Manick Bhan: The BhanMan Of TicketMonkey

Image via CrunchBaseI met Manick at a Spotify event, my second Spotify event. I looked at his name tag and said, "That's an Indian name!" (Spotify Now Advertising On Netizen, Spotify Vision Specialist: A No Go, The Spotify CTO Talk, The Spotify Event Was Great, Sean Parker's 2009 Email To Spotify)

The guy impressed me immediately. Not all fast talkers are smart, but this one was out of the ballpark. I could tell. Immediately. He was a high energy packet. If you can deal with people, if you can make decisions on the fly, if you are a quick study, you are CEO material. This guy is.

Duke to Goldman to startup. They work out of an apartment not far from the Port Authority bus terminal, or Penn Station, for that matter. The view out the window is beautiful.

I have offered to shift the office to some garage, and put them on noodle diets. They order in lunch, good stuff.

I am always looking for projects for my tech consulting operation. And so I thought I might insert one of my techies into his operation. Other than that it was just going to be nice knowing him. He was to go on my to watch list.

TicketMonkey "Monk-A-Thon": I showed up for this. It was a nice opportunity to get to know Matt.

But Manick got me on board before he would even look at my techie. By now it looks like my tech team that I am keeping warmed up to launch my own microfinance startup later this year might play a pretty prominent role in TicketMonkey itself. We have been exploring options.

TicketMonkey hopes to take selling tickets to a whole new level. You make your name on platforms like Spotify and you make money through live performances. I think that is going to be a dominant business model for music bands. And TicketMonkey could end up to selling tickets what Yipit is to daily deals: an aggregator.

Many of the leading ticket selling sites are like malls. They show you those two things you maybe maybe might be interested in, and then they show you 100 other things as if to distract you. TicketMonkey will be a more personalized experience.

Manick, a self taught programmer, has this beautiful, beautiful landing page. The site is pre launch. He has also been doing a lot of back end work. My lead techie is about to step in and help with launch.

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Meeting Arianna Huffington

I still don't know how I got invited to this event, but there I was. I was the first person to show. The second two people to show asked me, "How do you know Reid?" Reid, as in Reid Hoffman.

"I don't know Reid," I said.

And then Reid Hoffman was the fourth person to show and he stood next to me and waxed eloquent for a full 10 minutes or so. To the person who asked how I knew Reid. Apparently they knew each other.

Mayor Bloomberg showed up not long after. He walked a step towards me and shook my hand. I was about to say, Mr. Mayor, I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in all of New York City. But with Bloomberg you don't know if you are talking to an entrepreneur or a politician or a soon to be full time philanthropist.

Arianna must have showed up fashionably late. Because I only spotted her when I thought I might leave soon, and the room was by then two thirds empty. She has the cutest accent.

This woman has enough money to bail out Greece.

I had teamed with Mike who I met at the event for the first time. Let's go say hello to as many people as possible, I said. One person we said hello to was president of MTV, or so he said.

When I spotted Arianna across the room, I dragged Mike along.

"Hi. We just wanted to say hello," I said. The guy who had been talking to her for the prior 15 minutes or so disappeared within a second. And Arianna engaged me, Mike and three, four other people who quickly gathered around her for a comfortable 15 minutes or so.

I am going to say Arianna was the most interesting person I met at the party.

I want to write for The Huffington Post. And I don't want to get paid. I think I could make more money through the publicity and exposure writing for The Huffington Post could give me than the Post could pay me.

The top blog in the world. Arianna turned it into a powerhouse right before my eyes, it feels like. I remember watching her debate The Terminator. I mean, the guy is an action hero, and Arianna couldn't have cared less. Next thing you know she had launched the Post. Next thing you know she had sold it to AOL for hundreds of millions. That is an entrepreneur.

Wikipedia: Arianna Huffington
Huffington Post: Arianna Huffington
Twitter: Arianna Huffington
Facebook: Arianna Huffington

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