Ardon and Jaron Lukasiewicz – Co-Founders of Ticketometer

[quote style=”boxed”]Our main focus is to become a respected presence in the music industry, facilitate concerts that would not have otherwise happened, increase artist profitability and make fans happy through personable and genuine customer service.[/quote]

Ardon and Jaron Lukasiewicz are the Co-Founders of Ticketometer, an online service that allows concert organizers to create shows that only happen if a minimum number of tickets are sold.

Ardon is also a financial analyst at CityCenter in Las Vegas. Prior to CityCenter, he was a financial/ business consultant for a solar energy company based in Nevada. While attending Bradley University, he worked on a start-up apparel line for a Las Vegas entrepreneur and for Insight Holdings, a Las Vegas- based commercial real estate firm. Ardon was highly involved in the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, where he typically held over four positions at a time and created the school’s largest volunteer-based fundraiser (St. Baldrick’s Day). He graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance.

Jaron also works as an Associate at The CapStreet Group, a Houston-based private equity firm. Prior to CapStreet, Jaron was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and Madison Williams in their global energy investment banking groups. Prior to that, he was a summer analyst at SPB Partners, a Las Vegas-based private equity firm. Jaron graduated from Rice University on the President’s Honor Roll with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

What are you working on right now?

We are currently working on various opportunities for Ticketometer that have approached us, as well as general company strategy and outreach. Since our beta launch, we have had a great response from numerous markets around the globe. Although we can’t go into great detail on everything in the works – we will potentially be hosting both US and European tours for an artist, are in talks with investors and music executives, and maintain a strong focus on growing the company at a manageable rate. Interest in Ticketometer has come from artists, their representation, promoters and venues alike – especially those wanting to try something new and buzzworthy. Our main focus is to become a respected presence in the music industry, facilitate concerts that would not have otherwise happened, increase artist profitability and make fans happy through personable and genuine customer service.

What does your typical day look like?

Monday through Friday we wake up early to check in and answer emails. Our team is located in various time zones, so one person’s morning can be another’s afternoon. We clean off last night’s work session with a shower, dress to impress for our corporate jobs and put on our award-winning smiles. We both work “the corporate jobs” during the day and then shift into full-time Ticketometer mode in the evening. Ardon usually slams a pre-workout drink, sits on the exercise bike with a dual monitor laptop to his side and gets back in touch with the team’s progress, while Jaron gets a full body workout by simply responding to user emails and working with partners to help Ticketometer meet their needs. We try to roll up our sleeves and get into the thick of the web everyday – whether that be hours of building our client base or seeing what’s new in tech and the online music community. Although we work hard, we usually try to fit in some relaxation time too, which we will not be getting tonight.

What is the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?

As we worked in finance during the financial crisis, we both experienced first-hand the difficulties of working in a competitive industry at its toughest hour. Our thoughts on what makes a job enjoyable boil down to liking and trusting the people you work with and being part of a company with high standards that prepares for all economic scenarios. We definitely feel Ticketometer brings something new to the music industry, and we have a solid vision for the future of our company. Although some of the opportunities people have already brought to us may seem advantageous, we will always go with what makes sense for the company and be sure to build it from the ground up through hard work and dedication. We also strongly believe in growing through positive means with the right people on our team so we can sleep well at night – we will never take the easy route.

3 trends that excite you?

Crowdfunding, house and dubstep music, and advances in music tech.

How do you bring ideas to life?

We are both “idea people” and have always had an entrepreneurial drive. We bring our ideas to life through preparation, hard work, moving quickly, and most importantly, by surrounding ourselves with like-minded and motivated individuals. We’re also very thankful to be pursuing our Ticketometer endeavor with each other as business partners.

What inspires you?

The things that inspire us most are other entrepreneurs, the tech and music industries, living life to the fullest extent we can, the girls that we will meet and each Ticketometer team member individually.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Ardon: Quite the intriguing question! This is a hard question to answer since I am pursuing my favorite idea, however, a couple come to mind. I have so many ideas and forget way too many of them as well. Since most of my professional life consists of a delicate balance between computers and a healthy life style – I would love for someone to create customized at-home desks with built-in cycling machines and potentially an easily accessible bow-flex style weight system. Make it look sexy and potentially create an entire brand of athletic corporate-style clothing as well for CEOs/corporate people that care about professionalism and comfort for the performance-minded business woman/man.

What do you read every day, and why?

We read Drudge Report and the Wall Street Journal for world news, Engadget mobile because Ardon’s a phone fanatic, TechCrunch to see what is new in tech, Springwise because they always find the coolest entrepreneurs, TicketNews because we are in the biz and many other websites. We also enjoy catching up on up-and-coming music artists through different music blogs. We wish we had more time to spend reading actual books!

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read, and why?

We are “textbook” readers, as we like to continuously refresh on our basics. The book Rigged definitely put some fire in us to work hard, Seal Team Six taught us about courage and Working Together influenced how we manage our business partnership. Please have your community suggest us books!

What is your favorite gadget, app or piece of software that helps you every day?

Ardon: I currently love my Samsung 10.1 tablet. That bad boy along with my Bluetooth Apple keyboard are quite a productive combination.

Jaron: Dropbox is my homeboy! It’s the only thing that lets me run Ticketometer from home, the office and on the road. I’m also a big fan of the many online music services that are coming out (I’m listening turntable.fm as I write this).

Three people we should follow on Twitter, and why?

Evan Bailyn is a Google genius and has sold numerous companies through his use of SEO before even turning 30. He tends to have great words of encouragement. Mark Cuban is the man, so definitely follow him. Last but not least, Jimmy Dushku is the most interesting man on the internet – if you’re not following him, you are missing out!

Who would you love to see interviewed on IdeaMensch?

We would have to suggest Evan Bailyn again.

When is the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it.

The last mentionable time we laughed out loud together was during last Saturday’s team Skype meeting. Ardon couldn’t help but point out that someone had their index finger touching their mouth the entire time. It would have been unintentionally seductive if any of us had posted a screen capture to Facebook. A couple of us mimicked his pose on our video feeds as well, but he didn’t catch on…

Where do you see Ticketometer fitting into the music industry?

Ticketometer is a brand new platform for artists, promoters and venues to book shows, tours and empty nights. We are a no-strings-attached alternative to ticketing that gives power to all of these groups individually. Also, we think we’re “cool” because we are a start-up in its truest form providing a new and buzzworthy service to our users. For up-and-coming artists, we provide a new way to get fans involved in the booking process that also gives them a “product” (guaranteed attendance) to present to venues. If your community should know one thing about the music industry, it’s that promoters, artists and their representation conduct business in a very individualistic way – there is no cookie cutter pattern for how the music industry works. We provide a sandbox of uses for all segments of the industry, whether it be pitting two rivaling colleges against each other to see where their favorite bands will play, booking an entire tour and eliminating underperforming gigs, creating exclusive “boutique” shows and so on. We are also a tool that savvy promoters can use to talk to all the parties they approach and reduce their exposed risk. In the end, all of this is really to the fans’ benefit since artists will play where fans demonstrate the most interest, with the ability to test new markets in the process.

We’d like to take this opportunity to pose a question to your community. We are available directly at [email protected]/ [email protected].

Is there something you would change about our concept, constructively? What do you like about it?

Our company’s internal message is to seek ongoing creativity and innovation in the music and event businesses, and we want to constantly make Ticketometer better and more useful for our users.

Connect :

We are available at [email protected] / [email protected] at any time. We also encourage people to follow us on Twitter (@AmericArdon and @borntobank) – first people to follow us will forever be our favorite!