Craig Pryde of Ticket Husky Tells Us How They are Utilizing Resources during the Pandemic to Improve the Quality of Their Products

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?  

Craig Pryde: My family and I are doing well, thanks. We have been fortunate enough to stay in areas with lower confirmed cases than the rest of the country. We have also been following the mask and hygiene measures closely to avoid getting infected by the virus, and so far, this seems to be effective. Hopefully, not too long until we can get back out and return to some kind of normality, though.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Ticket Husky.

Craig Pryde: I have a software engineering background and have worked with various digital agencies and financial tech companies as a front-end software engineer. I have a strong focus on quality and user experience, which drove me to create Ticket Husky after seeing the state of Ticketing services being offered to Arts and Culture organizations and just how inaccessible these products are.

Agencies focus solely on the ROI of their services to make themselves look good to prospecting clients and often disregard the end-users’ experience. We see this daily with new solutions being rushed to market with no regard for quality or accessibility. This leads to high-priced retainers where you pay to fix issues the agency introduced and often leaves some users in the dark.  

We aim to change that by removing the high-priced retainers associated with ticket-booking solutions and producing a high-quality suite of products that operates on a transparent pricing model. We treat people as more than just metrics on a graph and empower brands to focus on the user experience well beyond the first purchase. We believe that Accessibility matters and that all people should have access to reliable experiences online when booking tickets to events.  

We exist with the aim to revolutionize the ticketing industry by putting the users first and creating an experience that is accessible to all people.​

How does Ticket Husky innovate?  

Craig Pryde: We work with the latest technologies to create robust and impactful products that empower brands to provide pack-leading ticketing experiences online. We have a focus on Accessibility following WCAG guidance and design with the end-user experience at the forefront of our minds.

We never ship a half-baked solution and have taken a different approach to our products; instead of launching quickly to market, we have chosen to take our time and produce a high-quality solution that drives accessibility and solves real-world problems. We don’t just want to run with the pack, and we want to lead and guide it.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping? 

Craig Pryde: We are fortunate to still be in the initial development stage of the products with a small dedicated team working remotely and devoting their spare time to the company. We have kept our expenditure low and putting the budget behind services that empower the team to work more efficiently.  

Being in the early stage of the company’s products has allowed us to mitigate most of the impact COVID has brought. We are using the delays that have been introduced as an opportunity to expand our roadmap and focus on developing more of the vision we have for the products and services we offer.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned? 

Craig Pryde: Difficult decisions are daily at the moment with the pandemic and added stresses of Brexit as the UK moves to leave the EU. We have had to adjust areas of our business to remain compliant with regulations, and this has resulted in a large learning curve for the full team.

But regardless of the difficulties, this is just another stepping stone in the journey for Ticket Husky, and each new challenge is a great opportunity to learn. We just need to keep climbing the mountain, and we will eventually reach the top!

How do you deal with stress and anxiety? 

Craig Pryde: The pressure of running a business is something that every entrepreneur has to deal with in the pursuit of their dreams. I’m very fortunate to have a great team at Ticket Husky that goes the extra mile, and that alone helps alleviate some of the stress.  

As a creative, I also know all too well the struggles with Imposter Syndrome when creating a product, and this has been the hardest challenge to overcome while working on Ticket Husky. It’s really easy to let the inner voices get the better of you, and at times it can be frustrating. But the vision and values have pulled me through and continue to drive the passion I have towards what we are building.

Building a business is hard and can feel like an almost impossible mountain to climb. You need to love what you’re doing and enjoy the journey. This helps remind you of the reasons why you started and re-ignites the flame you have towards the idea you are creating.

Your final thoughts?

Craig Pryde: I believe 2020 will be a year that we all remember and has already started to re-shape a lot of industries. I believe that all business owners have learned a lot throughout this time, which will allow them to introduce measures to prepare for these types of situations in the future. Now is the opportunity to innovate and build back better than before.

Your website?

https://tickethusky.com