Passage – a cutting-edge event ticketing company launched in Detroit in 2014 – recently announced it has sold 8 million tickets, with customers in all 50 US states and as far afield as Australia and Canada. Last year, the company powered over $40 million in ticket sales across 3,327 events and generated $2.8 million in revenue.
In August 2023, Passage signed a contract with the American Basketball Association to manage ticket sales for all 151 of its teams; in June 2023, an agreement was signed with the Premier Arena Soccer League. Another notable new partnership was secured in August 2023 with DipJar to power online event ticketing, registration, and merchandise sales with thousands of charities. In April 2023, Passage launched a popular AI feature for event organizers, enabling them to input data about their event, which is generated into a fully formatted event description to entice ticket sales. Since July 2023, Passage has been working with insurance protection company Protecht to provide a refund protection option at the point of purchase.
Passage specializes in ticketing for small to medium-sized events and offers customized features for maximizing sales for event organizers while keeping service fees low. Passage features include assigned seating, virtual queues, a ‘pay what you want’ price model, merchandise sales, season passes, subscriptions, concessions, and NFT collectibles, enabling event organizers to use just one vendor instead of multiple vendors. And Passage is the leading US provider of haunted house tickets under the brand HauntPay. Other client categories include sports, including semi-professional, minor leagues, and soccer league games; escape rooms; food and drink festivals; axe-throwing and Scottish Highland games.
CEO Alex Linebrink founded Passage with Chief Technical Officer Patrick Misch, a full-stack engineer and mobile application developer.
During the pandemic, the company launched Passage Capital, a program to provide cash infusions to small events struggling with upfront costs. The company has now distributed over $328K in cash infusions through that program to 50 event producers, powering hundreds of events every year that might not have otherwise happened.
KEY QUOTES:
“We have enjoyed 51 percent growth over the last three years which is a testament to the innovative platform we have developed for event organizers and ticket holders alike. This summer we were particularly proud to welcome the iconic American Basketball Association to our family and we look forward to serving the association and its fans with the best ticketing experience out there.”
“My career started back in middle school, when I built computers and IT networks with my father, then in high school I started my first solo business, a web and graphics design firm that I ran part-time for seven years. In college I launched a social media marketing company which ultimately failed but I learned valuable lessons about the funding of a business. I am always looking forward, to finding new ventures and have been fortunate to find fantastic partners, employees, and investors. With Passage, I’m so proud to have raised millions in funding, grown a team of 15 plus employees, and helped millions of fans connect with thousands of events.”
— Alex Linebrink, CEO and co-founder of Passage
“We are finding that events which stick with us for two years see, on average, that their revenue doubles because of the tools that we provide.”
— Passage Chief Technical Officer Patrick Misch
