As Live Experiences Boom, One Startup Is Building the Infrastructure Behind Them

Speakeasy is becoming the operating system for the live experience economy, and the numbers suggest the industry was overdue for it.

Something is happening in the U.S. economy that does not fit neatly into the prevailing narrative about technology and automation. While artificial intelligence reshapes knowledge work and digital media competes for every spare moment of attention, Americans have been spending more on being somewhere in person. Americans continue to prioritize in-person experiences amid technological shifts. Consumer spending on live events, excluding sports, has shown steady post-pandemic growth through 2024 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey data). Recreation's share of total consumer spending has increased noticeably since 1990, reflecting a broader reallocation of dollars toward experiential categories. In the wake of an AI revolution, the scarce commodity is slowly becoming the moment that exists once and only in the physical world.

The people paying closest attention have been direct about what they see. Elon Musk, speaking in 2025, said live events are among the fastest-growing industries he tracks, and that as digital media becomes ubiquitous, the scarce commodity will be live experiences. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, has been equally clear in that AI will not replace the experiences rooted in human connection and skill.

Investment firms and large operators have expanded their live-events footprints in recent years. For example, Ari Emanuel’s events company MARI has acquired TodayTix Group and, at launch, took over assets including the Miami Open and Frieze. Even as larger players expand their presence, the operational layer of live venues remains a distinct—and often fragmented—part of the business.

A company called Speakeasy has been building that infrastructure from the inside out.

The Problem, and the Team That Saw It

For decades, the live experience industry operated on a patchwork of disconnected solutions. Ticketing platforms, reservation systems, marketing tools, and point-of-sale terminals that never communicated with each other. Operators ran high-revenue, high-complexity businesses on tools that were not built for them and the consequences were tangible. 

Tamas An, Alex Manavi, and Paul Stacek founded Speakeasy to replace that stack entirely. The founding team brought complementary depth across technology, commercial strategy, and operations, and a shared conviction that this was a hard problem in an underserved space that was simply waiting for the right team to solve it. Tamas, who studied computer science and physics at the University of Chicago, led the technical build with a specific mandate: collapse the stack. Rather than building toward the easier, more visible parts of the market, Speakeasy started at the front door, the most exposed and highest-friction point in any live experience operation, and built outward from there.

The result is a single connected platform covering the critical functions that previously required separate vendors: at-door ticketing and payments, reservation management and immersive 3D booking, CRM and floorplan management, off-site point-of-sale with built-in chargeback protection, automated direct marketing, pre-sold event ticketing and SEO and LLM optimization. It is, as the company describes it, a connected ecosystem where technology, distribution, and real-world experiences work in sync, one operational layer where data, revenue, and guest intelligence stay unified across every touchpoint. The ticketing pricing model is a flat one dollar per ticket, a deliberate departure from the percentage-based fee structures that made legacy platforms adversarial to the operators who depended on them.

"This is an underserved space, with real problems and hard-working people who deserve better tools. We're here to build them." — Tamas An, CTO & Co-Founder, Speakeasy

Speakeasy’s digital box office solution

Speakeasy’s intelligent CRM + 3D immersive booking solution

Speakeasy’s enterprise ticketing solution

Traction That Is Difficult to Ignore

Speakeasy says its revenue has grown notably year over year, and that it hasn’t lost any clients since launching. In a market where operators routinely switch platforms due to poor support, outdated technology, and systems that were never designed with their actual operations in mind, the company says it prides itself on its zero percent churn rate and the inputs that explain it. Speakeasy reports high opt-in rates from venue entries on its platform, and says many operators using manual processes collect limited usable marketing data; it also says referrals account for a sizable share of new clients.

According to Speakeasy, venues using the platform have reported revenue gains and operational efficiencies. The company says a Las Vegas venue saw six-figure incremental revenue within the first several months, and that a Chicago venue experienced double-digit year-over-year revenue growth, with higher marketing opt-ins and reduced operating costs.

Expanding Across the Experience Economy

Speakeasy's footprint has grown well beyond its initial markets. The platform now serves live entertainment and hospitality venues, nightclubs and dayclubs, major music festival groups, as well as event organizers, emerging sports properties, health and wellness operators, and high-profile exhibitions and charitable events across more than 30 U.S. cities, with international expansion underway. In several marquee markets, Speakeasy says the platform is winning business from established regional competitors.

The expansion reflects a deliberate positioning decision. Speakeasy describes itself not as a venue software company but as the infrastructure for the live experience economy, a category that encompasses any operator whose business depends on bringing people together in a shared physical space and delivering something a screen cannot replicate. 

The growth has been built without the resources that better-capitalized competitors have relied upon, a fact that Speakeasy says has allowed them to move with a focus and product discipline that many larger platforms have struggled to match. That foundation now positions the company to invest significantly in new verticals, new markets, and new layers of the platform as the experience economy continues its expansion.Prices and availability are accurate as of the time of publication and are subject to change without notice. Please check the retailer’s website for the most up-to-date pricing information.