bid-ask-marketplace
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CrowdVolt
CrowdVolt is a New York-based, Y Combinator-backed marketplace that lets fans buy and sell tickets to live events - starting with raves and EDM concerts - through a bid-ask model similar to StockX. Buyers name the price they are willing to pay, sellers set an ask, and trades clear automatically when the two meet. The platform handles secure payments and automated ticket transfers to cut fraud, inflated fees, and the opacity of the traditional resale market.
Max Hammer
Max Hammer is the co-founder and CEO of CrowdVolt, a Y Combinator (W24) startup building a bid-ask marketplace for live event tickets - pitched as 'what StockX did for sneakers, for tickets.' A Westport, Connecticut native and University of Pennsylvania graduate, he left an investment banking career at UBS to chase the rave-ticket resale problem he and his co-founders kept hitting after attending 80-plus shows in a single year. CrowdVolt launched in Brooklyn in early 2024, raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Brickyard VC, Goodwater Capital, Pioneer Fund and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, and is expanding from EDM into broader live-events infrastructure.