TicketLeap CEO and founder Chris Stanchak is now Chairman of the Board. Photo lovingly stolen from Geekadelphia.
Ten years after he founded TicketLeap, CEO Chris Stanchak is leaving the ticketing startup’s day-to-day operations and becoming Chairman of the Board. Tim Raybould, former TicketLeap CFO, will become President and COO (not CEO — there will be no CEO, Raybould said).
Stanchak said he’s moving on because it’s “the right time” for someone else to take the startup to the next level. He added that in his new role, he’ll be able to focus on certain bigger projects that he wasn’t able to focus on as CEO.
TicketLeap, Stanchak said in an email, has come a long way since he founded it as an undergraduate at Wharton.
“TicketLeap almost didn’t get off the ground,” he said. “Back in the raw beginnings, there was a day when I only had a few thousand dollars left in the bank and the product was nowhere near ready for launch. I remember clear as day working full time at GSI Commerce and taking care of TicketLeap on nights and weekends while living with my parents…in those days, spending $50 on a filing cabinet was a major financial decision. It’s mind boggling to think that we will sell over $70M in tickets this year and I couldn’t be prouder of the company. ”
Looking back at his early TicketLeap days, Stanchak said it was “a bit lonely” trying to get his company started without organizations like Philly Startup Leaders, DreamIt Ventures and First Round Capital. It almost feels like TicketLeap grew right alongside the local startup community.
“I truly believe that Philly ‘gets it’ now and things are about to really explode in a good way,” he said.
Stanchak leaving marks the passing of something for the region’s tech community of today. Following the dot-com burst in Philadelphia in 2001, the air was let out of the region, as Technically Philly has frequently reported from those involved. The entrepreneurship boom of today was years away. When looking to put a date to the birth of this second web-based tech community of Philadelphia, Stanchak launching Ticketleap is as good a date as any.
The news of Stanchak stepping away was first shared in a TicketLeap blog post
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