The Driving Factor
For years there was an outcry for help in the broker community. As the main ticket aggregators and software platforms grew larger and more powerful, ticket brokers had no choice but to submit to the unreasonable demands and policies that were set. As brokers, we helped build these giant entities and in turn became reliant on the orders generated from them.
Two of the ticket brokers, boasting over 23 years and a gold standard in the secondary ticket industry, had finally seen enough. The ridiculous demands and guidelines they were told to meet in order to participate on one of the exchanges had gone too far. Ram Silverman and Steve Parry of Golden Tickets in Plano, TX decided they were not going to idly sit by as the business they spent their entire lives building was being coerced by a privately owned exchange’s self serving standards. Golden tickets is a founding member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers. Steve Parry has sat on the board every year since the organizations inception in 1994 and was board president from 1995 through 1997. It had become very clear that one of the seven deadly sins, greed, had taken over and Ticket Brokers had become disposable.
A Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Ticket Evolutions two founding members began to reach out to fellow ticket brokers only to find a shared sense of urgency and need for a broker owned ticket exchange. After several weeks of rallying and surveying the community, the initiative began grabbing peoples attention. Companies from all over the world that had developed ticket platforms had reached out looking to sell the group on their technology.
A few weeks into the initiative, Steve and Ram received an email from a fellow ticket veteran Drew Gainor that forever changed this project. Drew had spent over 10 years in the secondary ticket industry, having started a popular online ticketing portal with his father at Source4tickets.com and working for the past few years at National Event Company in New York City.
Ram and Steve were extremely impressed with Drew’s enthusiasm and passion for technology and tickets as well as the expertise he had displayed over the following few weeks. Drew had brought a wealth of resources, experience and the field’s most talented engineers that were perfect for the job. The stage had been set for the official Ticket Evolution kickoff meeting on July 16th, 2010 at The Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Together the three founders worked day and night through the preceding months leading up to the anual ticket broker conference run by the National Association of Ticket Brokers.
The industry unites
Before they knew it, July 16th had arrived and it was time to present to over three-hundred and fifty ticket brokers with shared concerns both in person and via live webinar. The goal…develop as much of the platform possible in that short period of time and show the audience how seriously we were taking this project. Using personal capital, the founders were able to convey some crucial points:
- The sense of urgency for a broker owned exchange
- How unique and cutting edge Ticket Evolution was going to be
- The dire need for a fresh new perspective
- Brokers should have skin in the game
- This project is moving forward one way or another
Ticket Evolution’s goals and initiatives were extremely well received by the community and there was a tremendous sense of appreciation and excitement. As a result of some extremely valuable feedback, the founders were able to organize the company and stock offering in a way that appealed to the masses. The first round of stock offerings went out to interested brokers and just under 100 brokers jumped at the opportunity to help advance our industry.
History in the making
In the weeks following the offering, Ticket Evolution became the first exchange to offer an automated ticket uploader application that assists brokers by sending their inventory files to multiple exchanges. The tool’s rapid evolution has made it the new standard in distributing inventory files more frequently and with significantly less effor.
We have since launched our B2B portal and our powerful API, both of which have been met with praise and appreciation of our efforts. We will also be releasing the highly anticipated Ticket Evolution point of sale and mobile applications in the near future; two products which we expect to change the industry forever and for the better.