TicketBuddy Business Plan

TICKETBUDDY BUSINESS PLAN

Created by Izzy Gatti

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Our Mission

TicketBuddy provides a reliable service for customers to review and analyze the optimal time to
purchase concert tickets. Using advanced data analytics, TicketBuddy analyzes sale patterns of
major ticketing companies, such as StubHub and Ticketmaster, to predict and project when
tickets will be sold at their lowest point. Customers will no longer have to play a guessing game
on whether or not their tickets are overvalued and feel confident with the purchase they are
making.

The Company and Management

TicketBuddy is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 2020 by Izzy Gatti, she
recognized a flaw in the ticketing industry that allowed ticket scammers and secondary markets
to take advantage of both the customer and the artist selling tickets. With millions of dollars lost
in profit, TicketBuddy was created to create an equal and fair market in the ticketing industry.
Currently, the team consists of founder Izzy Gatti, but plans to extend the offers to web
developers and marketers. TicketBuddy is still in the developmental stage and working to move
forward to enter the market.

Our Services

Here at TicketBuddy, we strive to create an easy and transparent ticketing buying experience for
our customers. Using Application Programming Interface (API) software, TicketBuddy analyzes
concert ticket sale patterns from the same or similar artists to create a timeline of price
fluctuations leading up to a show. Customers can look at the TicketBuddy calendar to see when
the best time to buy tickets will be for their desired show.

The Market

Throughout recent years, the ticketing industry has become a highly valuable market, with
projections to be worth $67.99 billion by 2025. However, with the rise in profitability, ticket
scammers have infiltrated the system to take revenue away from artists and ticketing companies
themselves. As a result, artists have begun a process called “slow ticketing,” a method of selling
tickets at fluctuating prices, starting high and dropping to market value closer to the date of the
show, in order to stop scammers from buying face-value tickets and reselling them for triple the
price on secondary markets. Both artists and customers are looking for a more secure and fair
ticketing platform, which gives TicketBuddy an opportunity to expand on this slow ticketing
movement.

Our Competitive Advantages

While there are hundreds of ticketing companies on the market, none of them present a forecast
for the sales of their tickets. TicketBuddy emphasizes the importance of providing our customers
with the confidence that they are spending their money wisely. Our free services allow concert
fans to see an honest look at ticket prices and their fluctuation, eliminating the stress of getting
scammed into paying well-above face value in the secondary market.

Financial Projections

TicketBuddy plans to make revenue through advertising spaces on the website. Because
TicketBuddy refers customers to other major ticketing companies to finalize their purchase, we
also plan to partner with these companies to charge a subscription fee ranging from
$20,000-$150,000 per year, depending on the service the company requests. On top of the
subscription fee, TicketBuddy will also take a 2% commission on ticket sales, which gives us a
potential to earn $110 million in revenue per year.

Start-up Financing Requirements

TicketBuddy is seeking $150,000 to finance the first-year growth. This money would be used for
software development, as well as maintenance for the system.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

TicketBuddy is a fair ticketing website that provides customers with a timeline of when the best
time to buy a concert ticket is. The live ticketing industry has seen an incredible increase for
demand in tickets, making it a highly valuable market; however, this demand has led to ticket
scalpers utilizing unethical tools, such as ticket bots, to buy high volumes of tickets at face value
and than turn to the secondary market such as StubHub and SeatGeek to sell them at a much
higher price. As a result, customers are paying triple the face value and artists are losing millions
of dollars in revenue because of it.

But TicketBuddy is here to change that imbalance. Using Application Programming Interface
(API) software, TicketBuddy analyzes ticket sales from previous concerts and creates a projected
calendar of when ticket prices will change, ensuring that customers are not paying for overvalued
tickets from ticket scammers. Similar to the airline ticket business model, artists can adjust prices
based on market demand. This practice, known as slow ticketing, allows artists to weed out ticket
scammers from their market and create a fair market. With this method, TicketBuddy helps
customers properly value their ticket, as well as increase revenue for artists by pushing the slow
ticketing movement forward.

