Detroit-Based Start-up Takes The Scare Out Of Haunted House Ticketing
By Edward Cardenas
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - A Detroit start-up is taking the "scare" out of ticketing for haunted attractions locally and throughout the country.
HauntPay provides an all-in-one online, mobile, and in-person payments and event ticketing service tailored to haunted attractions. This combines a pair of the founder's interests.
Alex Linebrink, who started a payment technology company Core Merchant in 2010 with an investment from the Bizdom startup accelerator, also enjoys setting up Halloween display and visiting haunted attractions.
He said he was looking for a "proprietary niche" to get into, and decided to blend business experience with interest in haunted attractions to launch HauntPay.
Last year the online event ticketing system was offered free of charge to the event organizers, and this year HauntPay combined online and in-person payments and event ticketing system for haunted attractions.
"There are really some specialized needs there, that is where HauntPay was born," said Linebrink, of the genesis of the ticketing service.
Linebrink said the service allows haunted attraction organizers to sign-in to HauntPay to set up an account for free. A link to the company's website is then established, and an embed code is also created for attractions to use on their website to sell tickets.
Visitors can then purchase tickets off the site, or through a mobile app on-site, with a small fee charged to the customer.
The service has grown to over 6,000 users, 15,000 tickets sold and is on pace to have $1 million in transactions.
"Most of these guys are pretty busy running these things," said Linebrink, of the service which allows event organizers to focus on creating their unique, scary exhibits.
Linebrink stated that he is considering expanding the service to other niche events such as Renaissance fairs, beer and wine festivals and video game conventions.
"It is a great system for getting up and running cost effectively," Linebrink said.