Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #172 (10/8) with Kevin Hartz. Kevin is the Co-founder & former CEO of Eventbrite, which is one of the largest ticketing & events marketplaces. Kevin is also a prolific investor, as an early angel investor in notable startups like PayPal, Uber, Airbnb, Opendoor, and more. Kevin is now investing through A*, which is an early stage venture fund he started.
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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
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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
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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.