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Profile: Paul Cross and John Fitch of Ticketbud
Like so many other members of the Next Great Generation, Paul Cross and John Fitch have traveled the world. Not to cruise the beaches of Ibiza or hazard the nightclubs of Prague. They headed, instead, to developing countries, separately, to volunteer their time and expertise.
These rites of passage, no longer the exclusive preserve of the Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Program or other older campaigns — as well as challenges in their personal lives — left Fitch and Cross mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted.
Quickly recognizing a potential accomplice, the older Cross told Fitch, just out of the University of Texas, about a simple, yet potentially revolutionary digital service he had put on hold: Ticketbud.
“I was already searching for a company that would provide technologies to assist fundraising events,” Fitch says. “Other applications were nickel and diming charities with per-ticket fees. I was going to create my own if nothing existed.”
Bingo! Ticketbud, which Cross had created in California in 2008 before moving to Austin, is online box office service for small to mid-size groups, mostly nonprofits.
Using a seamless connection to PayPal, it provides as many tickets as a charity needs for a flat fee of $19.99 per single event, and $39.99 for multi-day events. Customers can print out tickets or use a smart phone.
“If I could make it for free, I would,” Cross says. “It’s the Craigslist model for ticketing. Cut out the middle man.”
After post-party sandwiches at the former Katz’s Deli, Fitch lept onboard, becoming Tickebud’s director of marketing. Among other things, Fitch brought to the table his well-honed video-making skills, creating sophisticated shorts about some of the events the company ticketed.
Anyone who has paid several dollars — per ticket! — to use an online service must wonder how Cross and Fitch can afford to offer the same service to every single guest at a charity event for just under $20.
“Volume,” Cross says. “It requires huge numbers to come out profitable.”
Already, Ticketbud has been used in all 50 states as well as Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The duo says they’ve experienced virtually none of the technical glitches that often daunt low-budget start-ups.
Cross says, in decorously modest tones: “Our stuff just works.”
Cross — tall, tawny and every bit the beach-bred son of a Destin, Fla. scientist dad and an artist mother— attended the University of West Florida before heading out to Southern California.
Yet there’s not a trace of dude-speak in his conversations, which more resemble the gently propelled pitches of a Northern California strategy and marketing man. In fact, in the late 1990s and 2000s, he worked for tech shooting stars like Silicon Graphics (now SGI), Ericsson and Merisel.
Fitch — whose ever-present smile helps warm his glacier-blue eyes — came from a radically different background. He grew up in El Campo (“More cows than people,” he says), raised by a rancher/farmer and a special education teacher.
He studied radio, television, film and business at UT, but “actually learned more about fundraising and event planning” due to membership in varied organizations, including the Texas Cowboys spirit club. Along the way, he helped start a nonprofit in El Salvdor and made a documentary in India.
Just before meeting Cross, Fitch rode in the Texas 4000 Ride for Cancer, the annual trek from Austin to Alaska that now partners with Livestrong, Lance Armstrong’s anti-cancer foundation. Last year, the student group raised $500,000.
“You leave Austin riding for someone specific,” says Fitch, who dedicated his trip to an uncle who fought cancer for decades. “But as the summer progresses, you ride for doctors, patients and strangers you meet along the way that have emotional stories of their relation to the disease.”
At that Katz’s encounter, Cross and Fitch discussed the parallels in their lives: The family losses to cancer, the Third World volunteering, the attraction to technological solutions. Cross explained to his new friend how Ticketbud was born.
“I was asked by a friend with a school for children with special needs to look at software packages to help them do some fundraising,” Cross recalls. “I started analyzing packages for nonprofits. It’s like a big block of cheese and rats are attacking the cheese. To raise $100,00 you have to spend $10,000 up front.”
Cross’ original idea was to build a family of technologies to help nonprofits. Ticketbud’s CTO Kenneth Berland set up the coding. But the only one that people chose was the ticketing service.
Just as the company was about to take off, a giant company with a vested interest in the word “Bud” opposed his trademarks, weighing him down with 40 pages of legal documents.
“We went back and forth for months,” Cross says. “And we eventually gave them a little black eye. Now Ticketbud owns 9 bud (trade)marks.”
His travails were not over. Cross raced back to Florida to tend to a relative terminally ill with cancer. Ticketbud would have to wait.
“I was going to give it up,” Cross says. “The cancer was visually and mentally unbearable. But I came out the other side. I feel blessed to have kept Ticketbud going. “
Because of their shared experiences with cancer, Cross and Fitch exempt all cancer charities from even the $20 fee.
The five-person firm now tickets hundreds of events each month and hope to expand their global reach. Their shared motto: “Grow something.”
Correction: In an earlier version of this post, the count of paid employees was inaccurate.
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