Alex Burkhart can attest to the power of timing. In the span of two weeks, the 2007 Lexington graduate was able to see the beginning of his entrepreneurial dream come to life overseeing his own business called Tixers.
Tixers is a digital ticket exchange company based in Covington, Kentucky that launched in September of 2013. The Tixers website allows event and sports ticket holders or sellers to exchange their unused tickets for credits (each credit has a value of $1) to be used towards purchasing tickets, or upgrading to better seats at a future event. Events include sports games and concerts and select big city theatre productions.
“It’s one of those things that I really can’t explain,” Burkhart said of his business’s beginning.
A self-described avid sports fan, Burkhart said that he once attended three major sporting events in a 24-hour time span: a Notre Dame football game, an Indianapolis Colts game, and a Cincinnati Bengals game. While seated in the Bengals stadium during that sport-filled weekend, he suddenly got an idea that meshed both his former role at Macy’s Inc. and his passion for sports.
“I always knew that I wanted to start a business, but wasn’t sure how,” he said. After graduating from Xavier University with his degree in entrepreneurial studies and marketing, he worked in loyalty marketing at Macy’s, Inc.
“I loved the opportunity to work for a large Fortune 100 company, but at end of day I had a dream to start my own business. I watched my dad, aunt, and uncles—they were all entrepreneurs—and I knew that I wanted to be one, too,” Burkhart said.
So when an idea finally sparked, he didn’t waste any time to make his dream a reality.
In November of 2012, just two weeks after his idea was formed, Burkhart competed in the Cincinnati Startup Weekend competition.
“I almost didn’t go to the competition,” he said. “I was scared. It also happened to be the Xavier’s opening night and I had season tickets.”
Fortunately for him, he made the decision to go to the competition, which ended in victory for the hopeful entrepreneur. However, he didn’t let his success blind him from moving onto the next step. “I knew that I had a long ways to go,” he said.
From there, he started to gather together a team.
A significant addition was Jay Clouse, an Ohio State University graduate who joined the team after his graduation from college. “Jay is a really talented student who started his own Craigslist-type business at Ohio State,” Burkhart said.
The power of timing was again proven to Burkhart when Andy Inscore became part of the team. Burkhart explained that he wanted a tech partner after winning the Cincinnati Startup competition, “and Andy was the best website developer that I knew, but the timing wasn’t right,” he said.
However, in May of 2014, Inscore moved from his former residence in San Francisco to Cincinnati and signed on as the chief technology officer for Tixers.
Inscore said that he contacted Burkhart upon moving to Cincinnati. “I knew that [Burkhart] had been working on Tixers for awhile and it looked like a promising idea and through conversation with him I knew that we were going to work well together and do a lot of exciting things,” said Inscore.
Interestingly, the two knew each other prior to their work relationship. Burkhart said he knew of Inscore during high school. Inscore attended Ontario High School and, like Burkhart, was also a 2007 graduate. “People laugh about those rivals [between Lexington and Ontario], but now that we’ve come together in serendipitous-type way, we’re trying to build a company on a world stage,” said Burkhart.
Since joining the team, “it’s been pretty much all excitement,” Inscore said. “The whole motivation behind me joining was to make an impact locally in the Ohio community,” he added.
Burkhart praised Inscore for his knowledge in web development and noted, “Since [Inscore] has come on, we’ve had some success and raised $375,000 for the company.”
Burkhart was also quick to note the support the business has received from his hometown. “A nice portion of the funding we received came from investors in Mansfield, called “The Mansfield Angels,” he said.
“Mansfield and Richland County have been big part of our roots and education, and it’s awesome to have their support. We’ve had a lot of people [from there] help out,” he added.
He didn’t deny the possibility of one day expanding his business in the Mansfield area. “It would be cool to get big enough to bring a portion of business there,” he said.
Tixers recently won the One Minute Speed Pitch competition at the South by Southwest V2Venture competition in Las Vegas in July. “That was fun,” he said of that experience. “I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was cool to be there and grow our network well beyond what it was before.”
In response to his business’s growing success, Burkhart said, “It’s kind of surreal…This is the hardest thing that I’ve done times 1,000.” Yet, the young entrepreneur is not yet satisfied. He said that he hopes to see the business grow to a national level.
“We’re going to work really hard but try to have fun while doing it.”
“Mansfield and Richland County have been big part of our roots and education, and it’s awesome to have their support. We’ve had a lot of people [from there] help out,” Burkhart added.
