Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - How Julia Hartz Built Eventbrite from a Startup to a Billion-Dollar IPO | E120

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

What do you do when the dream you've chased no longer fits? For Julia Hartz, it meant walking away from a promising career in Hollywood to dive into the unknown world of startups. As an intern on the set of Friends, she learned the value of kindness, clarity, and high standards. But the real test came in tech, where she bootstrapped through a downturn, faced 27 VC rejections, and ultimately co-founded Eventbrite, one of the world’s leading event ticketing platforms. In this episode, Julia joins Ilana to discuss her leap from TV to tech, how she led Eventbrite through a crisis, and how she continues to reinvent herself and her business.  Julia Hartz is the co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite, a global ticketing and event technology platform that empowers creators to bring people together through live experiences. In 2018, she took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange, making her one of the few female founders to lead a tech IPO. In this episode, Ilana and Julia will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:02) Julia’s Leap from Performance to Broadcasting (04:28) Her Internship on the Set of Friends (07:15) Discovering Her Path in TV Development at MTV (10:59) The Original Jackass Pilot and Startup-Like Creativity (14:55) Transitioning from MTV to FX and Facing Uncertainty (18:47) Leaving Hollywood to Build a Startup (26:43) The Product Strategy That Transformed Their Business (32:29) Getting 27 Rejections from VCs and Refusing to Quit (35:50) How the Financial Crisis Created Their Breakthrough (40:03) Reinventing Herself to Become CEO (46:05) How COVID Nearly Took Down Eventbrite (51:09) The One Rule She Always Comes Back To Julia Hartz is the co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite, a global ticketing and event technology platform that empowers creators to bring people together through live experiences. In 2018, she took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange, making her one of the few female founders to lead a tech IPO. Today, Eventbrite has powered millions of events and facilitated billions in ticket sales in 180 countries. Connect with Julia:Julia’s Website: eventbrite.comJulia’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliahartzJulia’s Instagram: instagram.com/juliahartz Leap Academy:Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training

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 rules, 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.

never missed it. Plus, it really, really helps me continue to bring amazing guests. Okay, so let's dive in. Nothing. Quite literally nothing could have prepared me for the morning I woke up and realized I was CEO. Delia 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. We pitched 27 VC firms and we got 27 nos. We didn't have a company.

I'd just turn 30. I'm like, if I'm done actually bringing value to Eventbrite, like, I don't think I should stay. You kind of started in TV initially. 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 Anaston exuded kindness in a way that I think left a mark on me as well. And I've never told this.

story before but 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. Eventbrite operates in nearly 180 countries,

served a community of hundreds and thousands of event creators in selling over 2 billion tickets. Julia, I can't wait to speak with you. Thank you for having me on. I'm so excited to have this conversation. 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? Why TV? Take me there for a second. I was really attracted to storytelling from a very early age. I was a 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, I actually had interned as a teenager for a local news station. And Dina Ruiz was the person that I was shadowing.

And she was like this icon, you know, 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 books and my backpack and my student debt and my loans and my two jobs to pay for school. 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'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 going to, 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. 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, you know, had never experienced. And I came to realize pretty 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 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 a applying for really, really in-demand internships. My first internship that I landed was on the set of friends during, like, the Haiti. Which is incredible. It was incredible.

And, you know, 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. But let's talk about that internship, actually, because that's kind of a cool story. 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 it. 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, I'm dating myself, but a wireless phone. And yeah, it's like a cord. And I get told, your job is to answer this phone and go find whoever is looking for or 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 terrifying it was so terrifying And I can still remember it was like, this is Ari, get me Jen. And I'm like, oh, God, I got to go. You know, I'd like go to her dresser and be like, knock on the door. I'd be like, it's Ari, you know. And 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 schedule. It was incredible. And actually, out of everyone, and I've never told this story before. but out of everyone, Jennifer and Iston was just exuded kindness in a way that I think left a mark on me as well. That was so authentic and she was such a big star, I mean, is and dealing with our 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 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 kind of realized 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 left to MTV. and I joined the series development department in Santa Monica. 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 you 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? 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, 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, 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 give 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 really gather a lot about what it was like to be in each of these types of environments. I was so lucky. I mean, again, 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 blend of business and creativity. So, you know, television development is like venture capital 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 was assigned to one of the four main series development departments and 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, 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 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 love, I think everyone understands what a VHS is, who's listening. But I'd 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 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're going to do 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 a ride to watch something come you know be this like cultural icon that created its own zeit guys be so out there and really to to be a part of something that was so unique and you know it was interesting has 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, 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 were, the like stunts that 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. What do you think are some of the biggest things that you got from it? I mean, it sounds, I mean, again, from mere mortals hearing some of these like incredible places, right? The friends, the MTV, like it sounds incredible.

