Welcome to Tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario Bwin, and today on the pod we have. Jessica Markowitz. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So excited to be here. Yep. And so you've been in ticketing for a little while now at this point, right? Jess, you've been I know you're with Humanetics now, but what sort of brought you into being in the ticketing world? Yeah, great question.
Definitely didn't see myself in ticketing, wasn't my passion in life at all, but my calling was the nonprofit world and giving back. And so I worked for a lot of different NGOs during college, right out of college. And then I actually went through a really traumatic loss of my brother. And was leaving the nonprofit I currently worked at because I was searching for more purpose.
Nonprofits do give you a lot of purpose, but I felt like after this loss and after working for a lot of organizations that do great work, I wanted to find more in order to find that greater purpose. And so I was actually listening to a Sam Harris podcast. Heard about human now, what captured me wasn't the ticketing element.
It's what they were doing with being a social enterprise, combining nonprofit. Business to create compassionate capitalism. That was brilliant. And my brother was a dj, so I found this really beautiful connection to music, to the nonprofit world and to purpose. And that's literally what landed me here.
I had never worked in business development and ticketing, but I thought that it could be. A really excellent way to try and make change in the world. So I jumped in entry level role and here I am now helping to run the team of Humanics. We started as three of us and we're now almost 20 in the United States, 60 across the globe. So that's the short story of how I got here. That's a, that's an amazing story. I.
There's a couple different topics we'll obviously cover, but one thing that you called out too, you work for NGOs and so you understand. Maybe the travel element to what we talk about , because these are typically different countries that obviously wanna boost tourism, but also ecotourism sustainability, things of this nature.
And so it's interesting now you work for a company that can take that nonprofit background and merge it with live events. Yeah. Totally. And and obviously we talk about travel here as well, and wa was there anything in particular in your NGO experience prior to coming where you're like, Hey, there's something that's missing in how the communication's done or how they.
Raise funds or was there anything that sort of stuck out that is more relatable to you now that you've been ticketing that you said, Hey, you know what, if these guys would've thought about this. In this other world, it would've made things a lot easier, better, smoother. Absolutely. Really great question.
That was exactly it actually is the fact that I think in the nonprofit world in fundraising, which is what I worked in specifically, we get very caught up in. The traditional ways that we fundraise, that we go about the work that we do, which is really important and excellent work that is crucial for our world.
However there seems to be a place we get stumped. There's a lack of innovation, a fear of change, and entrepreneur. Like an entrepreneurial mindset that might be outside of the box of what we're used to as a charity. And so that's why I think using tech and this combination of capitalism, that we don't have to fear capitalism to make a change in the world.
We can actually utilize it and. Just because you're a nonprofit doesn't mean that you can't be a little creative and innovative. Which is why the social enterprise model is actually so brilliant and now is becoming more and more popular, but hasn't always been, it's newer, I would say. And so I think that's exactly right.
Some of the things I notice now is that we at HUMANeX have a lot more sustainability because of the model. The ticketing helps to continue to keep our revenue, to keep our charitable donations going. Everything is flowing more consistently and sustainably versus a nonprofit, if we didn't get that one donation or that one grant, maybe we're stuck where we're right. So that's one element. No I think that's a major element. So essentially what I hear you saying is that there's a lack of hustle,
because I think about it the same way travel like, Hey, yeah, we have technology and there's innovation, but not really, because a lot of these systems are so old that it takes a long time for that innovation to take hold. Yeah. Versus when I start talking to more entertainment or live events people, I.
Yeah, seems to be, I is hustle right point. There's always this sort of ramp up into the live event or the preparation for, so if you're lazy, you get exposed very quickly. Yeah, and they're constantly innovating to try to make efficiencies and to make's right the overall kind of guest or fan experience much better.
So I think it's a really interesting. Sort of relationship, I think in your experience that now you've gotten to a point where yes, you have this giving aspect to humanity. But it's coupled with this sort of energy exactly. This hu hustling energy to put on a live event or whatever projects that you work with. So let's learn a little bit about human. Like what sort of drove the idea of this. Giving platform that is ticketing. Yeah. What's the origin story for HUMANeX?
