John Corcoran: 11:05
What were some other ways that you found after finding, you know, creating the company that helped companies with utilization and reselling the tickets if they need to, and renewing their season package for the second year.
Morgan Katz: 11:22
Yeah. So typically what happens is we come in and people have just been doing it right through email or Google Sheets, but there’s no policies and procedures. There’s no timelines on when requests need to be in or when they’ll be approved. So we start with that. We kind of backtrack and say, all right, we know when our schedule comes out.
Let’s start looking at when requests come in, here’s when we’ll approve them, etc.. What actually happens on our side is the first year a client comes in, and they might sell 20% of their games with us because they’re still figuring out all these systems by year 2 or 3. With us, they’re selling less than 10%, in some cases less than 5%, because they have learned internally how to utilize those tickets with a positive ROI. Now, what that ROI is, is subjective for everyone, right? Are they using it for development clients, anything like that?
But starting with those policies and procedures, giving them the options and availability. But then as that continues to go throughout the culture throughout that company, they sell less, use more, and are still able to see a positive ROI factor for them.
John Corcoran: 12:25
So this sounds like it could be something where it could require a lot of handholding on your part. Are you finding that you are needing to work within these organizations with different levels? The head of sales, the head of business development, Element. The head of, I don’t know, air or something like that. How do you engage with these clients?
Morgan Katz: 12:44
Yeah, a lot of time in marketing and business development will cross over between those two departments. And we’re very involved all the time, but especially that first 90 days of coming on board from training, setting up the system customizations that they want. Every company runs their ticketing just a little bit differently. Now, a lot of them can fit into the way our system works without customizations, but there are some things that people do differently and will accommodate for that in the systems. But it’s an interesting way that first 60, 90 days of someone, again, going from email and post-it notes and Google Sheets to a platform online and learning how they’re going to flow with their workflow and operations in that.
We have incredible numbers. We’ve kept 90. We have a 96% renewal rate with our customers. Right. So people, once they get us, they love us, they like us, but we are there all the time through the events, nights and Nights and weekends available. And because it’s not a 9 to 5 business and so we don’t operate 9 to 5, but especially that first 90 days, we’re spending a lot of time with our contacts.
John Corcoran: 13:47
I just realized that there’s kind of two sides to this scenario. So let’s say that a minor league ballpark or a theater or something like that has had the events. And I imagine they’re the ticketing company. Right. And then there’s also the local bank or the local law firm or something that buys the season tickets to the theater or to the minor league ballpark. So which one are you working with? Which one’s the client?
Morgan Katz: 14:12
Yeah. So typically we’re working with the business, the person who has bought the season tickets. Now what happens, though, is that person might have a sponsorship like a bank might sponsor the outfield or a signage or anything like that. They’ll have contacts at the venue. So we do. The venues know us, we know them like we have relationships there, but our buyer is the season ticket holder, which are those companies and corporations.
John Corcoran: 14:35
So then how are you isn’t the technology chosen by the theatre or chosen by the venue?
Morgan Katz: 14:42
So we are not we are not a ticketing provider. So we work with Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, AXS, whoever that venue utilizes. That’s who we operate through. What our system does is it takes all of your tickets. So being in Dallas, you might have Dallas Mavericks tickets, Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers.
Those are all different platforms. They all use a different vendor. So we put them all into one login, one centralized location that now you see all of your tickets and have all of your data in one spot versus three individual logins. And then once they’re booked and reserved, they go back out through SeatGeek, Ticketmaster, MLB, whatever the platform is, it connects into those.
John Corcoran: 15:23
So really, the sales pitch for the client that you’re working with is that you’re probably having a lot of waste currently. This is a way to operate more efficiently. This is something that you can utilize these resources you’re already paying for in a more efficient way to get more mileage, get more ROI out of it.
Morgan Katz: 15:40
Exactly. So we’ll save you some time, some energy, some headache, as well as increase what you already have and more.
John Corcoran: 15:46
Enjoyment, more fun. Get to go to more events. Get more.
Morgan Katz: 15:49
Yeah, exactly. Like go back to the fun part of why you got tickets, the team and the excitement behind it. Right.
John Corcoran: 15:55
That’s very cool. What has been like for you going from someone who, as you said, always had a job with a walkie talkie to imagine building this company since 2021. You know, it’s a little bit more behind the computer, I imagine, right? Like you’re not out doing the fun stuff that you enjoyed before.
Morgan Katz: 16:16
Yeah, it definitely is a big shift. And so I, I miss the event side sometimes going to an event. It’s also funny now to be like, hey, do you want to go to a game? And I’m like, no, I’ve been to.
John Corcoran: 16:29
So many games.
Morgan Katz: 16:29
It’s like I’m out of practice going to events, but it is. It’s definitely different running a technology company. Scares people that know me. They’re like, is this a good life decision running a tech company? But I so believe in our mission and what we’re doing.
