The Story of Season Share: Embracing the Entrepreneurial Mindset

What comes from pausing between intermittent workout sets to chat with other gym members? You may be thinking the range of outcomes varies from discussing your favorite pre-workout routines, what Spotify playlists you listen to during your workout, or what PRs you’re striving for, but have you ever considered that these spontaneous conversations could lead to the creation of a startup that has delivered over $100M in ticket inventory for some of the largest sports teams, venues, and entertainment organizations in North America? 

This is the story of Season Share - from the very beginning (during a pause between intermittent workout sets at Crossfit Mindset on the corner of Franklin and Vermont in Los Angeles) to the present day.

Creating Season Share

In 2016, the landscape of the live event industry was drastically different than it is today. Fans, tourists, and live event junkies used traditional methods for getting into the venue. Box office sales were still a large revenue channel for venues, fans were using physical tickets to gain entry into the stadium, and the process of splitting and sharing season tickets was largely up to the fan who held the designation of season ticket member.

That’s where the idea originated from - a response to the frustration of the convoluted process that correlated with splitting and sharing season tickets.

The typical fan huddled around their dining room tables and joined a Skype call, asked “Can you hear me?” to other members of a group cellular call, or prepared for a frighteningly active email thread to start the process of divvying up the allotted home games on their shared season ticket plan. “There had to be a better way to do this…” thought Aaron Holland, our co-founder and CEO. After iterating on ways that technology could become integrated into this archaic process, Aaron brought these ideas with him to a gym called Mindset in Los Angeles, where he chatted with our soon-to-be COO and co-founder, Robert Beadle, who agreed that there had to be a better way to share season tickets.

The talks at Mindset and the conversations that were thrown around the gym were too promising to be dismissed as just another chat. From there, the idea of Season Share was born. Season Share’s first meetings were held at various cafes in LA or at Robert’s house. Aaron started thinking about ways this problem can be solved. Robert got to working on the brand. Here are some early versions of the Season Share logo:

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Ultimately, it was the sketch below that proved to be the winner - this led to the asset on the right, Season Share’s first logo.

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Bringing Season Share to Market

In 2017, Season Share was selected as an Accelerator Finalist at the ninth annual SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event in Austin, Texas. As a “Sports Technology Finalist”, Season Share’s initial company description was “There are 3.2M season ticket holders in the US, 70% share with other sports fans. Season Share is a proprietary mobile technology for buying & sharing season tickets.”

It was time for the pitch! Aaron (pictured below) took the stage and explained the idea behind Season Share, a fantasy football-style drafting platform that gamified the process of splitting and sharing season tickets. Season Share’s earliest target demographic were teens, young professionals, and college students that were passionate fans of their team but could not afford the cost of becoming a season ticket holder. This demographic has remained as the target audience today, as we continue to provide teams and venues with programs that help get younger audiences into the venue nearly 7 years after the SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event in Austin.

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In 2019, Season Share went live with their first partners - the San Francisco 49ers and the University of Oregon. The fantasy football-style draft system was now in the market and was used by 49ers season ticket holders and season ticket holders of the Oregon football and basketball programs. Aaron was born in the Bay Area and grew up as a 49ers fan, he references meeting with the 49ers leadership team in the room where players sign their contracts as an early milestone for the brand.

Today, Season Share is fortunate to work with world-class sports technology organizations that help make their products look as elegant as possible. Back in 2019, Aaron and Robert were going row by row, seat by seat, and section by section of Autzen Stadium in Eugene to capture 360-degree views from each seat for the initial product. The work that went into these early partnerships laid the foundation for the partner-first philosophy that we operate with to this day.

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Changing the Game

“Change the Game” was Season Share’s initial company slogan. The game certainly changed in 2020 with the onset of the global pandemic, an event that altered the live event landscape drastically. After conferring with Season Share’s first partners (49ers, University of Oregon, Washington Wizards, and the Washington Capitals), Aaron and Robert worked in parallel with these teams to hear their insights on their priorities when the world returns back to normal.

