Eventbrite (with Julia & Kevin Hartz)
Acquired25 Aug 2020

Eventbrite (with Julia & Kevin Hartz)

We're joined by two very special guests, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz and her cofounder, spouse and Eventbrite Chairman Kevin Hartz, to tell their story of building Eventbrite together (along with their lives and family) from the PayPal diaspora to bootstrapped business, unicorn status, IPO and now starting all over again in the wake of COVID with both a tragedy and a huge new opportunity in front of them as public company.


Sponsors:

Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn


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© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC


New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode, and posting them here in the show notes and on our website. You can read them below or at: www.acquired.fm/episodes/eventbrite

Playbook

  • Seeing the next technology wave before others do is rare. It provides a roadmap for what to build and invest in if you're willing to bet on that knowledge.
    • Kevin worked at Silicon Graphics in the mid 90's. This led him to realize that internet services like PayPal, YouTube, and many others would be possible long before others (similar to Don Valentine realizing computers would penetrate every industry from his time at Fairchild).
  • PayPal and its subsequent "mafia" was successful in part because of rapid experimentation. They observed what got used by customers and then doubled down.
    • PayPal's "core" use case on eBay started as an experiment. International money transfer (Xoom) and event ticketing (Eventbrite) also initially started as experiments on the PayPal API before the eBay acquisition — and went on to become large companies.
    • Julia, Kevin, and their cofounder Renaud had a prototype of Eventbrite running and serving customers even before starting the company — which gave them the confidence to do what seemed crazy on paper, but was actually "de-risked": start a company as an engaged couple, have a remote technical cofounder, bootstrap for 2 years after being turned down by VCs, etc.
    • When a company is experiencing explosive growth, they often need to leave other huge opportunities on the table. PayPal knew international remittances could be huge, but didn't build it internally because of the need to focus on eBay merchants.
  • The TAM for bringing an offline behavior offline is often WAY bigger than anything you can calculate beforehand. The range and size of what were previously niche or impossible use cases will often expand dramatically with easy-to-use online tools. This is especially true in long-tail use cases that can only be aggregated by self-serve internet-based software.
    • One early encouraging sign for Eventbrite was its use to host speed dating events in New York. Before Eventbrite, it was nearly impossible to organize, promote, and charge for something like that. Now, organizers could suddenly become entrepreneurs and make real money hosting events like this. Most VCs ignored or were confused by this data (~"Call us when you attack Ticketmaster."), but they missed that it unlocked a massive new market which previously operated only through word-of-mouth and cash transactions (if at all).
    • All three major dislocations of the 21st century — the tech bubble bursting in 2001, the financial crisis in 2008, and now COVID in 2020 — have only accelerated offline behaviors to online. COVID is unlocking a new wave of online event entrepreneurs for Eventbrite in the same way the financial crisis unlocked a wave of in-person event entrepreneurs in 2008-10.
  • Starting with just one niche can be incredibly powerful; often your customers will then lead you to more.
    • Before the speed-dating in New York (which was fully inbound), Eventbrite was used to organize tech meetups in the then-smaller tech community in SF. It was even used for the first TechCrunch Disrupt!
  • Too much capital (and too little accountability) can hurt a company much more than help it. Capital covers up problems, distracts focus from customers, and leads to poor resource allocation.
    • Kevin: "The periods where we had raised the most money privately were the hardest and most difficult for me, because we were really fighting this gravity of overspending and creating inefficiency. And it took us away from our roots as a capital-efficient, highly-effective perpetual motion machine [that we'd had as a bootstrapped company]."
  • Being a public company not only instills more capital allocation discipline, but can ALSO afford a degree of financial flexibility that just isn't possible as a private company.
    • Within weeks of COVID hitting, Eventbrite dramatically shrunk the size and scope of the company AND raised $375m in new capital from new and longterm shareholders. Both actions would have been difficult to impossible as a private company with a static valuation (and associated anti-dilution, ratchet terms, etc) that no longer reflected the reality of the current situation.

