A Ticket to Success
Published December 13, 2007

Michael Hershfield, co-founder and CEO of LiveStub.com, explains why he left a promising legal career in order to pursue life as a new kind of entrepreneurial ticket broker.

By: MATT ALDERTON

Michael Hershfield has been a lifelong sports fan. He grew up playing sports on the west coast of Vancouver and played college rugby and basketball at McGill University in Quebec. He's always had a taste for activity and competition.

It's no surprise, then, that Hershfield wanted to work in law, where the competition is at least as fierce as it is on the rugby field. So after college, he went to law school at home in Vancouver. Young. Handsome. Well-spoken. It seemed the perfect fit.

It wasn't, though. After law school, Hershfield found himself working as a lawyer in Toronto; instead of shooting hoops, he was crouched over a desk doing paperwork for corporate clients. It wasn't exactly what he wanted for himself. So after just one year as a lawyer, Hershfield quit.

"When I embarked on my legal career, I'd always kept my eye on the entertainment and sports industry," he says. Like so many small business owners before him, he kept his real passions top of mind while he tried to pursue other, more traditional interests. Eventually, though, the nagging in his head got too strong and he had to acknowledge it. "I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to be constantly learning. What I really wanted was to run my own business."

Determined to chart his own course, Hershfield did what so many white-collar men and women dream of doing: He walked away from his job in order to start his own company. And within just a few short months, LiveStub.com was born. An interactive sports and entertainment Web site that connects last-minute ticket buyers with honest and authentic sellers, it's Hershfield's dream come true.

A Winning Idea

With entrepreneurship on the tip of his tongue, Hershfield set out to find a business concept that would excite not just consumers, but also himself. He found it last year when he was trying to get last-minute tickets to a basketball game two hours before tip-off. He could pay the high price for tickets from scalpers on the street, or he could miss the game. If he wanted to see the game, he really had only one option—and that wasn't OK with him.

While the Internet is littered with ticket brokerage sites where consumers can purchase advance tickets to their favorite events, last-minute buyers have long been out of luck. Hershfield therefore decided to build a Web site where fans like him could quickly and conveniently buy last-minute tickets to sporting and entertainment events. A cross between Craigslist and TicketsNow, LiveStub.com would be a place where buyers could find sellers in order to purchase good tickets at a reasonable price—even at the 11th hour.

"I really wanted to create a central location for fans to sell tickets to each other in an environment that they could trust," Hershfield says. "I like to think of LiveStub as democratizing the secondary ticket market. It's giving individuals the power to choose when, where and for how much they want to buy and sell their tickets. It's about giving users the opportunity to choose how they want to facilitate ticket exchanges."

Now in its beta stage, LiveStub.com uses cutting-edge technology to pair ticket buyers with sellers based on geographic proximity; even on the day of the event, at the venue, fans can find tickets in their area and connect with each other via text message in order to arrange a transaction. And because LiveStub.com doesn't charge commissions or service fees, that transaction is likely to be as reasonable and as affordable as possible. Like Internet dating before it, Internet ticket brokerage of this variety lets buyers and sellers decide if they're a match before—not after—they meet.

Learning to Be a Business Owner

Even with a unique, in-demand idea, however, starting a business is never easy. A first-time business owner, Hershfield has found that out firsthand. He's turned his risk-taking, however, into a unique and rewarding learning opportunity.

"There's nothing like starting your own business," he says. "Every day is a different lesson because you're being thrown so many different curve balls. There are so many different decisions to make."

For Hershfield, the lessons have been coming quickly, as LiveStub.com incorporated just seven months ago and has been scurrying ever since to create the technology and the relationships that it needs to build its business. "It's been a sprint," Hershfield says. "Six months ago I was in a law office doing due diligence on transactions. It's amazing how fast it's gone and how much has transpired."

While he's doing his best not to, Hershfield acknowledges that he's going to make mistakes along the way. His youth, however—he's 27 years old—makes those mistakes more palatable, he suggests. "There's something very wonderful about being a young entrepreneur," he says. "But because it's your first business, you make mistakes. You assume you're doing all the things that you need to do, but it's kind of a close-your-eyes-and-hope-you-do-the-best type of situation."

How to 'Make the Leap'

A student for so long, Hershfield is already turning into a teacher thanks to his start-up experience. Never mind that LiveStub.com is still in its infancy. He's already mastered the hardest part of starting a business—quitting a job you hate in order to build a career that you love.

"If you want to do something," Hershfield says, "you have to just take a leap and go for it." He has the following how-to wisdom to share with other budding entrepreneurs, who dream of "leaping" into entrepreneurial waters:

• Commit to change. If you want to pursue your dream of owning your own business, the first step, according to Hershfield, is acknowledging that tomorrow looks different than today does. "The first and most important step is to decide that what you're doing now is not for you," he says. "When you decide that—when you realize it—then your outlook on your future opportunities is different." In other words, you've got to be honest with yourself. It's a scary proposition, he admits, but an important one in every entrepreneur's development.
• Get inspired. After you've changed your perspective, Hershfield says, you've got to find an idea on which to focus it. "It could be anything," he says, careful to add that it's got to be something that you love. "You'll never succeed if you're not passionate about the thing that you do. It doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur or a professional. If you don't enjoy it, you're not going to be the best; you're barely going to be mediocre. You've got to enjoy and be inspired by what you're doing."
• Save, save, save. Like it or not, business requires capital, Hershfield points out. So before you jump ship from your current career, make sure you've got the cash to get you from point A to point B. "You can't live off nothing," he says. "When you make the decision to leave your job, you want to create enough of a nest egg so that you have a few months to build your idea." If you're averse to risk, living for six months to a year with little to no income is a hard proposition to chew; if you're serious, though, the risk is worth your while.
• Find a sounding board. Hershfield isn't a one-man show. He has a partner with different skill sets and has sought the advice of many a mentor on his way to start-up success. "It's really important that you have somebody that you can turn to," he says. "You need multiple people in order to work through your challenges."
• Trust yourself. When it comes to taking the leap from 9-to-5 to small business uncertainty, the last ingredient is faith, according to Hershfield. "You have to believe in yourself and in your business model," he says. "It sounds cheesy, but it's true."