Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #172 (10/8) with Kevin Hartz. Kevin is the Co-founder & former of Eventbrite, which is one of the largest ticketing & events marketplaces. Kevin is also a prolific investor, as an angel investor in PayPal, Uber, Airbnb, Opendoor, and more. Kevin is now investing through A*, which is a venture fund he more recently started.
‍
0:06 Intro
‍1:21 Kevin's background
‍4:12 The founding story & first steps for starting Eventbrite
‍5:46 How Eventbrite initially focused on creators & event hosts
‍7:53 The early strategy for markets & expansion
‍10:18 How Eventbrite evolved & scaled
‍12:03 The fundraising journey for Eventbrite
‍16:26 Challenges in ticketing & events
‍18:41 What led Kevin to angel investing in marketplaces like Airbnb
‍21:25 An overview of A* as a venture fund
‍23:12 Founder traits that Kevin looks for when investing
‍24:53 Group Q&A on the SaaS-first approach to starting a marketplace
‍26:49 Group Q&A on founder perseverance
‍30:38 Group Q&A on balancing friction & fraud
‍34:22 Parting marketplace advice
‍
Kevin on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/kevinhartz
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com
A*: https://www.a-star.co‍
Mike (Yoroomie) on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/yoroomie
‍‍
You can also find this group chat in audio format as an episode on our Everything Marketplaces podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also connect with marketplace founders & leaders from our group chats in the Everything Marketplaces community.