Our First Investment: TicketRev

We are beyond thrilled to announce 248 Builders’ first investment: TicketRev!

What is TicketRev?

TicketRev makes it easier to buy and resell live event tickets. Through their reverse marketplace model, fans create bids on events by choosing their preferred seating location and naming their offer price. This enables ticket resellers to accept a matching bid and resell their tickets instantly, without ever having to list on another marketplace. In a market that so heavily favors ticket sellers, TicketRev gives power back to the buyers while allowing sellers the benefit of adequately meeting demand with available inventory.

CEO and Co-Founder, Jason Shatsky

As an avid fan of sports and live music, Jason often became frustrated when attempting to purchase tickets to his favorite sporting events and concerts. He disliked that he was unable to negotiate with sellers, could never get the seats that he wanted at the price he wanted to pay, and grew tired of the extraneous fees on each side. Simply put, he found the customer experience to be unenjoyable, stressful, and in the need of a major paradigm shift. For these reasons and more, Jason decided to solve these problems by founding TicketRev.

TicketRev isn’t Jason’s first foray into entrepreneurship. In high school, Jason founded a successful sneaker e-commerce business, grossing more than $100,000 in sales. Furthermore, the experience also gave him in-depth knowledge of product resale and marketplaces.

In May, Jason graduated from Babson College with a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Studies. While at Babson, he served as President of eTower, Babson’s premier undergraduate entrepreneurial community, and currently sits on eTower’s Board of Advisors. Additionally, he was a finalist in Babson’s 2020 B.E.T.A Challenge, a graduate of the school’s Summer Catalyst program, and winner of the 2020 B-Seeds Pitch Competition.

Why we are excited about this investment

Traditional methods of purchasing tickets from current third party providers are not optimized for the best user experience. TicketRev’s reverse marketplace model makes the transaction process significantly more enjoyable for both buyers and sellers. By completely changing the paradigm in which tickets are bought and sold, TicketRev is the first company in the ticket resale space to truly place the buyer at the center. This is a strong advantage over incumbents and a point of differentiation.

On the tailwinds of increased Covid-19 vaccinations in the U.S., the country is seeing a surge in the reopening of in-person events. Now is the best time to enter the ticket resale industry as there is a rapidly increasing amount of excitement in this space. More than ever, TicketRev is primed to disrupt the seller dominated ticket resale market and change the balance of power to favor buyers everywhere and provide more transparency to all consumers.

What’s Next

Since graduating from Babson, Jason has been working full-time on TicketRev. Over the next several months, he will continue working on optimizing the platform and acquiring customers, focusing primarily in the Central and South Florida region. Since launching earlier in the year, more than 100 transactions have been completed on TicketRev. We are excited to partner with Jason and be a part of the journey to disrupt the ticket resale market!

Acknowledgements

The team at 248 would like to offer our immense thanks and gratitude to our advisor, Tim Chae, for everything he has taught us and pushing us to find the founders who are building the future. Without him, none of this would be possible. Furthermore, we’d also like to thank our former partners, Celine Christory, Sumukh Setty, and Bahram Tavakoli, for all of their hard work in helping to get us here.

About Us

248 Builders is a student-led venture capital group with the goal of providing capital and resources to Babson, Olin, and Wellesley startups while also facilitating greater collaboration between the three schools. We are financially backed by 500 Startups, one of the most active early-stage venture capital firms in the world.

Are you a BOW student or an alumni working on an early-stage startup?

Get in touch with us here!

Steve Shafran, Managing Partner

Navi Boyalakuntla, Founding Partner

Duncan Mazza, Founding Partner

Sumer Sen, Partner