The scope of the products that propelled Season Share’s growth to where it’s at today were defined during the pandemic. Aaron and Robert pivoted Season Share’s focus from splitting and sharing season tickets to a new goal - creating a customizable ticketing technology platform that helped sports teams, entertainment organizations, and world-class venues make the thrill of live entertainment more accessible to the next generation of consumers.

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For Fans, By Fans

Executing a product realignment of this magnitude was challenging, but the opportunity to build something impactful was there. Season Share’s mantra during this time was “For Fans, By Fans”. The first product that Season Share launched in the post-Covid era, Pass, was built for the real fan. 

The first version of the Pass product was created with an initial target demographic of a fan that attends more than one game per year but is not a season ticket holder. 

Aaron and Robert hired Sehaj Grover, formerly of Google, to spearhead the development of the Pass product. Sehaj began working as a Senior Software Engineer, utilizing his past experiences and expertise to build the products that have been used by millions of fans in North America today. Sehaj created an industry-leading algorithm that placed Pass holders near other members of their ticket group, drastically increasing the efficiency and the customization of the Pass product. What’s more “for fans” than being able to sit with who you want, when you want, where you want for every game you attend?

From assigning tens of seats on each gameday to where they’re at today, the engineering team at Season Share, which is now led by Sehaj, has leveraged their agility, camaraderie, and intelligence to create the three products (Pass, Flow, and Flex) that have delivered over $100M in ticket inventory for some of the largest teams, venues, and properties in North America. Sehaj describes the evolution of Season Share’s product suite as a “day by day” process, when a problem or a request was raised by a partner, his team was able to bring a solution to life seamlessly.

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This brings us to today.

As the landscape of the live event industry has changed, Season Share has too. It was evident to management and the greater ticketing industry that a rebrand was necessary, as Season Share is no longer a platform for splitting and sharing season tickets.

After spitballing some ideas on what a new name and logo could look like, Robert suggested the name “Attend”. He did not start sketching logos on unruled binder paper this time, but the effect of the word spoke to us immediately.

We wanted our new brand to better reflect the services we offer, speaking to our future rather than our past. Our programs span across MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS, and the NCAA - they all ultimately help fans attend the live events they love, while simultaneously increasing revenue and activating unsold inventory for our partners. 

It would be remiss for us to create a new brand and ignore the foremost emphasis of Season Share’s initial and ongoing mission: to be an additive technology partner for the teams, venues, and organizations that work with us. In announcing our rebrand to our partners, Aaron emphasized this point with “We would not be here without you, our partners. It has been our honor and privilege to innovate alongside you every step of the way, and we could not be more excited for the future.”

We decided on the name Attend because our number one goal is showing up for our partners and executing on the programs that bring their fans into the venue.

The Attend logo was handcrafted to capture the essence of connection, bringing people, moments, and memories into one vibrant space. It’s a celebration of togetherness, infused with modernity. 

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Introducing: Attend

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Our Next Story

Today, we’re focused on creating solutions for our partners that help capture the attention of the next generation of live event consumers.

We’re proud to work with over 50 (and counting) teams, venues, and organizations in North America. Our team has created LivePass, the first all-in-one Pass for sports, music, and comedy events. We’ve also developed a best-in-class solution for teams looking to sell premium inventory online.

After all of these milestones since our inception, we’re still operating each day with the “Mindset” that was born in that Los Angeles gym in 2016.‍

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About Attend

Attend (formerly seasonshare) is a customizable ticketing technology platform that helps sports teams, entertainment organizations, and world-class venues make the thrill of live entertainment more accessible to the next generation of fans. Attend’s suite of student, last-minute, seat upgrade, subscription, flex plan, credit-based premium and suite solutions drive younger audiences to venues, boosting both revenue and attendance. Attend has delivered over $100M in ticket inventory for the biggest venues in North America, including multiple MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS, and NCAA teams. To learn more about Attend, please visit attend.tech.