Yeah, it's a wonderful story and I won't do them justice, but I will certainly try. I'm a founding employee, but not a founder. Oh, the og. I'm. Let's hear it. I'm one of the first employees, so I really got to see it from start to finish in the us But the very beginning years were back in Sydney, Australia, 2016. Adam and Josh, best friends from home went to school together, high school, and they both were doing. Incredible jobs, careers, lives.
They had no need to disrupt it, but decided to they did this after they went traveling and saw some extreme poverty and decided to reflect upon their lives and if they were doing what they actually were called to do. And so Josh and Adam started thinking, okay, what can we do? Which, speaking of hustle.
A lot of people don't want to make change in their life if things are going well. Adam was an engineer. Josh was at a hedge fund. Things were good. Like they, they made it for themselves, right? However this is what makes them so special. They decided to change what they were doing. And change their path.
So they thought together what is an industry that could be disrupted, that would be effective and maybe help redirect into more philanthropic efforts. That's a huge concept to think about. But they landed on ticketing because they knew that this was a massive industry with a lot of money. An opportunity.
Now, there's obviously tons of different ticketing platforms, but had anybody ever tried a platform that was a nonprofit, that was a 5 0 1 C3 with no shareholders, that could still level up to the rest of the platforms that exist in terms of technologies, efficiencies, features not leveling themselves down because they're a charity, but actually remaining at that same.
Scale and reputation, right? As these other platforms. There's sometimes you buy a product in a shop because it goes to a good cause, not because you like the product, right? They wanted this to be a product that you want to use and wow, I also get to give back. Awesome. But that's just the added benefit.
And so that's the model that they came up with. They launched it with a small family and friends dinner. They called it tics because they wanted to bring the human and the humanity into ticketing, which is still lacking today, but is now being changed actively by us, for example. And it took off. It took off in Sydney.
And they had extreme support from their community, from their friends, and then suddenly from the entire country. They're now bigger than Eventbrite in Australia due to their success launched into the us which is where I came in. But one of the coolest parts that I'll mention about their story, that one of them decided to give up their job.
Adam so that he could focus on building this platform from scratch. And that was over a handshake. They decided which one of us should give us, give up our job, the other one will work so we can self-fund this product. So Adam gave up his job. Josh kept working, and together they built this platform from scratch.
So that is the true hustle and founder story that made this beautiful company today. Amazing. I saw something on online say, you should stop saying amazing. 'cause it's like everybody says, but I have to attribute this particular story to that and that, so there's obviously some questions if I'm, yeah.
I didn't know you guys were bigger than Eventbrite in Australia. Yeah. That is that is a feat because they're very big in the Yeah, absolutely. Event produced, ticketing segment. What do we call this segment of ticketing? How do you guys define it? Yeah, good question. So we think of it as self-service ticketing,
eventbrite and tics were a self-service platform. And the reason why we were able to surpass an Eventbrite, for example, is not only time, right? It takes time to build that credibility, but there were a lot of key things, which was the fees. We noticed that fees are extremely high across all platforms, not just Eventbrite.
Of course, we know Ticketmaster some of the larger players here. But just across the board it can be very expensive to just put on an event and want to sell tickets. And so we wanted to come to the table again, with the right features and technology, but also a. Gesture to ticket buyers and to event organizers to use a platform that won't break the bank.
And still allow them to do what they need to do and sell their tickets at a fee. That feels fair. No I appreciate the designation. That's what we run into a lot of is what's the difference between a Ticketmaster a Stub hub? . And right. A universe. And now humanics.
Yeah. And that's the thing. It's not one size fits all. There's a different use case for everyone. So whether you're a, a festival promoter, that's one piece. If you are a venue, that's another. And so what's been the sweet spot really for human over the years? So that's the funny part about tics is we have events with 10 people up to 30,000 people.
So the sweet spot can be anywhere in between. And the types of events can really be a huge range from a yoga workshop to a music festival. Music festivals and different festivals in Australia was how we actually really got started. The festival community, when we go back to that kind of hustle component, they don't fear change.