Founded in 2020 by Izzy Gatti, TicketBuddy is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. As of
early 2021, the company is still in the developmental stage and plans to focus on a national
market before entering into the world market. TicketBuddy is also concentrated on concert ticket
sales, but as it grows and gains more traction, it will start to include all live events, from sporting
events to Broadway.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

TicketBuddy is a free website that can be accessed from any laptop or smartphone with Internet
connectivity. Customers log on to the website and can search any musical artist and see what
their tickets are selling for in the current time, as well as what they will sell for in the future.
TicketBuddy will use a software called Application Programming Interface (API) to
communicate between the various ticket sellers and our database to create a calendar view of
ticket pricing leading up to a concert. Our website allows customers to see a transparent view of
the cost of concert tickets, eliminating the stress of potentially getting scammed into paying
well-above face value. Once our customers are satisfied with the price of the ticket, they are
redirected to the sellers website to make their final purchase.

What makes TicketBuddy stand out is that it is first of its kind. The airline industry has shown
the price fluctuation strategy allows airlines to sell out of seats more effectively, while also
making sure there is no loss of revenue in a secondary market, as one does not exist. As a result,
websites such as SkyScanner and Kayak have created a system that allows customers to
strategize when to buy from the airlines in order to get the cheapest option available by creating
a timeline projection set forth by the airline companies themselves. Therefore, in order to
decrease the number of ticket scammers in the concert industry, artists can follow a similar
ticketing model, with TicketBuddy providing the tools to create a database of information for
customers to review and buy tickets at their optimal price.

Example of calendar projection for prices

The TicketBuddy website is free to use for customers in the market for concert tickets. From the
website, we plan to make revenue off of advertising space using Google AdSense. The exact
revenue made from AdSense depends on the website’s traffic; however, we estimate our earnings
to be around $10,000 per month in the early stages.

Mock-up of ad space on website Sample AdSense revenue report

When fans decide to buy tickets after reviewing the prices on the website, TicketBuddy will
redirect them to the seller's website. In turn, ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and Live
Nation Entertainment pay a subscription fee of $20,000-$150,000 per year to hold a spot on our
website for these ticket sale referrals. The idea behind the subscription systems is that it creates
competition between the ticketing companies to bring traffic to their site from ours. On top of the
subscription fee, we charge a 2% commission rate on the ticket sale, which gives us a potential to
earn $110 million in revenue per year.

In the future, TicketBuddy hopes to extend its services past concert tickets and enter into a more
diverse realm of all live entertainment events. Our launch will first begin in the United States to
ensure the market demand is stable before moving forward into the international market.

TicketBuddy is still in its development stage. We are looking to build our team of software
engineers to build an impressive and detailed database that provides our customers with the most
accurate projection of ticket sales for any given artist.

MARKETING PLAN

Market Research

The online ticketing industry is a highly profitable market and is projected to grow even more
after the release of the COVID-19 vaccines. With this rise of value, ticket brokers have infiltrated
the market to earn income for themselves. According to the United States Government
Accountability Office, tickets sold on the primary market are priced under face-value, in order to
maintain fans’ goodwill, but the secondary market prices charge up to 40% over the face value.
Brokers are also buying all the tickets in the primary market through the use of software bots,
forcing customers into the secondary market.

Live ticketing industry projections

Not only are fans paying high prices, but artists are losing money on those secondary market
sales. Artists are only receiving the profit off the primary market ticket sales, which are, as
mentioned, below face value. Once the tickets are on the secondary market, the broker can
charge whatever they want and keep all the profit to themselves, costing the artist millions of
dollars per tour. In 2013, Ticketmaster estimated that around 60% of all tickets sold were
purchased by ticketbots, which were then resold on secondary markets like StubHub at a much
higher price.

