How Personal Passions Fuel Business Success for the CEO of Vivid Seats

Entrepreneur

On this episode of "The CEO Series," we sit down with Stan Chia, CEO and Board Director of Vivid Seats.  On this episode of The CEO Series, we got a front-row seat to leadership lessons from Stan Chia, CEO and Board Director of Vivid Seats. Vivid Seats is an online ticket marketplace that did over $500 million in 2022. Stan shared amazing insights into running a huge company with over 500 employees, and his personal passions outside the boardroom that keep him energized and engaged.

Transcript

00:00 Hey, everybody. We are in Chicago, Illinois, here at Vivid Seats. We're going to be talking

00:04 to the CEO, Stan Chia. Vivid Seats is an online ticket marketplace that did over $500 million

00:12 in 2022. 500 employees. Let's go check them out.

00:18 CEOs carry a lot of weight. They manage businesses, people, expectations of stakeholders, and

00:23 so much more. I want to hear their story.

00:25 How was it testifying in front of Congress?

00:28 What are some things that you look out for when evaluating a company?

00:31 Rock and roll. Yeah, I want to see.

00:33 I'm on a journey to learn and get to know top business leaders.

00:36 I think everybody thinks that they want to be a CEO.

00:38 I didn't get into this to be a CEO.

00:41 What are the risks?

00:42 Oh.

00:43 I want you to hold this under your tongue.

00:44 And how do we de-risk that?

00:45 I'm Will Salvey.

00:46 Thank you for your business.

00:48 And this is the CEO Series.

00:50 Stan, thanks for being with us for the CEO Series. Really appreciate your time. Let's

00:54 just start it off with one of my favorite questions is, what's the best aspect of being

00:59 a CEO?

01:00 Well, thanks for having me. And I think it's, look, it's getting to work in an industry

01:03 that you love with people that you love every day and the privilege of setting the direction

01:07 and vision of the company. Love it.

01:09 Give us a challenging aspect.

01:11 I can't think of a time in history where more consumers want to go to live events and at

01:16 the same time, artists and teams, they want fans in the stands. So I think we have this

01:21 opportunity and also the challenge of how do we continue to drive a lot of growth for

01:26 the company and shareholders, profitability, executional and experiential excellence. And

01:32 I think blending that all together in a balanced manner is probably the biggest challenge that

01:36 we face on a day to day basis.

01:39 You play guitar, right?

01:41 I attempt to play guitar.

01:42 Okay. So you play guitar. And did you always, did you, what did you want to be when you

01:47 were growing up? Because I'm seeing like a common thread here. You, I've heard that you

01:51 were in a hair band or you, you played in a band. And so did you always want to lead

01:56 a company? Did you have other aspirations when you were growing up?

01:59 Yeah. You know, I think, look, I, I grew up probably wanting to be an aerospace engineer,

02:03 right? I love space shuttles and the concept of going to space. And then I served in the

02:08 military for two and a half, three years. You kind of sit down and you figure out a

02:11 lot, you mature, you grow. And part of that journey was, you know, I don't think a specialized

02:15 field was something that I wanted to do. And, you know, while I do love playing guitar,

02:18 I probably thought to myself, not going to make it exactly as a rock star. And so, you

02:23 know, pivoted into just, um, a more general space of how do I get to see more of the world,

02:29 see more businesses and industries and the opportunity to do industrial engineering at

02:32 Georgia tech, which has been number one in industrial engineering for over 30 years.

02:35 And I think that kickstarted my career into various industries and sort of where I landed

02:39 here eventually.

02:42 Why'd you hit that one?

02:43 I mean, it just looked like it was going to go in.

02:47 Could you talk about this wall real quick? I mean, we have, we have all the foam fingers.

02:53 I'd love to, there's a bunch of event stuff here, which makes sense, but yeah, I think

02:58 what, what you'll see as you walk around, you know, I think we, we got the opportunity

03:01 and we moved into this by the way, which is a historic building, right? It's the Marshall

03:03 field building. And, you know, I think some of our employees have said to me, wow, you

03:07 know where my office is, this is where I bought my bedroom furniture. Um, and so we are in

03:11 a landmark and hopefully become, you know, what will become also a defining, I think

03:16 piece as, as Vivid Seats as headquarters. And as we designed it from the ground up,

03:19 we got to infuse elements of our personality and our character into the office. What you

03:24 see here is a wall. We are in the number one fan everywhere we go, right? This is it. This

03:28 is the number one fan. You see the hands. We are number one. We love it.