They're excited to jump in. They're usually quite creative folks who want to lean into something like this. So a lot of our largest events began with festivals in Australia, which has now also continued into the us. I would say in the United States, we've got all kinds of different events that again, range from maybe a festival more in like the food and wine area.
Here we've come across as well. We've got tons of different markets. Like Vintage Market Days is a market that was one of our first clients of mine actually, and they have 50 markets across the United States. These are. Cool little open market events that folks drop in. This was perfect for human to help support.
It doesn't have to be a festival. There's just like such a massive range. It's just a matter of do we have the right features for you? Do you ethically align with our mission? And. From there. We'll make it work together. So yeah. Huge range. You can basically accommodate anything per se, but calling out, do you ethically align with our mission is interesting.
So is a 5 0 1 C3. Does that mean that by using the ticketing system you get a tax write off, or does it mean that you are one, a charity in of itself that you are giving to other organizations? Or does that also mean thirdly? Does that mean that the event producer can also pick a charity to use the platform to donate to.
So no tax write off for using humanities because you're using our service. So there's a fee for service and the donation component comes in with. The fact that we donate a hundred percent of our profits. So that comes back to the model where we still operate as a business.
So if you were to come and sell tickets with us, we're operating at a very much a business level. However, your event will produce funds that are getting donated each year to our organizations. Got it. The reason, yeah, the reason we don't have organizers choose a charity is very purposeful. And the reason for that is Josh and Adam and our founders.
Came together and at first said, okay, what if everybody gave to their favorite? Cause every event organizer can choose to a different fund that calls to them. It gets very complex and also scatters the impact. So it's a little unclear what we're actually trying to do. So that's where this idea of let's give to education, that's our founding principle.
The foundation of our donations will be to give to education, which can alleviate poverty on a huge. Large umbrella level. And so Atlassian, which is a massive software company. Out of Australia was one of our first funders to lean into the Humanics mission and support Humanics in their global launch.
And the Atlassian Foundation has a whole team that's dedicated to finding organizations that are really measuring their impact, that are focused in the impact area that you would like to give to. And so they sat with us and really helped us focus on, okay. What are these partner charities that we should be giving to so that we can communicate to our event organizers and our ticket buyers very clearly what it is that we're doing with our profits.
So education was how that began. It is still primarily what we give to but we have some other partners now that give to different health efforts different kind of. Variety of ways to alleviate poverty, whether it be through health, education, technology. So there's. Still mainly giving to education, but there are a few more that we've added over time.
And this is something that we're very transparent about on our website and to our hosts. Exactly how much we've given. You can even see the receipts of our donations. It's all public information that we are very communicative about.
You also have a means for if I'm a event producer, but I also want to raise money for a another organization, whether it be an education, it doesn't matter. Yeah. Within my community, you probably have a means to, to do that, right? In terms of a fee structure or something where it's either. Post sale or within the booking flow to allow someone to donate to a certain, just so that they can allocate it right differently.
Absolutely. So on the platform itself, you have a ticket section and then you also have the option. Every single person who creates an event, they see an option to add a donation section. You can write a whole blurb about what the donations would. Go to, and that's on our nonprofit fee structure.
So anyone who's donating really is just paying credit card processing to give that donation, which is what you would pay to do any kind of donation. Yeah. I wanted to make that distinction because I think I didn't understand previously that you guys have your own set of education charities and such that you worked with. Yes. But I think a lot of people, as I'm thinking about it, would say there, there are people I wanna donate to. Yes, absolutely. And why they use it. So I'm pretty sure just you guys have some type of mechanism to allow people to a hundred percent.
Yeah. And in addition to that, we have a lot of nonprofits on our platform. And the reason why they're on our platform is because we have a lot of cool different features, such as the donation feature that are built for nonprofits. As a nonprofit ourselves, we understand what's needed that might be a little more niche than a different ticketing platform.
And so not only do we have the donation section, we have tax deductible receipts that can be automated, right? Through the system. There's a lot of different features that support nonprofits in addition to having lower fee structure. So compared to Eventbrite, you're gonna find that our fees are 40% less as a nonprofit organization, which is a lot of money to save.