Broker profit graph for Hamilton

As a result, some artists, such as Taylor Swift, have tried to combat these brokers by creating a
tiered pricing structure for her shows called “slow ticketing.” The idea behind slow ticketing is
that, on initial release, tickets are priced well-above face value, but as the show gets closer, the
price will fall, eventually reaching face value or even below. With this pricing structure,
customers are no longer forced to enter the secondary market because scalpers are not buying up
all the tickets within the first two minutes of their release, creating a more balanced market.
Airline companies have managed to maintain one marketplace for their ticket sales by using
complex pricing strategies that ensures revenue is maximized per person and includes adjusted
prices for more popular dates. This model can and should be adopted by the concert industry, as

it creates a more balanced system of revenue, which is why TicketBuddy was created to help
customers spend their money wisely and retain income for the artists.

Strengths

A major strength of TicketBuddy is that it is the first of its kind to create a timeline of optimal
ticket sale prices in the concert industry. While there are hundreds of ticketing websites, a
majority of them focus on helping the resellers, rather than the artist and customer. Using our
datasystem, we project a detailed timeline of ticket prices so that our customers can feel
confident in the purchases they are making. We also have a strong sense of community that
supports both the artists and customers needs, which allows us to create customer goodwill.

Weaknesses

As a start-up company, a weakness we are currently facing is lack of funding and small teams. In
order to build our database, we must equip ourselves with a software building team and the
technology to supply that team with, which we currently do not have. Another weakness we have
assessed is that the ticketing industry is a highly saturated business. With over 100+ ticketing
websites available, initial recognition and customer retention will be harder to obtain until we
prove ourselves as an established tool. However, with that in mind, we are focusing on raising
funds to build our credibility in this industry.

Opportunities

With the growing profitability of the ticketing industry, both artists and customers have become
aware of the power secondary markets hold. Not only are customers realizing they are paying
triple the amount of money for their tickets, but artists also notice that they were losing millions
of dollars in revenue because of the inflation of prices. As a result, TicketBuddy will use this
opportunity to create a space that benefits both the customers and the artists. There is no doubt
that a secondary market is crucial to the ticketing economy; however, the unfair advantage that
ticket scalpers have created not only hurts the customer, but hurts the artist as well, leading to a
call for change in which we hope to lead.

Threats

A threat we have predicted to face is backlash from secondary market sites. The main goal of
TicketBuddy is to take away a large portion of the control that secondary markets hold. With
TicketBuddy, customers do not have to settle with the price that resellers offer, but rather
strategize and analyze when tickets will hit their lowest point in the future, leading to a pushback
from those resellers/ticket scalpers against our website. Another pushback we have recognized
stems from the primary market. We understand that primary markets rely on secondary markets
to push their ticket sales forward, therefore eliminating that aspect of their business model can
turn hostile. However, like the airline industry, TicketBuddy does not want to take funds away
from the primary market, but rather encourage people to buy directly from them, rather than
ticket scammers who would keep the profit from primary ticket sales in the first place.

Partnerships

As one of the top global e-commerce companies in the live industry, Ticketmaster works to
create memories on a massive scale. With similar values and efforts to promote the live industry,
Ticketmaster and TicketBuddy will partner together to create a seamless ticketing buying
experience.

Using embedded technology, customers buying tickets through the Ticketmaster website will be
able to see TicketBuddy’s projection calendar for the ticket sales and evaluate and compare the
projections from the current market ticket price accordingly. With this partnership, Ticketmaster
will be able to use our technology without the typical fees associated with our subscription and
pricing model. Partnering with Ticketmaster is crucial to our growth as it will allow TicketBuddy
to introduce its technology into the concert industry without creating hostilities towards our
product. Not only will this partnership increase awareness of TicketBuddy, but it will also be the
first steps in repairing the ticketing industry, thus benefiting Ticketmaster both financially and
branding wise.

