Tixologi was a blockchain-anchored, self-serve event ticketing platform built to peel independent venues, emerging sports leagues, and themed-event producers off Eventbrite by pairing NFT-issued tickets with anti-fraud tooling and a resale take-rate that the incumbent had abandoned. The wedge was mid-market producers frustrated by Eventbrite's added flat fees and thin customer support — Tixologi offered custom-branded flows, a widget-based on-site checkout, and operator control over the secondary market, using the blockchain layer for verification and eventual resale monetization rather than as a consumer-facing feature.
StoryHouse joined the November 2023 insider round alongside repeat backers Correlation Ventures, KB Partners, and Social Leverage at a $5M post — a flat-to-down bridge from the prior $9.25M post — after diligence confirmed 13 paying customers, ~$320K aggregate transaction ARR, and late-stage pipeline conversations in the $15–20K ACV range (Note 2023-10-31 recasiiKXvpijK8AA). StoryHouse Fund I wrote a $125K check for 243,807 Series Seed-2 Preferred at $0.5127 (Airtable deal_terms). The company was subsequently unable to scale past small-ticket ACVs, ran out of runway in Q4 2024, and was sold in an all-equity asset sale to Punchup Live in April 2025 — StoryHouse's position converted to 13,898 shares of PunchUp Common at $1.5357/share, a partial recovery on cost basis rather than a return outcome (Airtable deal_terms; TheTicketingBusiness).
The addressable slice Tixologi targeted — small-and-mid-market self-serve ticketing — is a real but concentrated wedge inside a $15B event-software market growing at high single digits. The founder-stated $700M sub-segment, with Eventbrite estimated at ~50% share, is directionally consistent with public analyst framing that positions Eventbrite as the incumbent for low-touch SMB onboarding (Note 2023-10-20 recIKcfIKL6xEDIMZ). Blockchain-based verification was a differentiator on paper but did not compress the sales cycle at the ACV band Tixologi could actually close.
| Player | Positioning | Funding | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tixologi | Blockchain-anchored self-serve for indie venues, emerging sports, themed events | $3.2M total raised | — |
| Eventbrite | Freemium SMB incumbent; ~50% self-serve share (est.) | Public (NYSE: EB) | Distribution, brand, discovery graph |
| TicketSpice | White-label, low-fee SMB alternative | Bootstrapped (Webconnex) | $0.99 flat + 2.99% pricing |
| Ticket Tailor | UK-origin, low-fee self-serve | Bootstrapped | $0.79 per-ticket pricing |
| GUTS Tickets | European NFT-ticketing protocol (powers Defy Tickets) | Protocol-based | Blockchain-native, EU distribution |
Moat: The intended moat — operator control of the secondary market monetized via NFT rails — required customer volumes with real resale demand, which the SMB base Tixologi actually closed did not generate (Note 2023-10-31 recasiiKXvpijK8AA).
The realized exit was an April 2025 all-equity asset sale to Punchup Live, a comedy-platform startup, with StoryHouse's position converting to 13,898 shares of PunchUp Common at $1.5357/share (Airtable deal_terms; Crunchbase acquisition profile). Prior comparable exits Asher referenced during diligence — Ticketfly acquired by Eventbrite for $400M and Moment acquired by Patreon — did not materialize as reference points for Tixologi's own outcome. Return math: $125K cost basis → ~$21.3K PunchUp Common at deal share price, before any subsequent PunchUp mark. Airtable direction (Note 2024-09-09 recDufNqepr3WtMUT): "please write off Tixologi in our relevant investor and audit materials."
Sub 5 months away.
Looked at creative ways to extend runway; it doesn't look realistic.
Had a Board meeting a couple of weeks ago; he won't get additional funding from insiders. Has had some conversations with some new money but that route seems unlikely as well.
Is planning to wind things down and explore an asset sale.
Potential buyers: Ticketing company and music industry, fan-related businesses; Laylow, Gatsby. I'm making an introduction to super-fan music industry founder.
Summary: Josh, please write off Tixologi in our relevant investor and audit materials.
Catch up call with Asher today.
On the ticketing side they continue to scrape together smaller $10-15K deals, but they aren't scaling fast enough to reach breakeven.
Runway is 7 months. Burn is $65K per month now and he's cut as much as he thinks they can. Total transaction volume through their platform is $180K a month, but their net right now is $10K a month.
The big contract end of last year fell through because the company they were signing with received an acquisition offer the week they had agreed to sign. Part of the acquisition offer was that they couldn't change any venues until new management took over, so the deal fell through. His contact is still at the company and he thinks they will be able to still get the contract in a few months but TBD.
They have a big offer out right now with Hagerty (big car show group) that would be $300K annually for them. They find out in two weeks.
They continue to have larger deals in the pipeline, but have been losing out for two main reasons: people choose Ticketmaster over them, or other competitors make upfront cash signing bonus offers which they can't compete with. Just lost a deal because a competitor offered $80K signing bonus to get 5 years of ticketing business.
Is starting to work on a second offering of an event-marketing product. The build should only take a month and is similar to the product they already have, but they've been seeing appetite in conversations with folks for a product like Splash — something for event marketing that could tie actual business outcomes to the events people run.
Considering doing a WeFunder crowdfunding campaign to try to get another 6 months of runway. Also talking to Social Leverage and KB about putting in another $50K each to extend runway.
Asked for an introduction to Sam with Levels to chat about WeFunder experience and intros to anybody in event marketing. He's sending a blurb for the Sam introduction and I'm going to do a scrape of event-marketing folks for him.
Asher convo. Had a good conversation with Wes. A few more questions plus confirmatory steps on our end, but I think we're going to get there — conversation with KB partners, would love to meet Social Leverage at some point, CEO interview, legal review, background checks.
If resale isn't being prioritized, what's the blockchain use case? With a lot of self-serve customers there isn't a high enough volume for resale — no big secondary market, but there's no way of facilitating it either. Secondary works for emerging sports and independent venues; they have issues with fraudulent tickets and are not currently taking any of the secondary market that is happening. Secondary is still a part of the offering but not the major offering until Tixologi finds a customer or group that prioritizes it. All tickets are NFTs, still issued on blockchain. First name/last name not tracked on chain — chain used for tracking, security, and verification. The final piece is control, which will dictate the resale market as well as take a cut of it.
Who else is doing blockchain ticketing? A couple of companies remain active; some have disappeared. The biggest is a company called "GUTS," which is actually a protocol; startups on GUTS are limited by whatever the protocol releases. GUTS is European; they power a company called Defy Tickets. No one in the space has significant traction to date.
Who does customer support and how does it scale? Combination of Asher and head of product. Doesn't take a huge amount of time; the bigger piece is whenever they bring someone on. All customization goes through the portal, with Asher and head of product walking new customers through it.
What were the Brown Paper Tickets and Universe acquisition numbers? Not released. Reference points: Eventbrite market cap ~$1B (once ~$2B); Eventbrite bought Ticketfly for $400M several years ago.
Path to $1M ARR: Confident he can land ~50 self-serve customers at $15K avg + 1–2 enterprise deals in the $200K–$350K/yr range. Breakeven point is $900K ARR, expected September 2024. Projected $660K in the bank end of September 2024. Budgeted $65K flat burn for the rest of 2023. Five AE candidates actively interviewing.
Sizing the raise: $1M gets ~15 months of runway; currently 1.5 months in the bank; raise again in fall 2024 with 6 months of runway remaining. No requirements attached to the Social Leverage / KB check.
Ideas floated: Will Brown (Crowdtilt); HMC AI Fund; sales accelerator fund PI guy.