u/Future_Butterfly_349

22, bootstrapped. Building a ticketing platform in South America for the past year. Does primary sales, legal resale where the QR regenerates on transfer so old ones die instantly, and a dashboard for producers to manage their promoters and see sales live.

My fee model is different from every competitor I know. I charge 14% to the buyer on top of the ticket price. Producer pays nothing and keeps 100% of what they set. On top of that I share part of my cut back to them, so at any real volume they're making money they weren't making before.

There's no cheaper pitch. It's you lose nothing and earn something new.

I'm also the only platform in my country with a legal resale system. Right now resale is WhatsApp groups, fake screenshots, people getting scammed constantly.

Market here is tiny. Maybe 4 or 5 producers that actually matter. Talked to most of them. Nobody says it's a bad deal. I just get yeah for sure let's talk soon and then radio silence. Lost one last month to a competitor who gave them a cash advance upfront. Couldn't do that. The rest just don't move.

Neighboring country is 45 million people, same language, same culture, my payment infrastructure already supports it. But I haven't closed anyone at home yet.

Also building an AI feature that predicts when to drop ticket batches based on historical demand curves from similar events. Probably shouldn't be doing this without clients but I believe in it.

Has anyone closed the first supplier in a two sided marketplace where the economics genuinely work in their favor and they still won't move? What actually broke the deadlock? And when does a structurally tiny home market stop being something to dominate first and become a reason to just go bigger sooner?

22, fully bootstrapped. I've been building a ticketing SaaS in South America for about a year — primary sales, legal resale with fraud-proof QR regeneration on transfer, producer dashboard, analytics, RRPP management. Think a lightweight Eventbrite + StubHub built for the local nightlife and festival market.

Here's the part I can't figure out. My fee structure is different from every competitor I know of:

The producer pays zero. I charge a 14% service fee directly to the buyer, on top of the ticket price. The producer keeps 100% of their revenue. On top of that, I share a portion of my fee back to the producer — so at volume, they're not just breaking even by switching to me, they're generating a new income stream from something they were going to sell anyway.

There's no "it's cheaper" pitch. It's literally "you lose nothing and gain something." And I'm also the only platform in my country with a legally compliant resale system — competitors have none, resale here is pure WhatsApp chaos with fraud and scalpers.

The market is small and concentrated. Maybe 4–5 serious recurring producers nationally. I've had real conversations with most of them. No one has said it's a bad deal. The responses are all some version of "yeah let's do something soon" and then nothing moves. One bigger one went with a competitor that offered a cash advance upfront — I couldn't match that. The rest are just… inert.

I've also started building an AI feature that predicts optimal ticket batch release timing based on historical sales curves. I believe in it but I'm building it before having a single paying client, which I go back and forth on.

The natural next market is the neighboring country — 45M people vs 3.5M at home, same language, same culture, my payment infrastructure already supports it. But I haven't proven anything yet in my own market.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. If the economics are genuinely zero-risk for the supplier, what actually drives inertia? Is it pure trust in a new platform, fear of their buyers being confused, or something else I'm not seeing?

2. For anyone who's done two-sided marketplaces with a small, concentrated B2B supply side — what actually moved the needle on closing the first few? Not the pitch, the mechanics of what made them finally say yes.

3. When your home market is structurally small (handful of suppliers, ceiling is low), do you try to lock it down first or does that just delay the inevitable need to expand?

4. Building features before having clients — waste of time or the only time you actually can?

I'm 21, building a ticketing platform in Argentina with no funding and no team. Looking for brutal advice.

I've been working on this for about a year. The platform handles ticket sales, resale (legally structured), and event management for producers. Think a mix between Eventbrite and StubHub but built from scratch for the local market.

Quick context: solo founder, fully bootstrapped, no investors. The market already has one or two established players that producers know and are comfortable with. My main advantages are a significantly lower commission structure (made possible by switching payment processors) and next-day settlements instead of the usual weekly or biweekly ones. I also have something competitors don't: a legally compliant resale system with digital ticket validation, which nobody here has figured out yet.

The core problem I keep running into is that producers simply don't move. I show them the math, they see the savings, they nod, and then nothing happens. It's not that they don't get it. It's pure inertia. They know the other platform, their buyers know it, and switching feels risky even when it's clearly better for them financially.

At the same time I'm dealing with the classic two-sided marketplace trap. Producers won't come without an existing buyer base, and buyers won't show up without events to buy tickets to.

The way I've been approaching B2B so far is leading with a commission savings calculator personalized to their event size, offering to run their first event with full support and basically zero risk for them, and targeting mid-size producers rather than the biggest names or the smallest ones.

So a few questions for people who've actually been through something like this:

How do you get suppliers or partners to switch away from an incumbent they're already comfortable with? I've tried the ROI angle and it rarely moves people on its own.

For the two-sided marketplace problem specifically, what actually worked for you? Subsidizing one side, locking in one big anchor client, something else?

Any advice on pitching event producers as a B2B customer? They're not typical SaaS buyers at all. Very relationship-driven, informal, and generally skeptical of new tech.

How do you compete on positioning when the incumbent has years of brand recognition and you have a better product but nobody knows you exist?

And one more thing I've been thinking about: at what point did you decide to expand internationally rather than going deeper in your home market? I'm considering the US long-term but the local market is still early and I genuinely don't know if that's a distraction or a smart move to think about now.

Happy to answer questions or share more context. Just trying to learn from people who've actually done this.