Tyler Tran - Thea Partnership & Ministry Vision Discussion

Overview

A pivotal conversation between Gary and Tyler focusing on developing their ticket sales management platform "Thea" while exploring Gary's bivocational ministry vision. Tyler validates the business model with clear execution steps, while Gary reveals his recent baptism and plans to use the business to fund future church planting efforts.

Key Topics Discussed

1. Thea Product Vision & Market Problem

Tyler articulated the core problem venues face:

• Fragmented data: Venue owners manage multiple ticketing platforms (Eventbrite, Ticket Fly, Dice) without consolidated view
• Manual forecasting: Everything done in spreadsheets with constant refreshing and guesswork
• Cash flow blindness: Venues operate week-to-week without knowing deposit schedules
• No predictive analytics: Talent buyers rely on gut instinct rather than data

Tyler on the current state: "Everyone's operating on a hunch. It's just a guess. It's a wild guess at what next week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks from now looks like."

The vision: "Imagine just going on to an app that connects all of your ticket providers in one place and does the analytics for you... These are all the calculations for all of the shows that you have on sale and will be going on sale."

2. Tyler's Career Transition & Multiple Engagements

Tyler is managing several professional commitments:

• Given notice at NBA T2: Current workload is light during transition
• Starting at Roc Nation: November 4, 2025 as VP of FP&A
• MBA at University of Illinois: Flexible program, taking courses one at a time
• Apollo.id consulting: Ticketing POS company where he earns percentage of transactions
• Leap Technology: Another ticketing client that could be potential Thea acquirer

Tyler on juggling commitments: "I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep this going. I got to give up something. It's just a lot."

3. Gary's Ministry Vision & Bivocational Approach

Gary revealed significant spiritual developments:

• Recently baptized: October 8, 2025 in Gulf of Mexico by pastor from Liberty, Texas
• Ministry calling: Wants to help people understand truth about Christ beyond institutional religion
• Technology focus: Building tools to support unique discipleship journeys
• Financial independence: Using business success to fund humanitarian efforts without relying on congregations

Gary on his approach: "I want to build successful businesses that don't make me reliant on other people to fund humanitarian efforts."

On the baptizing pastor: "He has been... why cancers have been gone away drastically. I had an opportunity to sit down and interview a number of people who are alive because of him laying hands on them and praying for them."

4. Detailed Product Features for Thea

Tyler outlined comprehensive feature set:

Core Functionality:

• Consolidated dashboard across all ticketing platforms
• Real-time cash flow forecasting with deposit predictions
• Predictive analytics using multiple data sources (Spotify plays, social engagement, historical data)
• Early warning system for underperforming events
• F&B revenue predictions based on attendance
• Marketing integration with Google Ads and Facebook Ads

Multi-level Views:

• Individual show level
• Venue level aggregation
• Company-wide consolidation
• Pipeline view with base/mid/high case scenarios

Tyler's visualization: "Think of it as like a stacked bar graph... this is what you sold, this is what you think it will sell by the end of the sales window, and this is what the algorithm thinks it will sell."

5. Go-to-Market Strategy & Network Leverage

Tyler has strong industry connections:

• Eric Fuller: Owns 3 venues (Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami) and books for Nashville
• MRG COO: Canadian company with 50-75 shows at a time, potential angel investor
• Apollo.id network: Can leverage for initial customer validation
• Leap Technology: Mature player that could be acquirer

Tyler on timing advantage: "We have first mover advantage. But I think when we roll out, my gut feeling is that people are going to try to build the same stuff."

6. Venue Owner Psychology & Business Challenges

Discussion on why people open venues despite risks:

• Ego and clout: "Having a nightclub is an ego flex"
• Hosting desire: Taps into human nature of bringing people together
• Portfolio approach: Many shows lose money, banking on few winners
• Low sophistication: Industry lacks data-driven decision making

Tyler on venue motivation: "No one needs... oh, because it makes economic sense. You can do a lot of things that make more money. But people just love the idea of opening venues."