Brand and product positioning

TicketBuddy is a pro-artist, pro-fan platform. Just as our title entails, we are a community of
concert lovers who work to create a fair and equal marketplace for fans to enjoy and artists to
make money. We also emphasize the importance of taking back control from ticket brokers and
strongly oppose the unfair secondary market schemes.

Marketing Budget

We plan to spend 8% of our projected revenue for our marketing budget. The budget will be split
into two groups:

1. Brand development
a. This includes marketing channels such as website promotion and sales collateral

2. Cost of promoting campaigns
a. Advertising, events, campaigns

FINANCIAL PLAN

Revenue Streams

TicketBuddy will have multiple sources of income. First, the website itself will utilize Google
Adsense to sell advertising spaces and banners directly on the site. While this is not our main
source of revenue, it will help generate around $10,000 a month that can be placed towards
website maintenance and other smaller expenses.

Our main source of income will come from sale commissions and our specialized subscription
program. After evaluating websites with similar technology, such as Skyscanner and Expedia, we
will use their affiliate marketing model for our website. Affiliate marketing occurs when a

company (TicketBuddy) markets another company’s (Ticketmaster etc.) product and receives a
commission off each sale. According to Expedia’s business plan, affiliate marketing makes
around 70% of their revenue, hence why we believe this will be an important model to
implement in our website. TicketBuddy plans to charge a 2% commission rate on the ticket sale,
subject to charge upon demand. For our subscription program, TicketBuddy charges a fee of
$20,000-$150,000 per year for ticketing companies to remain in our referral program. This
subscription will be tier-based, meaning if a ticketing company wants higher traffic driven to
their website, they will pay a higher fee for exposure on our homepage interface.

Costs

We have identified three major costs for our program: website development, website
maintenance, and payroll expenses. We calculated that our average cost to initially develop our
website would be around $72,000. Upon initial launch, our website will redirect buyers to the
sellers webpage (Ticketmaster, Live Nation, etc.); however, as we continue to grow, we plan to
add a feature that allows customers to buy directly from our website. This feature, along with the
security measures required, would add about an additional $14,500 to our expenses. For website
maintenance, we will be using WebFx for their website maintenance services. According to their
plan, this will cost us around $450 per month, equaling a total of $5,400 per year. Lastly, an
average salary for app developers falls around $171,450 for initial development. We understand
this expense will continue to increase as we add to our team and we are prepared to rearrange our
budget as we continue to do so.

Initial Funding

For the first year financing, TicketBuddy is asking for $150,000 for initial funding, development,
and marketing tactics in exchange for 15% equity.

APPENDIX

Investors

Currently, TicketBuddy is 100% owned by founder Izzy Gatti but is open to inviting investors.

Supporting Documents and References

Brennan, Kathleen. “Ticket Scalping Technology and the Effects on the Arts and Cultural
Markets.” MW17, 30 Jan. 2017,
mw17.mwconf.org/paper/ticket-scalping-technology-and-effects-on-the-arts-and-cultural-
markets/.

Brooks, Dave. “Taylor Swift Has Concert Industry Embracing 'Slow Ticketing' Model.”
Billboard, 14 Dec. 2017,
www.billboard.com/articles/business/8070644/taylor-swift-concert-industry-slow-ticketin
g-model-sales.

Google. “How AdSense Works - AdSense Help.” Google, Google,
support.google.com/adsense/answer/6242051?hl=en.

Grand View Research. “Online Event Ticketing Market Size, Share: Industry Report,
2018-2025.” Online Event Ticketing Market Size, Share | Industry Report, 2018-2025,
May 2018,
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/online-event-ticketing-market.

KAYAK. “How KAYAK Works.” KAYAK , www.kayak.com/company.

Matthews, Kelsey. “Your Complete Guide to Using Skyscanner to Find the Cheapest Travel
Deals.” Skyscanner US, 25 Mar. 2020,
www.skyscanner.com/tips-and-inspiration/how-to-use-skyscanner.

MuleSoft. “What Is an API? (Application Programming Interface).” MuleSoft,
www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/what-is-an-api.