Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders

Breaking into a market controlled by prominent players can be daunting, but competition breeds innovation and when newcomers are successful it usually means big benefits for consumers and investors. Vivid Seats (online ticket marketplace), led by CEO Stan Chia, is one of those success stories.

Vivid Seats has carved out a space for themselves in an industry that has historically been dominated by big names like TicketMaster and StubHub by focusing on customer service and consumer engagement. Despite the hit live events and ticketing took from cancellations and postponements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, they recently went public, and acquired sports gaming app “Betcha” soon after, showing no signs of slowing down their impressive growth anytime soon.

In this episode, Stan Chia shares what Vivid Seats is doing differently than the other profitable players in the ticketing space, he breaks down how Vivid Seats was able to maintain customer trust throughout the pandemic, and he explains why they're a great example of a how a SPAC transaction can go right.

Show Notes

Summary:

Breaking into a market controlled by prominent players can be daunting, but competition breeds innovation and when newcomers are successful it usually means big benefits for consumers and investors. Vivid Seats (online ticket marketplace), led by CEO Stan Chia, is one of those success stories.

Vivid Seats has carved out a space for themselves in an industry that has historically been dominated by big names like TicketMaster and StubHub by focusing on customer service and consumer engagement. Despite the hit live events and ticketing took from cancellations and postponements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, they recently went public, and acquired sports gaming app “Betcha” soon after, showing no signs of slowing down their impressive growth anytime soon.

In this episode, Stan Chia shares what Vivid Seats is doing differently than the other profitable players in the ticketing space, he breaks down how Vivid Seats was able to maintain customer trust throughout the pandemic, and he explains why they're a great example of a how a SPAC transaction can go right.

Highlights:
  • Introduction to Stan Chia and Vivid Seats (2:16)
  • What going public means for Vivid Seats (5:16)
  • Vivid Seats’ acquisition of Betcha (6:36)
  • The Vivid Seats team and workplace culture (8:11)
  • How Vivid Seats differentiates itself in the industry (10:03)
  • Why user engagement is important to Vivid Seats (14:07)
  • How Vivid Seats is investing in technology (15:00)
  • How Vivid Seats is moving forward after the pandemic (17:06)
  • Why going public via SPAC was the right move for Vivid Seats (20:30)
  • Long-term growth and diversification (24:28)
Links:
ICR Twitter
ICR LinkedIn
ICR Website
Vivid Seat Website
Stan Chia LinkedIn
Vivid Seats LinkedIn
Vivid Seats Twitter

Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, andrew@lowerstreet.co.

What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?

In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.

In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.

This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.

For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com