← Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
How Julia Hartz Built Eventbrite from a Startup to a Billion-Dollar IPO | E120
01:04:32
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- [00:00]
Ilana Golan
Wow, this show is going to be incredible. So buckle up and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it. But before we get started, I want to ask you for a favor. See, it's really, really important for me to help millions of people elevate their career, fast track to leadership land, dream roles, jump to entrepreneurship or create portfolio careers. And this podcast is all about enabling this for millions of people to see a map of what it actually takes for big leaders to reach success. So subscribe and download so you never miss it. Plus, it really, really helps me continue to bring amazing guests. Okay, so let's dive in.
- [00:36]
Julia Hart
Nothing, quite literally nothing could have prepared me for the morning I woke up and realized I was CEO.
- [00:42]
Ilana Golan
Julia Hart is the co founder CEO of Eventbrite. In 2018, Julia led Eventbrite to go public on the New York Stock Exchange, achieving a market valuation of 1.7 billion. This made her among the very few women who lead successful initial public offering of a technology startup.
- [01:02]
Julia Hart
We pitched 27 VC firms and we got 27 nos. We didn't have a company. I just turned 30. I'm like, if I'm not actually bringing value to Eventbrite, like I don't think I should stay.
- [01:12]
Ilana Golan
You kind of started in TV initially.
- [01:16]
Julia Hart
My first internship that I landed was on the set of Friends during like the heyday. I think it's like PTSD from this internship. Jennifer Aniston exuded kindness in a way that I think left a mark on me as well. And I. I've never told this story before, but.
- [01:44]
Ilana Golan
Delia Hart is the co founder CEO of Eventbrite. In 2018, Julia led Eventbrite to go public on on the New York Stock Exchange, achieving a market valuation of 1.7 billion. This made her among the very few women who lead successful initial public offering of a technology startup. Eventbrite operates in nearly 180 countries, serves a community of hundreds and thousands of event creators and selling over 2 billion tickets. Julia, I can't wait to speak with you.
- [02:16]
Julia Hart
Thank you for having me on. I'm so excited to have this conversation.
- [02:20]
Ilana Golan
It's going to be epic. And again, I've been following your journey for so long, Julia. And again, I think unless somebody lived under the rock, they know Eventbrite. But I want to kind of take you back in time a little bit to you kind of started in TV initially like very, very different thing I think. Talk to me a little bit like, how did you start ytv? Take me there for a second.
- [02:47]
Julia Hart
I was really attracted to storytelling from A very early age, I was dancer growing up and would perform and compete in different competitions and stuff. And so I really loved the, you know, the connection with story and narrative and audiences. And I didn't know how to parlay that into a career. When I started college and, you know, I found myself actually had interned as a, as a teenager for a local news station. And Dina Ruiz was the person that I was, I was shadowing. And she was like this icon, you know, and local anchor personality. And I thought, well, maybe I could parlay my entertainment chops into something like news broadcast. And, you know, Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric and Jane Pauley were my heroes. And so I went to school in Southern California and I majored in news broadcasting. And I remember showing up the first day, you know, with my, my books and my backpack and my student debt and my loans and my two jobs to.
- [03:56]
Ilana Golan
For school.
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Julia Hart
And I was sitting in class and I was looking around at like, the other 12 people, realizing I wanted it the least. And because I was this, you know, I. I'd grown up in performance halls and audition spaces, I knew that if you want it the least out of a group of people, like, you're in the wrong place. And I just was like, oh, I'm not gonna. I'm. I am not going to go to South Dakota and read the weather for two years. And like, these people are. And so I almost immediately pivoted. I took my first little leap and I went to. I changed my concentration under the major to television development and production, which was amazing that that was an option at the school I was attending. Again, it was in Southern California, so a little bit more normal. But that really opened up a world for me that I had never experienced. And I came to realize pretty quick, quickly, that I could manipulate my schedule to have all my classes happen in the evening, which was unique to the university I was attending. And then I could work to pay for school and, and I could intern. And these internships were kind of this open field because I went to Pepperdine. So you have like, Pepperdine and then all the, like, big schools like ucla, usc, we were kind of the smaller fish. And so your resume coming from Pepperdine for an internship would, like, end up on the top. So I figured this out and I started applying for really, really in demand internships. My first internship that I landed was on the set of Friends during, like, the Incredible. It was incredible. And, you know, I just, I just took from the whole entirety of my school career from like, the second semester after I Figured out what I wanted to try to figure out to do. I just took these little leaps, and I went from. And I basically deduced what I wanted to really do in my first career by trying different things. And so I was an intern on the set of Friends.
- [06:05]
Ilana Golan
But let's talk about that internship, actually, because that's kind of a cool story. So.
- [06:10]
Julia Hart
It is cool. I mean, I arrived and was like. I don't know that I've ever been as overwhelmed as I felt that first day to be, you know, on the Warner Brothers lot on the hottest TV show set in the world. Like, it was a big deal that they were all making a million dollars an episode, and Jen Aniston was still married to Brad Pitt. Like, it was a crazy time. And so I arrived, and I'm literally the lowest person on the totem pole, literally. And I get handed a wireless phone. Like a big, big. I'm dating myself, but a wireless phone. And, yeah, it was like a cord. And. And I get told, your job is to answer this phone and go find whoever is looking for. Go find the person that this person, whoever's calling is looking for. To this day, I have a primal fear of speaking on the phone. I think it's like PTSD from this. From this internship, because anybody who had the set phone number for Friends at that time was neither patient and many times not kind, with a lot of ego. It was terrifying. It was so terrifying, I could still remember it. It was like, this is Ari. Get me Jen. And I'm like, oh, God, I gotta go. You know, I'd, like, go to her dressroom and, like, knock on the door and be like, it's Ari. You know, and it. It really instilled in me this idea that, like, you know, making something great is. It's a practice in connection and honestly, kindness and perseverance. And it was so grueling. Their schedules incredible. And. And actually, out of everyone. And I. I've never told this story before, but out of everyone, Jennifer Aniston was just exuded kindness in a way that I think left a mark on me as well. That was so authentic. And she was, you know, such a big star. I mean, is. And. And dealing with her own stuff. And it was just like. To see her be kind to even the lowest of the totem pole, that's amazing. Yeah. Give me a great role model. But I definitely knew leaving that internship at the end of the school year that I was not going to go into television production. And so then I went and took a little leap the next semester to the opposite end of the spectrum, which was the script library at New Regency. And there my job was to wait in a library full of scripts of every great movie you've ever known and wait for someone to need a photo photocopy of a script. And then I photocopied the script. So most of my time I was just reading these epic films and you know, reading the scripts and then seeing the movie in your mind as you're reading the script, like, made me realize that so much happens between the page and the edit. And you know, these movies take years and years and years to come to life. And I realized that didn't satiate my need for velocity. Like I, I kind of realized that like, oh God, I don't know if I could like work on one thing for this long that would be. That it would be excruciating. So then I leapt to MTV and I joined the series development department in Santa Monica.
