The founder behind Dubai’s ticketing success reveals his ambitious plan to take Platinumlist to unicorn status on The Hustle.

From cashier to CEO: Cosmin Ivan plots unicorn bid for Platinumlist

Cosmin Ivan, the CEO of Dubai-born ticketing and events platform Platinumlist, has laid out an ambitious plan to transform the company into a regional unicorn. Ivan, who joined Platinumlist after moving from Romania and helped grow the business into operations across more than 20 countries, now oversees a company that spans six business areas including ticketing, marketing, business events and team management. He says Platinumlist’s tech stack — built on a digital ticketing foundation and 18 years of first-party sales data — now feeds predictive AI tools designed to forecast demand and guide promoter budgets.

“If you give your word, do it. And if you don’t want to do it, don’t just do it half measure… if you give your word that you will do something, do it 100 per cent, care about it like it’s yours,” Ivan said, describing the personal ethic that carried him from scanning tickets to running the company.

Ivan’s journey to the helm was gradual and reluctant. Born and raised in Romania, he spent nearly eight years in the ticketing and entertainment industry there before moving to Dubai at the encouragement of his sister, who worked at Emirates Airlines. While searching for work he applied for a Platinumlist vacancy in a moment he recalls as almost providential: “I need to stop. I need to apply for this job,” he told his mother on Skype. He was offered the role after what he described as a three-hour conversation and started the next day as a cashier, handling ticket scanning, customer support and sharing phone duties with founder Vassiliy Anatoli in a small four- or five-person office.

• Early stage: paper tickets and government stamps — Platinumlist once hired temporary staff to manually stamp 30,000 tickets before Dubai’s tourism authority introduced a centralized digital system in 2013–14.
• Digital pivot: Platinumlist became the first company to integrate with the government platform and even placed a team member inside the government office to aid the rollout — a move Ivan calls pivotal in broadening the business beyond nightlife into concerts, sports, fashion and family entertainment.
• Data and AI: The company now leverages 18 years of sales data to power AI tools that help organisers predict demand and estimate artist performance.

Ivan says he twice initially declined promotions — first from ticketing manager to operations manager, and later when founder Vassiliy Anatoli suggested he become CEO — before accepting both roles. The hands-on ethos that defined his early years continues: he starts his day around 6am checking for overnight issues, shares breakfast with his wife and heads into the office early. “I like a day which is full, and there are things to do, problems to solve,” he said.

The company has navigated regional disruptions by proactively contacting clients and offering flexibility on rescheduling and cancellations. Ivan reports recovery in bookings and says roughly 70 per cent of Platinumlist’s shows are now selling out, citing sold-out performances by Angham and Rashed Al Majid in Abu Dhabi as examples. He also highlights the industry’s high-pressure rhythms: “Whenever everybody is off, we are on,” he said, underlining the operational demands of live events.

Looking ahead, Ivan is focused on scaling the platform’s ecosystem across the Middle East and beyond, doubling down on data-driven products and AI capabilities as the lever that will, in his view, turn Platinumlist into the region’s next unicorn.