Chris Crossley has enormous admiration for people who refuse to let adversity define them. He points to Jamie Oliver, who overcame severe dyslexia to become a celebrated chef and the best selling non-fiction author in the UK, and the Gallagher brothers, whose working-class roots didn't stop Oasis from becoming one of the most popular bands in musical history.
He also respects entrepreneurs who have built remarkable companies against all odds. In fact, that is what pushed him and two of his friends to jump onto the entrepreneurial bandwagon in 2008 by opening a T-shirt business. It failed miserably.
“We printed loads but barely sold any,” says Chris. “Ironically, we went for a high-quality brand of T-shirt, and the tees were worth more plain than with our designs on! We decided to call it a day and give all the T-shirts to charity.”
But, he adds, it wasn’t a complete loss. “It taught us that the three of us could work together.”
Having watched with interest as Twitter took off, the trio decided their future might be in a word that started with “T” but didn’t end in “shirt.”
Chris has been working alongside his co-founders, Barnaby Clark and James Stilwell, for a decade and a half, but their relationship goes all the way back to childhood and university.
“We started as friends, so we’ve always had a very frank, open relationship,” Chris notes. “Knowing very little about clothing or retail, next we looked at doing a proper tech play, that was far more suited to our backgrounds. We came up with a piece of technology that scraped venue websites in a city, pulled together the what’s-on listings, and then put them into a unified data feed that we then licensed to other companies.”
It was a hit. “Our clients were companies that owned groups of regional newspapers. Our biggest client was at the time Trinity Mirror, now called Reach plc. They own Manchester Evening News, The Liverpool Echo and at the time about 150-odd local newspapers across the UK, and we powered their what’s on sections.”
Chris continues, “That was going okay, but as time went on, we felt the bigger opportunity was to get closer to the transaction, namely, the ticket purchase.”
Building on their initial success, Chris, Barnaby and James launched Line-Up, a commerce platform for live entertainment that is headquartered in London and currently operates across the UK and North America, with further international expansion planned.
The founders of Line-Up in 2013, shortly after starting the business. L-R: James Stilwell, Chris Crossley and Barnaby Clark.
“From a technology perspective, we felt there was a big opportunity to make the ticket-buying process easier for buyers. That was when we pivoted the company into a ticketing business. We started by focusing on functionality to tailor the system to off-West End theaters, and then we went from working with one to working with about 15 or so in just over a year. That was what put us on our trajectory of where we are now.”
The real turning point came when Chris got a call from Martin Crosier, asking if Line-Up could build a custom show lottery system for a major London production. He said “yes” immediately, ran back to the team, and said, “We’ve got to drop everything and make this work.” They pulled it off, and that leap directly opened the door to a landmark partnership with LW Theatres.
“Shortly after Martin joined LW Theatres, we were sent the brief for a project to build a custom front-end checkout flow on top of their existing ticketing system,” Chris recalls. “We read the brief and were really excited by it. We thought this was a massive opportunity. We’d spent three years or so by this point working out what makes a good ticket purchase for off-West End theaters. We were excited by applying that thinking to larger West End shows, so we worked really hard on that pitch and ended up winning the project. We worked on that project throughout the second half of 2019 and delivered it at the start of 2020.”
The founders of Line-Up in 2024: Barnaby Clark (left), Chris Crossley (middle) and James Stilwell (right).
When COVID-19 brought the live entertainment industry to a sudden halt shortly after, they used the pause to their advantage and took another leap of faith.
”We took the decision to completely rebuild Line-Up from scratch. We decided that the system we had, Line-Up 1.0 as we now call it, wasn’t going to get us to where we wanted to get to. We approached a number of our clients about that and said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. Will you work with us so that we can build best live entertainment ticketing system for both reserved seating and also for general admission/timed entry?’ ... It took about two years to build that system. We were still very small at the time. We then migrated the first clients in the summer of 2023, and then, having shown LW Theatres our progress throughout the rebuild and getting it to a point where it was in a good position for them to start using it, we agreed that they would move everything to Line-Up.”
Today, the company they built together powers ticketing for some of the most iconic theaters in London's West End, continues to expand into North America, and has become one of the industry's most innovative technology partners.
Chris serves as Chief Operating Officer and looking back on the successful growth of the company over the past 15 years, he says, “I’m very proud of what we’ve built. I think we’ve done a lot with a little in terms of the amount of money that we’ve raised and the team size. We’ve punched above our weight and we’ve always felt like an underdog, but I think we've achieved some incredible things. As one of the founders of a small business, we have to wear many different hats. I might spend one day on one thing, another day on something completely different, and I love that. I enjoy that variety. I love the great team that we've built. It’s been a real journey, but it’s never been more enjoyable than it is now, and I’m very excited about where we are and where we're going. It feels a long way away from trying to sell bad T-shirts.”