- [09:23]
Ilana Golan
Let me stop you for a second. When you kind of knew, when you were studying in college, you kind of knew that you don't want to be the person reading whatever you said, the weather, right, like in North Carolina. But did you, when leaped from one role to the other, do you feel like you knew that this is it or was it, did you kind of think about it as an experiment?
- [09:45]
Julia Hart
I thought about it as an experiment. I mean, you know, you, you. It's very different today. But these were, these were unpaid internships. Like I was not making money, I had to work in addition to this got it, quote unquote job. So I thought of it as like a learning opportunity. And you know, I think what was great about it is that it was a short period of time. So it was a semester long typically, um, until I landed at mtv. Then it became a multi year situation. But it was like these bite sized moments and you could kind of dip in and experience this world. That gave you so much insight. And you know, I'm the kind of person that picks up a lot in between the main moments of a moment. So you know, I'm feeling the energy, I'm, you know, noticing the details and the nuances. And so I did, I did really gather a lot about what it was like to be in each, each of these types of environments. I was so lucky. I mean again, this was, this was almost just a hack that I was at the smaller school of the. Of like the main feeder schools into these internships and that they had such robust intern programs which I just don't know if that's the case these days. So I just looked at it as an experiment to try to figure out what I wanted to do. And when I landed at mtv, the thing that I loved about where I landed was it was a. It was a blend of business and creativity. So, you know, television development is like venture capital in, in Silicon Valley or in technology, where you're listening, the executives are listening to pitches all day from creatives and then deciding which idea they want to invest in. And, you know, you build a slate from that, and that slate goes through these different development pipelines, just like a startup does. And it just so happened, it was so fortuitous that when I land, I. I was assigned to one of the four main series development. Um, two were on the east coast at the time. Two were on the east coast, two were on the west coast. And I had been assigned to the one that had been known for Road Rules and Real World. And so they kind of had this legacy and annuity to, to try new ideas. And I was interning on the day that we received a pilot, like a demo from these nutty dudes and they called themselves Jackass. And I remember, like, my, my job as the intern was to sit in the tape room. Now, the tape room had six banks of VHS machines which, to those. Well, I think everyone understands what a VHS is. Who's listening? But I put tapes in each one, and then I'd put a tape in the mother one and then I'd hit record, you know, and I would record these. These tapes that came in so that I could distribute them to the executives. And I remember watching him being like, oh, my God, this is insane. And so I like, I go, I label the tapes and I'm like, you might not want to watch this one during lunch. I'm like, trying to be helpful, you know, the executives, like, you might want to like, wait until you've digested your food. And that was the beginning of a journey that I, you know, was like multi years because it was my full senior year and then I started working there when I graduated. But it was, it was such ride to watch something come, you know, be this like, cultural icon that create its own zeitgeist. Be so out there and really to. To be a part of something that was so unique. And, you know, it's interesting because from my perspective now looking back, we took that demo and we spent a bunch of money on recreating it. And like, the pilot is not nearly as good as the original demo was. You know, I was just like. And so that was like a lesson of like, even with the most amount of resourcing, you can't replicate the original intent, like the blueprint, right, for what they were doing. And these guys knew exactly what they wanted to do. Every week we'd get on a call with like OSHA and Standards and Practices and the legal department and, you know, and then our department and then the guys, and they would be going through in detail the skits that they wanted, like stunts they wanted to do. And it was just, I mean, so mind blowing. They were very, very, I think. Yeah, renegades for sure. So that was my first real job.
- [14:02]
Ilana Golan
What, what do you think are some of the biggest things that you got from it? I mean, it sounds, I mean, again, for mere mortals, hearing some of these, like incredible places, right? The Friends, the mtv, like, it sounds incredible. But what, what do you think are some of the things that you took with you from that?
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Julia Hart
Well, actually, as I said, that was my first real job. I was, I was lying because I've been working since I was 15 straight, so.
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Ilana Golan
But the, in a coffee, I want.
- [14:28]
Julia Hart
To hear about that too. But in my, in my first post college job, you know, I think I learned that kindness is a, is an extremely rare and valuable currency. Again, to have witnessed that kind of raw, authentic kindness from somebody who was, you know, at the top of their game and very, like everything was very ego driven in that world at that time and, you know, such a crazy time and place, that stuck with me. I think that the pursuit of perfection in filmmaking and the longevity and willingness to really be resilient and patient, that stuck with me. And then just the conviction and intention of doing something that had never been done before and you know, the kind of childish creativity and abandonment that was happening in the early days of Jackhouse was just, it was amazing. And we knew we were onto something that was going to be huge. Even though it was so, like, on the face of it, so distasteful, it just, it, it struck a chord that was like, oh, this is going to be great.
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Ilana Golan
That's so funny. So, so when did you decide to move to fx? Why?
