Ludus
👤 Zachary Collins (Built Ludus his freshman year at Grand Valley State for his old high-school drama teacher, now co-founder. Niche insider.)🌐 siteLinkedIn
A theater kid built the ticketing tool giants ignored: free for the school, and the fan covers the fee.
Will it work? · our read
Durable niche. It takes the customers big ticketing ignores: schools and small theaters. Free for the org, paid by the fan's fee. Bootstrapped nine years to 5,000+ organizations.
01How the money moves
School or community theater lists its show on Ludus, free
→
Fans buy tickets; Ludus adds a service fee on top
→
Theater keeps full face value; Ludus keeps the fee
02The numbers
5,000+ orgsStatedrevenue never disclosed
2026
Bars are Ludus's own 2024 figures. $80M is tickets sold for theaters (GMV), not Ludus's revenue.
$80M is fans' ticket money passing through to theaters (GMV); Ludus's own cut is undisclosed, estimated at $10.5M by Latka.
🔒
You have the verdict. Members get the work behind it.
- The CENTS scorecard — where it's strong, where it's soft
- The founder's key move, and the counter-move
- How it could die — the evidence, and how sure we are
- The case against our own call
- A 🚀 launchpad prompt — the case, as a plan for your business
We rate our own confidence — and argue against ourselves. Nobody else in this category does.
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See a full teardown, free → Transistor.fmSourcesSources last checked 28 July 2026
AMT Lab interview (Nov 2025) — 4,000+ orgs, over 5.5M tickets and $80M+ in ticket sales in 2024, $12M growth round from Mamba Growth Equity.Latka — est. $10.5M revenue, 2024 (explicitly an estimate; no interview recorded).Ludus, About — 5,000+ organizations, founded 2016, co-founders Zachary Collins and Kevin Schneider.Michigan EDC success story — 5,000+ orgs, $12M raise in 2025, Inc 5000 (No. 706, 2023).CutTime press release (2023) — 2,000+ orgs, 2023 Inc 5000 cohort.
Ludus does not disclose revenue. Latka estimates $10.5M (2024), but its own page states it recorded no interview and calculated the figure — not first-party, so it is not the headline; verified:false on revenue. Headlined instead: 5,000+ organizations, stated on Ludus's own about page. It is corroborated by Ludus's disclosed scale and Inc 5000 growth. First-party and readable: Ludus's about page (5,000+ organizations, founded 2016, co-founders Zachary Collins and Kevin Schneider), a Nov 2025 AMT Lab interview (4,000+ orgs, over 5.5M tickets and more than $80M in ticket sales in 2024, $12M growth round from Mamba Growth Equity), a 2023 CutTime press release (2,000+ orgs, 2023 Inc 5000), and Michigan EDC (5,000+ orgs, $12M raise 2025, Inc 5000 No. 706). The $80M is gross ticket sales flowing to theaters (GMV), NOT Ludus revenue — Ludus earns only the per-ticket service fee paid by patrons. Inc's profile page and the Frontlines interview body were not readable (HTTP 403), so their figures are not asserted here beyond a reported about 95% COVID revenue drop cited in the Frontlines title. No documented drama; won on niche focus and patience. We never score you.