7. Religious Philosophy & Institutional Critique

Both shared critiques of institutional religion:

Tyler on religious ego: "People have this idea that they have a personal relationship with God, and that you are so special that God's only focusing on you... I'm blessed by God because I'm fed, I have a house. But the guy next door... him, right? Like he has all these misfortunes. He must not be blessed by God."

Tyler on Jesuits: Introduced Gary to Jesuit approach where priests have professions "so that they rely less on panhandling" and "to be more among the commoners."

Gary on Catholicism: "I don't really feel like the Catholic Church at the highest level... is Holy Spirit led. Feel like it's like a power structure."

8. Partnership Alignment & Life Philosophy

Tyler on maturity advantage: "The thing about starting a business later on in life is I have much more experience in understanding what the business problem is and how and what a solution could look like."

On complementary skills: "You're very ambitious... let's run fast. Let's get excited about this. You need both sides... I'm more like, let's understand the risk here."

Gary on divine orchestration: "I generally do feel like God orchestrated our relationship. It just feels very unlikely in so many ways, and I do cherish it."

9. Vision for Christian Applications

Gary sees Thea solving similar problems for religious events:

• Forecasting attendance for evangelistic crusades
• Managing supplies for outdoor religious gatherings
• Supporting churches with better infrastructure
• Enabling data-driven ministry decisions

Gary's excitement: "Most of what wins new souls to Christ is these awesome, huge events... forecasting attendance is totally a problem for evangelism."

10. Exit Strategy & Long-term Goals

Tyler's perspective: "The ultimate goal here is like, you and I have these separate things. Like, you want to do something else after this. This is like your mission is to found... a church, right?"

Business approach: "We found a business need. It's a B2B business we're doing... We just decided, hey, let's just fill this gap. Let's bring this part of the world into the modern age."

Key Quotes

On validation:

"The key thing about knowing whether you should have high conviction or not about a certain thing is you can picture clearly what the steps are... I can clearly visualize the steps of this business that you and I are about to talk to."

On sustainability mission:

"What we're trying to do is ensure that people who are putting on events, experiences, gathering crowds is for them to be able to do it sustainably... So that you can just focus on actually delivering your experience and message to the people that you are trying to reach."

On product stickiness:

"The sticky part of this is you do all that and they rely on it. And just the idea of like having to do this myself if I don't have this tool anymore, it just seems unfathomable."

On data democratization:

"Anyone can be a talent buyer with data. You don't need to use industry knowledge anymore."

On ministry funding:

"I want to build successful businesses that don't make me reliant on other people to fund humanitarian efforts."

Action Items & Next Steps

1. Schedule follow-up meeting for afternoon (next day or Friday)
2. Plan NYC in-person meeting when Gary visits for wedding (Monday or Tuesday)
3. Conduct user interviews:
   • Eric Fuller (3 venues across Florida)
   • MRG COO (50+ shows across dozen venues)
4. Tyler to provide:
   • Sample dashboards from previous work
   • PhD white papers on ticket sales forecasting
   • Detailed user workflows and pain points documentation
5. Gary to review:
   • White papers on forecasting models
   • Books on music industry and talent acquisition
6. Product development:
   • Define API requirements for ticketing platforms
   • Create data structure documentation
   • Develop prototype focusing on cash flow as primary value

Relationship Dynamics

The conversation revealed deep mutual respect and complementary strengths. Tyler brings operational expertise, industry connections, and financial acumen, while Gary provides technical vision, spiritual purpose, and product thinking. Their shared critique of superficial approaches (whether in religion or business) and desire for meaningful impact creates strong alignment. Tyler's validation of Gary's vision and clear execution path signals readiness to move from exploration to action.

Ministry & Business Integration

Gary's vision elegantly connects commercial success with spiritual mission - using venue management technology to eventually support evangelistic events and church planting. This bivocational approach addresses his concern about becoming a "grifter pastor" while maintaining focus on spreading the gospel through modern means. The business provides both funding mechanism and practical technology for future ministry work.

Conclusion

This conversation marks a transition from ideation to execution planning for Thea. With Tyler's industry expertise validating the market need and Gary's technical capabilities aligned with a higher purpose, they've identified a genuine problem with a clear solution path. The next phase focuses on user research, prototype development, and leveraging Tyler's network for early validation and funding.