Ticketing industry pioneer Andrew Dreskin is to depart Eventbrite’s board and leave his position as president of its music division.
Dreskin took on the executive role in 2017 in the aftermath of Eventbrite’s $200m purchase of Ticketfly – the company he founded in 2008 – and joined the company’s board in early 2018.
While he will leave his Eventbrite Music role and the board in early June, he will remain an advisor to the San Francisco-based ticketing group in what has been described as a multi-year deal.
The announcement comes as Eventbrite’s share price hit an all-time low of $15.25 on Tuesday – less than half its value when the company went public last November.
“We’re grateful for Andrew’s dedication to leading Eventbrite’s music division since Ticketfly and Eventbrite came together nearly two years ago, culminating in the release of the Eventbrite Music platform late last year,” said Julia Hartz, Eventbrite’s CEO, in a statement.
“Today’s news does not change our fervent commitment to the independent live music community both in North America and globally, and our clients and the team that serves them remain our highest priority.”
Dreskin is credited with selling the first ever online ticket after co-founding TicketWeb in 1995. He sold the firm to Ticketmaster in 2000.
He founded Ticketfly eight years later, and after successfully raising more than $100m in investment, he sold the company to Pandora for $335m in 2015. He remained with Ticketfly through what proved to be a turbulent period and steered it through another purchase two years later, when Eventbrite bought it for $200m.
Dreskin, in an interview with Billboard, said he expects Eventbrite Music to be a success.
“After more than a decade at Ticketfly, two acquisitions, and all told almost 20 years running ticketing companies, it feels like the right time for me to transition into a different role,” Dreskin said.
“It has been a tremendous honour to lead both Ticketfly, and Eventbrite’s music division for the past couple years. I have mad respect for the team at Eventbrite and continue to believe that we are building the best music ticketing platform in the world.”
Eventbrite announced an operating loss of $10.1m during the first quarter of 2019, with operating expenses of $60.9m accounting for 75% of net revenue. Spending on product development grew by 62% year-on-year to $14.3m, or 18% of net revenue.
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