As we all know, nonprofits are on a budget and trying to do the good work. So that's what we lean into. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's just an interesting space to be in when you start looking at artists, promoters, venues, and fees and how those fees and those ticket prices get set, get set to a particular fan or.
Any type of guest yeah. And so do you at Humanics do you guys take a look at or provide pricing sort of direction or how do you guys typically have that conversation with an event organizer? So we've come up with a standard fee structure and a nonprofit fee structure that we feel is fair and is typically going to be at a discounted rate from what they'll be used to.
Again, it depends on which platform they're coming from, and obviously we still have a necessity to pay our staff right to, once again, back to that model. We still operate like a business and so we pay really fair and competitive salaries. While still being able to donate and have a profit margin of around 30%, which goes to our donations.
And so we've come up with this fee structure that feels very fair and it's across the board, us, uk, New Zealand and Australia, where the charities and the schools always have a discounted rate. And I think the other piece is that we are a human right, human based organization. And so we're very open to having conversations with our hosts if they need onsite support, if we're going to be more involved, if they need extra training.
There's all kinds of things that we can speak to about a custom fee structure as well. There's no need for a kind of set in stone, contract for five years. You're locked in. That's it. There's a lot that goes into the conversation around what's gonna work best for you, is tic the right fit?
And what are these fees gonna look like if they're outside of our standard? Understood. So , you're more flexible than most ticketing companies, at least I, that I've encountered to a certain degree. And obviously, you're the good guys in, in a lot of this from we to be, yeah. We try to be, but I think that's a,, focused effort to do that, to build a culture around that as opposed to.
We're just trying to make as much money as possible. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I think the culture's a really good point you bring up that Josh and Adam have created from day one. Our entire staff is here not because they wanna become billionaires, they're here because they wanna live a good life with purpose.
And of course. Pay their bills, do what they need to do, but also come to work with a smile on their face. We're all here authentically as ourselves, which is very rare in a corporate ticketing world. And it's actually a key piece of how we interview folks, is we want you to show up as who you are. We wanna see you with your mask off.
We don't wanna see Jessica with her mask on. And that culture corresponds into how we do our business. And so we have very close relationships with our organizers. I actually shared with many of them that I'm, coming up on my maternity leave so that they know why I am not here anymore.
I've been working with them for three years. It's a big piece of the culture and how you actually also do business. And so we try our best, and that's where our customer support also differs from a lot of platforms because you'll actually speak to a human and be able to get that support that you need.
Where in tech it can be very difficult. You're speaking to a bot, you're not getting your questions answered. We wanted to disrupt that space as well. Yeah, it's funny, it is funny you say that because as a consultant I have many AI clients who come in and say, Hey, lemme talk to companies and we're gonna make things a lot easier.
And No, I understand that there's a lot of challenges with scale. Yeah. There has to be a model or a Yeah. A thought in terms of how you actually get to a person. And how you scale the human aspect to that is really hard. Yes. Again, everyone's looking at efficiencies to effectively save money and get the, get a better result.
Because if you can weed out as many kind of low level questions, that can be answered by a bot then you get to the more complex questions that you need a human to until the AI gets to that point and can solve those things. But it's, it definitely sounds like a concerted effort on your culture there to make sure that, it's people first.
It's exactly. And that goes into the product too, right? I think a lot of platforms you come across can be quite clunky, a little confusing. When you buy a ticket, you have to log in, make an account. Human took away a lot of that. So you don't need an account on human, no need to log in. To just buy a ticket.
Everything these days is data. So taking that away, taking away card abandonment for event organizers. Make it a nice simple click, let me just buy my ticket. That's a huge effort that goes into the human aspect. Just make it simple, make it more enjoyable, make it fluid. And I think for.
The event organizer as well. Being able to jump onto humanics and build an event in 20 minutes if they need to. It's doable. Again, it depends on the event, right? But it doesn't need to be complicated to just throw up an event. Events are amazing. Bring people together, do beautiful things. Why does it need to be so tricky to know where to drag your banner image? It should just be a click and drop. So that's.
