SeatGeek

In late 2016, Russ D'Souza and Jack Groetzinger, co-founders of the online event ticketing platform SeatGeek, faced some difficult decisions. In the company's seven-year history, SeatGeek had positioned itself primarily as an aggregator, facilitating ticket transactions between sellers and buyers on the "secondary ticket market." But in early 2016, D'Souza and Groetzinger had decided to pursue the "primary ticket market"—contracting directly with the sports teams and venues that issued tickets to events, a space dominated by Ticketmaster. This move would require SeatGeek to confront Ticketmaster, an established incumbent; develop or acquire the back-end software necessary to enable primary market ticket sales; and establish partnerships with sports teams and event venues. Entering the primary market would also likely necessitate a Series D funding round.