Threading the Needle

Easy come, easy go, that’s just you live oh

Take, take, take it all, but you never give

Should have known you was trouble from the first kiss

Grenade– Bruno Mars

Viagogo buying StubHub just launched a grenade into the somewhat settled order of the ticket world. Tickets have always been a prized commodity, with resellers likely standing outside of venues since tickets were invented. Technology has just made it easier to commoditize tickets and find a way to profit from price arbitrage.

Eric Baker, CEO of Viagogo is a disrupter. He and his partner Jeff Fluhr founded StubHub. They both legitimized resale tickets and taught the public that secondary markets were safe, secure and trustworthy. Eric then recognized that there was nothing in Europe like StubHub so he founded Viagogo and set out to do things his way beyond North America.

Here’s what I’ve observed: Eric Baker is a boss. He is unafraid to move fast and break things. Basically, he is about to become to tickets what Travis Kalanick is to transportation. Eric is going to “Uber” the worldwide ticket market. What does that mean? I travel all the time and that used to mean lots of cab rides. In the past few years it’s all been Uber and Lyft. Why take a taxi? They’re a substandard option. That’s an epic shift and something similar…