Deal highlights

• Bandwagon is a blockchain-based fan identity and ticket authenticity platform
• Helps event organizers confirm the the validity of their digital tickets, along with who owns them, eliminating ticket fraud
• Over 1.1 Million tickets processed, powered by Hyperledger Fabric 
• IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program member
• Increased first customer's fan data metric to 48% (industry average is 8%).*
• Raised $1M+ from Backstage Capital, Capital Factory and Black Angel Tech Fund
• Advisors include:
  • Mellie Price — ticket industry veteran (sold her company to LiveNation),
  • Orlando Jones — King of Fandom and tech influencer,
  • Dr. Carri Allen Jones — data analytics expert and blockchain enthusiast

Fans lose $2.3 Billion in fake tickets annually.

There's simply nothing like being there. Whether that means sitting in the stands while your favorite team wins the championship as confetti rains down or standing in the crowd as you and your friends sing along to your favorite artist’s last song at a sell out concert. Unfortunately, due to the fact that so many people want to “be there”, ticket scalping and ticket fraud are problems that fans have to deal with all across the globe. This isn’t just about sports. Nearly 5 million people a year receive fake tickets to concerts, sporting events and theme parks...and that’s just domestically.

Ultimately, with fans having dozens of options to find tickets to their favorite live events, teams and artists need to find a way to verify the authenticity of tickets regardless of where fans purchase.

BANDWAGON uses blockchain to confirm ticket authenticity 

regardless of where fans purchase their tickets.

The future of ticketing isn’t exclusive partnerships or requiring fans to purchase through one specific app. The future of ticketing is increased distribution, allowing fans to buy tickets however and wherever they want. The future of ticketing is safe, simple, and secure.

BANDWAGON Is... 

Bandwagon is an analytics company that uses data, and our proprietary blockchain technology, to help teams and event organizers eliminate ticket fraud while increasing fan engagement.

Why Blockchain?

We believe that blockchain is the right technology to address these issues, by allowing stakeholders to cooperate on a shared model of tickets and fans, with the confidence to know that the model is only ever accessed and modified in ways that meet agreed-upon business rules, enforced by smart contracts securely, mathematically, and cryptographically. 

Built on IBM's Hyperledger Fabric Technology

IBM’s Fabric platform allows us to roll our own blockchain with an industrial-grade and production-ready infrastructure.  Since it is open source and under the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger umbrella, not only can we work closely with experts at IBM, we can also take advantage of a fast-moving community of developers, contributors, and users in the open source ecosystem.  Some notes about Fabric:

• Block-extension criteria is a based on "proof of properly executed contract", not "proof of work"

• Stakeholders work together to validate proposed changes against pre-established smart contracts.  

• Faster and less wasteful than other blockchains like Ethereum.

Business model

• Licensing fee: $25,000 - $100,000 (annually)
• Ticket Authentication fee: $0.10 - $0.20 (per ticket, per transaction)

For example, if we sign a professional sports team that has a venue that seats 75,000 fans per game and there are 8 home games in a season, we would expect that more than 50% of fans resell their tickets for each game. That means our revenues from this deal would be: 

• Licensing fee: $100,000
• Ticket Authentication fee: 
  • 75,000 seats x 8 games = 600,000 tickets
  • 600,000 tickets x 0.5 (assuming half the tickets are resold just once) = 300,000 ticket transactions
  • 300,000 x $0.15 = $45,000

Total Revenue for 1 year with this customer: $145,000

We want to be viewed in each case as a partner and not a competitor, supporting each link in the existing fan experience.  Clients are incentivized to fill in missing pieces about a ticket or a fan because through participation they gain the complete fan picture, as built by the entire network.  Our product allows stakeholders to set individual terms and restrictions on their shared data, as well as hold important “crown jewel” data in reserve.

We have evaluated that market both domestically and internationally and believe that as the adoption of mobile and RFID tickets continues to increase, our solution will become more and more powerful. Our projections for revenue focus solely on our success in the U.S. but we're already talking to customers in the Caribbean and the UAE.