03:33 You are from Singapore. You lived about your first year of life there. And then Singapore

03:38 requires all men to come back and be in the military. Can you elaborate on your experience

03:43 there and what you learned from it?

03:45 Having grown up in New York city and generally outside of Singapore until, you know, I was

03:48 a late teenager and went back for high school and served in the military. Fearful, nervous,

03:53 um, about the experience and, you know, looking back, that was one of, if not the most defining

03:59 parts of my life. You know, I think it's one of the best experiences I've had. It's very

04:03 formative in terms of who I, who I've become and how I lead. And like I said, I think that

04:08 ability to learn, listen, understand, and appreciate the diversity of culture, right?

04:13 Singapore is again, a wonderful multicultural society with lots of different folks that

04:19 have called that a home. And so just a great melding of cultures and the ability to lead

04:24 them in a conscript form, I think helped define a lot of who I am today. So just a wonderful

04:28 experience for me. You talk about the upbringing and the experiences I've had. One of the shining

04:33 things that's come through for me is that there is a lot of strength in diversity and

04:37 I've taken that to heart everywhere I think I've had the opportunity to go and try to

04:40 build really diverse teams. And I'm super proud of the fact that when you look at our

04:43 leadership team at the C-suite level, you know, we've got more than 50% female leaders.

04:47 When you look at, you know, the board that we've put together at Vivid Seeds, and again,

04:51 I'm so privileged to have such an amazing board. You know, we came out of the gate with

04:55 a majority diverse board. What motivates you to yourself, bring the company to where you

05:00 want to bring it? What, what motivates you in the morning? I want to be able to lead

05:04 in an industry that I love. And I've got the good fortune of being in the live events industry.

05:07 I love it. I've got the great opportunity to lead. I think people that I enjoy, you

05:12 know, old military phrase, but also you go to battle with them every day. You got to

05:16 love the troops you're with. I love the team that we've got here. And of course the family

05:19 that supports me in the background. I think all of those things, right. Wanting to do

05:22 a good job for all of them, continue to lead that. And then ultimately really believing

05:26 in the mission of what Vivid Seeds is here. And that's to make sure that everybody gets

05:30 to experience it live. You navigated a couple of big milestones as the CEO, first COVID

05:36 and then going public with the SPAC deal. Can you talk about navigating through COVID?

05:42 No other way to describe it. It's just life-changing on so many levels in unimaginable ways. I

05:48 still remember when NCAA tournament was canceled, basketball players walking off of an NBA game

05:54 and wild. And then on the business side for us, you know, compounded with a business,

05:58 look, we were a live events business that depends on that. And suddenly there were no

06:02 live events, right? So we had no revenue coming in and we had also the combination of events

06:07 that were getting canceled and, you know, consumers wanted their money back for those

06:11 events. Fortunately, as I, as I've said before, you know, I sit in a spot where I'm very privileged.

06:16 I've got a great team, a great leadership team that's been with me since before COVID

06:20 that's still with me today that helped to navigate through that challenge. I've got

06:24 great investors that were with me prior to COVID that are still with me today, I think.

06:30 And we, we made those decisions, you know, tough decisions. We saw a significant trajectory

06:36 change in our business as we started to emerge from COVID. We had the good fortune of running

06:42 into Todd Bolley, who is the CEO of Eldridge Industries, who is also an owner of the Dodgers,

06:47 the Lakers, recently acquired Chelsea and that portfolio, right? His relationships and

06:52 his assets or which are sports, entertainment and FinTech, just so beneficial and synergistic

06:57 to the business. So bringing him on board as we went public and using the proceeds from

07:03 that to delever the business, I think have allowed us to emerge really in a really strong

07:06 position coming out of COVID, right? We've got a fantastic balance sheet and we've got

07:10 a public currency. We're sitting in a net cash position and continue to be aggressive

07:16 on our ability to execute on the strategy.

07:19 Why do you love live events?