L-R: Chris, Barnaby and Ryan Metcalfe, CEO of Preevue at the Olivier Awards in 2026.
For Chris, effective leadership isn’t about top-down authority. It’s about leading by example, maintaining cool-headed consistency and building a culture rooted in empathy. “If you’re asking people to do something, then I think you need to be prepared to do it yourself, and I think you need to be prepared to put yourself in the difficult positions, face the music whenever you have to — whatever music that is — whether that’s a client, team member or otherwise,” he says. “Fellow ticketing professional Angela Higgins recently told me a quote from her friend and mentor Pat Boggs: ‘People who don’t make mistakes have never worked a day in their life.’ That really resonated with me. We need to inspire people, and we need to win hearts and minds … [and constantly ask] ‘What can we do better? What do you need from us as leaders? What's going to enable you to fulfill the potential that you have?’”
That same philosophy applies to what Chris values most in the people working alongside him. “Empathy is probably the most underrated trait humans have. Just stopping to consider another person’s perspective and reflecting on why that person might be feeling that way and then adjusting the response based on that — whether it’s a client, another supplier or a colleague — being able to put yourself in their shoes can be a superpower in the workplace. Combined with hard work, integrity and simply doing what you say you’re going to do; you can be unstoppable. These may sound basic but are rare skills.”
To say that Chris admires passion in others and is passionate about what he does would be an understatement. According to his wife, Laura, who he met in a co-working space for startups, his work is his life. In fact, Chris was once quoted in a Guardian newspaper article as saying: “For me, there’s no such thing as a work-life balance.” That said, this appears to have changed somewhat since his two children were born.
Chris with his wife and children on holiday in Greece in 2026.
“I’ve got two young kids, so naturally, I feel like I haven’t done anything related to my personal interests in the past eight years,” he says with a smile. “But when I am able to do things in my spare time, I enjoy going out for walks with my family. We try to do at least one long walk each weekend, preferably stopping at a pub at the end. In terms of what I do to unwind, it’s watching football [soccer]. Watching Arsenal, or any football for that matter. That’s what I really like to do to relax.”
Chris describes Laura and his children as the greatest loves of his life. Third on his list of “greatest loves” is Arsenal F.C.: “It's quite an odd one,” Chris admits, “but I feel a love for Arsenal that is not quite the same level as the love for my family, because I'm not a complete maniac, but I love them dearly.”
Chris and Laura.
Chris, his brother Nick and children celebrating Arsenal's Premier League title win at the victory parade in May 2026.
When he finds the time, Chris picks up his guitar but says he’s just an “okay” player, “I would love to play the guitar brilliantly, doing loads of solos and all that kind of stuff. I would also love to be able to sing and sing well. I think being able to sing well is an amazing skill. If I could sing, then I obviously would have been a rock star.”
Speaking of rock stars, Chris has certainly seen his fair share over the years.
“I think part of the reason that I ended up in this industry is that I absolutely love going to see things live, whether it’s music, theatre, sports or comedy,” he says. “I was very lucky in that when I was younger, my dad took me to a lot of live music that I was probably too young to appreciate. The first-ever gig I went to was Pink Floyd at Earl’s Court in London when I was nine. Then he took me to see the Rolling Stones. He took me to see Paul McCartney. I got into Oasis myself when I was young, and saw them several times, which was fantastic, but I was lucky enough to get tickets to one of the comeback shows in 2025. That was not only the best thing I’ve ever seen live, but it was one of the best days of my life. I would rank it probably third, with my wedding number one, kids being born second, and Oasis in third. But after maybe a beer or two, I might tell you the truth, and that would be that probably Oasis would go in as number two. It was an incredible day. It was 90,000 people, nothing but love and affection. I’m not ashamed to say I cried a number of times during the show, and it was an immensely emotional and wonderful day. I really struggle to see how anything could be better than that.”
Chris and Laura seeing Oasis at Wembley Stadium in 2025.
L-R: Barnaby, a friend and Chris at Oasis in 2002.
And, of course, being part of the live entertainment industry, Chris has been in venues all over the world. But his favorites are closer to home.
“The London Palladium is an incredible venue,” he says. “I have to pinch myself sometimes that it’s Line-Up who powers their ticketing. It’s an unbelievable thing to be part of … It is such a beautiful venue. It’s got so much history, so many people, acts, music and theatre perform there. It’s just incredible. I also love Brixton Academy, because as a music venue, I don’t think it gets any better than that. It’s not too big. It’s not too small. It’s raked, so when you’re standing, you get a really good view wherever you stand, and I’ve had some fantastic gig experiences in there.”
Chris and his family live near Guildford, a leafy community a short commute from London, and it appears unlikely he’ll ever move.
