At the Hacker News Meetup earlier this week, I bumped into Seattle entrepreneur Forest Gibson who is working on a new online concert and event ticketing service called Bookr. Well, as it turns out, Bookr isn’t the only Pacific Northwest startup looking at new ways to take a bite out of industry leader Ticketmaster.
Today, Portland’s Tixie announced an undisclosed round of financing, money that it will use to roll out its unique ticket contest service. Tixie gives music fans 10 chances to “bid” on shows that they’d like to see, with winners selected prior to each show.
“By driving fans to participate in socially engaging game-play – and by providing winnable concert tickets Tixie is able to build a more committed and more socially-active fan base” said Tixie co-founder Jeff Foster in announcing the service last month.
Tixie employs 17 people, and offers service via its Web site and an iPhone app in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Athens, Portland and Seattle. It plans to expand to 18 new cities this year.
In addition to Foster, the former CEO of Norton Motorcycles, Tixie’s team includes record label executive John Mazzocco and former marketing director at the Portland Mercury newspaper Zach Hull. Board members include angel investors and venture capitalists Dave Chen, Stan Woodward and Brian Becker, the former CEO of Clear Channel Entertainment.
[Hat tip to Silicon Florist]
