Dusty Stutsman – SBMenus & Nightout.com

In 805conversations by Mark Sylvester

Execution – The Key to Success

I’m a big efficiency guy.”Dusty Stutsman, Co-Founder, SBMenus.com and Nightout.com

Dusty Stutsman is the co-founder of Nightout.com and SBMenus. One could say they backed into the business when they saw a gap in the market. He and partner Bryan Brand, noticed that one page on SBMenus.com was getting a lot of traction. People were spending more time on the Bar Specials and Entertainment page which got them to thinking, “What if we created an entire site for entertainment?”. Nightout.com was born soon after and what a great URL that is too.

Thinking bigger than just delivering information, or food, they approached the project as an opportunity to create a platform, not just a website. The resulting software project now is a complete ticketing and event site that producers can use to manage events. They’re full service now, doing the marketing, selling, even scanning and validating tickets at the event.

Dusty’s parents are both entrepreneurs, so his exposure to thinking about ideas and turning them into businesses is a part of his DNA.

He explained how he and Bryan developed a 3-sided marketplace for SBMenus that is composed of Consumers, Restaurants, and the Drivers. As a pure E-commerce play, they optimised each aspect of the business to be as efficient as possible. Dusty admits to being fixated on the Delivery Tracker, so he knows where all the drivers are – making sure clients get their meals hot and quick.

Nightout.com sees 30,000 visitors a day, as people look for events nationwide. The platform’s services are easily integrated into any website, and the entire ticketing experience can be added to an existing business. He sees a tremendous upside here, even in a crowded market.