Fed up with ticket touts or can no longer go to an event? Ticketpass has the fair fare solution!

Like many of us, Rodrigo Bautista leads a spontaneous life which means he can’t risk purchasing event tickets in advance! And purchasing tickets last-minute is impossible if there are none left or if prices set by ticket touts are too high. Either way, disappointment is near when plans for work and play change!

This Warwick postgrad found he was not the only frustrated would-be event goer! His only available way to find tickets was to constantly check social media like Twitter and Facebook or websites like Viagogo and Stubhub. He'd find that listed tickets were overpriced or the event was too niche to appear!

He asked himself,

''Why is it so difficult? How can websites help touts sell tickets at 10 times the original price?”

He understood these organisations were in business so needed to be profitable, but he and managers of music artists feel it’s simply “rampant profiteering”. The Arctic Monkeys, Iron Maiden, Ed Sheeran, Noel Gallagher, Little Mix and Björk are just a few who want to do something about it. Not to mention the 46,000 fans who signed an online petition calling for the UK government to react!

After countless coffees, many lines of code and months of working with event organisers and attendees, Rodrigo is happy to announce the website for Ticketpass is now live. Anyone can easily create and sell tickets for their events on a platform free of touts – and for free! The costs incurred by Ticketpass are covered by a proportional and capped charge for processing card payments on ticket purchases made by event-goers. The Ticketpass webpage for event organisers is https://ticketpass.com/organisers/ and https://ticketpass.co/ is for those looking to buy or sell their no longer wanted tickets.

Rodrigo is all too aware that 9 in 10 new businesses fail and many factors play a part. So before a line of code was written, he set about proving the concept. Their first minimum viable product (or MVP) started with a bike and a mobile phone. He sold tickets for organisers by sending SMS texts while cycling around in the worst of British weather! The operation was definitely not scalable, but it validated the idea and it got event organisers interested.

Afterwards, Rodrigo considered how to build the service. He knew the journey would be eventful. Since then he has had exciting victories – including Warwick Entrepreneurs’ 2016 Venture: Warwick Startup Cup – and very tough challenges. He bears in mind the possibility of losing a major customer or something going horribly wrong – yet he can’t afford to react emotionally or become down and out. Rodrigo is determined to remain as objective as possible and find ways to keep moving forward.

Rodrigo (rodrigo@ticketpass.co) is a creative marketer. Rodrigo developed Ticketpass while on a Tier 1 visa endorsed by the University. He has an MSc in Marketing & Strategy from Warwick Business School. To progress Ticketpass, the start-up was awarded assistance from the Student Enterprise Fund supported by the Warwick Enterprise Partnership.

If you’re planning an event, why not give Ticketpass a try!