If you know a little bit about the internet or you know a little bit about answering email Exactly. You should know it. Drag and drop here and, exactly. Exactly. I think that's something that resonates or what comes through in, in, in chatting with you is that you're really passionate about the brand, the technology. Was there a particular event that really sealed the deal for you that you worked on that you brought it in and you're like, man, these are all the stars aligning in.
I spoke with this awesome Coloradan who we're based here in, in Denver, Colorado, and I had continued to call, this festival called Rhythms on the Rio, and it's this beautiful community-based festival.
It's quite a few hours away from Colorado on this beautiful river. And I didn't know any of the artists that were, that we're playing. There's a huge kind of bluegrass community here in Colorado, and I'm more of a hip hop girl. It was a, it was an adjustment for me but I continued to call them and eventually I ended up having a conversation with this amazing individual who is volunteering his time to run this event.
It's a complete nonprofit music festival on the river. Community-based has been for years. And when we finally got in touch they were so excited to partner and we made it happen. First year went great. Then they invited me to their board meeting. I met the board of. They're nonprofit. We got to strategize together.
The different folks that worked in marketing and branding and myself and ticketing were there. So it was really an incredible like collaborative event and of coming together and putting on this festival rather than, oh, we're just the ticketer we'll do our own thing. Yeah. And it's now become a friendship.
We speak about our. Our families and our backgrounds, and we're locally in Colorado. And now there are folks around Colorado, which is really where we put our feet into the ground to start here in the us. There are folks across Colorado now who know who we are, who are grateful for what we do, and as a music festival that's also a nonprofit.
The fact that we can align ethically in what tics is trying to do just creates this really magical. Moment. So when you buy a ticket to the festival, you can actually be excited and read in your confirmation where your profits go from that ticket, from the booking fees. And so Scott from Rhythms on the Rio is one of my favorite stories.
We still chat all the time. And they are on their third year of using tics happily at their super cool river festival. So that's amazing. And you're probably now a Bluegrass fan, right? Like you're probably, ah, still working on that. Yeah, still working on that. I'm a hip hop person, so trust me, I'm like, there's not enough hip hop in Colorado.
Yeah. I, yeah, went to school in New York. A lot more hip hop, but we're working on it. Yeah, so like the thing that I'm keying on, I love that story, is that really what you're talking about is community.
I. Like creating the community within what you do and trying to find the right people that, yeah, ev every year they're gonna have the festival, they're gonna utilize the same partners as long as everyone's on the up and everyone makes money together. And that's exactly. That's how you want to build out some of these relationships.
So better question for you, Jess, is you talk to a lot of promoters in general, right? Yeah. What do you think it ticketing aside, Sure. What do you think they're all looking for to create a successful festival? I think with promoters specifically I.
It can be a little tricky to. To lean into human sometimes with event promoters because there is that fear of change. In the United States, we are still building our credibility. We're four years old and people fear change. People fear a new brand. So I think that with promoters we have had a lot of success, obviously with tons of different events as I mentioned.
But I do think that there is still that, that roadblock with certain promoters, because at the end of the day, it is tough to put on an event if everybody isn't getting what they need. From the financial standpoint from the feature standpoint, which is a big part of something we stand by too, we're not gonna be for everybody.
Human is not necessarily your solution. And that's okay. There's lots of platforms that don't work for everybody. But I think if we can find promoters where we can build that relationship and really make it. Beneficial for both parties. That's where it can become that, that beautiful partnership.
But it does depend and I think promoters have a tough time making everybody happy. They look for sponsorship in a way, right? So this is, this plays into the model of ticketing that people don't really discuss all the time, but
you must run into that quite a bit. So how do you typically, obviously you have to align with the mission and values of humanities and having that conversation is probably uncomfortable for maybe for you or maybe for them in a lot of ways because they're like. Actually, I need some money up front so I can run this thing.
Yeah. Like how do you typically deal with that? Yeah, good question. And again, , people who use tics, we are thrilled if they come to us based on just our features. That's a success. That's a win, right? That to the whole model of compassionate capitalism. They don't even need to know our mission.
