Kevin Hartz

Co-Founder & General Partner, A* · 3 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderinvestorexecutive@kevinhartz ↗LinkedIn ↗a-star.co ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗

Kevin Hartz is an entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Eventbrite, serving as CEO for 11 years, and co-founded Xoom. As an angel and venture investor, he made notable early investments in breakout tech companies including PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Uber, SpaceX, and Ramp.

60statements → 19claims → 10claims resolved → 80%fully supported → 4.07/5average certainty → 2.28/5average debate potential → 4.0/5argument clarity · the sources → 75said about them ↓

8 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted 9 not checkable as stated how the 19 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 predictions · 12 assertions · 9 opinions · 16 insights · 14 disclosures · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 19 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 10 are resolved, and 9 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Kevin argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Prediction Held up
Hartz: SPACs will be an enduring listing vehicle, not a passing trend
“We see this SPAC phenomenon, not as a flash in the pan, not as a quick up and down. That'll be a passing fancy of the 20 twenties, but really an enduring vehicle to bring our innovation companies to market.”
Kevin Hartz Aug 31, 2020 ▶ 4:57 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Founders Fund sold Spotify at $8B to double down on Airbnb
“It was Peter and Brian Zingerman and Napoleon that took what did they take? I think they sold Spotify at the eight billion dollar price, pissed off, what's his name? Daniel. Daniel Ek, and rolled it all into Airbnb at the two and a half billion.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 54:13 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
50% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.0 / 5 directness 4.2 · coherence 4.2 · precision 3.6 · compression 3.3

redirected or did not address 2 of 25 assessed questions (8%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

220 words/min while actually speaking · 20.8 um and uh per 1k words · 27.2 false starts per 1k · 41.8% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 10,085 words across 2 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 3 rated episodes:

setup questions received 43%

Everything Kevin Hartz said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Not checkable as stated
Hartz: Nvidia's valuation is a precursor to the bubble of all bubbles
“NVIDIA becoming the most valuable company on the planet is just the precursor towards the bubble of all bubbles.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 0:00 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Hartz: Current SPAC fee structures are egregious and require market-wide reform
“At the current time, SPAC fees are egregious. I'll just say that outright, and they need to be reformed.”
Kevin Hartz Aug 31, 2020 ▶ 12:36 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pierre Lamond made Kevin Hartz force-rank direct reports and fire the lowest
“In the very first meeting, I'll always remember, he said, Kevin, I want you to go up to the whiteboard, and I want you to write your direct reports down, but I want you to force rank them, you know, one to seven, or how many it was, and so I go and I write the…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 6:11 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: Seed startups spend $10M to hit the same milestones as $1M
“I feel there's like Boyle's Law as applied to capital. So if you raise a million dollar round for your seed company, you'll spend it and build a company with that million. But if you raise five million or ten million, you'll spend it just the same and get to t…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 10:35 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Hartz favors Sequoia's hands-on VC model over Founders Fund's hands-off approach
“Given those two extremes, I actually lean more towards, ah, the role of Sequoia's side, because I've just seen that kind of help and oversight and having that kind of star chamber of great talent cut so many corners of mistakes that would be made.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 12:40 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Hartz: Paul Graham rejected his exploding term sheet for Airbnb's seed round
“Little known secret is Keith, Javed and I gave an exploding term sheet to Airbnb, and Paul Graham said no bueno, and teed off on us.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 37:25 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Founders Fund sold Spotify at $8B to double down on Airbnb
“It was Peter and Brian Zingerman and Napoleon that took what did they take? I think they sold Spotify at the eight billion dollar price, pissed off, what's his name? Daniel. Daniel Ek, and rolled it all into Airbnb at the two and a half billion.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 54:13 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Held up
Hartz: SPACs will be an enduring listing vehicle, not a passing trend
“We see this SPAC phenomenon, not as a flash in the pan, not as a quick up and down. That'll be a passing fancy of the 20 twenties, but really an enduring vehicle to bring our innovation companies to market.”
Kevin Hartz Aug 31, 2020 ▶ 4:57 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*
Prediction Held up
Hartz: Speculative SPAC deals will collapse like the dot-com bubble
“What we do see, and what we do predict, unfortunately, is something akin to perhaps the dot-com bubble in 99 and 2000, where you saw a lot of bright, shiny objects, and big flash in the pan market seeming successes, and then you'll see a lot of these coming do…”
Kevin Hartz Aug 31, 2020 ▶ 17:44 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Hartz commits to holding his venture portfolio investments for life
“I'm not in the practice of selling, I'm in the practice of finding and building companies and sitting on these things for life.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 20:34 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hartz: Most successful founders felt an inevitability of success early on
“Most people I talk to that are founders that have gone on always knew from the very beginning.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 2:07 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Kevin Hartz prefers investing in first-time founders over serial entrepreneurs
“Well, I should be, you know, statistically focused on Serial, and we back a lot of Serial founders, you know, like Chad Hurley, and you know, we've, however, I just have a soft spot for first, first time founders.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 15:35 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Sequoia outbid Hartz on Airbnb's seed round, but founders included him anyway
“I was angel investing with Keith Rubois and Javid Karim, and Javid is the co-founder of YouTube. And, you know, we just fell in love with those guys and made them an offer. And Sequoia out, out did us and got the lead, but they cut us in nicely because, you kn…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 18:39 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hartz: Jason Calacanis screamed at him over ticketing TechCrunch events
“He used to call me up at Eventbrite and scream at me, like, for, you know, he had a big rivalry with TechCrunch, And when we would ticket things for TechCrunch, he would get really angry and like, just call me up and scream at me for doing that.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 22:35 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: Brute TAM analysis is overdone; great teams expand small markets
“Brute TAM analysis is maybe overdone. I'd focus more on the teams. You know, great teams always find their way to kind of slingshot from a market, from the small market to the big market, or it takes the small market to become a big, to get into a big market.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 23:57 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Hartz: Venture capital has entered an era of less cooperation between funds
“It does feel like a period of less cooperation and there needs to be a very specific reason why funds would work together.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 26:46 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: Prior Operator Experience Is No Longer Required for Success in VC
“There used to be a vibe in the valley that said, oh, you've got to be an operator to be an investor, a venture investor. You've had to walk in the shoes, and that's changed”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 27:39 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: Investors Should Heavily Canvas Sectors Consensus Considers 'Dead'
“Whenever somebody tells you that an area is dead, make sure you, Like, heavily, like, canvas that area and go after it hard, because there's great stuff happening there.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 30:34 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hartz: Michael Moritz faked a phone call to avoid founders
“I always remember seeing Michael Moritz speak, give a talk about Google in the early 2000, and there were all these founders there, and he puts his phone up to his face and pretends to talk, and then, like, walks out of the building, you know, and so nobody wo…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 36:55 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: Exploding term sheet deadlines are artificial because VCs still want in
“Well, look, the issue is, is that you put a term sheet out in, in it, like, explodes on Friday at five PM, but does that mean? No, but does that mean that you, at five 15, you no longer want to invest? No, like the investor will always be there.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 38:46 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Hartz argues OpenSea retains significant long-term value despite the NFT crash
“You know, I think the jury's still out. There's still a lot of value there in OpenSea.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 49:15 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Hartz regrets turning down Peter Thiel's invitation to join Palantir at inception
“The day that acquisition of PayPal by eBay was announced Peter had resigned, and I met him up at the Sundeck restaurant in up on Sand Hill Road, and he said, you know, Kevin, I'm working on this business, and, you know, we're taking kind of the fraud algorithm…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 52:04 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: VCs should offer calm support in crises, tough love during success
“Tough love is needed when it's doing extraordinarily well. Like, when things are going terribly wrong, And there are the, you know, butterflies, and stomach, you know, is, like, seized up, and teammates are quitting, and somebody's hacked the site, or whatever…”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 57:08 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hartz: Staying private too long atrophies a startup's operational performance
“The muscles of really performing well can be atrophied in the darkness of the private markets.”
Kevin Hartz Aug 31, 2020 ▶ 10:34 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*

