Chris Stanchak is the founder and CEO of TicketLeap - a leading internet ticketing platform. He is a local entrepreneur who got his start at a very early age! Read more about Chris, his company, how the Wharton Venture Initiative Program helped him, and his advice for anyone launching an online business. Chris was interviewed by Alexis Fisher, Consumer Producer for NBC10’s All That & More.

Q: How did you get to the point you’re at right now?

A: Stanchak says, “Well, in 2002 I ended up going to Wharton for business, so I took some of my knowledge with technology and started looking at different things that I could do and a friend of mine needed to sell tickets for an event. And so he wanted me to build a simple registration forum for him to sell the tickets. So I built this thing for him and the event ended up getting cancelled because of September 11th in New York City so I took that and ended up turning it into this business. So it took a little time, but as part of the Wharton Venture Initiative Program, I took that idea and turned it into TicketLeap.”

Q: At what point did your idea feel like ‘Hey I’m on to something here’?

A: Stanchak says, “I guess it was, well basically there was no easy way for people to sell tickets for their events online. So you have these big companies out there like Ticketmaster who’s really good at serving the larger organizations, but then when you look at smaller events out there, every single one of them out there is doing their own type of online ticketing – either developing something themselves or their not doing ticketing at all. And so ticketing for them was an inconvenience for their organization – they didn’t have an easy way to do it. And so it was right when we started to find that different events out there loved this – and first they were a little bit resistant to selling tickets online because they thought it wasn’t something their customers wanted but as we progressed we found that their customers loved it! It was very convenient for them because they could purchase when they wanted to and so it just started spreading. And now we have over 2,000 organizations throughout the country that use TicketLeap to sell their tickets.”

Q: Your friend just wanted you to come up with some application to create a ticket for his party. Why did he come to you?

A: Stanchak says, “Well, he just knew that I knew how to build a Web site. I actually ran another website prior to TicketLeap that was like a music Web site where people could listen to music online and other people could listen to it and rate it. The Web site didn’t have a real way of making money and so I saw that this ticketing opportunity for this one event would be an interesting way to generate some revenue for the business.”

Q: Tell me exactly how TicketLeap works.

A: Stanchak says, “To use TicketLeap you really don’t need any technical skills –and all you need to do is come to the Web site. You can sign up, create your event on there, and it’s as easy as setting up an email account. And basically we take care of all of the security and everything for you, and the only fees that we have are charged to the people buying the ticket. And if you’re familiar with any of the other ticketing providers out there, they charge you these really high, exorbitant fees that are just tacked onto the price of the ticket. So when the person’s buying the ticket, they pay that fee and we take care of all of the payment processing and all of the security in the entire process for you. All you do is get paid by us. So if you’re having a small event and you don’t want to worry about how you’re handling all the ticketing, you can just give that to us, we’ll take care of it for you. You register the event on our system and we’ll take care of the payment processing and you just get paid and just worry about having a good event.”

Q: And now how do you profit from it?

A: Stanchak says, “We charge a per ticket service fee. So we charge roughly about two dollars per ticket that’s being sold through TicketLeap.”

Q: How long have you been profitable?

A: Stanchak says, “Well, we’ve been generating revenue since 2003 and profitable since 2004.”

Q: How hard was it to get to this point?

A: Stanchak says, “Getting started isn’t necessarily easy and in fact when I started the company in 2003 the cost of developing the technology and through the systems that you need to have there was a high barrier to enter from that standpoint in terms of technology. These days it’s actually, the way the Internet has changed; it’s become less expensive to start a business online. But the big cost you still have is the cost of the technological know-how. So it took a lot of work to get to where we are. For us, getting the sort of market presence, getting events out there to know about TicketLeap, that was one of the hardest things. To find the first event that would sign up with us, and then that led to the second and led to the third.”

Q: Why was that so hard?

A: Stanchak says, “Well it’s because where do you start? So you have the entire market you can go after. And our first event that we had to actually use TicketLeap to sell a ticket was in Anchorage, Alaska. So we started sort of the furthest away from Philadelphia as the first ticket – but now we have a big presence in Philadelphia and we’re have a partnership with a local online destination we have a big portal out there. That will hopefully give us more exposure locally. But getting started is more a matter of how do we get all these events? Figuring all that out was probably the hardest thing.”

Q: What else was hard?