“I love it here,” he says.” I love the UK. The weather is problematic sometimes, and British people are stereotypically obsessed with it, but a lot of the time you don’t really take any notice of it, and then that enables you to focus on other things … I’ve been lucky enough to go to New York quite a lot in the past couple of years. That's a fantastic place to visit. I think the energy is amazing. And it feels like there's so much opportunity, which is great. The place I most want to go to in the world that I haven't been to before is Japan. I'm desperate to go to Japan and Tokyo in particular.”
Chris and his children in 2025.
In 2024, Chris traveled to Las Vegas to attend his first INTIX conference.
“Coming to the awards lunch, I really did not know what to expect at all. It was great to see people who cared deeply about what was happening, to celebrate each other and show real passion about what they were doing. I find people in this industry to be very passionate. People aren’t in this for the money. They’re often not in it because they necessarily set out to go into ticketing. They’re in it because they genuinely love or are passionate about either the content, for want of a better word, or for the art or for the fact that they love working in places that bring people together, and it gives them that [same] joy that I experience. Working in ticketing, being a part of enabling people to enjoy those experiences, albeit a fairly small part, is something I take enormous pride in.”
He continues, “Culture is so important in society. I think it's hugely undervalued. I think it's hugely underinvested in. Look at the UK in terms of population and size, yet we have made a huge contribution to culture worldwide. Whether that’s music, art, comedy, theatre … It’s something we don’t celebrate enough. We don’t champion it enough. We don’t invest in it enough. It plays a hugely important role in society for children from whatever background. Doing stuff creatively shouldn’t be a nice-to-have, in my opinion. I think it does change lives. It changes people's fortunes. It changes the things that they become passionate about.”
Chris says, “I love coming together with like-minded people who are also passionate about that, who are also really eager to discuss at great length various minutiae of the industry, the commercial models behind it or the technology that powers it. I love nothing better than meeting with a bunch of ticketing people and talking about ticketing, because although, as I have described, my wife is fantastic, she can’t really do that. That’s what draws me toward INTIX and going to the conferences.”
As someone whose career is rooted in technology, Chris acknowledges that while the ticketing industry is often criticized for being slow to adapt, the reality is far more nuanced.
“It’s not as simple as just saying, ‘Oh, ticketing is really far behind.’ There’s a lot of nuance there, and I do understand why it might be like that to a certain extent. But I’ve never felt it’s because there’s a lack of appetite from the people who work within ticketing to push things forward, for progress, to have conversations, to learn things, to adopt new ways of working. And again, that’s one of the things I really love about this industry. No one is just kicking back and going, ‘Let's just do it like this for the next 50 years.’ It’s about how we can provide our audience with a better experience. How can we improve the tools that our team uses? How can we really try and push this industry forward for the better of everyone? That’s one of the really great things that INTIX does.”
Looking back over his journey from failed T-shirt vendor to West End tech leader, Chris has a clear perspective on what he would tell himself if he were just starting out.
“Resilience and perseverance are hugely important,” he says. “Keep going, keep pushing, keep working hard. What you’re working towards will hopefully materialize, but also try to put everything in perspective and remember that what seems like a disaster now may not be in the end. There was a quote I heard a few years ago that really has always resonated with me. It’s a quote from Boethius, but it was in [the 2002 film] 24 Hour Party People: “It’s my belief that history is a wheel. ‘Inconstancy is my very essence,’ says the wheel. Rise up on my spokes if you like, but don’t complain when you're cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it’s also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away.” I always try to remember that when either things are good or things are bad, things go up and down and all you've got to do is ride it out.”
The founders of Line-Up in 2015. This is the photo Chris calls his “favourite photo of the three of us!”
That sense of perspective, and the ability to keep high-stakes business in proportion, is what defines his approach to both leadership and life.
“I’ve talked quite a bit about the overwhelmingly large part that Line-Up plays in my life. I’ve also spoken about my family, my children, my wife. I’m immensely lucky to have all of them, and I like to think that I’ve worked very hard for each of them. But ultimately, you’ve got to enjoy life. If you’re not enjoying your work, or if you’re not enjoying your relationship or you’re not enjoying where you’re living, as difficult as it may be, you’ve got to be able to make changes to things if you need to. You don’t want to go through life with big regrets about things like it could have been, would have done, etc. The other thing is to not take life, especially yourself, too seriously. Whatever situation I’m in, whether it’s a serious meeting, a pitch or a presentation, I’ll always try and put a joke in there, try and make people at least laugh or smile, because if we can’t laugh about stuff, then honestly, what’s the point?”
For Chris, the point isn’t simply to ride out life’s ups and downs. It’s to find reasons to laugh along the way.
You May Also Like
Want news like this delivered to your inbox weekly? Subscribe to the Access Weekly newsletter, your ticket to industry excellence.