With so many live events to see in New York, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the all of the choices and just stay home.
But a recently-launched online service that takes the hard work out of choosing might just get you off your seat.
SeatGeek, a ticket search engine whose investors include Ashton Kutcher, is stepping things up with Columbus, a free event discovery feature.
“We’re like Pandora for live events,” SeatGeek founder Russ D’Souza, 26, told the Daily News.
Using your live entertainment preferences as a guide, the new service offers up personalized event recommendations.
You provide a minimum of five sports or artists that you like, and Columbus maps out a calender of events that fit your profile. When you log in to SeatGeek, your personalized calender pops up.
See an event you want to attend? Click on it and start searching for the best ticket deals.
The launch of Columbus is a major event for SeatGeek, which is looking to expand its user base by suggesting events that might entice more people to purchase tickets on the site.
The company, which is a partner of the Daily News, earns a commission every time a user purchases a ticket from an affiliate’s ticketing site.
“When we launched, we were purely focused on being a transactional site,” D’Souza said. “Now we have retained that function, but added the ability to allow users to figure out what events they should see.”
Part of the city’s bustling tech startup scene, SeatGeek was started two and a half years ago and is now on the verge of turning a profit. The company has so far raised $2.5 million and employs 15 people out of its offices on E. 11th St.
In addition to launching Columbus, SeatGeek has also just inked a deal to promote the arts organizations that are funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
SeatGeek has launched special pages on its site and will recommend the cultural groups’ events to users browsing on the site.
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