How The Founder Of Eventbrite Keeps Launching And Backing Hit Startups – with Kevin Hartz
The headline of this post is kind of an understatement. Look at some of the companies Kevin Hartz has been involved launched or backed.
- Eventbrite, which he launched and still runs, did over $100 mil in gross ticket sales last year.
- Xoom, the previous company he launched, will process nearly $1 billion in money transfers this year.
- Connect Group, his first company, was sold for over $9.5 million within months of launching.
- Then there’s his investments in startups, including PayPal, Yammer, Trulia, and Lookout.
How did he do it? And what can you learn from his experience? That’s what I tried to answer in this interview.
Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder & CEO of Eventbrite, a company changing the way events come together online, and happen offline. Kevin was previously Co-Founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company, servicing more than 40 countries worldwide.
Andrew:
Hey, everyone. It’s Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy.com, Home of the Ambitious Upstart. And today’s guest has been involved in many companies that many of you already know of. But I want to talk to you about a new company that I met him through, a company that used to be called FlexList, that’s now called LookOut. Some of my smartest friends launched this business. It’s security for mobile phones. And they told me about Kevin Hartz, who invested in the business. I said, “Who is this Kevin Hartz?” And the founders started telling me about how he was an early investor in PayPal. How he’s the guy who’s running, in fact, at the time, I think, Kevin, you were bootstrapping EventBrite. And I went through and found out so much about you. You’re one of the most successful people in our industry, and I’m so glad that you’re here on Mixergy. We’re going to talk about investments like the LookOut...
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