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If you’ve ever sat in the nosebleed seats you probably been tempted to jump down a few levels and fill in the empty front row. If you acted on those temptations you were probably reprimanded and removed by a guy in a blue security jacket.
Enter Pogoseat. Pogoseat, a ticket upgrade app, that just raised a $2.3 million seed round, to help fans everywhere upgrade their experience. The app which works by selling off excess seat inventory to fans at venues such as ballgames and concerts, empowering venue owners to generate extra revenue from idle real estate.
“We enable fans to easily move to a better seat or purchase unique VIP experiences right from their phone,” said Abel Cuskelly, founder and VP of Sales.
Pogoseat is planning on using its new funding to expand the number of venues it operates in and grow its user base. The company will also be adding to its -person headcount by making several new hires.
The app is similar in many ways to Dealflicks, which sells off unsold movie ticket inventory. Dealflick recently received $1.7 million in funding to optimize the loosely efficient movie ticketing industry. Pogoseat differs though because of its ability to upgrade in real-time (aka mid-event).
“Upgrades are typically available day of the event but our clients can customize when they offer, for example some ball clubs typically make upgrades the day before the game through game time,” said Cuskelly. “We give fans credit for their original tickets and our model incorporates additional factors such as time left in the game."
More than selling off excess inventory, Pogoseat helps improve the television visuals for games and concerts that are not entirely sold off. Televised events are important advertising for venues and empty seats are not an attractive marketing moment.
In addition to being a standalone app, Pogoseat’s technology embeds into a number of existing ticketing apps. “We embed within all of our clients’ existing mobile apps such as the Golden State Warriors app and the MLB’s At the Ballpark app,” said Cuskelly. “We are integrated in the industry’s leading ticket systems such as Ticketmasters Archtics, Tickets.com ProVenue and Ventrix’s ticketing system.”
