In this edition of Bright Founders Talk, we sit down with Gilad Zilberman, Co-Founder and CEO of SeatPick, one of the world’s leading ticket search and comparison platforms for live events. From football matches and concerts to theater shows and festivals, SeatPick helps fans find the best tickets through a transparent and reliable marketplace experience.

During our conversation, Gilad shares the story behind the company’s rapid growth and its mission to make ticket purchasing safer, easier, and more accessible worldwide. He discusses how SeatPick evolved into a global platform serving users across 170 countries while continuously expanding into new markets and event categories. Beyond the business itself, Gilad reflects on the personal experiences that shaped his entrepreneurial mindset.

Growing up in Israel, excelling as a competitive swimmer, and studying in the United States all played a significant role in developing his resilience and ambition. He explains how the discipline of professional sports taught him the value of continuous improvement, perseverance, and long-term thinking. This insightful conversation offers valuable lessons for founders, business leaders, and anyone interested in building high-growth companies in competitive industries.

From Swimming Lanes to Startup Growth: How Competition Shaped Gilad Zilberman

For Gilad Zilberman, the story of SeatPick starts long before ticket marketplaces and global expansion. Growing up in Israel, he was surrounded by a culture that encouraged big thinking and bold ambitions. At home, education was a priority, and his parents pushed him to develop strong analytical skills from an early age. His father's habit of constantly thinking several steps ahead left a lasting impression, teaching Gilad to approach problems strategically and always consider what comes next.

But the biggest influence on his entrepreneurial mindset came from an unexpected place — the swimming pool. As a competitive swimmer, Gilad climbed through national teams, broke records, and competed at the European level. The experience taught him that success isn't about a single victory but about relentless self-improvement. Every achievement was quickly followed by another challenge, another race, and another opportunity to get better. That mindset would later become one of the foundations of his approach to building companies.

The lessons became even more powerful when he earned a scholarship to Texas A&M, where he trained alongside elite athletes and Olympians. Looking back, Gilad sees a strong connection between sports and entrepreneurship. Both demand resilience, discipline, and the ability to keep moving forward when things get tough. Interestingly, he never set out to become a founder. Instead, he was naturally drawn to solving problems, optimizing processes, and finding smarter ways to scale ideas — qualities that eventually led him to build SeatPick into a global business.

Finding Opportunity in a Broken Industry: Why Gilad Chose Ticketing

Gilad didn’t wake up one day with a grand plan to build a ticketing company. In fact, entrepreneurship found him gradually. While working in the industry, he kept running into inefficiencies that others seemed willing to accept. What looked like frustration to most people looked like opportunity to him. Surrounded by Israel’s startup culture, inspired by books like “Zero to One” and “The Lean Startup”, and energized by conversations with future co-founders, he slowly caught the entrepreneurial bug. Before long, weekend side projects turned into a serious mission to build something of his own.

The first idea wasn’t even SeatPick. Gilad and his co-founder originally focused on fixing the chaotic backend of the ticketing world, where huge amounts of inventory and money were still being managed through spreadsheets and disconnected systems. But after testing the concept and raising some initial funding, they realized the market wasn’t quite ready. Instead of forcing the idea forward, they pivoted. Looking across the industry, they noticed something surprising: while ticket marketplaces existed, nobody was truly helping fans navigate them all. There was no global equivalent of Skyscanner or Kayak for live events, despite enormous demand for football matches, concerts, festivals, Formula 1 races, and countless other experiences.

That realization became the foundation of SeatPick. Gilad believed the problem wasn’t just access to tickets—it was the entire customer experience. Fans wanted trust, transparency, and confidence that they were getting the best option for their needs. Some people simply wanted to get into the stadium, while others dreamed of sitting as close as possible to their favorite player or artist. Behind every ticket purchase was a personal story, an emotional moment, or a memory waiting to happen. For Gilad, that made ticketing far more than a transaction. The challenge was creating a platform that could connect buyers and sellers worldwide while delivering an experience worthy of the passion that fans bring to every event.

More Than a Ticket Search: Building a Safety Net for Fans

Gilad doesn’t just see SeatPick as a place to find tickets—he sees it as an advocate for fans. His reasoning is simple: if a platform can save users time, compare offers from across the market, and provide extra protection at no additional cost, why would anyone shop elsewhere? Beyond aggregation, SeatPick acts as a buffer between customers and ticket sellers, stepping in when problems arise. Thanks to its relationships with major marketplaces, the company can often resolve issues behind the scenes before they ruin a fan’s experience.

That fan-first mindset shapes everything SeatPick does. When ticket problems occur, the team doesn't simply point customers toward a marketplace's support page and walk away. Instead, they often intervene directly, working with partners to secure replacements, refunds, or alternative solutions. For Gilad, every customer belongs to SeatPick first, not to the marketplace providing the ticket. It's a philosophy that challenges the transactional nature of much of the ticketing industry, where buyers can sometimes feel like just another order number.

Of course, creating that experience requires being selective about who gets access to the platform. SeatPick carefully evaluates sellers based on performance data, customer feedback, fulfillment rates, guarantees, and long-term reliability. New partners are often tested on a small scale before receiving broader exposure, while underperforming companies can be removed entirely. The goal is straightforward: create an ecosystem where trust matters as much as price. In an industry filled with uncertainty, Gilad believes the real value isn't just helping fans find tickets—it's helping them buy with confidence.

Why Entrepreneurs Should Think Bigger — and Never Get Off the Horse

Gilad isn’t afraid to challenge conventional thinking, whether he’s talking about ticketing or entrepreneurship. When the conversation turned to ticket reselling, he argued that the real issue isn’t brokers or secondary marketplaces—it’s the lack of openness in the ticketing ecosystem itself. In his view, restricting supply only creates more demand, driving activity into less transparent channels. Instead of fighting market forces, he believes the industry should embrace competition, transparency, and better technology to create a safer experience for fans.

But perhaps the most valuable insights came when Gilad was asked what advice he would give aspiring founders. His first answer was surprisingly simple: think bigger. Too many entrepreneurs underestimate how much work it takes to build any business. Whether you're opening a local restaurant or launching the next global tech company, the commitment, pressure, and uncertainty are enormous. If the effort is going to be intense either way, Gilad argues, you might as well aim for something ambitious enough to make the journey worthwhile.

His second lesson was even more practical. Great ideas alone don't create successful companies—action does. Gilad believes that many people spend too much time protecting their ideas and not enough time testing them. Real learning only begins once execution starts. And when things inevitably get difficult, persistence becomes the ultimate advantage. The founders people admire today often started with little money, little support, and plenty of doubt surrounding them. What separated them wasn't luck—it was their willingness to keep moving forward. As Gilad puts it, once you've chosen the entrepreneurial path, the key is simple: never get off the horse.