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Julia Hart
So, yeah, so I graduated from assistant or from intern to assistant, and still to this day, my first boss is one of my best friends then and actually introduced me to my husband. So she married my husband's college classmate and we met at the wedding and, you know, so I had this incredible role model in her and then, you know, moved on to become like a junior something, a junior executive or something. And then FX came Calling. And I was looking at what they were doing. They had just hit, you know, kind of this new tone with the Shield, and they were producing incredible scripted content. And it just so happens it's super fortuitous that I joined. I decided to join and make the leap. And it was really scary. And I'll never forget, like, leaving the kind of safety of this crazy family at MTV to go to, like, this more corporate place. And I remember, like, how scary that was. But I arrived right when John Landgraft Landgraf was appointed the head of the. Of the department. And he's gone on to make amazing some of the most iconic television of our time. I mean, it's 20 years now. And I just remember being in his presence. I was a junior executive. I was like, manager of current series. So my job was to oversee the shows that were already on air, like Nip Tuck the Shield and Rescue Me. But going into his office and, like, being with that team, I was the only woman on the development team in, like, you know, 2025.
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Ilana Golan
Oh, my God.
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Julia Hart
But being in that room and really hearing the thought process that went into uncovering these incredible gems and bringing these incredible stories to. To air and really pushing the envelope. I mean, FX was at the time, people thought you could only tell the types of stories and show the types of. Of things that, like, on HBO and like, FX just basically said, no, we're gonna do that on basic cable and, you know, or premium cable, but, like, way more widely distributed. And just watching that was incredible. And sort of how you. How you define story and narrative and character development, and it was amazing. And so that was such an honor for me to really be there at that time. And I think I was just soaking it all up. But in the midst of that, I met Kevin at this wedding, and that was like, you know, in Hollywood speak, that was a meet cute. And that set my life on this totally different trajectory that, like, which we'll.
- [18:23]
Ilana Golan
Talk about for sure. But right before we going to talk about what happened when you met Kevin, like, FX in this entire industry is also really hard, right? Like, there's some amazing things that happen with it. And it sounds like you created some incredible connections, but I think there's also a lot of frustration that come with the industry. Like, how do you see that now?
- [18:44]
Julia Hart
Well, it's been a long time since I've been in the industry, but I think what I saw, what I experienced was a way of working and a way of creating that was about to get disrupted. And there was this feeling of uncertainty because TiVo had just come onto the market and all of a sudden advertising, traditional advertising was starting to slow down. Those, those dollars were starting to become less and less reliable. And so when I went to fx, part of my job was to liaison between the showrunner, who's the ultimate creator and creative voice of the show, and brands that were going to be doing product placement deals in the show. And that was sort of the stopgap measure to like keep the funding and investment happening for these shows to bring the content to air as, as everything was shaking out. And it was the very beginning days of streaming and, and that uncertainty, you know, it created opportunity. I mean, I met Kevin right when I was making the leap from MTV to fx and through his eyes. So he's, he had, has been in Silicon Valley his whole life and he was creating new companies and through his eyes and his lived experience, I was starting to see what was about to happen. So I had this crazy duality of like being in, you know, cutting edge of traditional media and then seeing the first YouTube video, like the wireframes of YouTube before it was even live. So like that for me was this unique and very helpful perspective on what I would ultimately want to do. And like, when I think about my life, I think about it a little bit like sliding doors because if I had not, I actually sat next to Kevin. I asked him to move over at the wedding because I was, I was reading First Corinthians in the wedding. If I hadn't done that. It was a huge wedding. These are two of the most dynamic, amazing, likable human beings on the planet. It was a huge wedding and I had been on blind dates with like more than a few of the guests and, and so they were, you know, the, the, the bride and groom were calling it the super bowl of dating. For me, you know, I was just like, it was a lot of pressure and I was sort of scared about going up to read in the wedding and I asked him to scoot over. I was 23, I had my act together. I was like a, you know, high functioning 23 year old, but it was sort of like, what is happening? He starts chatting me up and if we hadn't met, like, I just, I would definitely still be in Hollywood. I would be, you know, probably a president of a network or something. I mean, I really think that like I would have just stayed and that would have been really amazing. But because this happened, my life got like so incredibly interrupted or like my path interrupted in this really good way that I Got this other perspective, and I got to see over the rainbow right into what was actually about to happen. And I had this instinct, like, I may. I want to be on the disruptor side. I don't want to be disrupted side now. In the end, FX fared incredibly well. You know, they really put their heads down and focused on the content and focused on the characters and focused on the creative and pushing the envelope and, oh, my God, God bless them. I'm so proud of what they've done. But through, underneath all of that, the infrastructure got completely disrupted. Right. And so, yeah, you know, that. That leap from 42nd story window office in Fox Plaza, which is Nakatomi Plaza, and Die Hard and, you know, packing my boxes up and telling everybody that I was going up north to, like, get married, which is so not my story. Right. Like, I wasn't, like, gonna stop working, obviously, but I did that on a Friday and on a Monday, I pushing saw horses and plywood into a windowless phone closet in Potrero Hill and a warehouse to start a new company that I, you know, had only sort of talked abstractly with Kevin about was just. It was so me to not take any time to, like, think about it too much and certainly not to read the fine print. And I remember thinking, like, oh, God, what if he's crazy? Like, what? Cause he seemed so excited about this, like, unknown that I just didn't even. I couldn't even even fathom what it was going to turn into. But I'm so glad I took that leap. I mean, that was a massive. That was like a grand jete for sure.
- [23:15]
Ilana Golan
That's a massive leap. So what made you trust that this is that. I mean, it's almost like jumping without a parachute. But it doesn't seem like, was it scary? Was it exciting?
