Caitlin Flood: Our newest ‘wicked’ cool Lyter
Caitlin Flood was born and raised in the Boston area. But don’t expect her to say “cah” instead of “car,” “hahd” instead of “hard,” or “pizzer” instead of ¢“pizza.”
“My mother specifically brought up my brother and I to NOT have a Boston accent,” she says. “My dad, on the other hand, has a wicked accent.”
(She still said “wicked!”)
Caitlin is Lyte’s interim EA and new Office and Community Manager. She comes to us from SoulCycle, where she spent four years working in East Coast Operations, marketing and as a studio manager in San Francisco. There, Caitlin met Lyte Founder and CEO Ant Taylor (he does SoulCycle when he can and is obsessed with it) and that meeting ultimately led her here.
“I met Ant at SoulCycle when he was a regular and I was managing the Castro studio,” Caitlin says. “A co-worker told me about what he and Lyte were doing. I was like, Holy shit. Why did I not know about this — and why doesn’t everybody know about this?” I immediately wanted to be a part of it.”
Caitlin is overseeing Lyte’s move to a new company headquarters. It’s only a few blocks down from the current SoMa office. It’s a bigger, cooler space to accommodate our platform’s explosive growth this year. Caitlin lives in San Francisco in a four-block radius from her two best friends from college and her Godson. “It’s all very Mr. Rogers and close to my heart,” she says.
Here, Caitlin talks about working for a startup for the first time, a woman named Florence, and choosing the right paint color. Read on.
Maggie: You have a few titles in your new role at Lyte — Executive Assistant, Office Manager, and Community Manager. Tell us about what you’ll be doing.
Caitlin: First, I’ll be an executive assistant to Ant, helping to manage his schedule and his other day-to-day needs. With the office management, the biggest task is going to be this move and getting us settled into the new space. I’m working with contractors, the landlord, and picking out paint colors — I’m in Sherwin Williams as I’m talking to you! As project manager of the move, I am assisting with and coordinating all of the needs that come with it.
For community management, I’ll be developing community events for existing clients and friends. I’m also going to help with internal employee team activities. I’ll plan get-togethers and things like that.
Maggie: What appealed to you about Lyte?
Caitlin: The potential here is amazing. Karina (Brioukhova, Lyte’s Revenue Operations Director) has been sharing with me all the growth, and it’s been really cool. Then there’s the company history, hearing the timeline of how Lyte started with only Karina, Ant and Alex (Ryzhko, Lyte’s Head of Engineering), then Nolan (Brown, Lyte’s Head of Platforms). And then look where it is now, with new people starting all the time. We’re moving to a much bigger office. It’s massively impressive.
This is the first real startup culture I’ve worked in. It’s inspiring, all the hustle and grind that people turn out every single day. I love that grassroots startup feel, and the fact that all of those people who started with Lyte are still here today. That really says something.
Lyte for me bridges the gap between passion and career goals. I love live events and I love people working together to help a company that I personally believe in. I’d believe in it if I wasn’t an employee. Every company I’ve ever worked for has been a place I’d want to be a customer for. I like to walk the walk and talk the talk. Lyte perfectly fits that.
Maggie: You go to a lot of live events. Have you experienced a negative ticketing experience on the secondary market?
Caitlin: I have! It was actually only a few months ago. I bought a ticket on the secondary market and whoever the seller was, they had given it out to multiple people. I went to scan the ticket at the door and it was no good. It was like I knew that deep down something was off. You know how you have that voice inside your head that tells you, Something isn’t right about this…but you take the risk to see certain artists? That’s what was going on with me. I was so bummed. And there was nothing I could do.
That’s another reason I am so happy to be here. I want to help the team at Lyte make sure experiences like that never happens to a fan again.
Maggie: Do you have a favorite live event? The best concert you ever attended?
Caitlin: I saw Florence and the Machine at the Anthem in Washington, D.C. last year.
The Anthem (a Lyte venue partner) is one of the most impressive venues I’ve ever been to. The lighting and the sound are unbelievable.
I love Florence and the way she captivates the room. She makes you feel like you are in the best Anthropologie store ever, with the lighting, set design and all her outfits. I remember looking around at all the smiling faces and thinking, I don’t want to go home.
There really isn’t anything that gives you as strong of a sense of community as a live event. I can’t explain what the feeling itself is — but I know I don’t want it to go away. The world is so divided now. Live events are one of the few things that still can bring people together. I don’t see how that can ever change.
Maggie: And now the question we’re dying to ask: What paint colors are you choosing for Lyte’s new headquarters? No pressure.
Caitlin: I’m looking at Benjamin Moore’s misty gray. What do you think?
About Lyte
Lyte’s mission is to fill every seat and make ticketing delightful, making it easier for fans to attend more events. In an industry where a “no refunds and no cancellations” policy is the standard, Lyte enables fans to return their event tickets, no questions asked, to the official point of purchase. Lyte also provides a safe and official reservation booking system, offering fans who sign up a fair price for in-demand tickets. Lyte has delivered well over $5MM in fan savings since inception. One hundred percent of the tickets bought and sold through Lyte are issued through ticketing partners and delivered directly to fans with no chance of being fraudulent. Visit lyte.com.
