Press Clipping
06/09/2021
Article
Tixxy's Newest Hires Promise Creative Innovation with Proven Music Tech Track Records

Tixxy brings on Head of Growth Steve Peele II, Head of Promoter & Venue PartnershipsCody Grup, and advisor Randy Nichols

Predictive concert recommendation service Tixxy (yotixxy.com) is announcing the addition of three new team members. With experience in the realms of music, technology, and startup culture, these new hiring decisions promise to further the company's goal of keeping music fans in the loop about their favorite artists' nearby shows without mining their data.

For Steve Peele II, Tixxy comes as an exciting new opportunity in a long line of career successes, primarily in the burgeoning Cincinnati startup scene. As the owner of all things marketing operations of real estate transaction management service dotloop, where Peele worked for seven years, he facilitated the company's growth and visibility to such an extent that it was acquired by Zillow Group in 2015. After leaving dotloop, Peele continued to put his digital marketing and SaaS growth experience to good use in growing local businesses including Astronomer and Everything But the House, as well as managing growth marketing at Inman News and serving as the head of growth marketing at integration leader API Nation. Most recently, Peele has served as a marketing director at top US-based software development firm Nexient, again championing marketing strategy through their recent acquisition by NTT data. He joins the Tixxy team as not only a marketing guru, but also a lifelong musician, ready to join the two worlds.

Cody Grup brings years of experience in the music industry to Tixxy. Since 2005, Grup has worked as a booking agent and talent buyer for a number of agencies throughout the country. As booking agent for the Love as Arson Agency, Grup worked with iconoclastic hard rock acts like Killwhitneydead and I Am Abomination. As a talent buyer, Grup has worked with Toledo's The Verso Group and Michigan-wide agency Go Ahead Booking, keeping his finger on the pulse of the local music scene in ways that will be invaluable to Tixxy's work with local venues.

Music and technology have long been a hybrid focus for Randy Nichols. The founder and managing director of Force Media Management, Nichols has also worked with expert New York-based artist management company Red Light Management as an artist manager and advised Bandsintown, Immensity, Tension Division, and atVenu, all innovators in the field of music and technology with which Nichols has been an invaluable collaborator. For Bandsintown in particular, Nichols's strategies raised numbers of both platform users (from 500K to 55M) and artists (from 30K to over 500K) while generating over $1M in ad revenue. Most recently, his work with atVenu helped lead the group to new virtual-era relevance in the midst of major COVID-19-related industry shifts. His artist management expertise and versatility in a number of aspects of the music technology industry promise to aid Tixxy as it continues to grow.

"Having been part of the software and startup community for the entirety of my career, executed two successful exits, and generally drawn toward all things technology, joining [CEO Eron Bucciarelli] and the Tixxy team was an absolute no-brainer. Outside of the fact that I'm a diehard musician and music fan, Eron's vision, industry knowledge, and track record speaks for itself," says Peele. "What is most intriguing for me is how I can help guide our growth engine in a scalable way by bringing my SaaS marketing experience to a product that has a natural depth and reach within an industry I care so much about."

With a wide range of experience and proven track records of innovation, each of Tixxy's newest personnel promises to contribute to the platform's ability to connect venues, artists, and fans quickly and securely, and to do it with a passion for music and technology alike.