- [23:28]
Julia Hart
So, practically speaking, we'd been dating for two years and we've gotten engaged. And I'm from the Bay Area and I'm very close to my family. I actually lived with my brother in la, so really, really close to my family in there. And they're now we're all back of the Bay Area. But, like, I tried actually to take a little leap. I tried to join a startup that was producing cable TV in the Bay Area called Current tv. And they offered me a job. And the job was like 30% less than my salary that I was making at the time, which was already not a lot. And I kind of. I came to Kevin, I'm like, you know, I found this job. I got this offer to join the startup. And, and this is what they offered me. And he's like, huh? He's like, well, you. I mean, you could go make, you know, less than you're worth and work on someone else's idea or. And he's just like pitched me to come work on a startup with him. And you know, he had a track record, so like, he had been successful twice before and you know, I did trust him, but it's like he acted like it was no big deal. And he's like, you know, come, let's build something together and we could put all of our savings into it and have no safety net. I'm like, I don't. To be honest, I have blacked out the moment in which I decided that was a good idea. But I think looking back in hindsight, that I have always been somebody to follow that follows her instinct and her gut and takes that leap. And I. The joke in my family now, you know, because when you raise teenagers, you become the butt of every joke and they are like, so they so pick you apart. Like, the joke is that I don't read the fine print, you know, and I don't because I'm like, life's too short. Let's go like bias to action. Let's go. And then I met someone who has like, you know, a thousand x stronger bias to action than I do, and that was Kevin. And so, you know, he. He became my mentor and my role model and my coach and kind of, you know, in. In ways that were really helpful and profound because you don't always get that with your partner. And I real. I realized that, like those early days of starting Eventbrite were. It was like accelerated grad school for me on.
- [25:36]
Ilana Golan
Oh, yeah.
- [25:37]
Julia Hart
You know, a lot of different topics. Yeah. Yeah.
- [25:41]
Ilana Golan
I mean, and we sound very similar in how we make decisions, so I just so really, really funny. But, but, but tell me, did you already know that it's kind of like an event bride? Did you know that what you're trying to build or not yet?
- [25:55]
Julia Hart
Yeah. So the history is that Kevin had invested in what became PayPal. You know, he had had a. He was part of a. He worked at SGI then in the heyday, then he started a company with a few ex SGI people. And then that flipped really quickly. That was during the boom. And so he took what he earned from that and essentially put it all on black, which was he. He. Angel invested the entire amount into something called Confinity Labs. And like, his parents were beside themselves and that became PayPal. And so, and it was, it was the part of the PayPal founding group was, was classmates of him, of his at Stanford. And so, you know, it, he learned a lot through that front row seat. And one of the things that he was really inspired by was this idea of democratization and how, you know, by making anyone a merchant, you could create this, this next level of access using technology. So he founded with his, his partner Alan Braverman, Zoom X O O M, which is international money transfer that competes with Western Union to help immigrants send money back to their families. Better, faster, cheaper. They also founded this idea of ticketing that was one of the ideas that they, that they kind of threw through and using the PayPal API. And it didn't go anywhere because they were working on Zoom and Zoom got funded by Sequoia Capital and took off and they needed to put everything else on the back burner. So when I, and then Zoom ended up getting acquired by PayPal. So it's like all this, you know, kind of crazy story, but when I came, when I was ready to leave Hollywood, he was ready to leave Zoom. And this was really his idea of like, let's get together and see if there's a there there. And so quite literally my first day was opening a laptop and googling how to like, create a search engine optimization campaign and opening the customer support queue for this. Like, basically it wasn't even a product. It was like a feature that had been, you know, on like maintenance mode since they had been working on Zoom for the last few years. And what I found was this really passionate group of event organizers who were like, you know, are you guys still there? Like, you know, and so the basis of what they built, we just built, built on that. And basically we took the customers that were using it, which were mostly tech bloggers who are hosting paid meetups, right? And we use them as the guinea pig. And we just built, you know, our first, like, founding product principle was acutely observe what your customers are doing. Some may call it stalking, and then make that better, faster and more effective with whatever product you're building. Right? Like, don't try to reinvent the wheel, make them better. And that's, that's how we started. And it was just, oh, sorry. We found a third co founder who I like to call the bravest man in Silicon Valley for partnering with a couple, because at the time that was really rare and like kind of a bad idea by a lot of people's perspective to start with your significant other. He saw the idea very clearly as, you know, he was like engineer by day and photographer by night. And he saw it as an opportunity give people a way to turn their passion into profit by selling registrations to classes or tickets to events.
- [29:16]
Ilana Golan
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- [29:56]
Julia Hart
I had an experience at FX where we were researching a reality show around fandoms and with Morgan Spurlock, and I went to a few different fan events and these really niche meetups, and it changed my life. Like, it lodged in the back of my subconscious, this idea that like, even strangers can be in a room together with this incredible palpable energy around something that they're all collectively passionate about and how special that was. So I wanted to see if we could create something that could enable that.
- [30:30]
Ilana Golan
Right.
- [30:31]
Julia Hart
So we all came at it from different angles and then it was just the three of us for a two and a half years or so, and we bootstrapped the company.
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Ilana Golan
And I love that. And, and, and I think it was like 2006 and, and you know, for those listening, PayPal was like the seed of so many capabilities. And so, I mean, there's a reason why it's called the PayPal mafia. You know, it's like, right, it's like, I mean, at least in Silicon Valley.
- [30:55]
Julia Hart
Like, I call it the PayPal Chia Pet. It's like something that like grew, you know, exponentially. It was incredible to see what came out of that group and in that time. And, you know, I think, I think there's been a lot of books written on it or podcast done on it. But like, I do think to some extent, a lot of the ambition that I, that I've observed from this group was, was born from the discontent of actually selling the company so early to a larger company and the, like, chip on the shoulder of like, the work that they had done, you know, that a lot of work that was left to be done and things that they could do differently. And it was very, very special. Time. I mean, I was very much on the, on the like, outskirts of that. But, but really thinking about, you know, the original intention of Eventbrite, we built it on PayPal and we were really mindful of the fact that we wanted, you know, the idea of microprocessing, microtransactional processing and democratization of merchant processing to be the basis of what, of how we empowered people to create events and ticket them in a way that was as easy as, as Gmail. You know, that was really our like North Star in the, in the beginning.
- [32:06]
Ilana Golan
And I love that. And I think that's why Eventbrite picked up so fast. And we'll talk about it in a second. But so, but, but the beautiful thing I think is also you didn't go into this whole like, you started lean, right? You started with literally like, you know, 2006, a few people, just, just what, the three of you? Not a big investment all the way to an mvp. And I think today there's this big hype of let me raise millions and millions and millions of dollars. How do you see, like the beginning?
