Editor note: In our 2022 Startups to Watch feature, the Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times present startups and founders doing unique things in the San Francisco Bay Area. Flymachine is one of 20 that we have profiled — to read more about our mission and the other startups we're featuring, click here.
Andrew Dreskin is a veteran of the entertainment business, with a string of startups and exits: He founded Ticketfly in 2008, which was eventually acquired by Pandora (and later Eventbrite), and TicketWeb in 1995, acquired by Ticketmaster.
So it's no surprise he took the plunge again during the pandemic, co-founding Flymachine after texting with a group of music industry friends about watching concerts together while stuck at home.
"That’s when the lightbulb went off for me," Dreskin said.
It's hard to quantify how many live events have disappeared over the past two years, but the circumstances have pushed many events organizers into the world of livestreaming to hold onto and engage with their audiences. And if there's one thing that's made for streaming, it's concerts.
Since mid-2021 when the company publicly launched, it has livestreamed more than 60 events featuring artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Tycho and Portugal. The Man. Flymachine currently partners with around 30 venues across North America including Bowery Ballroom in New York City, First Avenue in Minneapolis and the Wang Theater in Boston.
Flymachine
- Founded: 2020
- Founders: CEO Andrew Dreskin, Chief Experience Officer Richard Farman and CTO Matthew Davis
- What it does: Provides a livestreaming platform for concerts
- HQ: Berkeley
- Employees: 37
- Total funding: $21 million
- Investors: Greycroft Partners, Signalfire, Primary Venture Partners, Contour Ventures and Red Sea Ventures
What was the first concert that Flymachine livestreamed? How did that go? The first concert we streamed was by a really cool up-and-coming artist named Remi Wolf from the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, another great venue in our network. It went great! She's a star and the technology was rock solid.
Do you view social media sites that offer livestreaming as your direct competitors? We view the social media sites more as partners than competitors. We advertise and market our events on those sites. We offer a bunch of technology that they don't, as livestreaming is not their core business.
Who was the first person or organization you asked for money? Brad Svrluga, co-founder and partner at Primary Ventures, was the first investor in Flymachine. Brad was an early investor and longtime director at Ticketfly — a fantastic investor and great guy. Brad was looking at a deal in the livestreaming space, and when I told him I was working on something similar he said, “These guys are dead to me! Let’s do this!” He wrote us a check sight-unseen based on the strength of our relationship and his experience with us at Ticketfly.
How did you build out your team and what lessons did you learn? I have the good fortune of working with the same folks over and over again. For some odd reason, they keep following me to my next startup. We also layered in some A-players from separate, yet related, industries like recorded and live music, gaming, interactive media, etc. In Netflix parlance: talent density. Great people want to work with great people.
How do you and your team best work? We were born during the pandemic and are fully remote, but we recognize the value in having a collaborative, physical workspace. So when safe to do so, we will switch to a hybrid work environment. We want to give our team flexibility to decide what works best for them. As long as they get their work done, I don’t care if they work from the moon.
Why did you base your company where you did? We are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of us live here and my two previous startups — TicketWeb and Ticketfly — were both headquartered here. Despite rumors of its decline, Silicon Valley continues to be the epicenter of the technology industry. That said, we also have a big crew in LA and one of the silver linings of the pandemic is that now that we’ve learned to work remotely we can hire great people anywhere.
Are you already thinking of an exit strategy? Exit strategy? We just started! No, we are not thinking of an exit strategy. We are heads-down, focused on building a world-class team, game-changing product and a big business.
