Online platforms have long simplified the process of buying, selling, and trading event tickets. But what happens when your tickets don’t sell or when you’re stuck with costly season tickets you can’t use? You might end up giving them away or leaving them unused, leading to a financial loss either way.
This is the challenge that Houstonian Jerin Varkey is willing to address with Offer Approved, a new platform that empowers sellers and buyers, guaranteeing that no seat goes unused.
The idea took root around two years ago when Varkey, a passionate sports fan and season ticket holder, faced a new challenge. After becoming a parent, he found himself unable to attend every game. Frustrated with traditional resale platforms, he quickly realized that high fees and limited time made it difficult to sell all his tickets, causing him to lose money each time.
"I knew there was someone out there willing to pay $50," he recalls.
A transparent market for resale tickets
Offer Approved is a transparent and trusted platform for both sellers and buyers. Screenshots courtesy of Offer Approved
With this idea in mind, he started intensive research through 2023, identifying the multiple inefficiencies in the ticket market, including seeing the same seat in different marketplaces simultaneously.
“You’ll go through the checkout process and discover that those seats are no longer available; what happens is somebody bought it a few seconds before you on a different site, and the new system is taking it down," Varkey tells InnovationMap.
Scams, falsification, and security flaws were also among the problems. Offer Approved aims to fix these gaps by offering a transparent and trusted platform for both sellers and buyers, specifically to season ticket holders who leave several seats empty at stadiums each night.
“Sellers now have better visibility into the market, and we assist them in managing their listings," Varkey explains. "If a ticket is listed at $100, the seller can set a hidden minimum price of $80 or $70. Any offer that meets or exceeds that amount is automatically accepted, saving them the hassle of manually adjusting prices each time.”
A business model focused on sustainable growth
Varkey initially partnered with angel investors to bring the developer and a technical team. He prefers to avoid paid advertising, opting instead for a more sustainable business approach, including a small fee for sellers and a service charge for managing season tickets.
The project is currently self-funded, and Varkey is focused on ensuring long-term sustainability.
"I'm perfectly fine with taking things slowly. My priority is to make sure the model is sound first," he says.
Offer Approved is currently seeking season ticket holders and partnerships to build supply. He has also been in conversations with Toyota Center, NRG Stadium, and Minute Maid Park and their sports teams.
From corporate worker to visionary founder
Jerin Varkey founded Offer Approved to target unsold resale tickets to sporting events. Photo courtesy of Offer Approved
Varkey’s entrepreneurial journey started in the corporate world at Shell where he worked for ten years within capital project management and business improvement.
“It was a great experience, and I learned a lot, but I constantly felt the urge to say, 'This could be improved if we made some changes.' That kind of flexibility just wasn't possible in large corporate environments,” he recalls.
Varkey says he always tried to build innovative projects on the side until he finally left the company in 2018 and started working for venture-backed startups, where he found a space to bring his ideas to life.
For the past five years, Varkey has worked for startups like Gympass and Entera as a head of strategy and analytics. Now, as the founder of Offer Approved, he continues to work on new projects while driving his ticketing platform forward in Houston.
Varkey’s vision goes beyond just sports tickets and local markets — he aims to expand into areas like restaurant reservations, hotel stays, and other time-sensitive services, even offering deals to clients when traveling or exploring new cities.
“I believe in the power of negotiation, and I envision a future where people can make offers on anything with an expiration date,” he says.