Danielle Babcock was wearing gloves during her first video call with Lyte.
“I tried to hide it, but they totally noticed,” she says. “It was fun because they were kind of fascinated by it. I was just really, really cold.”
Danielle is Lyte’s new Senior Client Services Manager, focusing on our venue partners. She also is the first Canadian Lyter to join our team (which explains the gloves). Danielle is working remotely from her home in Calgary, but she’ll spend much of her time traveling to visit clients. She’ll also pop in to our San Francisco headquarters.
Calgary is roughly 1,300 miles from San Francisco. Now in her third week at Lyte, Danielle barely feels the distance from her colleagues.
“Living in another country doesn’t make a difference,” she says. “It’s all been so seamless. There is something so authentic about everyone on the team. They have this intangible humor and they get things done. I felt it since day one.”
Danielle is a former sales manager for Ticketfly/Eventbrite, both Lyte primary ticketing partners. Here, she talks about amazing venues, ticketing, and Jerry Only. Check her out.
Maggie: You’re Lyte’s new Senior Client Services Manager. What will you be doing?
Danielle: I’ll be working under Justin (Nordan, Lyte’s Director of Client Services). I’m on the account side of things, being a go-to person for clients to lean on for support and to provide solutions to anything that arises during an exchange as well as manage their day-to-day needs.
My focus will be venues. One of the clients I’m most excited about working with is Sartain and Saunders in Salt Lake City. They book crazy awesome talent and they have this special sauce for being really, really good at what they do. All of our venues have really amazing shows and there’s a reason for that. I’ll be on the road a lot, interfacing with clients. I think that being in person with people is irreplaceable, as well as critical for account health.
I come from a sales background, but I understand things from the client side of it. I understand a broader sense of what their needs are and I can anticipate what they are going to be.
Maggie: Do you prefer going to events at small venues over festivals and concerts?
Danielle: I like live entertainment no matter what the setting is. I have always I’ve been kind of an observer. I always like to watch a show from a production standpoint. I’ve never been someone who gets into the crowd of a festival or a mosh pit. Instead, I’m the person in the corner with my arms crossed watching everything.
I just like to see it all happen. Festivals, venues, or anything I go to. I’m always looking at how things are run, what the production is like, where all the doors are, things like that. I think about it on so many levels and how it all comes together. It’s so cool to see what has sold out and witness the evolution of the artist on stage.
Maggie: What brought you to Lyte?
Danielle: In 2016 or 2017¢, I was working at Ticketfly and I went to FlyCon. I loved the Lyte and Ticketfly integration, and from the start I was a huge fan of Lyte. I remember giving mini-pitches at FlyCon on what the product was, what it did and why the industry needed it on a mass level.
A lot of our clients at Ticketfly had experienced problems with scalpers. When you have people showing up at the door with a ticket mistake it squashes a night that could have been awesome. I just ‘got’ Lyte from day one and supported what the platform is doing.
I crossed paths with Ant (Taylor, Lyte’s Founder and CEO) at different conferences. I had an interest in what the Lyte product was and why it was so needed. Anyway, we kept running into each other and I saw that Justin, who I had worked with at Eventbrite, had posted the position. I reached out and the stars aligned. It wasn’t that I was looking; it’s that the timing was right.
I was in primary ticketing for a long time. It’s funny, the path of how things come together. When you get into ticketing you never leave. It’s like “Fight Club.” We stay in.
Maggie: What strikes you most about Lyte now that you are an employee?
Danielle: Everything. I can’t get over how it’s grown, for one thing. Bringing me onto the team shows that growth. I remember when Lyte was only five people — the original Lyte crew. To see the scalability of the platform and watch it grow — and the acquisition of fantastic talent from other sources with all this knowledge– is really cool.
Ticketing has been around forever, but the digitization of it and the problems that have come with it, have changed. To go from being part of the issuing company to the solution is awesome, and it makes me feel as though things have really come full circle.
The company itself has an amazing corporate culture. I feel like I have become part of something really, really exciting. It’s like we are just on the cusp of something at Lyte. The excitement I feel, and the anticipation at what’s coming next, is priceless.
Maggie: Name a live event you attended that you’ll never forget.
Danielle: I have been reminiscing about tickets and shows. Recently, I came across a ticket stub for one of my favorite bands from high school — the Misfits. This was in probably 2007, and it was the first ticket I had ever purchased online. I remember being so unconvinced of the process, having this awful anxiety that I was going to show up and the ticket wasn’t going to work. I had to print it out before I went, and the internet was so shitty in the apartment I was living in that it was hard to buy it in the first place. I only bought it online because I didn’t have time to go to the box office and buy it in person.
As it turned out, I had an amazing night. Jerry Only signed my arm! It ended up being one of the nights I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. That whole experience was very important for me, back then and because of where I am today. I understand how being able to see their favorite artists live matters to fans.
Moving forward, the idea of going to a show that I helped ticket in some capacity is so rewarding to me because I helped someone get in — and maybe it helped them have one of the most memorable experiences of their life. That to me, is what technology should be about. To make a real life experience better.
I’ve always had a love of music, of bands and live experiences. At that time, I didn’t know if this was where it would lead. But if you follow your passion, you’ll get to where you’re supposed to be. That I know for sure.
Maggie: What’s the biggest stereotype people have about Canada?
Danielle: That it’s cold here all the time. And it’s absolutely true.
About Lyte
Lyte makes it easier for fans to go to more live events. Founded in New York City and San Francisco by CEO Ant Taylor, our killer fan feature is returnability. In an industry where a “no refunds and no cancellations” policy is the standard, Lyte enables fans to return their event tickets, no questions asked, to the official point of purchase.
Lyte also provides a safe and official reservation booking system, offering fans who sign up a fair price for in-demand tickets. One hundred percent of the tickets bought and sold through Lyte are issued through our ticketing partners and delivered directly to fans. Lyte has delivered millions in fan savings — $1.8 million in 2018 alone. It’s only getting better from here, thanks to our growing partnerships with bands, venues, promoters, ticketers and festivals.
For the industry, we function as a full inventory management solution, including a private-label secondary market to optimize event yield for event producers. Visit lyte.com.