Episoder(208)

Season 3, Episode 2: The Xiaomi IPO

Season 3, Episode 2: The Xiaomi IPO

Acquired kicks off our China tech mini-series by teaming up with the best in the business: Hans and Zara from GGV’s 996 Podcast! Together we cover the largest technology IPO in the world since fellow China tech giant Alibaba in 2014: Xiaomi, where Hans has been an investor and board member from the very beginning. This episode is chock full of history and insight on both Xiaomi and what’s happening in China tech more broadly, and why we all should be paying attention. No matter where you live, this is definitely not one to miss!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

6 Aug 20181h 20min

Season 3, Episode 1: Tesla

Season 3, Episode 1: Tesla

Acquired kicks off Season 3 with a gangbuster two-hour extravaganza on America’s most successful automotive startup since The Ford Motor Company: Tesla. We cover everything, from founding to its 2010 IPO to all that’s happened since, including the question on the minds of superhero fans everywhere: who came first, Elon Musk or Tony Stark? (Spoiler: Elon)Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCCarve Outs:Ben: The Dissect podcastDavid: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast

17 Jul 20182h 5min

Season 2, Episode 10: The Rover-DogVacay Merger (with Rover CEO Aaron Easterly)

Season 2, Episode 10: The Rover-DogVacay Merger (with Rover CEO Aaron Easterly)

Acquired wraps up Season 2 with our first “elusive” private-private merger: Rover.com and its 2017 combination with rival pet care marketplace DogVacay. We’re joined by Rover CEO Aaron Easterly to dive into the full history of how the crazy idea of “Airbnb for dogs” not only became a billion-dollar company, but also brought our heroes together for the first time and led to the founding of Acquired!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks: The original Rover pitch from Startup Weekend

18 Jun 20181h 13min

Season 2, Episode 9: GitHub

Season 2, Episode 9: GitHub

We’re live on the scene the day following the biggest announcement in the open source software world since well, open source software: Microsoft acquiring GitHub for $7.5B in stock. How did we get here? What does it mean for software developers going forward? And most importantly, why is there a creepy half-cat / half-octopus plastered all over everything? As always, Acquired has the answers.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCCarve Outs:Ben: The Idea Maze by Chris DixonDavid: Invisible Asymptotes by Eugene Wei

6 Jun 20181h 30min

Season 2, Episode 8: T-Mobile / Sprint

Season 2, Episode 8: T-Mobile / Sprint

If you thought the telecom business was boring, think again! Acquired brings you an episode packed with more drama than an entire season of Game of Thrones. Starting with a death in the family, we follow a tale of fortunes lost and rebuilt, bitter battles between rivals who once worked for each other, and at the center of it all, a lesson in the power of stable cashflow businesses. This is one call you don’t want to drop!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks: Seattle Times’ infographic on Bellevue’s wireless company historyJohn Legere at CES 2013Carve Outs:Ben: Andrew Chen on the Intercom podcastDavid: The 996 Podcast from Zara & Hans at GGV Capital

21 Mai 20181h 28min

Season 2, Episode 7: PowerPoint

Season 2, Episode 7: PowerPoint

Acquired returns with a classic, delving into Microsoft’s first acquisition ever: Forethought Inc, the makers of PowerPoint. Hate it or love it, you can’t deny the combined companies’ impact: by the early 90’s PowerPoint had transformed the way businesses, educators and governments communicate, ensuring job security for pointy-haired Dilbert bosses everywhere.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks: Robert Gaskins’ definitive history of building PowerPoint: Sweating BulletsAbsolute Powerpoint by Ian Parker Carve Outs:Ben: Mindfulness in Plain English and discussion on Hacker NewsDavid:  The Birds have landed…

4 Mai 20181h 21min

Season 2, Episode 6: Spotify’s Direct Listing

Season 2, Episode 6: Spotify’s Direct Listing

Acquired wraps up a big few weeks of coverage with not an IPO or an M&A or a fundraising round, but what’s still the largest tech exit in recent memory: Spotify’s $30B direct public listing. We dive into what it all means and how we got here: from Napster to iTunes to Facebook (and even some Justin Timberlake thrown in for good measure). Acquired FM is on the scene and spinning all the hits from this new wave music industry titan! Note: We incorrectly described Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s ownership stake in Spotify as 25%+; that is actually his voting control. His economic ownership is 9.3%, and cofounder Martin Lorentzon’s is 12.4%. We apologize for the error!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks: Internet History Podcast on the Napster Story with Jordan Ritter Sean Parker’s email to Daniel EkCarve Outs:Ben: Black Panther (and  soundtrack on Spotify!)David: “Silicon Ballet” panel at San Francisco Ballet on Saturday, April 28

6 Apr 20181h 51min

Season 2, Episode 5: The Dropbox IPO

Season 2, Episode 5: The Dropbox IPO

Acquired is live on the scene following Dropbox’s public market debut. From playing a central role in the early days of Y Combinator, to having Steve Jobs famously label the company a “feature not a product”, to pivoting from consumers to enterprise to developers and back again, the silicon valley history runs deep with this one. What twists and turns lie ahead for Dropbox as a public company? We speculate!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks: Dropbox’s Y Combinator applicationOriginal Dropbox demo videoCarve Outs:Ben:  Raytracing comes to DirectXDavid: Lazy Game Reviews

26 Mar 20181h 44min

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