It’s a great idea of what we’re doing. So yeah, it’s definitely a change. And it’s a change from having remote employees to being in person with people. Everything is a completely new learning experience. I’ve had some great mentors, some great opportunities to learn through different resources over the last few years. Still obviously learning and growing, but it’s a welcome change after, you know, nine and a half years of running multiple hundreds of events a year. It’s definitely an interesting change.
John Corcoran: 17:14
You mentioned that some of your friends were worried about you when you decided to do this. And according to your LinkedIn, this started in January 2021, which probably means that during the pandemic in 2020, you’re thinking about this stuff. So what was that like for You during that time period early in, you know, in 2020 during the pandemic and everything. What was it like for you to decide or to decide to launch this company? While so many events were being shut down? I know you’re in Texas, so there were fewer events shut down as I had here in California, but what was that like?
Morgan Katz: 17:47
Yeah, absolutely. So when I left Live Nation in 20, the year of 2019, I was still doing this, but not on a software side. I was still helping clients. They would call me and be like, should we renew? What do you think about this?
I was a consultant to companies that I had been working with for years and years, and so that’s what I was. This was a lifestyle business at first, and so I just kind of did it in 2019, figuring out the next steps and then boom, early 2020 Covid happened. So and like you said, everything was on interruption. Everything was on pause. Being in Texas, we did have events in the fall.
And so while those events were coming back, it was, what am I going to do to be relevant. Coming back into this situation, I’m either going to dive in or I’m going to leave the industry. And that was my internal debate. So I dove in and decided to build software right where we are now. So late 2020, we built software and then rolled out in April of 21 as essentially what I was doing in my brain and on paper into a software platform that we could then market as a SaaS company.
John Corcoran: 18:53
And what was that like for you shifting to software development? Not easy. Not an easy task for anyone.
Morgan Katz: 19:00
I am not a technical founder. And so I went through a lot of learning. Once I had a mentor, he set me up with a guy, a one man shop who does tech builds that he likes. He’s retired from Microsoft and he does a couple projects a year. And it’s basically you got to pass if he likes you or not. Kind of, you know, quota there. So he was fantastic because he was so technical. I would say I want this to pull data. He was like, no, you want this to pull a report? And I’m like, those are the same words. And he’s like, nope. And so that was the end of the sentence. And I’m like, I guess I need to figure out what data and reports are, right.
John Corcoran: 19:36
Like Googling. Googling. Yeah, exactly. Or now. ChatGPT. ChatGPT. That’s exactly it. Yeah.
Morgan Katz: 19:41
He was the perfect leader for me at the time of being that tech side, because it was so black and white. There were no questions. So he got our first product up and running. I took it to clients and I said, Will you try this for 90 days? And they all tried it and they all signed up in 90 days after.
And that’s how we started. And so since then we’ve redeveloped. We now have a development team like we’ve grown and grown and grown, which has been incredible to watch. But it’s still, I always think when I’m struggling on the tech side, like it’s not data, it’s not reports like what’s the word I need? Because it is such a different language and a way to process my strategy, vision, and creative brain. Yeah. To think of it firsthand.
John Corcoran: 20:25
And sometimes people like yourself who’ve been in an industry for a long time, you have a clear vision of what you want to build and what you think the client wants. But we don’t always hit a home run right out of the park, right? So you said that there was a product that you had in 2023 that you put out that didn’t catch fire. You decided to pull back on it and are going to be rolling it out later. Talk a little bit about that experience.
Morgan Katz: 20:48
Yeah. So we manage season tickets. If you’ve already bought tickets, we’re an aftermarket product. We have a great software ticket booth. We tried to roll out an event registration software to go with that.
So you want to host your own happy hour, your own conference, whatever. It is a system like that. It was awful. It was so hard to use. It was not customer friendly.
It was hard for our team to operate. We didn’t have the right connections and APIs to the payment process. It was a disaster. And so we pulled it. We just stopped. It wasn’t working for anyone. It was causing so much heartache and headache. And so we spent the second half of last year really going back to those customers, plus new customers and said, what are you using? What do you like? What do you not like?
And we went back to the drawing board, scratched everything and started all over. So we’re excited that we have gotten where we have so far. We’ll be rolling that out in March of 25, a brand new registration platform for those small to medium businesses that just need a QR code or something small and, you know, a guest list.
John Corcoran: 21:46
Yeah, those.
Morgan Katz: 21:47
Registration sites, we are not a oh, I’m going to a multi-day conference and I want to sign up for these eight sessions. That’s not what this is. There’s enough in that space. We’re back to where we’re trying to help those that are managing all of these additional events without great tools and solving those solutions.
John Corcoran: 22:06
Yeah, I’ve used a bunch of them. Eventbrite I probably is a competitor to what you’re talking about. Particle is a newer one. You know there’s pros and cons of these different ones out there. I do want to ask about some platforms like we’re using go high level for one thing, one project I’m involved in.
