Showpass hopeful Facebook partnership is ticket to big growth
You probably already feel the online ticket-purchasing business is ripe for disruption. Yes, the 900-pound gorilla that is Ticketmaster charges hefty service fees, serves up questionable price changes, and makes you race a clock to finish your purchase. But is there room in the market for other models?
Ask Showpass, a Calgarybased ticket platform with a kinder, more creative approach to ticket buying. Showpass emphasizes personal service, partner relationships and a platform on which tickets aren’t just bought, but also sold — by your wait person, a hotel or tourist office, or even your kid’s hockey coach.
Let’s say you hear about a concert you’d like to attend. If you don’t buy right away, you might forget. But what if your hotel concierge tips you to a show — and offers to sell you a ticket on the spot? That’s the power of Showpass’s personal- distribution model.
“We’re not just another computer ordering system,” founder Lucas McCarthy says. “We’re putting the human factor back into ticketing.” When you add in Showpass’s ability to sell valueadded services ( parking, drinks, meals or souvenirs) along with event tickets, McCarthy says his system can make clients more profitable: “Event organizers usually get a 15 per cent bump in revenues if they use all of our technologies properly.”
Today Showpass has more than 30 employees, offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto and 2,000 partners who earn commission income by selling tickets to third-party events. Whether they are individuals, event organizers, retailers, or hospitality brands such as hotels and restaurants, McCarthy says “everyone can now be a ticket concierge.”
This secret social weapon has helped Showpass attract such clients as the annual Shaw Charity Classic golf tournament in Calgary, the Victoria Boat and Fishing Show, and Peeks Toronto Caribbean Festival. While many of the firm’s events are still kind of amateur- hour, including comedy nights, bar- band tours and CD- release parties, McCarthy says its ambitions are big league: “Our sweet spot is events for 1,000 to 1,500 people. We are actively taking clients from Ticketmaster” and other established rivals.
Could this be Showpass’s breakout year? On Jan. 1, it inaugurated a relationship with Facebook that brings its many- to- many platform to the masses. Later this year, McCarthy expects to open his first international offices — probably in New York, L.A. and Nashville, followed by the U.K. “It takes us about three months to roll out into a new market,” he says. “With the proper teams in place, we could do 10 new markets per month.”
McCarthy is a computer junkie who says he learned everything he knows about business, competition and design from video games. After studying finance at the University of Calgary, in 2012 he developed a mobile app that enabled passionate patrons to join the lineup for their favourite bar or club before leaving home. While “GetQd” attracted 40,000 users in its first year, McCarthy lacked the capital to compete with larger companies in the market. Pivoting, he spotted opportunity in helping his existing hospitality clients better connect with the events business through a shared ticketing platform. “We give these organizers technology they would otherwise not be able to access.”
McCarthy credits his company’s success to its technology. He says four-fifths of his employees are engineers, dedicated to improving the ticketing experience. Later this year, Showpass will roll out new augmented- reality apps that help attendees get more out of their favourite events. Fans at golf tournaments will be able to get scores and stats just by pointing their cameras at individual golfers. Similarly, music lovers will be able to identify ( and buy) songs played at a festival or concert, find out where their friends are sitting, or locate the beer tent with the shortest line.
How does a young Canadian tech firm land a partnership with Facebook? McCarthy says he called up and asked. Things moved s urprisingly quickly. “I called the head of their event- ticketing team in Palo Alto, Calif., and said, ‘ Let’s chat,’ ” McCarthy recalls. Facebook agreed to a series of meetings in which Showpass talked frankly about its growth, tech and strategy. “We opened the kimono,” McCarthy says. “They sniff you out pretty quickly if you don’t have the technology or the potential to grow.”
Reaching a deal took two months, he says, and the partnership went live six weeks later. McCarthy says Facebook especially likes that Showpass’s platform can be “white- labelled” for use by any organization. Clients can purchase event tickets without ever leaving the vendor’s site, eliminating the nagging questions of trust and security that arise whenever you encounter a new platform.
Never underestimate the value of trust. When Showpass set out last fall to raise growth capital, it didn’t go hat- in- hand to flinty- eyed venture capitalists. McCarthy pitched his longtime ticketing partners: hospitality firms, festivals and stadiums. They understood the value Showpass creates, and were eager to get in on its growth. Along with BDC, they contributed an amount that McCarthy characterizes as larger than an average seed round (which ranges from $ 1 million to $ 1.5 million in Canada), at a reasonable price. Says McCarthy: “The amount of equity we’ve given out leaves us a lot of room to grow.” Financial Post Rick Spence is a writer, consultant and speaker specializing in entrepreneurship. rick@ rickspence. ca Twitter. com/ RickSpence
WE’RE PUTTING THE HUMAN FACTOR BACK INTO TICKETING. — LUCAS McCARTHY, SHOWPASS CEO