- [32:38]
Julia Hart
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Kevin had to raise, Kevin and Alan had to raise tens of millions of dollars to clear the regulatory hurdles, to be a money transmitter, a new entrance to the market after 9 11. Like they were, they were insane and they, and they did it. And like the insane prevail because they did it. And they were the only, one of the only companies to really get through to, at scale to be able to, to be an international remittance company during such a tenuous time. And so, but they had to have all this money on the balance sheet. So, you know, Kevin was like, I want to do this differently. I want to do this lean. Let's just put our money to work. And so we, we just, you know, lived a true startup life. We didn't take salaries, obviously. We were fortunate to have money to put into the company. We had our first bab. Like those are some of the sweetest times, you know, living in a little half flat and working in this like windowless phone closet and existing off of cup of Noodles. But I think, you know, it was a simple time, but we, we managed to get to product market fit and good traction. I think we were, we were profitable with less than $250,000.
- [33:53]
Ilana Golan
Incredible.
- [33:53]
Julia Hart
And yet you just don't hear that anymore. I mean we all talk about the, the, that there's going to be, you know, the first one person billion dollar company.
- [34:02]
Ilana Golan
We don't hear a lot of bootstrap. Like I think we are one of the rare ones.
- [34:07]
Julia Hart
No, people aren't putting their skin in the game like they used to. And it's, it's, you know, there's so much capital. And so I think it's like, it's just a different era and it's a different set of, of it. It. Money doesn't matter. Like you, it's a different set of priorities. And, and so, you know, when we raise, we angel round with family and friends to bridge to the first institutional raise. But when we went out to raise our first round of funding, it was fall of 2008 and we pitched 27 VC firms and we got 27 nos. So thank God we knew how to live on our own means. Right? Thank God we knew how to run the company in a way that, that was capital light.
- [34:50]
Ilana Golan
So take me there. Because again, I think a lot of people after the third or fourth will kind of say, you know what, maybe this is a bad idea, May, this doesn't have a chance. What made you guys go again and again and again? Because it's really hard to get these no's. Like it can really take you down. What made you continue?
- [35:13]
Julia Hart
Yeah, well, again, I think Kevin's infectious optimism kept us afloat. And you know, we had strong and growing user bases. We had product market fit, we had traction. So it wasn't so much as like this idea won't become a company. It was really around finding the right people to support us along the way. And then the major issue for us was that we went out during the worst possible time. Right, right. So everybody was like, what is going to happen? So what we did, and I really commend Kevin for this, was we left Everybody with our 2009 financial plan, like our projections, and we said we'll come back next year and check back in. And we did what we said we were gonna do. We were like very.
- [35:59]
Ilana Golan
So wait, before, before there, before there. Because you crushed it right after. So wait before that though, at this point you have a kid, which I think changes a lot in terms of, at least for me. Like, it changes the perspective. Like, I feel like I need to like be a grown up person now and I need to be a little more responsibility and I need to like take. I don't know, like, did you at some point freak out that maybe you need stability? Maybe you do need the cash in the door? Maybe you do need something different. Like, did that scare you at all?
- [36:33]
Julia Hart
I mean, everything was so unknown and uncertain that it was. Yeah, it was pretty terrifying. But we had Emma within two years of starting Eventbrite, so it's hard for me to remember a time when we didn't have her as part of the equation. And I think in a way that almost made it easier because it was. Everything was us as a family. We have an incredible network of family and friends around us as well. So we had that support. But, yeah, there were times when I was like, when's he gonna admit that it might not work out? And, like, we're gonna have to go get jobs, you know, But I think, again, that infectious. I think serial entrepreneurs especially are missing a chip in their brain that's like the this may not work out chip, you know what I mean? And I've, like, very much learned to live and optimize around that with Kevin. But I, you know, I think we found this really nice balance where I think, you know, he. He had the fortitude to keep going and I had the, I don't know, innate skills to make everything work. And we. We combine that together. And I think what ended up happening in the background between the time we went out and got rejected to the time that we closed, we had multiple offers and closed our. Our round with Sequoia was that the world changed. It float on its head. And so many people lost their jobs and so many people turned to eventbrite, to host workshops, to network, to teach skills to, you know, and so almost exactly what Renault saw happened during 2009, that people could turn passion into profit and that we had one of our best years ever. And so when we went back to the VCs to check in a year later, that was like, unheard of. And there was so much, you know, there's still like a lot of broken glass on the ground. Like, it was like wreckage from this financial crisis. And we, like, came in all, you know, we did what we said we were going to do, and that was just like, that was the winning strategy. And so we closed our first round with Sequoia Capital, then at the end of 2009.
- [38:38]
Ilana Golan
It's incredible, and I love that story because I remember, like, there was like. I think this is where I started hearing about you guys. And it's like, it was like just amazing snowball. And. And then there's like these eight years that you're, you know, you're working with Kevin. Yeah. How was that? And then, you know, what. What made the difference to start becoming a CEO?
- [39:01]
Julia Hart
Actually, we never had this conversation, so I don't actually know, but I have a Feeling that Kevin knew that I could be a CEO someday. And so, you know, I think in, in a way like he was, was definitely helping me understand what it would take to be a great CEO. But we are such a strong complimentary partnership. I mean, I think, you know, what we figured out is we asked our friends. Like our first friends that we sort of established when I moved up was Michael and Xochi Burch, who are, you know, entrepreneurs in their own right. They started Birthday Alarm and Bebo. They sold Bebo to aol. They've taken on a number of different projects from there, including a physical gathering space, the battery. I mean, they've been working together since they were in college. And we asked them, we were at a pub, which is very British, very Michael. And I was like, what? You know, what, what's your secret? And. And so she just said, we just divide and conquer. We never work on the same thing at the same time. And I, I remember picturing like, you know, how hard it is to sort of work with your partner on like, like a computer. Like you're both like trying to control the like, mouse or whatever, you know, and just how, how like, resonant that was for me. And so we just took that as. And so we worked on totally different parts of the business. He worked on product, I worked on people, on finding people through marketing, on serving people, through customer support, on hiring eventually and what kind of company we would become. And Renault built everything and created the infrastructure for us to do what we did. And then we all QA'd by working directly with our customers. So it was this really magical setup in a way that it, you know, of course there was friction, but we just figured like, if it ever impeded on our lives or our relationship, that one of us would leave. But we never agreed on who would leave. Like, he said he would leave and I said I would leave. So there's like fun stories. Like we, we decided like, hey, if we ever get in an argument at the office, we'll turn off the lights, lie down on the floor and hold hands and talk through it. This was before we had employees, but we were in a like, of sort of, of organic co working space with a bunch of other startups and so they would just, they would die when they looked in the little windowless phone closet and we were like lying on the ground holding hands in the dark. So our lives being built under the auspices of working together was really natural. And I think it was a lot harder to go the other direction to, you know, when Kevin left the company and I took on the role of CEO. It was, it was really heartbreaking for us, I have to say. Like, I don't know that we're over it. Like, I think it's really hard, you know, and while it's allowed him to go do really exciting new things and create new products and, you know, back a bunch of entrepreneurs through his fund, it's, it's, it's hard sometimes because it. We think back to those days of like when it was just Austin, no Lindella's phone closet.
