Tyler Kistler lost Snoop Dogg but got G-Eazy using Tilt.

On the morning that SDSU sophomore Tyler Kistler talks to the Reader, 210 of 600 tickets have so far been sold to satisfy Kistler’s end of a deal to have the rapper G-Eazy perform a benefit show in San Diego. With only four days before deadline, the 20-year-old marketing major is optimistic. “I think it’s in the bag at this point. We sold 100 tickets in a couple hours yesterday.” But in the beginning, he admits to being unsure of himself. “It was a kind of spur-of-the-moment decision. Do I have what it takes? Not a lot of people do this.”

For seed money, Kistler is using a crowd-sourcing outfit called Tilt. How he found out about them: “We wanted to bring Snoop Dogg down here. It was a contest through Tilt between three schools.” Someone else won, he says, but that put the idea for a G-Eazy show on the table. “A lot of my friends are into him. Why wouldn’t he want to play San Diego? It’s an awesome place.” It turns out G-Eazy did want to play here. Tilt made the connections to the artist’s management. “G-Eazy is donating all the money from the ticket sales to his favorite charity — Music Beats Hearts.”

Tilt is a mobile money app launched by James Beshara in 2012 as a way to crowd-fund among groups of friends. Used heavily on college campuses throughout the country, Tilt has also been used by Ice Cube, to raise money for a funeral, and to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Olympics. Tilt turns a profit by collecting a 2.5 percent fee.

By press time, G-Eazy at House of Blues had tilted (parlance for a successful campaign) and then some, selling over 700 tickets. Now that Kistler is a successful concert promoter, will he try this again? “Maybe,” he says. But in the meantime, a backstage pass would be nice. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”