The StubHub new sparkled my interest when I heard so many arguments for and against the price of USD 4b at the time I was looking into a prominent ticketing platform in MENA (Qatar). I wish to share my thoughts on the marketplace, considering all the prominent VCs have one of these ticketing platforms in their bags. What are these ticketing platforms? They are primarily a marketplace for connecting buyers and sellers of tickets. Though it is a simple definition, the nuances of this particular marketplace get a bit trickier compared to other general marketplaces (think: eBay or Uber) and scrutinize by consumer protection authorities in many countries for their unintended consequences (misrepresentation, fake tickets, price manipulation, etc.) Let's have a look at the way this segment operates. First, some event-originators are int the business of creating events. These guys could be brand owners and producers at the same time, but not necessarily. For example, sports NFL br
An ideal stage of any system, natural or artificial, is self-sufficiency. As such, a country that is genuinely focused on sustainability should ultimately/ideal be developing an ecosystem that can foster innovation and unleash the potential of the people within. This leads to the agglomeration of talent, which ends up making a nation sustainable and robust. Qatar and the region are going through such a transformative phase, and the region realized that Venture Capital is one of the foundations of the journey. Several factors need to come together to form a virtuous cycle. One of the fundamental elements that drive venture is the availability of capital. Capital availability is the spark that lights ideas and encourages entrepreneurs to take on the journey, which in turn creates a successful startup, talent attraction, and a few of the talents creates a new type of offering or value add to the existing players in the system. And VCs gravitates towards those hubs with entreprene