Fledgling ticket broker Web site Ticketgenie.com has high aspirations as it navigates the competitive world of secondary ticketing.
Launched by company CEO Patrick Poulin just two years ago as an affiliate site for TicketsNow, Ticketgenie provides brokers and resellers a secure online site to sell their inventory and offers consumers a broad array of tickets for upcoming live events. Tickets up for sale are displayed on the Ticketgenie site as well as its partner and affiliate sites, and sellers pay a ten percent fee on each transaction. The site is open to sellers in the U.S. only, and only paper tickets are accepted for resale.
In the past year, Ticketgenie left the TicketsNow program and has begun working closely with TicketNetwork, and aside from its clever name, Ticketgenie could be just another ticket search site, not unlike many currently on the web. But it is the story of the company’s origins that sets it apart from others in the market.
“The whole reason Ticketgenie kind of started is because of my son,” explained Poulin. “He is 15 years old, and he’s disabled with a cerebral palsy type condition. He needs a lot of therapy that the state doesn’t provide or help with, and he’s still confined to his wheelchair. I started Ticketgenie to raise the funds to provide him with the therapy to, hopefully one day, walk.”
Already the owner of a successful underground construction business, Poulin hoped that this new company would provide him with a way to finally fulfill his dreams for his son. “Our current goal is an extreme physical therapy camp in Hungary, a full year program. We are getting closer to that goal. In six months to a year, I think we can do it.”
Poulin has his company’s explosive growth over recent months to thank for this new hope. The CEO notes that Ticketgenie has seen a doubling of its growth each month for the past five, and December saw sales increase four-fold. Poulin and Managing Partner Corey Argentino are excited about the company’s recent expansion, and they are quick to credit the company’s business development team of Adam Janowicz and Gary Maples for their role in this boom. “We would not be here without them,” noted Argentino.
Growth has been so sudden that both men have had to make major adjustments in order to focus more fully on their young company. “[Patrick] had a successful business, I had a successful [liquidation and automobile] business,” says Argentino, “and we’ve put others in place to run our businesses so we can devote our time to Ticketgenie.”
Just in the last week, Ticketgenie opened their first office in Orlando, FL, and Argentino believes they have chosen a prime location where the company can thrive. “We strategically placed our office close to all the [local] venues, Amway Arena, The Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, the Citrus Bowl. We’re so perfectly located for our business and our industry.”
Looking to the future, Poulin sees a role for his company in the growing advocacy movement for the secondary market, with immediate plans to support local efforts to promote and protect the rights of ticket brokers. “We really care about what’s going on in the industry of brokers. We are going to be getting heavily involved in Florida, [we’re a] voice to be heard.”
In terms of company growth, Argentino sees great things ahead. “We intend to take the secondary ticket market by storm with our innovative way of creating new ideas and our marketing strategy. We are not only on the road to massive growth, but instead on the Autobahn with no speed limit. We really feel like we’ll be a household name in a year or two.”
