Jack Groetzinger

Jack Groetzinger is co-founder and chief executive officer of SeatGeek, the ticketing platform he started with Russ D'Souza and Eric Waller in 2009. SeatGeek's own about page and his current LinkedIn profile both identify him in this capacity, and a July 2026 TechCrunch interview about the company's 17-year history is consistent with that title. [1](https://seatgeek.com/about) [4](https://techcrunch.com/podcast/seatgeek-walked-away-from-going-public-and-jack-groetzinger-isnt-looking-back/)

SeatGeek operates on two sides of the ticketing business: a consumer marketplace for buying and reselling tickets, and enterprise ticketing software sold directly to teams, venues and shows. That combination puts the company in direct competition with Ticketmaster's primary-ticketing dominance as well as with resale marketplaces such as StubHub and Vivid Seats.

In mid-2026 SeatGeek confirmed it had walked away from a planned public listing, choosing to remain private after raising roughly $400 million in venture funding since founding. Groetzinger's continued position as an independent, founder-led operator distinguishes SeatGeek's ownership structure from the publicly traded or internally-recapitalised paths taken by some competitors.

SeatGeek is one of the few ticketing companies that has built primary-ticketing relationships with major venues and franchises while also operating a large secondary marketplace, which makes Groetzinger's decisions relevant to both the fan-facing resale debate and the venue-contract side of the ticketing business.

His decision to remain private rather than pursue a SPAC or IPO keeps SeatGeek's financials largely undisclosed, which is itself a data point for research into ticketing-market transparency and consolidation relative to publicly filed competitors.