Justin Cener is Founder and CEO of Crowd Seats, the first Daily Deals Site for Sports Tickets. Cener, a 2009 Rutgers University graduate with dual degrees in Information Technology and Informatics and Sports Marketing, started Crowd Seats to create an online medium for teams to generate revenue on their distressed and last-minute ticket inventory. He spent 3+ years working as a freelance web developer and social media consultant in Central NJ and Los Angeles. Here, he gives advice on what it takes to start an online business and become a successful entrepreneur. Crowd Seats has upcoming deals for the New Jersey Nets, and Rutgers' men's and women's basketball.

Describe your startup company.

Crowd Seats is a last-minute ticket club that offers sports fans access to tickets to the best games in their area at 50-90% off face value. It's free to join and you can get access to amazing deals on last-minute tickets. Consumers benefit by receiving huge discounts off face value. Teams benefit through the creation of a new medium for last-minute and distressed ticket inventory.

How did you identify a need for Crowd Seats?

Twenty-five to 35 percent of sports tickets go unsold each night, leaving millions in ticket revenues on the table. Sports ticket inventory is perishable - if you don't sell it, you lose it. For each ticket sold, teams can count on additional per-cap revenues in the forms of parking, concessions, and souvenirs. These add up quick and represent a significant revenue stream for teams. Through Crowd Seats, teams will salvage their last-minute and distressed ticket inventories and drive significant revenues. On top of revenues, Crowd Seats provides highly targeted leads to our partner teams. When a user signs up for Crowd Seats, they're showing an interest in buying last-minute tickets - that's what we offer. Teams are not only driving revenues - they're building their customer database.

How did your coursework help you in your current pursuits?

Crowd Seats is completely integrated with Social Media. My coursework at SC&I has helped a great deal, most notably in the social marketing aspects of the business. Of course, the programming courses included in SC&I have provided the backbone for the development of the site.

How is social media helping you run your business?

Social media is an integral part of Crowd Seats. We make it super easy for our users to share our deals and help us expand our user base.  Whether it's through the deal email or directly on the site, our users can one-click share to Twitter and Facebook and let their friends know about our awesome deals.  Social media has been a huge selling tool for Crowd Seats.  Over  on-third of our buyers come directly from a link shared on Facebook or Twitter.

What is your next step?

Crowd Seats is live in two markets - NYC/NJ and Los Angeles. We are continuing to build our user base and partner team network. We hope to expand into five more cities by summer 2012. On the backend, I'm constantly attending conferences and pitching Crowd Seats as often as I can in hopes of securing angel investment to fully scale this out nationwide.

What advice would you give to new graduates interested in becoming entrepreneurs?

Stay up to date. It's a necessity to know what's trending in the tech/consumer web space. Make sure you're reading Mashable, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, etc to get a full grasp of where the industry is heading. Networking is a huge necessity as well, especially if you want to get into the startup space. There are a few vibrant startup communities nationwide (NYC for Rutgers) with numerous networking events, conferences, and meetups that are filled with like-minded entrepreneurs.