Ticket Tailor
👤 Jonny White (Freelance web dev who built Ticket Tailor for one client, then bought it back from Time Out to run it his way — patient, no VC.)🌐 siteLinkedIn
A freelance dev built a ticketing tool for one client, sold it, bought it back, and grew it to $6.6M with no VC.
Will it work? · our read
Cents, not percent. But its a low take-rate business with no discovery marketplace — growth is one organizer at a time, and Eventbrite can copy flat pricing whenever it wants.
01How the money moves
Organizer builds a free box office page
→
Fans check out and pay the organizer directly
→
Ticket Tailor keeps a flat $0.30-$0.85 per ticket
02The numbers
$6.6M
revenue, 2024
Latka est.
$5M
ARR, 2023
reported
$0
VC raised
bootstrap
Founder disclosed the MRR journey and 6M tickets a year in a 2021 interview; $6.6M is Latka 2024 estimate. Latka
Latka estimates $6.6M for 2024 and lists $5M ARR reported for 2023; the founder disclosed the MRR journey and 6M tickets a year in a 2021 interview. No VC.
03Weight class — CENTStap an axis
Control Mid
Owns the product and its brand, but leans on Stripe for payments and does not own demand — organizers bring the crowd.
04The key move
Buying it back.
White sold Ticket Tailor to Time Out in 2012, watched it go nowhere for 18 months, bought it back in 2014, then grew MRR about 4x and reached $6.6M a year with no VC.
fact
The counter-intuitive move
The buyback worked only because Time Out had neglected the product and sold it back cheaply — a rare chance, not a repeatable strategy.
our read
05Where the moat is
What keeps a cloneable tool alive after 13 years:
13+ yrs of uptime organizers trustFlat fee, so heavy sellers never leaveB Corp brand + 1p-per-ticket giving$0 VC — no pressure to raise fees
06How it diesmedium confidence
Ticket Tailor dies if Eventbrite or Stripe copies flat per-ticket pricing and out-distributes it — ticketing is easy to build and organizers feel little lock-in once the event ends. our read
Show evidence · counter
Evidence: Eventbrite has had years to drop its percentage and has not — that take-rate is its core model, so the flat-fee lane stays open for Ticket Tailor.
Counter: Eventbrite is a public company many times larger and could match flat pricing; Jonny built the first version in 3 months, so the software is easy to clone.
07Against rivals
Bars show rough relative scale, not exact revenue. Eventbrite is public and many times larger; Ticket Tailor wins on price, not size. our read
08Who uses it
Indie event organizersMusic venues & clubsWorkshops & classesCharities & nonprofitsCommunity festivals
★Would it work for you?
Do you want to own 100% of a small, fair business — or chase a bigger one on someone elses terms?
A flat, fair fee beat a % incumbent here. Where else does greedy pricing leave an opening? We do not score you — you answer.
🚀Use it as a launchpada prompt for your own AI
Copy → paste into your AI → then develop it freely in the conversation.
You are a sharp, honest startup strategist. Use the proven case below as a launchpad for MY idea — help me find my own angle, not copy it.
<my_profile>
Domain I know: [your domain]
My unfair advantage (access/audience): [your edge]
Interests: [your interests]
Resources & goal: [your resources] · [your goal]
</my_profile>
<case name="Ticket Tailor" model="saas">
What it does: Ticket Tailor is bootstrapped event-ticketing software that charges organizers a flat $0.30-$0.85 per ticket instead of a percentage of sales, and lists free events for free.
Why it won (moat): Its moat is 13-plus years of reliability, a flat-fee model that heavy sellers will not leave, and a B Corp brand with 1p-per-ticket charity giving, all built with zero outside funding.
Weakest axis (CENTS): Its weakness is a low take-rate with little lock-in: ticketing is easy to build, organizers bring their own audience, and a larger player could copy flat pricing.
How it could die: Ticket Tailor dies if Eventbrite or Stripe adopts flat per-ticket pricing and out-distributes it, because organizers feel little lock-in once an event ends.
</case>
<task>
Be a skeptical operator, not a cheerleader. No generic startup platitudes. If my angle is weak, say so plainly.
First, a reality check: markets like this mostly fail. State the honest base rate (how crowded/hard is this?) and the ONE specific thing that would have to be true for ME to be the exception — grounded in my profile above.
Then a compact table:
- Fit — does this pattern suit my edge, or fight my gap?
- Angle — my sharpest differentiation vs Ticket Tailor (concrete, not "better UX")
- Distribution — exactly where my first 100 users come from (this is the hardest part — be specific, not "content marketing")
- Risk — its "how it dies" (above) in MY situation
Finish with one line: "The single thing to do next."
Use only the facts above; if data is thin, say so — never invent numbers.
Then stay with me and go deeper on whatever I ask — tech stack, rough cost & time, the smallest MVP to test, pricing, or timing.
</task>
✓ Copied — paste into your AI
👤Placeholders like [your domain] auto-fill from your profile — example values for now.Set up profile →
Sourcesupdated · daily
Latka - Ticket Tailor: $6.6M revenue (2024 est), $5M ARR reported (2023), $0 raised, team size.Bootstrappers - Jonny White: the Time Out sale and buyback, MRR journey, 6M tickets a year, 10k+ clients.IdeaMensch - Jonny White: origin as a freelance dev who built the tool for a client.Ticket Tailor - 2024 charity donations: B Corp since 2022, GBP 180,317 to Penny-for-the-Planet in 2024.Ticket Tailor - pricing: flat $0.30-$0.85 per ticket, free events free.
Revenue is fundamentally disclosed, but the exact 2024 figure is a Latka estimate. The founder first-party disclosed the sale/buyback and MRR journey (about 2k to 8k GBP) in a 2021 Bootstrappers interview, plus 6M tickets a year then; Latka lists $5M ARR reported for 2023 and $6.6M estimated for 2024. $0 VC is confirmed. GBP figures were converted to USD and marked about. B Corp since 2022 and the 2024 charity total are company-stated. Rival bar weights are rough relative scale, not exact revenue — only Ticket Tailors own numbers are cited. No revenue was invented. We never score you.