But what do you think are some of the things that you took with you from that? Well, actually, as I said, that was my first real job. I was lying because I've been working since I was 15th straight. So, but the. In a coffee. I want to hear about that too. But in my first post-college job, you know, I think I learned that kindness 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 the pursuit of perfection in filmmaking and the longevity and willingness to really be resolved. 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, like, the kind of childish creativity and abandonment that was happening in the early days of Jackass was just, it was amazing. And we knew, we knew we were on to something that was going to be huge, even though it was so, like, on the face of it, so distasteful. It just, it is. It is. It is. It struck a chord that was like, oh, this is going to be great.

That's so funny. So when did you decide to move to FX? Why? 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. 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 these incredible role model in her and then, you know, moved on to become like a junior something, 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 Landgraf was appointed the head of the department. And he's gone on to make 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 NipTuck, 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, 25. But being in that room and really hearing the thought process that went into uncovering these incredible gems and bringing these incredible stories 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 things that, like on HBO. And like FX just basically said, no, we're going to 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 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, which we'll talk about for sure. But right before we're 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? 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 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, you know, 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 everything was shaking out. And it was very beginning days of streaming. 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 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, um, 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 so they were, you know, 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, you know, high functioning 23 year old.

But I 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 want to be on the disruptor side. I don't want to be on the 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. But oh, my God, God bless them. I'm so proud of what they've done. But underneath all of that, the infrastructure got completely disrupted, right?

And so, yeah, you know, that leap from 42nd story window office in Fox Plaza, which was Nakatomi Plaza, which is Nakatomi Plaza. and diehard 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, going to stop working, obviously, but I did that on a Friday. And on a Monday, I was pushing sawhorses and plywood into a windowless phone closet in Petrera 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? Because he seemed so excited about this like unknown

that I just didn't even, I couldn't 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 grandeurier. For sure. That's a Massively. 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? Like, so like 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 L.A. So I'm, you know, I'm really, really close to my family in there and there. Now we're all back of the Bay Area. But like I tried actually to. 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 percent less than my salary that I was making at the time, which is 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 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 your 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'd 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 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 friend, 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 biased action than I do, and that was Kevin. And so, you know, he became my mentor and my role model and my coach and kind of, you know, in ways that were really helpful and profound because you don't always get that with your partner. And I realize that like those early days of starting event right were it was like accelerated grad school for me on, you know, a lot of different topics. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I mean, and we, sound very similar in how we make decisions. So it's just so really, really funny. 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? 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 XGI 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 in 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, part of the PayPal founding group was, was classmates of him, of his at, at Stanford. And so, you know, 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 next level of access using technology. So he founded with his partner Alan Braverman, Zoom, X-O-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. of ticketing. That was one of the ideas that they kind of threw in 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 in 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 on that. And basically we took the customers that were using it, which were mostly tech bloggers who were hosting paid meetups.

Right. And we used 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 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. And 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 to give people a way to turn their passion into profit by selling registrations to classes or tickets to events. If you're feeling stuck, underpaid or unappreciated, or you're simply ready to take your career in life to the next level, I have the perfect solution for you. We have a program that helps you fast track and leap your reputation and career. Become the best version of yourself. Get the dream role you'll deserve, move up to leadership, jump to entrepreneurship, or even build a portfolio career.

