Founder Guidance

Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Kevin and Julia Hartz

It’s a classic story. She worked at MTV. He was a Silicon Valley founder. And after Kevin Hartz switched nametags at a wedding reception in 2003 so he could sit next to his future wife, Julia, the rest was pretty much history.

“In Hollywood speak, that’s our meet-cute,” Julia said.

The Hartzes started dating, and eventually began building what became the online ticketing giant Eventbrite (along with co-founder Renaud Visage). In 2006, they launched the company and were married five months later.

They vowed never to fight in front of employees. They refused to call the company a “family.”

By 2011, according to the company, Eventbrite was generating ticket sales in over 170 countries. In 2016, Julia became sole CEO as Kevin stepped aside to serve as executive chair. She took the company public in 2018 with a $1.76 billion valuation and weathered an 82% drop in paid tickets in May 2020 during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Then, they walked away. In December 2025, it was announced that Eventbrite would be acquired by Italian holding company Bending Spoons for $500 million, officially ending the couple’s involvement with the company.

The Hartzes spoke with Founder Brew about no longer owning the startup they built and what they’d tell today’s founders focused on in-person events.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You recently sold Eventbrite. What is it like to walk away?

Julia Hartz: It’s never easy to walk away. I mean to have your two-decade-long livelihood and community and mission and purpose. So, not easy. But, I had enough time to prepare emotionally for it…There’s a process of mourning, and everybody has to go about that their own way. I just happen to go through it fast.

Kevin Hartz: I hope I’m through it.

Julia: Maybe it’ll rear its ugly head.

Read more about the Hartzes moving on from the company they co-founded.—DL

      

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Starting Your Business

Marcello Bevilacqua

Inspiration has struck—you’ve got a startup idea, and it’s a good one. Now it’s time to ask the question that takes your concept from pet project to money-making business: “Is this something people need?”

Before you write a line of code—or ask someone to write a check—part of the pre-launch process involves seeking assurance that the problem you’re addressing is widespread and the way you’re approaching it is the best possible solution. A validation stack usually involves talking to people, building small tests of demand, and quantifying the users and market you can expect when it comes time to launch.

This is a critical step for startups: CB Insights data shows that 43% of VC-backed companies fail because they couldn’t find the right product-market fit.

Define your problem and your market

Write down a hyper-specific problem statement. Hypothesize exactly the types of people facing the problem and try to estimate how much they might pay to solve it, using any available data.

Try to map out the total market for your value proposition and what your differentiators in it would be. Who are your competitors? That includes direct competition—companies with a straightforward alternative—as well as indirect rivals, or competitors in a broader sense, i.e., Netflix versus social media as two different but somewhat analogous ways to waste time. Try to find out as much as you can about how these competitors operate, how they perform, and how much of the market they hold.

Read more about validating your idea.—PK

      

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Stat: $50 billion. That’s the estimated top amount that apparel giant Shein is expected to seek in its upcoming Hong Kong IPO. Recent filings related to the IPO have revealed more information about 42-year-old Sky Xu, Shein’s mysterious CEO and co-founder, who rarely appears in public. (Reuters)

Quote: “Founder-led companies can evolve without losing what makes them special, and two founders coming together is a powerful force to be reckoned with.”—Jenn Hyman, co-founder of Rent the Runway, on her new role as CEO of registry service Babylist; Hyman is taking over as CEO from Babylist founder Natalie Gordon (Fortune)

Read: Why collect Pokemon cards when you could battle with actual dinosaur bones? The growing interest in fossils from billionaire collectors like Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves and Green Hills Software founder Dan O’Dowd have made the market for T. rex skeletons ferocious. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

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