Ticketing Startup SeatGeek Just Turned Profitable, Saw $2.5M In Ticket Sales Last Month

SeatGeek, the ticketing startup that launched at the TechCrunch50 conference back in 2009, tells that it had its first profitable month in August.

That wasn’t just a temporary blip either, said co-founder Russell D’Souza. September was profitable too, and he expects the company to maintain its profitability into the future: “Revenue drivers are just growing so much faster than any sort of expense that we have.”

What kind of growth are we talking about? Well, the company said it brought in $2.5 million in gross ticket sales in September, compared to $1.1 million in September 2011, and $550,000 in September 2010. Traffic is growing too, with 1.6 million visits to the SeatGeek site in September, up from 490,000 in 2011 and 260,000 in 2010.

D’Souza argued that his company provides a compelling counter-example to all the overnight success stories of startups that are celebrated for their explosive user growth. That didn’t happen with SeatGeek — instead, it grew steadily and focused on revenue rather than “a more hazy metric like user accounts,” he said.

SeatGeek’s ticket search engine is best known for aggregating listings from resale sites like StubHub. It’s also moving into primary ticket sales, thanks to a partnership with Ticketfly.

The company recently raised a $1.65 million round of funding. D’Souza noted, “We have never been in a position where we’ve had a very high burn rate,” so SeatGeek hasn’t had to raise much venture money.