Stadium as a Service

• Fan Engagement - Effective communication is key in marketing. Knowing which fans to deliver marketing messages is critical to the success of any marketing activation.
• Day of Event Revenue - Merchandise and Concessions sales make up a large percentage of the operating revenues for most teams and venues. By understanding fans' characteristics and their preferences, our customers are able to optimize their merchandise mix and rest assure that they have food & beverage options for all of their attendees.
• Sponsorships & Partnerships - This is the lifeblood of many event organizers. Brands are willing to pay top dollar to have the opportunity to engage a captive audience so event organizers should do their best to connect them with fans that are genuinely interested in their product or service. This means less unwanted spam for everyone!
• Philanthropy - Sports and charity often go hand-in-hand. Giving fans a vehicle to support their favorite non-profit organizations and causes while enjoying live entertainment benefits everyone involved.

Traction

With more than 1.1 Million tickets on our system, we are proud to be the largest commercially built ticketing blockchain in the world. While building our solution, we spent a lot of time learning about fans and protecting their data by aggregating it into data points like you see below. Through the identity management platform, we are able to gather fan data, aggregate it, categorize it by segment, and secure it. 

BANDWAGON Interns Teri & Oluwatoni with President Nelsen

Our work with our first customer, Sacramento State Athletics is a perfect example of how our solution can be used to solve multiple business challenges. The Athletic Department gained valuable insight into who was in their venue as well as what some of their preferences were. Here is some of what we learned together: 

• 25% of fans surveyed attended more than 9 baseball games
• 55% of fans that attended baseball also attended Sacramento State football
• 50% of fans normally buy concessions at baseball games
• 65% of Sacramento State baseball fans that attended games live more than 15 minutes away from campus
• 60% of Sacramento State baseball fans that attended games are not alum

Market Size

Founder & Team

Our small, yet scrappy team is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina with a presence in Austin, Texas. From an ex-Googler to a military veteran to a cupcaker who paid their way through college by starting a meal delivery company (seriously), we value our differences because of the perspectives that they provide as we set out to solve a major problem with live events around the world. 

Harold Hughes, Founder & CEO

The visionary and team captain behind BANDWAGON, Harold brings a wealth of experience from his time in sales and business development in corporate America and as a passionate sports fan.  With an MBA and Bachelors degrees from Clemson University (and currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship from Stanford University), Harold has the knowledge, insights and experience to help our clients better understand and act upon the available data about their fans to create the ultimate fan experience.

We have been at this for over 2.5 years and we've lasted long enough to know that execution means everything. The decision for our founder, Harold, to go full-time in January 2016 was not an easy one. The idea of bootstrapping is challenging enough without factoring in a growing family but sure enough, we set our goals, followed our plans and executed - we cut the ribbon to launch our first product on August 16, 2016...and welcomed in the youngest member of our Bandwagon, Carter, on August 18th. "The world is often such a divisive and segregated place. We're building BANDWAGON to be a vehicle that brings fans together. We want the buying process to be safe, simple, and secure."

Arshad Syed, CTO

With over 25 years of experience, Arshad is the technology enthusiast who brings the BANDWAGON vision to life. He keeps all the behind the scenes gears running so that all our clients see is a clean, sleek and innovate product.  With a computer science degree from Nebraska and experience as everything from an inventor to co-founder, Arshad rises to any challenge.

Samotria Holmes, COO

With years of experience leading large teams and overseeing accounts for clients worth millions at a Fortune 1000 company, Samotria has the background to put our mission into action and ensure that we deliver on our promise to our customers.  

Hampton Smith

Director of Data & Architecture Solutions

The brains behind our proprietary blockchain technology, Dr. Hampton Smith is responsible for our secret sauce - the data.  From his experience at Google and as an indie video game developer, Hampton knows his stuff and that helps our clients really know their fans.

Kim Klafczynski

Head of Sales & Biz Dev

As a former founder, Kim has a unique background that stems from technology conception/creation/deployment, wellness/talent & F500 business development which allows her to bring a completely unique set of eyes to BANDWAGON.

La-Vaughnda Taylor

Director of Brand Strategy, General Counsel

La-Vaughnda helps mold the BANDWAGON image and fulfillment of our brand promise of ultimately enhancing the overall game day experience for our clients and ultimately the fans.  

"Together we can change the future of live events by putting an end to ticket fraud and helping each fan, anywhere in the world, have a better experience." — Harold

Our mission is to create better fan communities inside stadiums and arenas across the world. We believe that the key to elevating the fan experience is creating a collaborative environment with the event organizer and every potential distribution channel that fans will use to buy tickets to their events. 

Join us in transforming events!