- [41:58]
Ilana Golan
So 2016, you're taking on the CEO and AS. AS far as I'm concerned, and maybe I'm wrong, I think the difference between number one and number anything else is light years away. Did you feel that? No matter how ready you are, I feel like it's a whole different atmosphere. Responsibility, fear, sleepless nights. Where did that catch you?
- [42:24]
Julia Hart
I think reinvention is not just one leap, it's like a habit, right? So by the time I took on this role, I had reinvented myself a few times or gone through this process. And so I figured like, okay, I'm going to take this role on. I'm going to figure it out. What I tell people all the time, especially people who are like trying to figure out how they're going to have kids and be successful in their career, is you got here somehow, you know, your talent, your skills, your ability got you here. You're going to get to the next place even with, you know, shipping a human. And I thought, yeah, I'll just approach it step by step. We have great, you know, roll off both the from Sequoia Capital is again a Dear de Investor 14 year board member was right behind me with his hand on my back and nothing, quite literally nothing could have prepared me for the morning I woke up and realized I was CEO. And after the first week I turned to Kevin and I said, you know, I have been operating in like Candyland and you have been operating in Tron. And I don't even know how we were operating in the same company, me, but you made it look so, like, easy. And I am in a totally different place. Like I just. And what I realized after, you know, some time was it was just all about my mental capacity to like, mental resiliency, to put the feeling of overwhelming, crushing responsibility, like somewhere where I could actually hold it, to think about what I needed to do to be a great leader. I mean, I do think it's such a, it's such a strange and heady Title and responsibility, you know, and I'm glad that, like, there are some models, like, I. I was just thinking about Netflix, where, like, co ceoship is actually working, because I do think that it's sort of too much sometimes to put on one person in a way that, like, doesn't really make sense, but it's huge and it's such a mental thing. But now I wake up every morning and I'm like, how lucky am I to be able to be the CEO of the company that I helped start almost two decades ago? And I just come at it from a place of gratitude. But, yeah, that feeling of just the weight of the world doesn't really ever go away.
- [44:54]
Ilana Golan
Right. But talk to me about one of those sleepless nights and the reason why I'm going there for a second. I think a lot of our audience is at that sleepless night. I've had my share of sleepless nights. And I think sometimes it's really, really hard to get yourself out of the rut and say, where the heck are the salaries coming from? Where is the next money coming from? What on earth am I doing? Like, how do you cope with that? As Julia and as a CEO, I.
- [45:21]
Julia Hart
Can think of three. Three sleepless nights, and two of them involve a nightmare that. That involve rule off. So it's funny because that's like a joke that I have with them. Like, whenever I'm like the voice of truth, it's like, it's. It comes through like you as a character in my dream. It's weird. I've never dreamt, had any other dreams with him in it. So it's like, that's just like such a sign. So the first one was when we raised from Sequoia, and I had a dream that Sequoia was like, great, you're cool. But, like, we don't really need a president and you're just married to this, the CEO, and you need to, like, step aside. And I woke up in a cold sweat the next morning and I was like, kevin, we. You know, I. We had the baby, we had raised the round. I sort of had this nebulous title of president. Like, everything about the dream was real, except for the fact that Sequay didn't ask me step aside. But I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. Like, if I'm not. If I'm not actually, I just turned 30. I'm like, if I'm not actually bringing value to Eventbrite, like, I don't think I should stay. And that led to me realizing that we were about to scale from a team of 30 to a company of 200 or so in a year because we knew exactly where we needed to scale at that point. We had such strong product market fit and that most of the companies in our vintage had really gone off the rails hyper scaling and they had to go back and fix the culture and go through all these different things. And I thought, you know what, what if I can make scaling eventbrite my like my mission to figure out what kind of company we want to be. And that gave me a really clear focus. The second nightmare I had was after I was done doing that and we kept getting all these awards for best places to work and we had this Chronicle article come out about our new office and it was like, it's the Disneyland of startups. I had another nightmare and it was from Roloff again, who was like, congratulations, you've created the happiest, most mediocre company on the planet. And we were about to like miss our plan for the first time that year. And I'd been so focused on people and happiness and hadn't been as focused on like focus and discipline and productivity. I hadn't figured out the two sides of this yet. I'd only been focused on the like building a great culture and everybody being, you know, kind to one another and caring for one another, which I'm very glad I did. But then I needed to like balance it out out. So I focused on that and that was really leading into like the era of becoming CEO. And then, you know, I was running. We took the company public in 2018 and then Covid happened and I had another nightmare of Roelof was not in it, that literally the company was gone. Like it was just gone. And it felt like losing a child in this, in this dream. And I woke up and literally had a text from our CFO that said it's here. And like a screenshot of our tableau dashboard showing this little line of revenue dipped down. It was like early March 2020 and we were the tip of the sphere. We went from a 14 year old company in the making to 14 days of free fall that went below that line that we like our tableau dashboards broke because we were generating more refunds than revenue. And so we didn't have a company. And that led me to that dream, led me to actually calling my team together. It was after we'd all gone home, like March 11th or whatever. And you know, we were all trying to figure out working from home. We're on Zoom and people's kids and dogs are everywhere, and it's like, you know, it's chaos, and all the events are shutting down and everything, everything, the entire basis of our businesses has evaporated. CDC is now saying, you can't gather from her with more than 10 people. I mean, it's crazy. And, you know, I'm like, first, like, we all have to stop apologizing for our dogs and kids because they're gonna, like, internalize that and it's gonna scar them. So let's just, like, make a policy, like, don't apologize for your kids. You know, they could be every. We're all in this together. The second thing I said was, given what you know about this business, what would you do if you had to do it all over again? And I didn't realize at the time, like, that was the essential question. My instinct was just to say, okay, we are ending, like, this era of Eventbrite is done. We will be there on the other end for our customers, our creators, when they're rebuilding their businesses, but we can't look the same. So how are we going to make the most of this crisis and how are we going to rebuild the company? Because it's gone. Gone. Like, that dream made me really understand that it was gone. And so we sketched out what we would do if we could do it all over again, given all the wisdom that we had about the business. And we created almost just like a one pager by the end of the meeting. And then I was like, let's go do that. Let's go build that company. And we had to make a lot of really hard decisions, but we had this North Star of, like, when you're not thinking about layoffs or budgets or losing your job or, you know, all the scariness that was around us. And you could just focus on, what if you had a new lease on life? Like, what would you do differently? That was like. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for doing that because that really helped us move forward fast. I mean, very quickly.