A: Stanchak says, “Well, it’s technology. So when you’re taking other people’s money, you’re collecting money from all of these people out there. So for everybody who’s buying a $20 ticket, you’re collecting $20 from them and then you’re holding onto that money, giving it to somebody else, you know who’s actually having the event. And building the technology and all of the tools that can do that in a secure manner, that’s a little bit difficult. But we’re lucky that we have really good technology expertise in house here at our company. But I think for someone who’s just starting out, sort of having a handle on the technology side of things is the first step. If you don’t understand those things to start an online business, it’s going to be very difficult for you. But the second thing, and I think that’s even the bigger on that everybody ignores, is the business model. How are you actually going to make money with an Internet business? So there are all of these great tools out there that do all these neat things and they’re fun to use for someone but they have no way of ever making money. And then you go back to the late 90s and the dot com bust and that’s exactly what happened – it’s still happening – but I think the investment community is getting a little more wise to that and they’re not putting money into companies that have no way of making money.”

Q: How many people did you start out with?

A: Stanchak says, “It was actually myself. I was the first person and my Mom, actually. My Mom still works here.”

Q: How long did it take before you needed more than Mom’s help?

A: Stanchak says, “It was really, as we grew, when we had about 500 organizations using us and trying to juggle that between two people and provide a really good customer experience, it started becoming apparent that we needed more resources. That’s when I went out and found some outside investors to take us to the next step, and that’s where we are right now.”

Q: Now you have a salary, and benefits. It’s not just Mom and me, but maybe it’s more responsibility or your role is changing?

A: Stanchak says, “I mean, yeah. I personally can’t spend as much time just looking at the business itself. I have to spend a lot of time running the business of the business. So worrying about everyone getting paid, worrying about the office, and all the things that go into that. But that I think is not unique to the Internet, it is to any business out there. As you grow, there’s sort of this next hurdle you have to go through. And I expect that as we get bigger, we’re going to have more hurdles as well. But I’m excited. I’m looking forward to those things.”

Q: Why do you think you have been so successful?

A: Stanchak says, “I think the number one thing is persistence. So this business should’ve died a couple times by now. It wasn’t an overnight success. It took a lot of work and to sort of grow the business and when you’re facing difficult times, what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur is that they find a way even if there is no way, they find a way to make it work. And that’s something I’ve just done and continued to do. So I think that’s probably the number one thing.”

Q: Did you also surround yourself with people?

A: Stanchak says, “Yeah, I mean, that’s a great thing. I’ve had the advisors that I’ve had from the beginning as part of Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program. They’ve been there to help me. And then as I’ve grown, I’ve brought in more and more outside advisors and help. I always try to be around people who are smarter than me so that way I know I’m learning something from them. In terms of the business, having situations when it wasn’t performing as well as it should have, basically what I’m getting at is that sometimes you have to make personal sacrifices if you want the business to continue.”

Q: If someone’s out there with a great idea but thinking, “I don’t come from a family with any money,” can they do it?

A: Stanchak says, “You can. There was a moment in time with TicketLeap when we only had a few thousand dollars in the bank. And we didn’t even have a product that worked and it was like, okay we spent all this time and money on something that wasn’t even going to get off the ground. So what we did was just keep pressing on and worked on it, and basically, a year after we launched I was still up to my neck in credit card debt to get the thing off the ground. So that’s what I’m talking about: sacrifice and persistence to know that you can do it and find a way to make it work.”

Q: What’s the best part about owning the business and the worst part?

A: Stanchak says, “Well, the theory is that you can sort of make your own hours when you own a business, it’s actually the exact opposite because you get more vacation time when you work for someone because you have all the capabilities to just walk away and there are other people to help you. So I wouldn’t say that’s the best part about it. But I think one thing, when you know something is right, you can actually say ‘this is what we’re going to do’ and set the direction for the company, whereas, when you work for a large corporation you sort of just need to follow along and there’s a lot of politicking. But here, we’re small so we can make decisions quickly.”

Q: How do you know it’s time to take the next step?

A: Stanchak says, “Actually, just about everything we do is based upon what our customers tell us they’re looking for. That’s one thing. From the beginning, every development, every sort of change we’ve made through our technology or what we do as a company is a result of our customers telling us, it would be nice if you guys could do this or this is what we’re looking for. So we always keep track of all of those things and keep a giant list of everything that’s been asked for, how many times people have asked for it so we can say okay this is what we’re doing next – this is what our customers want. And I think in any business if it’s a pizza shop or an Internet company, it’s the same thing. It’s what the customers want, because in the end they’re the ones that make your business.”

Q: Are you constantly looking for opportunities?

A: Stanchak says, “One of the very hard things though about running an Internet business, is the rate at which the Internet is changing. It’s pretty hard to comprehend if you’re not in the business. There are all these different directions that you can go in and one of the things you have to do is stay focused on what it is that you’re doing as a company and focusing on that and not trying to change just because the wind blows a different way that day.”

Q: Do you have any regrets? Is there anything you want to change?

A: Stanchak says, “No. It’s just basically, I wish I knew what I know now back in the beginning. I think that’s the same with everyone in life. It’s easy to say, “Oh this is what I should’ve done from the beginning.” But everyday I continue to learn, and that’s part of the process.”