Breathing New Life into Event Ticketing
Breathing New Life into Event Ticketing
In 2008, budding entrepreneurs and Victoria University students, Nick Schembri and Chris Smith were managing Orientation Week parties and university social events, when they had the idea that would have them paving the way forward for entertainment ticketing.
Nick and Chris saw the need
for an easy to use, affordable ticketing service. With no
funding to use an established ticketing platform, they were
challenged by Victoria University to come up with their own
ticketing system. After dedicating the summer of 08/09 to
development, Orientation week in March 09 marked the debut
of Dash Tickets with a beta version managing ticketing for
all university events.
Through 2009 Dash Tickets was
working well for university events and having set up an
advisory board it was time to start thinking of next steps.
“We were working from our apartment in Wellington and we
realised we had to make a decision about the future of
Dash” Say Nick Schembri. “A member of our advisory board
had suggested we contact business incubator Creative HQ and
make a decision whether Dash was going to evolve into a full
time business or remain just a hobby.”
After
weighing up the options and taking a good look at the
potential of the business they had created, Nick and Chris
became serious about turning their fun university project
into a fully-fledged business. “We made the decision to
give it a shot and we were accepted into Creative HQ in
January 2010. The 18 months we were there really helped us
grow as a business. We sorted out our business plan and our
financial structure” says Nick “It was a hard time to
set up a business with the global financial crisis; it made
it extra hard to get investment.”
2011 proved to be a
huge year full of changes for Dash, Nick bought Chris out of
the company in April and in October Dash graduated from
Creative HQ. Dash then secured an impressive six-figure
capital investment from the founders of Ministry of Sound
Australia who bought half of the company, allowing Dash to
make its mark in Australia.
“Ministry of Sound are
the biggest record label in Australia and New Zealand, this
was a huge deal for us” says Nick “This has really set
the scene for us to launch into the Australian market. The
volumes are much higher in Australia; it’s just on a far
larger scale than New Zealand. We’re making some great
headway in New Zealand that we can use as case studies when
pitching to Australian clients. And we now have our first
full time person in Australia, working from the Ministry of
Sound offices” Says Nick.
Dash Tickets have recently
landed one of their biggest events yet – the Ellerslie
Flower show. With the average age of the attendee being over
45, Dash is breaking into a different and important
demographic. “This shows that we aren’t just a youth
focussed tech company” says Nick, “We’re putting the
customer first and a big part of that is a user-friendly
interface”.
So what makes Dash Tickets different from
the other larger ticketing companies? “We only charge one
booking fee and it’s up to the provider to choose whether
this is an inside fee or if they pass it on to the customer
to pay when purchasing tickets. Other ticketing companies
charge both fees so the customer will always pay a booking
fee” says Nick. “We’re an online company, we don’t
send physical tickets, it’s all done by email. But we do
have a support line where people can call”.
Nick is
passionate about customer service and believes it is
customer orientated businesses that will succeed in the end.
“To be a customer focussed company is so important and
something we really pride ourselves on. You need to be more
than just a great tech company; you need good customer
service, great account management and a great team. People
forget about the technology, it might be where your
competitive advantage lies, but without customer service
it’s very hard to succeed.”
Ensuring a business
seeks help and advice from somewhere is something Nick feels
is essential to a successful endeavour. “Getting help and
advice early is the best advice I can give to any new
business. The Creative HQ programme helps you think about
every aspect of your business, including those that you
would never have thought of! If you are going to make
mistakes – and you will - it’s better to make them early
on so they aren’t repeated down the track. You can then
reap the rewards later when you have your plans and
processes down.”
Grow Wellington’s Business Growth
Manager Karen Bender has been working with Dash Tickets for
a year now “Karen’s been great! She has helped us with
accessing capability vouchers and funding through TechNZ.
It’s great to have her to go to, she’s a great sounding
board” says Nick. “I would always recommend Grow
Wellington and Creative HQ to any business. It doesn’t
matter what size you are and what training and support you
may need, they can help businesses at all
stages”.
With what started out as a fun summer
project, has turned into an up and coming industry leader in
entertainment ticketing, with a unique approach to sales and
customer service. Now with offices in both Wellington and
Australia, Dash tickets are set to revolutionise the way we
buy tickets online.
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