801: The $60M King of Ticket Sales - a podcast by Nathan Latka

from 2017-10-03T09:00

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Jayesh Parmar. He’s a serial entrepreneur with two decades of event industry experience. Currently, he’s the CEO and co-founder of Picatic and is listed as one of the world’s top 10 tech entrepreneurs disrupting the event industry.

Famous Five:

  • Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  • What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
  • Favorite online tool? — Amy
  • How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-8
  • If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Failure is just a data point”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 01:44 – Nathan introduces Jayesh to the show
  • 02:10 – Picatic brings people together and does things that are absolutely different from others
    • 02:22 – Picatic has given away a product for free
    • 02:55 – Picatic has changed the ballgame with their pro product
    • 03:13 – Picatic offers Picatic Anywhere which is a new ticketing service
  • 04:00 – The bigger stream for Picatic is the commission-based stream
  • 05:00 – Average pay for Picatic varies
  • 05:26 – Picatic has a basic product which is free and the pro product which is commission-based
    • 05:33 – Base rate is a dollar and commission rate is 2.5% per ticket
    • 05:46 – Stripe is on top of Picatic
  • 06:18 – Enterprise API ranges from $5K to $100K depending on the API calls and ticket sales
  • 06:58 – Event businesses are seasonal, but Picatic has partnered with different venues and organizations that aren’t seasonal
  • 08:00 – Picatic was launched in 2008 as a side project
  • 08:20 – Picatic went through Extreme Startup and got $250K with 10% equity
  • 08:33 – Picatic has raised $1.5M as additional capital
  • 09:22 – First year revenue is less than $10K
  • 09:48 – 2015 revenue is less than a $100K
  • 10:05 – As an event organizer, Jayesh wanted to de-risk events
  • 10:31 – Picatic has pivoted from their previous model
  • 11:40 – 2016 revenue
    • 12:22 – The revenue is around $1.2M
  • 12:40 – Team size is 15 based in Vancouver, Canada
  • 13:55 – 2017 goal
  • 14:05 – Picatic grows 100% year over year
  • 14:25 – Jayesh has been going to different events to market his Picatic by being a doorman
  • 16:40 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

  1. Don’t stick with your current business model just because—test other models that your company could benefit from.
  2. The online ticketing world is consistently improving.
  3. The best way to get your business out there is by marketing it yourself.

 

Resources Mentioned:

  • Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
  • The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
  • GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
  • Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
  • Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
  • Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
  • Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
  • Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
  • Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

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