HANS OBER

Co-founder and CEO of TicketSwap

NHLStenden- International Hospitallity Management

Entrepreneurship In Action
 Entrepreneurial essay: Hans Ober

 
Sharon Pronk: 1569291 
 
 
 

Module: Minor Entrepreneurship In Action

Module coordinator: Erik Cahyanta
Group: CLSB
 
26-2-2020

NHL Stenden – International Hotel Management 

Leeuwarden 
The Netherlands 

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the degree Program Bachelor of

Business Administration (Hotel Management)

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Declaration of own work

1. I composed this work myself.

2. This work has not been accepted in any previous application for a degree or diploma,
by myself or anyone else.
3. The work of which this is a record has been done wholly by myself.
4. All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks and the sources of
information have been specifically acknowledged.

Sign:

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Introduction
Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not something what happens by change.
It is a risky process which involves lots of strategies. This essay will be about a
successful Dutch entrepreneur named Hans Ober who is a CEO and co-founder of
TicketSwap which is a safe platform to sell tickets for festivals, concerts , sport
activities or theatre for example.

Hans Ober and his entrepreneurial journey

Hans Ober is 31 years old and graduated from the UVA. Hans Ober his Journey
started when he experienced the difficulty to sell his own ticket for Lowlands. It
was hard to choose the correct person, to get trust and the person who bought
the ticket needed to travel around the Netherlands to get it. From this moment
Hans Ober thought: we have access to internet, file transfer and money transfer
it should be really easy to create a better idea. He came with a solution for the
untrustworthy, shady business of second hand tickets. But being an entrepreneur
is with ups and downs so yes, also for him he faced disappointments as well.

Together with his companions he set up TicketSwap and because of a good

connection with Facebook and a big demand from the industry his company
growth really fast. When customers bought their ticket via TicketSwap, the box
for sharing it on Facebook was automatically ticked and so did TicketSwap reach
more customers all over. TicketSwap also figured out that they had access to
second hand ticket groups on Facebook where they find their customers as well.
They were growing and growing and just before Queens day in the Netherlands
they found out that they also had access to big event pages to reach even more
customers. From this moment, Hans Ober and his company made big growth.

Out of this can be concluded that Facebook was really important for the success
of TicketSwap. TicketSwap had a luxurious position and they even got the
change to go worldwide because of the access Facebook gave them and therefor
Hans Ober did not had to invest lots of money in marketing knowing the fact he
was taking a big risk.

Also for Hans Ober and his company it was not only ups and he also faced
downs. Facebook came with the Cambridge Analytica what retain the power of
Hans Ober what Facebook gave. They did not had so much access to buyers
anymore and the rules and restriction became more strict. The functionality of
Facebook disappeared. Hans Ober start focusing on the markets where the
money was coming from and exit the international market as the US. From this
moment they became more self-independent and start focusing on partners as
event organisations, artists , ticket companies and google. Even though this
situation, TicketSwap is still able to create growth.

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Link to entrepreneurial theories
Based on a research paper written by Khemesh (2019) a person can be an
entrepreneur if the characteristics of seeing opportunities, being innovative,
taking risk and action are present. An entrepreneur is someone with qualities and
competences in order to find an opportunity to start and run a successful
business (Alsafadi, 2018). Hans Ober saw an opportunity in the problem to sell
festival tickets and became innovative with his idea. During his business idea he
took risks as well because you never know if its worth the investment. Besides,
Hans Ober only used Facebook as his marketing tool and did not had a backup
plan to appeal customers. This because in his opinion all other alternatives were
less efficient then Facebook since it really empowered the reach for TicketSwap.
That it was risky became clear due to the Cambridge Analytica. But, being an
entrepreneur is taking risk in order to generate profits (Ergen, 2014). Hans Ober
did know how to take action and started focusing on the market were the money
was coming from, where buyers did not even used Facebook anymore to use
TicketSwap. Moreover, he already reached a lot of customers and became
popular. For him it was important to stay innovative and for now going worldwide
is a future plan.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are really important, therefor entrepreneurs

need to understand the term innovation first. This because, especially nowadays,
it is not just about developing a new product it also involves a marketing method
(Kedikli, 2019). For Hans Ober he directly saw how important marketing was, he
reached his audience very smart via Facebook what directly included his
marketing as well. Via Facebook lots of potential customers can be reached and
therefor it saved him lots of money and time on marketing investments.

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My opinion
Hans Ober started his business by thinking about a problem he faced and start
thinking how he could stop this problem for himself and others. The lesson I can
take from Hans Ober is to think in solutions, to see a problem as an opportunity
to solve. One other big lesson of Hans Ober where I can learn from is the fact
that he was so focused on the success Facebook that he was lifting his success
so much on Facebook that the Cambridge Anlytica was a damper. He did not
really thought of a second option in advance so what I should have done
differently is making your idea future proof and make sure to work ahead to
prevent such situations. The future is really important, actually you have to plan
in advance try to look in the future and walk in front and prepare yourself for the
future. Hans Ober also wrote about the fact that more often challenges will be
faced but he will work ahead and will adapt himself to it. Especially on rules and
regulations as privacy, and payments for example.

Understanding your target market is also really important, Hans Ober saw the
differences per country. He mentioned that his idea did not work well in every
country. For example in Germany it did not worked that well as it did in the
Netherlands, this because in Germany they prefer hard copies of tickets. So,
understanding your market and see which market is feasible for your product can
be seen as a priority.

Conclusion
Hans Ober is a successful Dutch entrepreneur who is CEO and co-founder of
TicketSwap what has become a successful company very quick because of his
motivation, critical thinking and his ability to take risks in order to be a
successful and efficient entrepreneur. Thinking in solutions, being innovative and
make yourself future proof is from real importance to achieve success.

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Reference list
Alsafadi, Y. (2018). STEP BY STEP TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR.

Ergen, M. (2014). Girişimci Kapital Silikon Vadisi Tarihi ve Startup Ekonomisi.

Istanbal: Koc üniveritesi Yayinlari.

Kedikli, E. (2019). The Importance of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Management in Terms of Modern Businesses. Istanbul: Istanbul Medipol
University .

Khemesh , S. (2019). Entrepeneurship. Anadolu University .