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.
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.
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NewsTranscript
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)