Young Black College Dropouts Raise $5M to Rival Ticketmaster With New Platform

Meet Avante Price and Eli Taylor-Lemire, two young Black entrepreneurs who dropped out of NYU to launch POSH, an online event management and ticketing platform that is expected to rival ticketing giants such as Ticketmaster and Eventbrite. The startup recently raised $5 million in a seed round to further expand its operations.

Price and Taylor-Lemire, who are both 22 years old, started POSH in 2019 as an events company out of frustration from their own experiences working part-time in NYC nightclubs. The two initially hosted small events for college students and young professionals until they realized they can make it bigger.

They decided to drop out of NYU, believing that they can revolutionize the event management industry. Price is a DJ, while Taylor-Lemire runs a freelance photo-video agency that produces content for fashion magazines as well as Sony and Roc Nation artists. With their expertise in the entertainment field, they managed to evolve POSH into a management and ticketing platform that is like a “Shopify for events,” Taylor-Lemire told AfroTech.

“The existing events industry is extremely monopolistic. Incumbent brands use a pay-to-play model to keep corporate event organizers exclusive to their products. They put their brand before their organizers’ and make it extremely difficult to manage and scale the communities that event organizers work so hard to build,” Price said. What completely sets POSH apart from other platforms is that they offer users customization of their own “marketplace” to fit their brand through white-labeled event pages. Aside from that, POSH also features ticketing and RSVP tools, marketing tools (email, SMS, affiliate), instant payouts, dispute resolution, community management, and kickback offers for attendees to become paid affiliates. The platform then earns commissions from every ticket sold.

Most recently, the founders said POSH received $5 million in a seed round co-led by Companyon Ventures and EPIC Ventures, with participation from Cameron Dallas, Day One Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Joshua Browder (DoNotPay founder), and others. The funding is set to be used to expand its team, add new features, and update its mobile app.

Moreover, POSH has experienced significant growth, with a user base exceeding half a million and ticket sales totaling $30 million. In the first quarter of 2023, the platform increased its number of live events by 50% and was used across 6 continents, indicating its global reach, influence, and potential for future growth.

This news first appeared on blackbusiness.com.