Show 24statements(36 left)

The other half of the tape: Kevin Hartz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 67 times in 15 episodes on 20VC. 8 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 45Miles Dieffenbach 7Julia Hartz 7Maggie Hott 2Dylan Serota 2Joe Lonsdale 1Elad Gil 1Andrew Dudum 1

Statements about Kevin Hartz, by other people (8)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Newfront accepted Kevin Hartz's investment offer despite it being 30% lower
“When Kevin invested, we had some other offers that were materially higher than his. I think his was 30% lower than the next offer.”
Spike Lipkin Oct 16, 2020 ▶ 19:12 20VC: How To Determine The Risks To Take vs To Pass On, Should Founders Meet Investors When Not Raising & The Most Important Non-Obvious Role of the CEO with Spike Lipkin, Founder & CEO @ Newfront Insurance
Disclosure
Julia Hartz killed the "What Would Kevin Do" mindset upon becoming CEO
“I had to actively tell myself that on January first of this year, I was actually never, I was going to stop saying what would Kevin do? So I killed WWKD and I had to start making my own decisions.”
Julia Hartz Oct 20, 2017 ▶ 22:44 20VC: Eventbrite Founder, Julia Hartz on The Lessons Learned Scaling Eventbrite to Unicorn Valuation & $3Bn in Gross Ticket Sales
Opinion
Kevin Hartz and A-Stars Are the Most Underrated Emerging Managers
“If I say his name, he'll probably raise a bigger fund, but I'll say, I think Kevin Hart's in A-Stars. I think they've done fabulously well as a partner.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:24:41 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon's Endowment Backed Kevin Hartz's A-Star
“Kevin Hart's at A-Stars is, is, is a new partner of ours, and he was at Founders Funds for a few years.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 28:51 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Spike Lipkin: Newfront met weekly with Kevin Hartz for years during scaling
“We were lucky enough to work with Kevin Hartz and met with him once a week for a number of years to think through some of the common challenges of scaling.”
Spike Lipkin Oct 16, 2020 ▶ 16:36 20VC: How To Determine The Risks To Take vs To Pass On, Should Founders Meet Investors When Not Raising & The Most Important Non-Obvious Role of the CEO with Spike Lipkin, Founder & CEO @ Newfront Insurance
Assertion Supported
Eventbrite's co-founders worked the door at the first TechCrunch Disrupt
“Kevin and I actually printed out the guest list for the first TechCrunch Disrupt, and we worked the door.”
Julia Hartz Oct 20, 2017 ▶ 13:37 20VC: Eventbrite Founder, Julia Hartz on The Lessons Learned Scaling Eventbrite to Unicorn Valuation & $3Bn in Gross Ticket Sales
Disclosure
Eventbrite was bootstrapped using all of Julia and Kevin Hartz's savings
“Why don't we try to do something together and you can make no money and we could put all of our money, all of our savings into bootstrapping a company.”
Julia Hartz Oct 20, 2017 ▶ 8:53 20VC: Eventbrite Founder, Julia Hartz on The Lessons Learned Scaling Eventbrite to Unicorn Valuation & $3Bn in Gross Ticket Sales
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Kevin Hartz's Angel Portfolio Includes Airbnb, Uber, and Pinterest
“Kevin's also a prolific angel investor, with one of the most successful angel portfolios in the valley, with the likes of Airbnb, Uber, PayPal, Pinterest, and Yammer, all in Kevin's personal angel portfolio.”
Harry Stebbings May 22, 2017 ▶ 1:02 20VC: Founders Fund's Kevin Hartz on Why Investing In Silicon Valley Is Broken & Why Fearlessness Is What Makes The Truly Great Investors

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
002024032017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
0232017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
007.51.51532017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 8 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2024 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 5 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2018 8 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2017 39 mentions in 3 episodes 13 per episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC Jul 22, 2024 45m
20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Be Aug 31, 2020 19m
20VC: Founders Fund's Kevin Hartz on Why Investing In Silicon Valley Is Broken & Why Fearl May 22, 2017 12m
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