Kevin Hartz

Kevin Hartz is an American entrepreneur, investor, Co-Founder and Chairman of Eventbrite, a self-service ticketing platform and former Partner at Founders Fund. In addition to founding three companies (Eventbrite, Xoom and ConnectGroup), Hartz is an early-stage investor and advisor to successful startups including PayPal, Pinterest,[1] Lookout, Uber, Airbnb, Trulia, Skybox Imaging and Yammer.

Early life and education

Hartz was born in Berkeley, California and raised in Orinda, California. He holds a BAS from Stanford University in history, as well as an MA in British history from University College, Oxford.[2]

Career

Hartz began his career at Silicon Graphics (SGI) as the product manager for Virtual reality browser Cosmo Player. Subsequently, Hartz was a co-founder of ConnectGroup, a startup providing high-speed Internet access to the hotel industry.[3] Five months after incorporating the company, it was acquired by LodgeNet[4] (NASDAQ: LNET).

In 2001, Hartz co-founded Xoom, an international money remittance business, along with Alan Braverman. He served as CEO until 2005 and served on the Board of Directors through its 2012 IPO[5] and subsequent acquisition by PayPal in 2015. The company had a total equity value of $1.1 billion[6]

Hartz founded Eventbrite, the global self-service ticketing platform, in 2006 with Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage.

Hartz joined Founders Fund in September 2016 and served as a partner but announced his exit from the company in June 2018.[7] He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Eventbrite (Chairman) and Lookout.

Investments

Hartz began his early stage investing after the sale of ConnectGroup to LodgeNet. He took the profits from that sale, and invested in a little-known company called FieldLink, which later became Confinity, which then became PayPal.[8][9][10] This early investment in PayPal influenced his later founding of Xoom and Eventbrite. Other investments include:

  • PayPal (Nasd: PayPal)
  • Airbnb (seed investor)
  • Pinterest (seed investor)
  • Milo (acquired by eBay)
  • Uber (series B)
  • Lookout (seed investor)
  • Flixster (acquired by Warner Brothers)
  • Trulia (acquired by Zillow)
  • TripIt (acquired by Concur)
  • Yammer (acquired by Microsoft)

Personal life

Hartz lives in San Francisco with his wife, Julia Hartz, and two daughters.

References

  1. ↑ Emily Chang (2014-03-03). "My Sit-Down with Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann". Bloomberg TV.
  2. ↑ Kevin Hartz | British Council
  3. ↑ "Kevin Hartz, Founder & CEO of Eventbrite". LinkedIn.
  4. ↑ LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation (2014-03-03). "LodgeNet Acquires Connect Group, Delivers High-Speed Laptop Connectivity". PR Newswire.
  5. ↑ "Xoom Corporation". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2013-02-01.
  6. ↑ "PayPal Acquires Xoom for Stake in Digital Money Transfers". The New York Times. 2015-07-01.
  7. ↑ "Kevin Hartz Is Stepping Down as Partner at Founders Fund". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
  8. ↑ "Kevin Hartz - Overview". CrunchBase.
  9. ↑ "Kevin Hartz - Founder and CEO at @Eventbrite". Angel.co.
  10. ↑ "PayPal Inc. History". Fundinguniverse.com.
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