07:20 Let's go the other way. What's there not to love about live events, right? I mean, the

07:24 thrill of the crowd. Look, I think I love being around people like that's just who I

07:28 am. And I think there's no better experience than cheering together, either for or against

07:32 something. You know, I think the roar of the performers when you go to concerts, you know,

07:36 I used to play in a band and I still love that. And, you know, being able to not only

07:41 partake as a fan, but be a part of other people's journey and allowing people to get access.

07:46 I love that.

07:47 And what opportunities do you see in the space in, say, the next five years? What are you

07:52 noticing trends wise that you think could accelerate the business?

07:55 You know, if you look at the demand kind of demographics, you've got the Gen Z's who are

08:00 up and coming, starting to move into purchasing power. They are prioritizing their spend on

08:05 experiences over goods and services. You've got me, you know, and this generation, which

08:10 I've started to affectionately call myself like a geriatric millennial, you know, where

08:14 I've got a little bit more money than I used to have 20 years ago. The bands I love, Guns

08:18 and Roses, Iron Maiden, they're touring. Right. And so I'm dying to go see them. My knees

08:24 hurt a little bit more the next day, but love it. So you've got the buy side moving, you

08:28 know, to really prioritize their spend on that. At the same time, when you think about

08:32 the sell side and sort of how touring has become a really big part of an artist's income.

08:36 So you look at that trend and you say, wow, you've got consumers across the spectrum really

08:42 looking to prioritize their spend in this category. And at the same time, you've got

08:45 artists, you've got teams who want fans in the stands in a way and putting their own

08:49 marketing muscle almost to get people there and putting on great shows. And what a great

08:54 time to be in the industry. Thank God I got that on camera. We're just going for it. Oh,

09:03 and that's a scratch. Does the stock market ever get you or you just focus on running

09:08 the company? Because I mean, you know, stock market has a lot of volatility to it. So does

09:13 that other do you ever pay attention to it too much or are you just kind of focused on

09:17 the main goal? Yeah, I think you've always got to be focused on the fundamental performance

09:21 of the business and kind of what we're here to do right now. What we're here to do, I

09:24 think, is continue to enable people to experience it live and build a great platform that drives

09:29 both growth and profitability. I'd be lying if I told you, you know, I don't look at what

09:32 happens in the market. So I certainly look at that. But I think that's not what drives

09:36 us. Right. I think what drives us to continue to deliver good results. And I think when

09:39 you deliver good results, I think naturally the stock performance should follow. CEO that

09:43 you do not know, that you admire, that you'd like to meet. I'm not sure that I look externally

09:47 for a lot of motivation. Right. I think I'm I'm very much almost like you said, I think

09:52 the journey that I've been on is important to me. And I'd almost tell you, I think the

09:55 person I look up to most who's continues to inspire me is, you know, I think I grew up

09:58 with a father who I think amazingly balanced, you know, living in a new country, working

10:05 hard and providing for the family and still spending enough time, you know, helping, you

10:10 know, his kids along the way. And I've always looked that that's the model for me. Right.

10:13 I don't need to look externally for somebody else. The other thing we like to say is we

10:16 are by fans for fans when you look at this. So this is a lot of our team members who've

10:23 been at different events across. You'll see concerts. I think you'll see what I see. So

10:28 Elton John up there. I see Harry Styles down there. I look at there's Reva Bacall, our

10:32 chief product officer. I assume employees are not allowed to use Ticketmaster or Step

10:37 Up or anything. They got to go through vivid seats. Well, you know, I think they're allowed

10:40 to use whatever they want. The question is, why would you use anything else when you can

10:44 earn rewards here? And we provide our employees, you know, a great benefit. Right. Everybody

10:48 gets one hundred bucks to use on live events. And part of part of it is, again, we want

10:53 our we want our employees to love the category, which I think they do want them to be able

10:57 to experience it. And we also want them to use our product and give feedback. What better

11:01 way to understand what fans are going to want and need out of the product than making sure

11:04 that all of the fans who are here at Vivid Seats are using our product, learning and

11:08 contributing to the evolution of what we build here.

11:10 Does this fly not know we're filming? Online marketplace for tickets for live events. And

11:21 I don't know what I'm saying. Marketplace company. Come to our YouTube channel and you'll

11:27 see more videos. My brother always messing up my flow.

11:32 (laughing)

Category

Transcript

Recommended