And it has a, I think, ticketing built into it. So is that something that you’re fearful of or that you’re wary of, that a solution like that, that much of the market will move into larger platforms, or does that not worry you?
Morgan Katz: 22:43
I think it’s a concern. I think that if you talk to anyone in the tech industry, you know, there’s not going to be hundreds of thousands under each category in a few years, right? There’s going to be hundreds or there’s going to be a hundred because things are going to get rolled up. You’ve got to integrate with the right platforms to be, otherwise it’s not going to work. That being said, this is an add on to those that would benefit, that are already our customers in our space.
We’re one of five. So that is where I want to focus our time and energy at the same time. We want to have solutions that are so closely connected to what we’re already doing. It just makes sense for our current clients versus having to integrate a whole nother system.
John Corcoran: 23:24
Yeah. Now, in 2024, it was a presidential election year. There was definitely a lot of economic contraction. It’s interesting because you’re kind of value prop is that you’ll help companies to operate more efficiently, less waste, stuff like that. Was this last year, as we record this in the beginning of 2025? Was 2024 a harder year to make that argument because companies were pulling back on their spend? Or was it because of the fact that the economy was struggling, did that benefit your business?
Morgan Katz: 23:56
Yeah, it was a little bit of both. It was definitely a harder year for us with our current clients, for them to do anything additional. Maybe they wanted to buy additional tickets like that. We grew in the number of clients that we have, which is great, but then we have a transactional side of selling tickets or donating tickets. That was not great for 24.
And the other thing about us is people don’t always know that there’s a season ticket management solution out there, right? I mentioned we’re one of five. It’s again, we’re not one of thousands. We’re not a typical, you know, Google search or SEO keyword. And so for us, when we’re not a top line need, we do get harder to stay in the budget that first time once we’re there.
Again back to that 96% renewal rate. We work really well with our clients. But that first element of us, we definitely got pushed on some people’s budgets from, oh, this would be so nice to have a way to look at what 24 is doing. Let’s talk again at 25. The other thing we have to factor in is the seasonality of their ticket.
If you have football tickets, you’re not signing up in September, October, November. You’re going to wait until the next, you know, preseason or season to start. So we have two different things that we have to watch. It’s not only the calendar for the timeline of budget, but also the seasonality of their tickets.
John Corcoran: 25:13
Yeah. And you have these. You know, it’s something where, like, you can’t charge too much for this, right? Because it would be. It would be, as you said, it’s not like the primary thing that they’re paying for. They’re paying for the tickets themselves and things like that. But then if you charge too little and you put too much time and energy into it, then the client becomes unprofitable for you.
Morgan Katz: 25:38
Yeah, absolutely. So we typically work with those smaller to medium businesses, 50 to 500, maybe a thousand employees. So we have to be really conscious of where we are on the pricing of that and how we price. We price at a flat annual fee. All of our competitors price at a number of ticket fees.
That didn’t seem to be great for us or great for our client when we looked at it, because we want them to want to do extra things, want to donate tickets through us so that we can help facilitate that. So to be that whole, you know, kind of encompassing thing for them, that one stop we went with the flat rate versus a per ticket, which is what the others in the industry do.
John Corcoran: 26:18
Yeah, yeah. Well, this has been really interesting. Morgan, and thank you for giving us kind of the background in your industry. I’d love to wrap up with my final question. My gratitude questionI’m a big fan of giving guests the opportunity to give a shout out for maybe a peer, maybe contemporary, maybe a mentor who has helped you in your journey getting to where you are today?
Morgan Katz: 26:43
Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been really blessed to have some amazing people in my journey from, you know, the Live Nation days through where we are in technology. A couple people come to mind. Jolene Rice, she’s an amazing recruiter here in Dallas, has had her own business for 25 plus years. And every time I ask a question or I say, hey, I think I’m going to do this leap, she’s like, what do you need from me?
How can I support you? And it’s just it’s unwavering. And it’s incredible how she supports not only me, but other female business owners and small business owners in the market and then throughout the EO community. EO has been such an amazing program from when I was an accelerator to being a member. Mike Rose, Dean Lantos, Dan Abate, Amy in Philadelphia. I mean, the list goes on and on of people that have just been amazing in supporting my growth as a leader, but also the growth of technology.
John Corcoran: 27:34
That’s great. Morgan, where can people go to learn more about you and technology?
Morgan Katz: 27:39
Yeah, absolutely. So ticketnology.com we’re also pretty active on LinkedIn. Myself included. Morgan Katz I got a little ticket after my name, so pretty easy to find there. But I love to connect, share our story or talk about tickets and events with anyone at any time.
John Corcoran: 27:54
Cool. Morgan, thanks so much.
Morgan Katz: 27:55
Thank you.
Outro: 27:59
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.