Day 1- Julia Hartz, Eventbrite CEO

Day 1/100 

​Who’s Julia Hartz ?Did you know that Eventbrite is one of the shining Women-led Unicorns? In 2018, CEO and Co-Founder Julia Hartz successfully led their IPO and is taking the company to new heights and leading with integrity throughout the coronavirus crisis, that is hitting the events business hard.

“Shares of Eventbrite skyrocketed nearly 60% in the first day of trading on the public markets, giving the event ticketing company a market cap of $2.78 billion. The San Francisco-based business, which debuted on the NYSE under the ticker symbol EB on Thursday, priced its public offering at $23 per share, the high end of its upwardly revised range, raising $230 million in the process.” (Pitchbook)
Julia cultivates and advocates for Eventbrite’s award-winning culture: voted Fortune’s 100 Best Workplaces in the U.S., Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Best Places to Work, and San Francisco Business Time’s Best Places to Work in the San Francisco Bay Area”. She has been honored as one of Inc.’s Female Founders 100, Fortune’s 40 under 40 business leaders,Inc’s 35 under 35, and Forbes Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs. Julia is also a frequent speaker on live experiences, consumer trends and entrepreneurship, and has been recently featured in Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg and Inc. Magazine.
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That’s the official bio.

L-R - Julia Hartz, Ann O'Dea and Anne Ravanona

 I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Julia when were both keynote speakers at the the 2014 Female Founders Forum event in Dublin, run by Ann O’Dea (Founder & CEO of Silicon Republic and FutureHuman). Then in 2017, Julia graciously agreed to be interviewed for my Trailblazing Women Series on Huffpost and I got to know her even better. She is not only an all round incredible business leader, caring mother of two girls and devoted wife to co-founder Kevin Hartz, she exudes empathy and hard work with all who meet her, and is always keen to share what she’s learned with other founders, warts and all. When I interviewed her another time for the Global Invest Her platform to share her funding story for Eventbrite so other female founders could learn from her journey, she jumped at the opportunity to help. That’s just who she is. She truly cares about helping others succeed, in particular her customers and ‘Britelings’ (employees).


Why Should You Listen to Her Funding Tip?
​Because, over the course of building Eventbrite into the Unicorn it is today, Julia has successfully raised over $373 Million in equity funding. So when it comes to looking for the right investors and cultivating a strong relationship with them, honestly you couldn’t dream of asking someone better. That’s why I decide to kick off this 100 Days of Funding Tips series with her!

What does Eventbrite do?
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Eventbrite is a global platform for live experiences that allows anyone to create, share, find and attend events that fuel their passions and enrich their lives. From music festivals, marathons, conferences, community rallies, and fundraisers, to gaming competitions and air guitar contests. Our mission is to bring the world together through live experiences.(from Eventbrite website)
In 2019, Eventbrite hosted over 4.7 Million Events in over 180 Countries.



What are they doing during the Covid-19 Crisis?

Taking events online and putting the spotlight on all the virtual events around the world, that’s what!

• Update on Efforts to Support Our Global Community During Covid-19(March 24, 2020)
• Alone Together: How to Find Community Through Online Events(Brit+Co, April 1, 2020)
• How Eventbrite Employees are connecting — and becoming more productive — during the coronavirus (Forbes, March 28,2020)
• From Netflix Party to Zoom: The Internet Apps Getting Us Through Coronavirus (Vox, March 21, 2020)

“On Eventbrite, an event discovery platform that’s typically used for offline events, a recent surge in livestreamed classes and webinars prompted the company to create a new landing page just to feature upcoming virtual events. It’s a slightly surreal tour through the landscape of classes and events that are usually chances for offline community-building — everything from yoga to bread-baking to a virtual ballet class is listed.” (Vox, March 21, 2020)
“While the bulk of events on Eventbrite have historically been in-person events like music shows and speed dating, we’re now seeing a rise in online events being offered on our platform in response to increased efforts to ‘flatten the curve,’” Eventbrite spokesperson Sara Putnam told Vox in an email.

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What’s her Funding Tip:
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The first time we went to raise money in 2008 and met 27 VC’s did not come out the other end successful. It was a horrible time to raise money and we couldn’t convince investors.What I learned from that, is that you always need to have several options to fund your business. We raised an angel round at that point (friends and family) and had also gained traction where we were financially break even.

Choosing the right investors is truly a core Funding Tip if you want to be successful in your fundraise. And it’s not that easy to do, especially in a downturn, like it was for Eventbrite back in 2008. Here are more of Julia’s tips on how to look for the right investors for your company:

What to look for in an investor:

• Choose the investors you want to have on board with you — people you trust, who believe in you. It makes all the difference in the world.
• Track record
• Who have they funded? Talk to those entrepreneurs and find out what the investors are like. Do your references 10 times than normal.
• Are they inherently passionate about what you are doing or are they dubious. The dubious investor will not be helpful.

What else should you do when looking for Funding?

— More tips from Julia Hartz:

The 3 most crucial things that will really help get funding:
* Traction and conviction
* Not desperately needing the money
* Choosing the people over the money (finding the right investors)

To find out more about Julia Hartz, check out:

• Eventbrite’s official website
• Her Twitter profile
• Her LinkedIn Profile

Want more Funding Tips?

Sign up here to get a daily Funding Tip to your email box or Visit the homepage of 100 Days of Funding Tips to get more funding tips. Please feel free to share them widely with other entrepreneurs and investors alike!

Check out Global Invest Her website, to learn more about funding for Female Founders

See you tomorrow for Day 2/100!
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Anne

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About the Author: Anne Ravanona is Founder & CEO of Global Invest Her, a recognised international Gender Diversity Advocate and Consultant, and TEDx Speaker. She’s passionate about getting 1 Million Women Entrepreneurs Funded by 2030.
Learn more about Anne here:

• personal website
• Follow Anne on twitter or instagram
• linkedin profile
• Global Invest Her website​

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