Andrew CitoresPhoto: Courtesy of Jampack
How he got his start: "In 2011, I started my first travel technology company, JusCollege. We built a group travel and payments solution for collegiate RSOs (Registered Student Organizations). We made it easy for organizers to curate a multiday travel experience and manage payments, logistics, and communications through our solution; we even launched a buy-now, pay-later solution in 2014. We bootstrapped the business to $40 million in GMV until I sold it in 2018. I joined the company that acquired my company. In my role as EVP of travel, I grew the business to $200 million in GMV in two years. In the middle of COVID, the company pivoted and I moved on in October of 2020.
Shortly after resigning, I posted on LinkedIn that I was ready to start my next thing. My now co-founders at Jampack, Daren Libonati and Sonny Smith—both established industry veterans in their own right—reached out to me. We got fired up about tackling a long-standing industry problem. Event producers shoulder all the financial risk when launching an event; they bring thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people to a city. They sell tickets and then hope their fans generate revenue from food and merch sales. Meanwhile, attendees are booking hotel rooms, renting cars, seeing shows, and making dinner plans—all without benefiting the producers.
That's where Jampack comes in. We set out on a mission to solve that problem. While giving fans more, we help event producers capture more share of their fans' wallets. We raised $1 million in pre-seed funding in the spring of 2021, launched our product that summer, and have since served over 100,000 eventgoers to over 200 events. We've expanded from festivals to trade shows, conferences, and sports, helping both producers and fans alike." 
Jampack partners with event producers across conferences, music festivals, and sporting events to find unique, in-event experiences that are only made available via the Jampack platform. That means attendees have access to exclusive experiences at the best possible rates, while event organizers can generate new revenue by bundling event tickets, hotel rooms, and add-on experiences into one package.Screenshot: Courtesy of Jampack
What innovation means to him: "I believe in innovation as a tool for driving the positive change I want to see across the live events ecosystem. I want to create value for every stakeholder—the producer, the fan, the venues, and the local businesses. Figuring out a better way of doing things that up-levels everyone is how I approach prioritizing industry-leading products, and it requires changes to the status quo."
Memorable moments: "When we launched Jampack in 2021, Lovers & Friends music festival was the first event to offer packages on our platform. I’ll never forget the long wait for their tickets to go on sale, thinking, ‘Will people even want a package?’ We really didn’t know. The anticipation was hard. Then, of course, the excitement when fans did indeed start buying packages was unreal. Thousands of fans. To see the demand double over three years is awesome."
His vision for the future of the event industry: "Fans crave more experiences around live events and producers want to deliver, but the industry has struggled because adding more experiences typically meant hiring more staff. Our technology is changing that now. We’re leading the way with automated supply curation, real-time dynamic pricing, and discounts to provide producers and fans with more options effortlessly. These tech advancements give fans richer live event experiences more conveniently while providing producers new revenue streams without the overhead or distraction."
What he's working on next: "Our team is exploring ways to offer fans curated package options way more frequently. Specifically, we’re figuring out how to create high-quality packages quickly and effortlessly. For venues that operate every day of the year, we can now service entire tours and game seasons, all while maintaining great prices and inventory. We’re rolling this solution out to some of the largest venues in the world as we speak."
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