In 2008, I was introduced to Andrew Dreskin and Dan Teree the founders of Ticketfly by a VC friend that knew I liked ‘yield management’ consumer plays. (I had been an early investor in Rent.com and Golfnow.com). The VC was not interested but thought I should take a look.

In the first meeting with Andrew and Dan, Tom and I committed to invest. Dan says we wrote the first check. They had tremendous domain experience in the ticketing industry. They were completely focused and confident that the timing was right. They had the right product plan.

Their new mission:

Ticketfly is a progressive ticketing company that makes it easy to discover events, buy tickets, and share events with your friends – all with world-class technology and customer support.

Surprising to us all,it took a LONG time to raise the rest of the first capital. We hustled from investor office to investor office getting turned down. Tom and I wrote much bigger checks than usual and we cobbled together some friends to raise a first seed round. Because of the markets at the time and the lack of fundraising success, the terms were (in relation to today’s terms) investor friendly.

The rest is mostly history. To be honest, Andrew and Dan never asked or needed much from us at that point. We made some intros to companies that might be acquisition targets and made a few phone calls to Venture Capitalists that helped with a ‘B’ round.

The team led by Andrew just flat out executed. I am sure there were some hard times over seven years, but I never heard about them. Andrew shielded us. There were no sexy press stories, no pivots, no fighting with investors. There was just execution and growth.

Yesterday, Pandora acquired Ticketfly for $450 million.

Andrew had kept us in the loop regarding ‘a deal’ without divulging the terms and parties.

I am sure Andrew loved calling me yesterday to tell me the great news and I loved calling all our investors.

This has been one hell of a good week. I could get used to these 7 year overnight success exits.

Congratulations to team Ticketfly and the awesome Pandora.