From an episode of Byte Into IT∙Presented by Vanessa Toholka and Lilly Ryan
Interview
Byte Into IT: Josh Ross, Co-CEO of Humanitix on Its Ticketing Model
Joshua Ross, co-founder/CEO of Humanitix joins Lilly and Vanessa to talk about the ticket services market, and how it's monopolised by big overseas players (such as Live Nations, Ticketmaster) who are currently under anti-trust actions in the US. With his high school friend and co-CEO, Adam McCurdie, the two founded Humanitix as a registered charity to disrupt the ticketing industry where the major players exploit smaller artists and initiatives who have few other choices to promote and sell their events. This market domination also means that the big organisations aren't incentivised to solve common ticketing issues such as website crashes, or the secondary market ("the industry's biggest rort") where they can cash in on perpetual ticket re-sales. Josh discusses what Humanitix's "100% for-purpose" model looks like in practice, which includes launching their own re-sale facility where tickets are capped at the original ticket price, or their goal of transforming large amounts of money into sustainable funding for charities. Josh discusses his longer-term vision for Humanitix and says that there's lot of applications for a model where for-profit industries that aren't being good social actors, can be disrupted with a social model that's ethical and sustainable.