Andy Lederman

Founder & CEO Bucket Listers

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Andy Lederman spent seven years in institutional investing — leveraged credit at Ares Management, before that Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with real estate private equity along the way — and left in 2018 to start a media business about things to do. Bucket Listers began as a social-first discovery brand: heavily curated feeds telling people in a given city which pop-up, restaurant opening or seasonal event was worth their weekend. The strategic insight, which Lederman has stated plainly, is that live experiences are one of the last trillion-dollar categories without a destination that aggregates supply and makes discovery frictionless. The company moved from recommending experiences to producing and ticketing them, staging licensed immersive events with Mattel, Disney and Paramount among others. It now covers twenty US cities, reaches 21 million social followers and about 2.5 billion annual impressions, and has sold roughly three million tickets. In February 2026 Ari Emanuel’s MARI took a majority stake, placing Bucket Listers alongside TodayTix Group in a live-events portfolio while Lederman stayed on to run it.

Career Highlights

• Founded Bucket Listers in April 2018 and has led it as chief executive since.
• Built the brand to 21 million social followers, roughly 2.5 billion annual impressions and coverage of twenty US cities.
• Sold approximately three million tickets through the platform to date.
• Produced licensed immersive experiences with major IP holders — the Malibu Barbie Café with Mattel, the Family Guy Experience with Disney, and the Survivor Café with CBS/Paramount — alongside original formats including pop-up restaurants, cultural festivals and seasonal events.
• Agreed the sale of a majority stake to Ari Emanuel’s MARI on 4 February 2026, with the brand continuing under its existing management inside a portfolio that also holds TodayTix Group.
• Previously an investment professional at Ares Management Corporation from December 2012 to April 2018 and at Bank of America Merrill Lynch from June 2011 to November 2012, with real estate private equity experience at WHI Real Estate Partners.
• Invested in and advised the travel-community company Remote Year from 2015 to 2020.

Professional Journey

Lederman graduated from Michigan State University in 2011 with an honours degree in finance and real estate and went straight into investing, first at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and then, from late 2012, at Ares Management. He stayed at Ares for more than five years. During that period he also began investing personally and advising Remote Year, the company that organised year-long working-travel programmes — his first exposure to the experience economy as an operator rather than an observer.

He left investing in April 2018 to found Bucket Listers. The pivot was, by his own account in interviews, unconventional but heavily researched rather than impulsive. The initial product was editorial and social: a tightly curated selection of things to do, distributed primarily through Instagram and TikTok rather than through search. Lederman has been explicit that the curation was the moat — the site stays selective so that partner brands want to be featured, and the audience trusts that a listing means something. In an era of undifferentiated recommendation content, a niche voice with a following that actually resonates was the defensible asset.

The second phase moved the company from media to production. Rather than only pointing audiences at other people’s events, Bucket Listers began staging its own, including licensed experiences built on large entertainment IP. The Malibu Barbie Café with Mattel, the Family Guy Experience with Disney and the Survivor Café with CBS/Paramount are the best-known examples. This combination — owned demand generation at the top of the funnel, owned experiences and ticketing at the bottom — is what made the business attractive to a strategic buyer, because it produced both audience data and inventory.

In February 2026 MARI, the live-events and experiences holding company built by Ari Emanuel, acquired a majority stake. Terms were not disclosed. MARI’s stated rationale was that Bucket Listers gives it insight into how audiences discover and decide what to do, complementing TodayTix Group’s position in live performance and cultural ticketing. Bucket Listers continues to operate as a distinct brand under Lederman and his existing management team, with the expansion thesis being to extend the group’s reach into new categories through social-first audience engagement.

Education

Michigan State University

Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Finance and Real Estate (2007-2011)