It’s a familiar struggle for those who lay down cash for season tickets to the Bengals or the Reds: trying to sell, donate or give away the extras when you can’t make a game.
Alex Burkhart grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, rooting for Cleveland sports teams. And while falling in love with Cincinnati as a student at
Xavier may mean his love of Cincinnati sports is growing, he’s mostly impressed by the city’s budding startup culture.
A Macy’s employee by day, Burkhart won the
Cincinnati Startup Weekend competition last November. During the event, individuals pitch startup ideas and form makeshift teams to develop them during a single weekend. Burkhart – who longingly noted that he missed a great Xavier game to do so – grabbed attention and a few helpful connections after he pitched his idea, which is now called
Tixers.
Burkhart says the company will provide a new way to buy and sell tickets on an online platform. “Hypothetically, if you can’t go to a Reds game, you can sell the tickets on StubHub at a significantly reduced price, give them away or let them go to waste,” he says.
Tixers aims to even that exchange. Still in its early stages, the platform (likely to be web and mobile) will allow people who have tickets for sporting or other entertainment venues to exchange them for points, which can later be redeemed for other tickets. In other words, no more last-minute emails or tickets gone to waste.
But before all this can happen, Burkhart hopes to connect with a partner who can complement his business acumen with technical know-how. He won the competition just weeks ago, attracting attention from startup accelerators and investors, but cautions, “It’s not a working business yet.”
Still, Burkhart is optimistic that Cincinnati’s sustainable startup culture combined with his education, enthusiasm and upbringing – he’s from a family of entrepreneurs – will soon mean a successful launch for Tixers.
By Robin Donovan
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