This post was coauthored with Jonathan Polenz.
Julia Hartz co-founded the startup company Eventbrite with her husband Kevin Hartz in 2006. Since then, it has grown exponentially. Their event-planning site has been used in 147 countries, and they've issued nearly 40 million tickets since their founding. In December of 2010, their gross sales surpassed $400 million. The company has 175 employees and is opening a London office. Hartz is also pregnant with her second baby girl.
'Momtrepreneur' Hartz disucusses her time management with us, "Every day is sort of a jigsaw puzzle," Hartz said. "You have to make sure that you're putting the most important things first." This is clearly not a lifestyle for everyone, and you need a good sense of humor to deal with the daily challenges. "If you don't need alone time or quiet time or sleep, it's great," Hartz joked.
From the early days of Eventbrite, Hartz had to master the art of successfully balancing work with her personal life. She and her husband founded the company at the same time they were planning their wedding and moving in together. She went from working as an executive in the entertainment industry where she had a window office on the 26th floor to a windowless conference room that was two hundred square feet. With only sawhorses and tabletops for desks and a wall of cup-o-noodles. "It's a little bit of a blur, those first few years, she said. "Basically, we just put our heads down and we started working on the product."
The company's mission has been to empower the live experience and to help people connect offline in the event space. Their innovative use of social networks to drive sales and customer acquisition has made Hartz a thought leader in the emerging "social commerce" market, and viral word-of-mouth helped the company "unlock the potential for consumers to find and discover new events," as Hartz puts it. Non-profits have also flocked to Eventbrite, using it to raise almost $60 million dollars through "Eventbrite for Causes."
Yesterday, Eventbrite launched their Easy Entry Android App which is said to handle upwards of 30,000 check-ins per week at events.
When we asked what's next for Eventbrite, Hartz laughed and coyly said "world domination...we're going global." They recently raised a $50 million Series E round of funding.
Click here to see the full interview with Julia Hartz on "The Valley Girl Show." You can also
see it on ValleyGirl.Tv or download it from our iPhone or Android apps.
Top Three reasons you should watch the full episode:
1. Hartz is very well versed in theme songs to children's shows as she illustrates by
singing the intro song to Nickelodeon's Dora, the Explorer.
2. We disco dance and blow bubbles together.
3. We plan a pickling party. If you don't know what a pickling party is, you'll have to
tune in to find out. Clue: Hartz says you can pickle anything!