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RazorGator makes it official by replacing CEO Jeff Lapin with Brendan Ross
As reported first by TicketNews last week, secondary ticket company RazorGator has replaced CEO Jeff Lapin with former Ticketmaster executive Brendan Ross, effective immediately.
Ross takes over the CEO position at a time when RazorGator seeks to regain its footing in the secondary market following the departures of several key executives over the past couple of years. Lapin himself headed up the company for just under two years, replacing David Lord in 2007.
The circumstances for Lapin's departure were not disclosed, but the abruptness of his leaving would appear to suggest that he was forced out. RazorGator is the nation's seventh-largest secondary ticket company, according to TicketNews's exclusive industry rankings, but considering its name recognition and other positives, such as deals with major sports entities, ownership of TickCo and its ability to raise funding, the company never seemed to be able to crack the top three or four.
In fact, the company had raised more than $17 million in venture capital and debt financing so far this year, which Ross is now expected to spend on expansion and improvements to the company's systems and marketing. While at Ticketmaster Entertainment, Ross headed up the team that helped to create Ticketmaster's TicketExchange secondary marketplace.
“We’re very excited to welcome Brendan Ross to the RazorGator Interactive Group family,” Russell Siegelman, board member of RazorGator Interactive Group, said in a prepared statement. As the company raised more money, some of those investors, such as Steamboat Ventures, were able to place members on the RazorGator board, which may have helped seal Lapin's fate. “Brendan has a proven track record of generating growth in every company he has led and his abilities are perfectly suited to our aggressive expansion efforts. We feel Brendan is uniquely suited to continue the growth of this company.”
At one point Ross also ran ReserveAmerica, described as the world's largest outdoor recreation reservation company. According to RazorGator, Lapin's next move will be to oversee operations of his family business.
“I'm very proud of what Razorgator has accomplished and the innovations we brought to the ticketing industry,” Lapin said in a prepared statement. “I'm confident the company will only continue to grow and I wish the entire team my best.”
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This is not the VC's first involvement. In fact, since they put their money into the company, they have been moving the chess pieces in and getting rid of those that did not share in their vision.
The people who helped Doug take this Company from an offline company to an online player all left or were forced out. These are the same people who built RazorGator.com, TicketOS and PrimeSport and also signed deals with the MLB, NCAA, Bank of America, House of Blues, Live Nation, Fox, ESPN, and several NFL teams. Without their key people: Doug Knittle, Thomas Swalla, Xavior Miller, Ian Chambers and Sudhir Krishnaswamy, RazorGator.com has stumbled down the ladder.
RazorGator was first in line to be purchased by Ebay, but do to VC politics StubHub was purchased. Other major Companies have looked at RazorGator from the top travel companies to TicketMaster, but as someone who sat in the board meetings, the VC's are like bickering siblings and could never agree. They are at fault for all that has happened and will happen to RazorGator.
Let me say one thing David for Oak Invs. I the only person that listened those listed above and he had RG's best interest in mind. I wish the rest of the board would have listed.
Good luck RG, I am not counting on my Pre-IPO stocks ever amounting to anything.
Dunno about Ross's qualifications, do seem a little skinny but he does have the T-master experience, connections and know-how. It wouldn't be very surprising though if the Board misses the mark in choosing a CEO again... In fact I was wondering how long the smartest guys in the room over at Oak Investments and Kliener Perkins were going to allow Jeff Lapin to run their multi-million $$$ investment into the ground. He gutted human resources with his myopic bottom-line-today-to-hell-with-tomorrow obsession. Many highly qualified, highly productive people or "numbers" as Lapin obviously considered them ran screaming from his antiquated, aloof management style. The work environment there was like a morgue, everyone dour, mopey and seemingly very unhappy. Wasn't he brought in to sell the company? What happened with that? He should have gone over a year ago when it was obvious he didn't know what he was doing.
Kudos venture guys for finally dumping Lapin. Hopefully the new guy does better which shouldn't be too tough as the Lord/Lapin one-two punch along with other less-than-qualified executives have set the bar over there extraordinarily low.
At the same time shame though, shame on you for waiting so long before coming to the conclusion that Lapin wasn't the guy. You should have discerned that much earlier.
wow - this guy seems entirely underqualified...
It's never a good sign when your VC puts one of their own in charge. Look for big changes and business units being sold off or closed down to stop the bleeding.
Point to Alfred Branch: Calling Brendan Ross a former Ticketmaster executive is a journalistic stretch. Not taking anything away from the business acumen of Brendan Ross, but fact of the matter he was 30 years old and a Sr. Director during his Ticketmaster employment. I don't think that meets the executive level standard.
Best of luck to all.
(This comment was moderated because it was a duplicate to one posted above, titled "VC are to blame here")