- [50:49]
Ilana Golan
I mean, you reinvented the entire business around online and, you know, events online, right?
- [50:56]
Julia Hart
Like, we did. Yeah, yeah. And even, like, further below, you know, the. The surface, there was all sorts of infrastructure and product work that we wanted to do. I remember calling our head of engineering and being like, rip and replace everything that you've been afraid to touch because we can't be down. You know, we're a global business. We ticket events in 180 countries. There's never a time that you could be down. I'm like, go do that right now. I'm like, like, you know, bless the engineers who did that and sort of ripped out some of the old piping and but you know, we threw away our roadmap. We focused on supporting creators with ways that, that they could stay connected with their community. Part of that was online events, part of it was, you know, offering credits to future events. We really thought differently about who we were building for, who our core customer would be coming out of the pandemic. Our core thesis was that rather than focus on getting the larger customers, you know, back up and running, which were going to be like the venues were going to be the last to open big festivals were really, really in dire straits, was to focus on the mid market repeat customer who was hosting frequent events because those would be the one, those would be the customers who had communities that would stick together. And that was the right call. You know, that, that front us really anchored us against a North Star that helped progress our product roadmap even despite all the uncertainty and then also lock us in with a customer who ended up becoming a really strong recurring revenue stream. And I think by focusing on the creator connection with their audience, we were able to actually advance the consumer side of our marketplace place and really build trust there. So I think like, you know, the lesson there is, is if you're given the opportunity to reinvent and take it.
- [52:52]
Ilana Golan
Right.
- [52:52]
Julia Hart
It's so rare, you know, Right. So I'm, I'm, I'm glad we took it. It was painful. We certainly didn't, didn't get it all right. But the opportunity to go through that and to come out the other end as a platform that could scale once again and support creators is something I'm really proud of and you should be.
- [53:11]
Ilana Golan
And my question maybe would be like a lot of people want to reinvent themselves, but because of the uncertainty that comes with it, because you don't know all the journey, right, you don't have all the answers. You just have this clear idea that you probably need to adapt and you probably need to do something else. But how do you decide?
- [53:30]
Julia Hart
I think like, you know, it's, it sounds so cliche, but at the end of the day we just follow the customer. We just make sure that we are thinking through every decision that I make and everything that I prioritize. Let's put it this way, every single time that I have prioritized the business over the customer, I have failed.
- [53:51]
Ilana Golan
Interesting.
- [53:52]
Julia Hart
So like, I don't know you know, how many more ways I have to learn that lesson?
- [54:00]
Ilana Golan
But I love that lesson, by the way.
- [54:01]
Julia Hart
I'm done learning that lesson. Yeah.
- [54:05]
Ilana Golan
I love that learning. So, events, where are you guys taking it? Where. What, what is the, what is the funnest event or what? Where do you want to go? Tell me a little more about events for you guys.
- [54:17]
Julia Hart
You know, it, it, to me, it's incredible to watch yet another generation. So it was millennials and now it's Gen Z. Really reinvent intentional micro communities. You know, really create an identity around what we do and how we experience things. And, you know, certainly going through a black swan event, like the gold, like the global pandemic, has given me the confidence that what we're doing really matters and it's defensible, right? If it, if we could, if we could survive the biggest, I think, existential crisis that could hit our business, you know, we're unstoppable in terms of the future. And so the way we think about it is how can we harness the power of all technology to bring to bear the connections that people are craving in real life? How can we make event creators more successful at what they do with less work so they can focus on the experience and the content? And how do we give every single person the right event at the right time, wherever they are, are to really meet their needs? And as, as you know, as humans, I think we are in desperate need of in real life connections and it just keeps getting more and more valuable. So I think about it as, you know, we're enabling creators to do this work, to create these connections, to help people be in spaces together, to change the way they think, to grow deeper bonds, to feel connected to each other, to create indelible memories. And we need to get out of the way quickly when that magic happens, but continue to enable it to happen at scale.
- [56:03]
Ilana Golan
I love it. What is like an event that you think was incredibly fun or something you're.
- [56:10]
Julia Hart
Looking forward to all the time? I see things, so it's hard to pick one. But I think lately I'm loving three things that are squarely in the, the center of like, you know, Gen Z trends, Puppy yoga. If you've never been to a puppy yoga class, you need to, you need to go to. It's a. Yeah, it's a. It's a yoga class, but they bring in puppies, like run around the studio. It's just amazing. I've never felt such like, euphoria in a yoga class too, which, like you do, you know, you unlock Some strong feelings in a good yoga class.
- [56:45]
Ilana Golan
But wow.
