Have you ever gone to an event and found that your seat is right behind a column? No doubt you have. This is something that also happened to Francis Casado, cofounder of Ticketing 3D, a startup set up in 2012 in Barcelona to address the common problem of poor visibility from seats in sports and cultural venues with virtual reconstruction. "I went to see a show at the Coliseum with tickets I had bought through Atrapalo and from my seat all I could see was a small part of the stage," recalls Casado.
In its four years of life, Ticketing 3D has worked on the construction and improvement of the stadiums of Athletic Club de Bilbao, Barça, Espanyol, Manchester City and Wembley Stadium in the UK. Beyond the sporting sphere, among other clients, are the Liceu and L'Auditori in Sant Cugat. "Most of these clients come back," says Casado, who is currently taking part in Menorca Millennials, the first deccelerator for startups, to prepare them for a new phase of growth and to get to know investors who can speed that process up.
Squeezing the business of football
Ticketing 3D's first project was relocating the 42,000 members of the Bilbao club to its new San Mamés ground, with the aim of helping them to choose their new seat with a 3D view of matches. "We knew that they wanted to build a new stadium, we entered the public contest and won," says Casado, who explains that it was this project that led he and his partner, Michele Marino, to create Ticketing 3D. "We began with 1,000 euros from each partner and started making turnover from the beginning because we had the work with Athletic, which allowed us to get through the first few months."
In Barça's case, they have started a number of projects. The first consisted of doing a census of seats to learn the total number of places, locating them by zone and detecting possible visibility problems. With this information the club now offers a service to buy tickets in 3D in which the user can consider all aspects of the purchase. "It is like a Street View, but instead of photos they are 3D models," he says.
Yet Ticketing 3D goes further. "It can be used to relocate members, reconstruct stadiums, monitor exits or security cameras, or to find out how many steps an old gentleman has to climb to get to his seat," says Casado. And some of these proposals have been used, or will be, by Barça at Camp Nou.
Top level internationalisation
Ticketing 3D was not set up with internationalisation as a short-term objective, rather it was a decision taken on seeing that the Spanish market did not have enough of the opportunities they were looking for. The English market became the first option: "We went there a year after founding the company and it took six months to gain a foothold." The first international client was Manchester City and from here on everything began to move ahead of its own accord.
Another international client is the Rugby Football Union and the programme for purchasing season tickets for the Twickenham stadium. It is the second-largest ground in the UK after Wembley and home to the Rugby world cup in Europe. "Each seat is for 10 years and costs 9,000 pounds. With our tool tied to their sales process, we have managed to sell 27 million pounds," says Casado. And among the international successes, the entrepreneur highlights being the official 3D provider for the World Cup: "Three out of 12 stadiums used our technology."
The most recent step forward has been to the United States to provide 3D representations of NBA basketball and NFL American football stadiums. Casado says they have only been making turnover there for two months and that the process of consolidation of its service in North America also involves theatres and university league basketball venues.
As for the competition, they have little to fear. In the US there are only two companies offering similar services. One works exclusively for Ticketmaster and the other has disappeared after a buyout operation. In Europe, Casado points out that there is a company in France, but that most of the business takes place in his country of origin. "Some 70% of our business is now outside Spain," and with this figure, the entrepreneur makes it clear that there is no reason to worry.
In 2015, they had a turnover of almost 500,000 euros, a figure he argues appears low because "we invest in I&D, we have burnt through the investment we received and have generated the technology needed to move ahead quickly." The forecasts for 2016 are positive and Casado states that they hope to reach 1.3 million euros, 650,000 euros of which are already spoken for.
The passion of the entrepreneur
Francis Casado had previously worked at Dotopen, an open innovation consultants and organiser of the AppCircus contest, , where he acquired key knowledge of the mobile sector and applying technology to everyday life. For her part, Michele Marino had experience in the world of 3D. "We got together and decided to provide 3D solutions for specific problems," says Casado, adding "things went quite well because Michele is the technical side and I develop the business."
Today, the team has 25 employees and offices in the Poblenou neighbourhood. That means that in only four years they have multiplied the workforce by 10 and Casado attributes everything to strategy: "Growth comes from doing projects, looking for large clients and going international. We decided to go to the UK to attend fairs in the sector, taking on the investment that implies, and getting to know people."
The beginning was tough but they have remained firm and managed to consolidate the product. That is why one piece of advice Casado gives to prospective entrepreneurs is to "be constant". "We were told that we were mad, that the technology would not work, that we were extra-terrestrials and that we were doing strange things," he recalls from the time when they were looking for investment and outside support. After two years of showing that the project was viable and gaining references, they raised a round of investment worth 400,000 euros.
He now knows that confidence in the product and the team are two of the main factors in building success. "The team is committed, works cohesively and is motivated, which means success is assured. You are successful when you surround yourself with the best in the world," he argues. And out of all the experience acquired, he highlights the months spent in the US, which made them see things "in a different way": "There is a lot of fear here about sharing ideas in case someone steals them. I always share, because you can find out about good ideas and get feedback."