This program helps hundreds a year, and it will help you gain the income, influence, and impact that will transform the second part of your life. Watch our free training today at leapacademy.com slash free hyphen training. The link is in the show notes. Now back to the show. 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. So we all came at it from different angles. And then it was just the three of us for two and a half years or so. And we bootstrap the company. And I love that. And I think it was like 2006.

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. I call it the PayPal Chia Pet. It's like something that like grew, you know, exponentially. Yeah, no, it's, it was incredible to see what came out of that group in that time. And, you know, 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 a very, very special time. I mean, I was very much on the like outskirts of that. But really thinking about, you know, the original intention of Eventbrite, we built it on PayPal. We were really mindful of the fact that we wanted, you know, the idea of microprocessing, of microtransactional processing and democratization of merchant processing to be the basis of how we empowered people to, to create events and ticket them in a way. that was as easy as Gmail, you know, that was really our like North Star in the, in the beginning.

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 what? The three of you, not a big investment all the way to an MVP. And I think today there's this big high.

of let me raise millions and millions and millions of dollars, like, how do you see, like, the beginning? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Kevin had to raise, Kevin and Ellen had to raise tens of millions of dollars to clear the regulatory hurdles to be a money transmitter. Right. A new entrance to the market after 9-11, like, they were insane and they did it. And, like, the insane do prevail because they did it and they were the only, one of the only companies to really get through to add scale to be able 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 lien. 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 baby then. 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 a cup of noodles. But I think, you know, it was a simple time. But we managed to get to product market fit and good traction.

I think we were profitable with less than $250,000. Incredible. And yeah, you just don't hear that anymore. I mean, we all talk about that there's going to be, you know, the first. one person billion dollar company we don't hear a lot of bootstrap like I think we are one of the rare ones no people aren't putting their skin in the game like yeah 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 money doesn't matter like you it's a different set of priorities and and so

you know when we raise we did do like an angel round with family and friends to bridge to the first institutional raise, but 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. 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. Maybe this doesn't have a chance. What made you guys go again and again and again? Because it's really hard to get these nose. Like it can really take you down. What made you continue? 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 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, and, we did what we said we were going to do we were like very 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 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 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? I mean, everything was so unknown, you know, and uncertain that it was, yeah, I was pretty terrifying. But I, we had Emma within two years of starting event, right? 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, 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 going to admit that it might not work out? And like, we're going to 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 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 round with Sequoia, was that the world changed, it flooped 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. Amazing.

And so almost exactly what Renaud 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 was 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. 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 made the difference to start becoming a CEO?

Actually, we've ever 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 a way, like, he was definitely helping me understand what it would take to be a great CEO. But we are such a strong complementary 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 Sochi Birch, 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 so she just said, we just divide and conquer. We never work on the same thing at the same time. And I remember picturing like, you know, how hard it is to sort of work with your partner on like a computer, like you're both like trying to control the like mouse or whatever,

you know, and just how like resonant that was for me. And so we just took that as our golden rule. And so we worked on totally different parts of the business. He worked on product. I worked on 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, you know, 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's 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. There's, like, fun stories. Like, 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, like, a sort 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. We were like lying in 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. And 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 hard sometimes because we think back to those days of like, oh no, it's just asked in a windowless phone closet. So 2016, you're taking on the CEO. And 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? 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 a great, you know, roll off both the from Sequoia Capitals is, again, a dear, dear investor, 14-year board member was right behind me with his hand in my back. 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. 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 was just thinking about Netflix where like co-CEo ship 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 it's such a mental you know thing so but now I wake up every morning and I'm like how lucky am I but to be able to be the CEO of the company that I helped start almost two decades ago, you know, and I just come at it from a place of gratitude. But yeah, that that feeling of like, of just the weight of the world doesn't really ever go away. 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

police bliss nights, 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 can think of three sleepless nights and two of them involve a nightmare that involve Roloff. 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 comes through like you as a character. My dream is weird. I've never dreamt how to any. other dreams with him in it. So it's like, that's just like, oh, 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 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, you know, I 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. that's equate and ask me a step aside. 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 with such, you know, strong product market fit. And that most of the companies, and our vintage had really, like, 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 of Empright by, 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 Roll Off 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 have 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 even focused on the like building a great culture and everybody being, you know, kind of one another and caring for one another, which I'm very glad I did. But then I needed to like balance it 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 Roloff 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 tablo 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 literally, everything stopped. The entire basis of our business has. evaporated. CDC is now saying you can't gather from her with more than 10 people. I mean,

