Lyte’s Alex Ryzhko on heavy metal, church ladies and the early days of our platform

Alex Ryzhko was one of Lyte’s first employees.

Back then, he was a young, super-smart software engineer with an interest in cyber security who had played the guitar in a Christian heavy metal band during college.

“I am not naturally religious, but the most metal feeling I have ever had in my life was performing in a church,” Alex says. “It was awesome to see some 50-year-old church lady in a mosh pit.”

As Lyte’s head of engineering, Alex architects and manages the ins and outs of the Lyte platform. That means he makes sure our technology and capabilities continue to meet and exceed the needs of our customers, partners and clients.

Alex was born in Belarus, moved to New York City in 2008, lives in San Francisco and is still a guitarist. Here, he talks about tech, live events and humble beginnings.

Lyte: You have a pretty cool and interesting background. What brought you to us?

Alex: I moved to New York right after graduating music school and was doing math and physics and decided to keep music around as a hobby. I had earned my computer science and engineering degrees and was doing cyber security. I really wanted to learn how to build systems that don’t break from people trying to take advantage of them. I started working for Lyte when it was just Ant (Taylor, Lyte’s CEO) and Karina (Brioukhova, head of operations).

I helped build the Lyte web app and technology infrastructure. It combined my love of tech, music, live events and fighting bad actors. It was a perfect fit.

Lyte: You’ve watched Lyte grow from three employees to 24. You were there when Ant moved the company from New York to San Francisco and came along with him. What has it been like to experience all that growth and change?

Alex: It’s funny. We moved from one table in a shared space in New York City then adding few employees and now we’re in our own office in San Francisco and expand so fast we are running out of tables to sit at. It’s a great problem to have.

It’s been very exciting and feels it accelerates all the time with problems becoming bigger, more complex and more interesting to solve — we just go faster and faster. Lyte seems to get more and more traction and we receive great feedback from people who are using our platform. They are really happy.

I still remember that it was once the three of us trying to figure out how to have an impact in all this. Ant started with the idea that tickets should be refundable. It just made sense and we ran with it. Now, Lyte has access to so many other platforms; we can facilitate most of the live events in the U.S. This team is still rolling and has the potential to get much bigger and eventually end ticket scalping and fill every seat. That is inspiring.

Lyte: You are a musician. How does that impact what you do at Lyte?

Alex:I don’t want to speak for all musicians, but I would definitely want as many people in the audience as possible who wanted to see my performance. It’s a better feeling with more happy faces out there. Knowing that Lyte brings more people live events really makes a difference for me.

I saw my first live event when I was 12. There was a Russian rock band coming to play at a local stadium and my father took me to see them. Sitting far out, I saw so many people around me who were totally into it and were really excited. You could feel that energy, especially on the floor near the stage.

Later, I saw a couple of other bands at local clubs in more private settings in Belarus. That connection with the artists bringing music to life felt even stronger. I got to experience my first festival with multiple stages when I lived in Brussels. There, I saw all different styles and vibes, with Bon Jovi as the headliner. Since then, live music is my religious experience. It’s my church that connects me with everyone and brings me positivity and joy.

When you see people showing up to watch their favorite artists perform live…those are magical moments. I want to do what I can to help keep the fan experience special for every live event. That’s what all of us at Lyte want. It’s really why we go to work every day.

About Lyte

Lyte makes it easier for fans to go to more live events.

Founded in New York City and San Francisco by CEO Ant Taylor, our killer fan feature is returnability. 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 millions in fan savings — $1.8 million in 2018 alone. It’s only getting better from here thanks to our growing partnerships with bands, venues, promoters, ticketers and festivals.

Lyte is easy to use and puts valid tickets in the hands of fans who share the same love of live events that we do. One hundred percent of the tickets bought and sold through Lyte are issued through our ticketing partners and delivered directly to fans. Yes, we’ve saved fans money. But we’ve also made sure fans who use Lyte will never get to the box office to find out that the tickets they bought were fraudulent.

For the industry, we function as a full inventory management solution, including a private-label secondary market to optimize event yield for event producers.

Fans can request or return tickets to tons of sold-out events here. Check out all of the great live events Lyte is currently powering.

Want more information on Lyte? Email press@lyte.com.