Julia Hartz
Co-Founder and former CEO, Eventbrite · 4 appearances on the record.
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founderexecutiveinvestor@juliahartz ↗LinkedIn ↗eventbrite.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Julia Hartz co-founded the global ticketing platform Eventbrite in 2006 and served as its CEO, leading the company through its public listing on the NYSE in 2018. She previously worked as a television production executive and is an active angel investor.
55statements → 31claims → 15claims resolved → 73%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.44/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →
11 supported 3 partly supported 1 contradicted 3 not yet assessed 13 not checkable as stated how the 31 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
1 prediction · 30 assertions · 5 opinions · 11 insights · 8 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 31 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 15 are resolved, 3 are not yet assessed, and 13 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 Julia 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
Eventbrite was buckling under a competitor integration before the pandemic hit.
“Prior to COVID, things weren't going great at the company. We were a newly public company. We had acquired our largest competitor. We were buckling under the weight of that integration and migration and disappointing everyone.”
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
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
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Julia Hartz on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Julia Hartz said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
CEO Julia Hartz argues workplace productivity is the antidote to social isolation.
“But I don't think work is the enemy. Like, I think being productive and being in community is the antidote to social isolation and mental health challenges.”
Hartz: CEOs should not be expected to take stances on every issue
“There has to be space for CEOs to be human and to be learning and growing alongside everyone else, and I reject the notion that a CEO should be You know know-all, be-all. Like, that's really dangerous, right? That's not good. So I stepped back from that practi…”
Hartz: Eventbrite stands for freedom of assembly despite controversial content
“We stand for freedom of assembly, and that's a really important thing for people to understand when they join the company, and there are things that people aren't going to agree with on the platform.”
Hartz: Eventbrite will weather a major economic downturn
“Certainly I don't think Eventbrite is completely impervious to another, you know, big economic meltdown, but I feel pretty confident that, that we'll be able to weather the storm.”
Hartz: Eventbrite went from record ticket sales to negative revenue in 14 days
“We went from, you know, record high ticket sales to negative revenue in 14 days, and something we had spent 14 years building was It basically evaporated in the span of two weeks.”
Hartz: Total event shutdown was a silver lining reset for Eventbrite
“For about two to three weeks, there were no events happening. And that pause guy was the silver lining for our business. We were forced to pause and reset. And what business gets to do that after 14 years and also a public company?”
Eventbrite was buckling under a competitor integration before the pandemic hit.
“Prior to COVID, things weren't going great at the company. We were a newly public company. We had acquired our largest competitor. We were buckling under the weight of that integration and migration and disappointing everyone.”
Frequent creators drove most Eventbrite revenue despite a poor product experience.
“Frequent creators, those who are coming to Eventbrite, regardless of their category, geo size, But they were using the platform at least one time a month. They were a small portion of creators producing a big portion of revenue, and our product absolutely suck…”
Hartz: Eventbrite virtual events swung from 1% to 90% and back to 10%
“So virtual events went from one percent of the events on Eventbrite to 90% of the events on Eventbrite to now 10%.”
Hartz: Eventbrite cut 50% of staff and raised two convertible debt rounds
“So when we halved the company, which was so extreme, no one was doing that, and when we raised more than we needed, and this is where being a public company was a virtue, because we could raise convertible debt, which, you know, we raised two rounds in very fa…”
Eventbrite generates 95% of its revenue from ticketing fees averaging $3.
“Well, so, 95% of the revenue comes from ticketing fees. And over 80% of the time, those ticketing fees are actually paid for by the consumer. And Eventbrite's ticketing fees, on average, are three dollars.”
Hartz: Eventbrite processed over 8 million virtual tickets in April 2020
“And then I think April alone, we processed over eight million tickets to events virtually when, you know, many in-person events were not happening.”
Hartz: Online event economics work via higher capacity and lower costs
“While ticket prices Tend to be lower, a bit lower on online events, and we imagine they may have a premium for in-person events once we can gather again in person. Those online events can hold a lot more people, right, at a lower cost, and so it actually works…”
TV series development functions exactly like multi-stage venture capital investing
“And being a development executive is not unlike being a VC, I guess, of several stages. So, you know, you start with seed, where you're cultivating talent, and you're taking a lot of pitches, and then you help to cultivate the idea, and then you get to a place…”
The 2006 ticketing market lacked any consumer-friendly, affordable mid-market platforms
“Basically there was this big void in the market. You know, either you were using checks and cash collected at the door and tracking your attendees on maybe Excel spreadsheets or by hand. Or you were using really expensive kind of dinosaur software on the enter…”
Married co-founders avoided conflict by never working on the same business area
“We never work on the same part of the business at the same time, and we have complementary skills, and we have a set of rules to work through conflict quickly.”
Ticketmaster vertically integrates arenas while Eventbrite operates as a horizontal open platform
“The Ticketmaster strategy is one part of a Live Nation strategy, which is to be vertically integrated into an event. It's large arenas and stadiums that typically serve sports and music that But Eventbrite is a horizontal platform that enables a wide array of …”
Eventbrite pitched 27 venture capital firms in 2008 and received zero checks
“Well, we went and saw 27 firms, and we received 27 no's or not right now. Huh. So we received zero checks. No checks.”
Eventbrite deliberately left its 2009 operating plan with all 27 rejecting VCs
“So what we did was we left our 2009 operating plan with every VC that we met with. And that was sort of seen as, you know, a little risky. Because nobody knew what 2009 would hold. And then our plan B was to take a more lean approach to scaling in 2009, go bac…”
Hartz: Eventbrite raised $6.5 million from Sequoia after securing three term sheets
“We were confident enough to say that we were accepting term sheets on a certain date, and, ah, and we received three term sheets, and we raised six and a half million from Sequoia Capital in that round.”
Hartz: Co-founders should never have disagreements or conflict in front of employees
“For any co-founder team, I think it's really important to understand that, you know, to openly debate is one thing, but to disagree or have beef with each other in front of your employees, because it's just not productive.”
Hartz: Eventbrite raised capital when not needed as downturn buffer
“We raised private capital sometimes when we didn't need it because we wanted to ensure that we would have it when, you know, the bottom fell out again.”
Preparing for an IPO forces essential clarity on company strategy and identity
“The process of going public was really helpful for us. It forced us to codify who we are, and what we're building, and why people are buying what we're building, and what our strategy is for the future. And it's not as if we weren't doing those things, but I t…”
Appearances (4)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Advice Line with Julia Hartz of Eventbrite | Feb 12, 2026 | 13m |
| Leading through radical change with Julia Hartz of Eventbrite | Oct 19, 2023 | 27m |
| How I Built Resilience: Live with Julia Hartz | Jul 16, 2020 | 17m |
| Eventbrite: Julia Hartz | Feb 17, 2020 | 38m |