Kevin became the company’s CEO while Julia held the title of president.Īfter a year of fulltime development work, in July 2007, the Eventbrite website was launched. Mutual friends then introduced the couple to Renaud Visage, who previously led engineering teams and joined the company as CTO. Other existing players like Ticketmaster were simply charging astronomic fees for managing a customer’s ticketing operation and were focused on bigger events like concerts and festivals. Many organizers were still using emails and Excel spreadsheets to sell and track their orders and ticket redemptions. The space was characterized by high fees, bad customer experience, and lacking the usage of technology. Instead, the Hartzes simply conducted extensive research on any consumer category that was ripe for disruption. The idea for Eventbrite wasn’t based on any sort of eureka moment. Weeks later, the newly engaged couple got to work on what would end up becoming Eventbrite. And Kevin’s response? He simply said that she could work on somebody else’s dream – or they could simply start something together. Julia showed Kevin the offer to get his opinion.
The local cable network in San Francisco offered her a job as an executive, but she ultimately turned it down. In 2005, Julia decided to move to the Bay Area, where she was closer to Kevin and grew up as a child. As a result, the couple had to figure out long-distance for the next two years.
Julia, in the meantime, was working in television development for FX Networks in Los Angeles (Kevin was based in San Francisco). In 2001, he co-founded digital money transfer service Xoom and led angel investments in companies like PayPal, Pinterest, and Airbnb. Kevin, a former graduate of Stanford and Oxford University, spent his first few years building products in the dotcom era and investing in other startups as a VC. Prior to starting Eventbrite, both Kevin and Julia gained key experiences that helped them to navigate and balance the foundation of both their family and business. To understand this madness, let’s roll back the tape a little. And just to make things a little more complicated, they welcomed their first child two years all while bootstrapping their company and trying to make payroll. The next year, in 2006, they started Eventbrite. They hit it off right away and got engaged two years later. Julia and Kevin met in 2003 when the pair were seated next to each other at a wedding of mutual friends. Eventbrite, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 2006 by Julia Hartz (CEO), Kevin Hartz, and Renaud Visage.
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