WillCall offers a mobile-first payments and ticketing experience for live-music venues, aiming to let fans purchase tickets, merch, and drinks in a few taps. The app positions itself as a Square Card Case for music venues and emphasizes quick, mobile payments rather than discounted tickets. WillCall shifted from pursuing ticket discounts to focusing on full-price sales after seeing strong sales growth. The company plans to expand beyond tickets, pursue international growth, and secure deeper venue integrations by proving it increases on-site spending—especially on drinks, which are a primary revenue source for venues. WillCall also intends to provide venue owners with attendee analytics to enable more targeted marketing and cost savings. The team views identity-linked ticketing, last-minute mobile distribution, loyalty programs, and dynamic pricing as potential future tools to address scalping and reclaim lost revenue for venues. WillCall curates local events, cuts deals with venues for discounted tickets and packages (including freebies or skip-the-line access), and delivers those offers to users via push notifications timed around their evenings. The product began as a mobile app that sent last-minute alerts a few hours before concerts and now adds a web app with quick links to artist samples so users can preview shows. WillCall hand-picks events to avoid overwhelming users with choices and aims to list events every night by securing blocks of tickets — including popular shows that still sell out. The company reports about 3,000 users who open each notification. WillCall is part of 500 Startups and plans to expand into one to two more cities this year, naming New York and Los Angeles as next destinations. The startup raised new seed funding to accelerate these product and city expansion plans.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Aug 2013