Recently, I wrote a blog post stating that I have started working with a San Francisco start-up called Ticketfly. Today, I’m going to tell you a little bit more about Ticketfly and what I’m doing there.
Ticketfly calls themselves “live music marketers.” They’re interested in working with independent music venues and event (mostly music concerts) promoters to help them sell tickets to their events. There are a couple components to making this happen.
First, there’s a ticketing platform that helps venues manage their ticket inventory and allows consumers to make online purchases of those tickets. This is really not much different than what Ticketmaster or Live Nation provides.
But what differentiates Ticketfly is its focus on helping venues actually move these tickets into the hands of customers. The ticketing platform will take advantage of social web marketing and communication capabilities. An obvious example is that when a venue adds an event to the platform and make tickets available for purchase, a Facebook event page is created so the event can spread from social graph to social graph. Many other social web features will be built into the system. Anything that might help a venue sell out a show.
So what I’m doing for TIcketfly is helping them wrap their hands around all of the capabilities and technologies that make up the social web. I’m spending my days up to my neck in the Facebook Connect platform and Twitter API’s. I’m also filling out the features and functionality of a venue marketing web site solution with WordPress MU. In many ways, my role is a perfect match for me. I’m working with the technologies that fascinate me and with subject matter that I love.
The folks at Ticketfly at top notch. They’ve really made me feel welcome as part of the team. And I’m still giddy over going to work in downtown San Francisco on a regular basis. SOMA sure has evolved since Keturah moved away from there in 2005.
I have been a Palm OS user for almost a decade. I had a first generation Handspring Visor back in 1999. Then a couple of Palm handhelds. When the Treo 600 came out, I jumped all over it – finally converging my phone and PDA. And then I obtained an iPod and was back to carting two handheld devices with me pretty much wherever I went.
Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend 2007. Keturah’s Treo was completely done for so we headed over to the Sprint store to get her an updated Treo 755p. And of course while we were there, I couldn’t resist the temptation to upgrade myself. But doing so meant locking myself into another two year commitment with Sprint PCS. Looking back on it, it was probably a mistake. The Apple iPhone had been announced and was about a month from being available for purchase. But I had convinced myself that the first generation iPhone would be a mistake. That it would be full of shortcomings and bugs. Like being a new car model, I figured wait for the second generation. After all the kinks are worked out of the system.
I was partially correct. The original iPhone had plenty of shortcomings. Slow network and no MMS to name just two. But it was an incredible interface advancement. I was also incorrect at the rate of advancement. I never thought that two years later we’d be days away from a third generation iPhone. I would be lying if I said I haven’t been suffering from gadget envy for the last 2 years.
In fact, I’ve resisted the temptations to spend a lot of time playing around with the iPhones my friends have (and they pretty much all have them). I know what a compelling device it is. I know that it will unlock my realtime access to information and, equally if not more importantly, allow me to carry around one less device.
I made it. Two years in a Sprint contract while the iPhone and the App Store have been leaving my Treo 755p sucking in its wake. And in less than an day, I’ll be out of the mobile device dark ages with the fastest iPhone yet.
After WordCamp SF ends today, I’m taking the red eye flight tonight from San Francisco to Boston. My flight lands at Logan around 7 am. My friend Dennis is picking me up so that I can get some rest before gathering with friends in preparation for Phish at Fenway park tomorrow evening.
Yes, that’s correct. I’m travelling to Boston to see Phish at Fenway.
After the show, there will be more hijinks, then I’m jumping on a plane back to San Francisco at 6 am Monday morning.
If all goes to plan, I will be in Boston for 23 hours. Keep track of what’s going on by following me on Twitter.
Am I crazy? Obsessed? Or inspired?
While some of my close friends, colleagues, and trusted peers have knowledge of this, I have yet to publicly disclose that I parted ways with Stanford University at the end of March.
So I’ve taken some to recollect. Even did some exploring regarding what I want to do next. Spent time with my kids. Watched the Red Sox pretty much every day. Got excited to go see Phish at Fenway.
Sadly what I found in the I spent working at Stanford’s Office of Development is that, institutionally speaking, they are an enterprise not ready to explore the utilization of the web and social media technologies in the same fashion that I am. There is interest to be sure, but there is not an equivalent amount of action supporting that interest. I will say that much of the responsibility for igniting that interest fell upon my shoulders and while I was able to get certain corners activated and excited, doing so on a broader level was something I did not achieve.
What’s next
I’ve accepted a contract position with Ticketfly. And I have to say, I’m bursting with excitement. Ticketfly is a startup still in stealth mode so I won’t be writing too much at this time. I will say that their business is centered around live music, which couldn’t be more of a perfect fit for me. I’m also excited to head back to an office in San Francisco, to an office on 2nd Street to be precise. Keturah and I were chatting yesterday and realized that I’ve been working down in Silicon Valley ever since we began dating.
So to all my friends working in South of Market, lets grab lunch!
