Jamie Dwyer and Iain Bluett were just a couple of indie music fans five years ago when they had a brainstorm that became a business.
"We were constantly buying tickets," recalls Dwyer, "and we got tired of buying from a company that gave terrible customer service and charged what we felt were ridiculous service charges. We finally looked at each other and said, 'We can do this better.'"
The friends formed Ticket Alternative, a Midtown-headquartered ticket sales and printing company that has established itself as an option to Ticketmaster, the industry giant and competitor Dwyer was referring to.
Ticket Alternative has since become the ticket handler for 150 venues nationwide and a major player in the Southeast, particularly among smaller-capacity locations like Atlanta's the Loft and The EARL. Although tiny compared with Ticketmaster, the company is among the largest of many smaller players in the industry, which also features names like Etix.
Ticket Alternative employs a full-time staff of 16, an office in the United Kingdom, and a lucrative, if less glamorous, ticket printing operation. That unit has supported investments in the sales end of the business, helping finance technology, staffing and office space needs.
With expenses expected to hold fairly steady now, the founders say, every show venue that's added as a client should mean increased revenue and profit.
"We're positioned where we can grow very quickly," says Dwyer.
A 37-year-old native Atlantan, Dwyer formerly worked in project management for large companies. Bluett's a "mid-30s" Englishman who played in bands and sold high-end corporate hospitality packages for events including the Super Bowl and Masters.
After their epiphany, they pooled their funds and built their business slowly, taking on no debt but for a single Small Business Administration loan, and no other investors.
Their methodical growth was necessitated, in part, by the structure of the industry. Ticketmaster dominates the business through long-term contracts with thousands of venues, effectively freezing out upstart competitors, at least until those contracts expire.
In light of that, Dwyer and Bluett approached smaller-capacity venues saying Ticket Alternative would charge the operators no fees and would charge ticket buyers much lower service fees than Ticketmaster.
For example, Bluett says, Ticket Alternative would charge 8 percent, or $8, on a $100 ticket. Ticketmaster, according to its Web site, is charging a $14.20 convenience fee on a $97.50 ticket to Coldplay at Lakewood Amphitheatre Sunday.
Ticketmaster did not respond to an inquiry about its prices and competitors.
While the lower fees are attractive, Bluett says, "You can't just say we're cheaper than Ticketmaster. There's more to it than that." He points to client and customer service.
The absence of high fees "is one of the things we liked," says Jason Martin, owner of the Rock and Roll Hotel, a club in Washington, D.C. Martin said he is "ecstatic" with Ticket Alternative's service level.
Patrick Hill, promoter at The EARL, says Ticket Alternative "stands out among the best" of niche ticket sellers.
Dwyer and Bluett say their company can also handle the demands of large events, and point to its work at an event in Illinois that drew 250,000 people.
As they seek longer-term contracts and larger venues, they continue to handle "one-off" events such as festivals, as well as small shows.
Dwyer and Bluett recently hired a sales representative to sign new clients, and they hope that word-of-mouth and their venue-by-venue approach leads to growth.
Meanwhile, they say, thanks to those lower fees and a high level of service, they're sure the concept of Ticket Alternative is a popular one.
"There are not many companies that you can start," says Bluett, "where everybody is rooting for you. Everybody's rooting for us."
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