That's fine. You just happen to be benefiting. The alleviation of poverty and you don't even know it, right? So it's okay if they don't lean into the mission. It's just a beautiful added benefit. If they do. Yeah, we do have tons of events that are coming to us for the features, and that just means we're doing a great job building this platform.
I think in terms of festivals or promoters that need that cash upfront, things like that's where we as an organization. Are asking ourselves currently in this moment where we wanna go down that path because we will never be a ticket master. We will never gouge our prices. We built our own resale program so that we can create, a safe and fair marketplace for resale,
So I think. It's going to be a more nuanced kind of case by case back to that relationship building with these promoters and with what they need because it's not how we were built. But it doesn't mean that we're not willing to lean in to partake in. The continuous disruption of this platform that we're trying to do. Makes sense.
I don't know that we come across clients that will say, this person this or this company is offering us X amount of money. Yep. Very publicly and it's a ton. Yep. I don't know that we will be boasting about that. So publicly, I think that it's something I.
Again, though, to partake in this industry and to be a key player it is going to be a topic of conversation as we continue to grow. And we're already starting to have it with some folks, right? It's just a, it can be a messy game. Like for those who do get a cash advance, it doesn't actually always work out for them in the end,
it means your fees are higher. There's a lot that goes into. What happens with the cash advance or cash bonus, and we don't play games. We're very transparent and authentic organization. Yeah. Or a publicly registered charity. And so there's just like a lot to go into that conversation. But I don't think that it's something that is a hard no.
We don't wanna play just the charity game. We're also a business. And we're in it to partake in this capitalistic world. So whatever it takes to do both. Distribution. Can you help me sell the ticket? I'm use the platform, but can you help me sell the ticket? What do you guys typically, great question. Think about in this, in that, when that comes up, yeah. This is distribution and marketing is a huge question and huge objection that we hear all the time, and there is a lot of.
Miscommunication and confusing data out there on what platforms actually do to market your event. The miscommunication is that ultimately the event organizer can do the most for themselves in marketing. That is the truth. That is the baseline truth, and the reason for that is because they know their audience.
They actually have tools based on the data they're collecting that they can do the best marketing themselves. We call it organic marketing, the way that human tackles this, there are no features on tics that cost money. So some platforms will charge you, you wanna send 10 push email campaigns, that's gonna cost you 10 bucks per push,
you wanna, upload a list of your followers that's gonna cost you. Human doesn't charge for a feature. That's not a part of our model. However, we aren't a marketing platform. We pride ourselves on being experts in ticketing. We understand that marketing is a crucial part of events. Ticketing, all of it.
But we wanna provide you with the tool so that you can go and do the marketing work that's going to make your event most successful and sell the most tickets. So we've created this very cool analytical tool inside the platform. We have Google Analytics, we have Facebook Pixel, but in you can use those in addition to the human analytics tool.
It'll provide you a heat map and show you on the map where geographically folks are coming from. It's gonna show you the links that are being clicked the most. It's gonna show you the age, it's gonna show you the browser. It breaks down, to marketing language that. Even I might not know or be an expert in.
But if someone is, or someone on their team is, they're going to be able to then take that data and then target advertisements towards those individuals and those audiences. And so instead of just giving information to the platform and say, help me sell more tickets, this is actually a much more focused, targeted, , and analytical tool that is free of charge for you to use.
And then because of your savings. You can put funds into then targeting advertisements and where they need to go. Instead of being a platform that says, we know how to get you tickets, we'd rather give you the tools and the ability to do so yourself because ultimately you're the expert on your event, not us.
Got it. You're checking all the boxes, right? Like it goes features, distribution, and data. And what types of data. Are they getting access to, so the heat map thing is that, that's pretty interesting. I think that might be a little bit of a differentiator. So you're showing origination of the purchase of the ticket gives you, 'cause this is also really important from the other part of our podcast, which is travel,
yeah. So of course finding out where these people are coming from. When I was over at Ticketmaster, there was a big study that was done that about 25% of every live event ticket that was sold was, from a person based on zip codes, on the credit cards that would have been at least a hundred miles from the venue.
