lol...offer them for sale. That's how much inventory we hope to have. Currently there are $1 billion worth of tickets offered for sale on TicketStumbler (we don't own the tickets, just like Expedia doesn't own the air planes).
Shit man, if we had $2 million in sales already I'd be on an island somewhere. It'd be 99% profit.
Right, yeah. It just doesn't seem like Ticketstumbler will necessarily become more valuable just by increasing inventory. (So why use that fact as a bullet point when describing why Ticketstumbler will become valuable?) Increasing inventory is necessary but not sufficient.
Your best bet is probably to focus on ways to differentiate Ticketstumbler. For example, what reasons are there for me to buy a ticket through Ticketstumbler than from any other source? Etc.
It's valuable because the more ticket providers we have, the cheaper prices will be and the better seats we'll have. This certainly has a limit, but I don't think we're there yet, especially since we don't even have theater tickets.
The real value in Kayak wasn't that it included the big airlines, it was that it includes Southwest (not included anywhere else), Frontier, Airtran and many long tail airlines and forces the big airlines to compete. I traveled 250k miles in the past two years and often found myself on no-name airline flights that I would have never heard of if it wasn't for Kayak. And it has a super clean UI, isn't spammy and doesn't charge fees.
Our value is/will be: clean UI, no TicketStumbler fees (we're free!), no Ads on the main site, simple to use, natural language search and user dashboards & interactive maps (both coming soon).
It's valuable because the more ticket providers we have, the cheaper prices will be and the better seats we'll have.
Yeah, that's true. What I'm saying is, that by itself isn't enough to be successful. Because of your next point, actually:
I traveled 250k miles in the past two years and often found myself on no-name airline flights that I would have never heard of if it wasn't for Kayak.
That example is a very different from a preppy highschooler
buying a ticket to a concert. For one, you had to travel. If all of a sudden there weren't any airplanes, it would still be necessary for you to travel. But it's not necessary for people to go to concerts.
Also, consider the number one reason why people go to concerts: because their friends are going. So one way to differentiate yourself from the competition might be to offer group discounts, for example. You could even sell them at a loss for awhile, just so you can use that as a way to market Ticketstumbler. Like "Going out tonight? Stumble into your next concert with Ticketstumbler. The more friends you bring, the more cash you'll save."
What I'm saying is, try not to hyperfocus on making Ticketstumbler like Kayak. It isn't, and can't be. So those types of comparisons are a good way to communicate to someone about what Tickestumbler does, but are a bad design way to design the company.
Not true. 100k of those miles were done for personal stuff (family, friends, vaca, etc).
The number one reason people go to concerts is because they like music, but I see what you're saying. The challenge isn't just helping people find friends to go with, it's helping them find music to listen to and making them aware when their favorite bands are in town.
The aforementioned user dashboards and interactive maps will eventually have everything else you mentioned.
We've never "hyperfocused" on making TicketStumbler like Kayak, which is why we have four blogs, a news site, directory listings (not just search), a video site and are much more open about what we do than Kayak. Also, one of our next projects will be completely out of left field (as to how we relate to Kayak). I think you really get what we're trying to do though so thanks a lot for your feedback. If you have anymore suggestions my email is in my profile.
Hehe, I'm sorry if I came off as critical. I really respect what you have achieved with Ticketstumbler.
Yeah, people go to concerts to listen to good music. But in the same way you don't typically go to a bar just to get drunk, people don't typically go to a concert just for the music. Socializing with friends is a very strong force that compels people to actually drop $50+ on a concert ticket.
Also, it probably won't be beneficial to try to help find new friends for people to go with. IMO, it would be kind of creepy to stand next to a total stranger for an hour if it "felt like" we should be talking and getting to know each other. :)