- [56:46]
Julia Hart
I mean that is so epic. The delight. I'm loving silent book clubs where people are getting together en masse to sit silently and read the book. Wow. Because gone are the days that we can count on each other to actually read the book. You know, so you get together and hold each other accountable and then you're like just silently reading together. I love that. And then I also love, I love this sounds a little bit more on the nose, but I love running clubs right now, these run club events. I was just sitting in a black cab in London stuck in traffic and a run club was getting started right outside our cab and I was like dying. I'm like clamoring over Kevin and taking pictures and stuff because I wanted to find out if it was on Eventbrite because run clubs are massive right now and it's. The trend is, is around, you know, singles joining a run club to then find their partner. But it was amazing. I mean the way that they had it, had it set up. They had like these backpacks with speakers on them. So it was like music and they had, you know, like the leader had a mic and he's like, okay, group one go group. And like, you know, they like kind of break the cohorts into people that they think would be good matches for each other. So it's like this, the next coming of, you know, speed dating. But it's run club. And you're like, that's just so amazing. I mean, I think, you know, every day there's a new type of gathering that, that gets created. We actually sometimes create our own gatherings because we see these really interesting trends on the horizon or we see, you know, things that people love. And we recently just brought one to market called the Cheese Rave. Because EDM and raves are still going strong. It's probably like one of the, one of the strongest subcategories ever on Eventbrite. And then cheese tasting and like the fine art of cheese is also really like, you know, hip with the kids these days. So we put the two together because cheese tastes different. Different depending on what you're listening to.
- [58:43]
Ilana Golan
This is so epic.
- [58:44]
Julia Hart
I heard about it. It's so weird. And then we got Anton from Queer Eye to be our, our co host and it was, it was amazing. It was in Brooklyn and it was just people who, who got it, really got it. And, and we had these like cheese tasting stations and amazing music. And so, you know, I think, I think it's sort of, it's our Nod to the fact that you can create. Create anything. It's the ultimate creative medium that's so innovative.
- [59:13]
Ilana Golan
Like, I love it. And I think one of the things that I'm hearing is, Julia, is how adaptive you are. And I think that just so critical, especially as a leader, but also. Especially at this fast pace of change. Like, you have to run and adapt all the time, otherwise you stay behind and lose relevance really quick. How do you feel? Like, how do you adapt? Like, do you. You learn a lot. Do you talk to a lot of. Do you have a lot of mentors? Like, who helps you?
- [59:41]
Julia Hart
Yeah, you know, I. I learned from Kevin that the art of reaching out to a lot of people and hearing a lot of opinions and not attaching to one idea or one, you know, way of doing it and not. I think my own kind of way of thinking about that is I don't try to put anyone in the role of mentor, you know, because I think that's a really heady title. Ultimately, putting people on pedestals like that is pretty. Pretty dangerous. But rather, like, thinking about it as there are different people in my life that I know I can call with a question who may have a great answer and makes you think differently about. About solving a problem. And I also think about it as she who lasts the longest wins. So I'm. I'm also sort of imagine the. The journey of a founder and a CEO is at times walking through the desert alone. And then I also think about it as, you know, if I can continue to develop, to grow, to change, to push myself, to learn more, then I deserve to be in this position. So that really motivates me to always be learning. I mean, I'm an insatiable learner. I love to learn by doing. I don't love to sit in a classroom as a metaphor at all. But I think that this job is. Is such a perfect fit for me because I'm learning every single day.
- [61:05]
Ilana Golan
No, it's.
- [61:05]
Julia Hart
It's amazing.
- [61:06]
Ilana Golan
So if they're, like, speaking of learning, maybe if there's, like, we like to kind of end with, like, if there's one thing that you kind of. Kind of be able to talk to younger Julia, what would you say to her?
- [61:18]
Julia Hart
I definitely would say, stop doubting yourself, and you, like, recapture that time to sleep more. I mean, you know, like. Like my age, like, sleep's so important, and I feel like I've lost a lot of it doubting myself and that. It's just silly. It's just not helpful to anybody, not least of what you, you know, but yeah, I think just like spend more time sleeping, less time doubting.
- [61:47]
Ilana Golan
Ooh, I like that. And for the reinventers and leapers that are listening to you, they want more for their life. They are trying to figure out what it is. What would you say?
- [62:01]
Julia Hart
Don't confuse safety with alignment. Meaning, like, one of the hardest decisions that I have made and have had to make a lot of times is to change course and to break something that wasn't working, even despite it feeling safe and you know, to not go the status quo and like, that is sometimes what you need, you know, to, to reinvent and to grow. Because staying misaligned is the biggest. Is it with the interest of your customers, with your ethics and morals, you know, whatever it is, like, that's the, that's way riskier than reinventing and taking the leap. And so, you know, kind of always be thinking about that, that when you're afraid to take the leap, ask yourself, are you doing it because it feels, are you staying because it feels safe? Or how can you grow and reinvent in a way that will actually lead to a much safer outcome, frankly? And then finally, I think, like, curiosity is one of the greatest skills of careers in the future. I think, especially in the time that we're living in now, like, no one, no one, not even the people closest to it, know where, where this is going to end. And so instead of sitting around asking ourselves what's going to happen, be a part of it and learn about it and continue to grow and learn. And I mean, it's just, it's such a, it's such a renaissance period of learning. I feel like right now it's incredible, right?
- [63:29]
Ilana Golan
Well, I mean, it's incredible, right? If you can't predict the future, create it, right? I mean, it's like you can definitely be part of that future. So, Julia, it's incredible to be following you and to see your growth and to see what you created and we are huge fans of Eventbrite and, and just wishing, like, just love following you and so much success. Let's go.
- [63:52]
Julia Hart
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. This was really fun.
- [64:03]
Ilana Golan
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
- [64:05]
Julia Hart
If you did, please share it with friends now.
- [64:08]
Ilana Golan
Also, if you're feeling stuck or simply want more from your own career, watch this 30 minute free training@leapacademy.com training. That's leapacademy.com training. See you in the next episode of the Leap Academy with Ilana Golan. Show.