it's crazy. And I'm like, first, like, we all have to stop apologizing for our dogs and kids because they're going to like internalize that and it's going to 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. And 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. Like, that dream, like, made me really understand that it was going. gone. And so we sketched out, you know, 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, you know, 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 do that. 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 i mean you reinvented the entire business around online and up you know

events online right 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, you know, bless the engineers who did that and sort of ripped out some of the old piping. But, you know, we threw away our roadmap. We focused on supporting creators with ways 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 ones, those would be the customers who had communities that would stick together. And that was the right call. You know, that for us, really anchored us against a North Star that helped progress our product road map, even despite all the uncertainty. And then also lock us in with a customer who ended up becoming a really strong. strong recurring revenue stream. And I think by focusing on a creator connection with their audience, we were able to actually advance the consumer side of our marketplace 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, it's so rare, you know. Right. So I'm glad we took it. It was painful.

we certainly 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 could support creators is something I'm really proud of. And you should be. 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 then you probably need to do something else, but how do you decide? 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, what's just for this fake? Every single time that I have prioritized the business over the customer, I have failed. Interesting. So, like, I don't know. Yeah. You know, how many more ways I have to.

learn that lesson. But I love that lesson, by the way. I'm done learning that lesson. Yeah. I love that learning. So events, where are you guys taking it? What is the funnest event or where do you want to go? Tell me a little more about events for you guys.

You know, 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 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, to really meet their needs? And 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. I love it. What is like an event that you think was incredibly fun or something you're looking forward to? All the time I see things. So it's hard to pick one. But I think, you know, lately I'm loving three things that are like squarely in the center of like, you know, Gen Z trends. Puppy yoga. If you've never been to a puppy yoga class, you need to go to Toronto. Yeah, 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. But, wow, I mean, that is so epic. The delight. I'm loving silent book clubs where people are getting together and mass 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, 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 and I'm like clamoring over Kevin and taking pictures and stuff because I wanted to find out if it was on event right 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. Nice. 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 one. And like, you know, like kind of break the cohorts into people that they think would be good matches for us. So it's like the next coming of, you know, speed dating, but it's run club and you're like, and it'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 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 depending on what you're listening to. This is so epic. I heard about it. It's so weird. And then we got Anton from Queer Eye to be our co-host.

And it was amazing. It was in Brooklyn. And it was just people who got it, really got it. And we had these like cheese tasting stations and amazing music. And so, you know, I think it's sort of, it's our nod to the fact that you can create anything. It's the ultimate creative medium. That's so innovative. Like I love it.

And I think one of the things that I'm hearing is, you know, the idea. is how adaptive you are. And I think that's 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 to learn a lot, do you talk to a lot of,

do you have a lot of mentors? Like, who helps you? Yeah, you know, 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 and 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 solving a problem. And I also think about it as she who lasts the longest wins. So I'm also sort of imagine 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 motivates me to always be learning. I mean, I'm just, I'm an insatiable learner. I love to learn by doing. I don't love to sit in a classroom and as a metaphor at all. But, you know, I think that this job is such a perfect fit for me because I'm learning every single day. No, it's amazing. 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 young. younger, Julia, what would you say to her? I definitely would say stop doubting yourself and you like recapture that time to sleep more. I mean, you know, 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 last time down. 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? 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. thing 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 a 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 when you're afraid to take a 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. know where this is going to end up. 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. Well, I mean, it's incredible. Right. If you can't predict the future, create it, right?

I mean, it's like, it 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're a huge. Huge fans that have you been bright and just wishing, like just love following you and so much success. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. This was really fun. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. If you did, please share it with friends. Now also, if you're feeling stuck or simply want more from your own career, watch this 30 minute free training at least. leapacademy.com slash training. That's leapacademy.com slash training. See you in the next episode of the leap academy with the Ilan and Golan Show.