Wow. So if it's a hundred miles, 25% of that. They need a hotel room, they gotta stay somewhere. So that was the thought is now even just for Mario, like there's a real, innovative strategy here to, to merge ticketing and travel and knowing the travel side of it and trying to find the various areas where you can get a little bit of margin.
Yeah margins can be very thin on the ticket side, but they're pretty healthy on the hotel. They're anywhere from 20, 30%. Flights, not so much. You don't make any money on a flight. Yeah. But when you pull all three together for for example, or you couple that with other sort of experiential elements that you really can't place a value on a, I don't know, a cooking class or a mixology class or something,
where there's it's a perceived value. You can really make a lot of money., I think that the having the data and having the ability to say, listen, if you are a hundred miles away, you need a hotel room one, but also you're probably gonna have extra time. So not just coming to the event, can we provide something else?
Or maybe there's a partnership to be had as well. And that's what we talk about a lot here at Tickets travel is that, the merging of this, the travel experience and. Your events or the tickets that you create for these events are driving the demand? Yeah, for the travel and all the other ancillary pieces that create the overall travel experience.
So whether that's, I'll get a helicopter tour when I'm in Denver, or a hiking tour, whatever it is. Yeah, you're still there to go to that festival. You're still there to listen to Bluegrass. What we're , trying to understand. And the data that you guys create or capture it and provide to the event organizer is valuable.
It's super valuable. And so are there any pieces or any cases that you've seen in the past where you've that data has really directed an event organizer to be better in the next event? What I can speak to is a lot of event organizers didn't have access to this data before, or they didn't understand that they could have access to their own data.
And so once, and even though it actually does exist, but they were never told where it is, they don't understand where it is. Yeah. Now that there's clarity we are not hiding this in any way because we wanna give you this tool. So I think now that an event organizer can actually look and understand the zip codes and then say, oh, then that makes sense where I should be promoting my event.
Same with the platforms. If they see that Instagram. Is actually doing better than Facebook, then they should be targeting their ads on Instagram and vice versa. That doesn't require expertise, A marketing firm, right? Just requires a simple click, a simple understanding. And so I think it's really giving people actually the education and the tools that don't cost a dime and just are a matter of providing the awareness that then can change how many tickets they sell because.
They now have the data. So I think that's a key piece and that speaks for tech across every industry, right? People are just not getting the education that they deserve for their own events. . It's funny, it's like you, if you go to a bigger, if an event organizer's using a bigger ticketing platform or when that's well known, you're right.
They don't know where to pull that information. They gotta ask somebody, bribe somebody, whatever, get to get the reporting afterwards versus having real time data. In front of them. So I think that is very v very valuable. Yeah. What's next for human? I think we know what's next with you. Congratulations.
Yeah, it's funny 'cause tics is like my baby. So now that I'm having a baby, it's it's a very bittersweet moment for me because I've been here since the beginning, but I'll be back just taking some leave to raise this thing of, but yeah, great question. I think human has already had a massive evolution and growth and scale.
From when I started. To now. And like I mentioned, we have 60 people across the globe. Just last month we launched in the uk, which is extremely exciting, a whole other market. I think what's next is one of the biggest pieces for us is listening to our hosts. Our product is not going to stay as it is always.
We are always evolving, and that comes from our hosts. Feedback. It also comes from the feedback of the industry and paying attention to what matters most. So I think what's next for us is continuing to evolve, keeping that open mind. This last year we gave 10 million to our partner charities in total from our founding.
And we're on track to. To make that a whole lot more in 2025. And so what's next is to continue to prove to the world, to ticketing, to event organizers that you can put on a kick ass event while giving back a lot of money, and still partaking in. In this capitalistic industry that there's a way to do it all.
That's what I would say is coming next. Yeah, and I would say that is a mic drop, so thank you. Thank you for coming to Tickets to Travel. I'm sure we'll keep track of your progress, obviously, and hopefully you'll come back and see us again. Awesome. Thank you so much, Mario. Thank you.