Julia Hartz
Julia Hartz (born circa 1976) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Eventbrite with Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage in 2006, serving as CEO since 2016. Eventbrite is a global ticketing and event technology platform processing millions of events and billions in ticket sales annually. Under Julia's leadership as CEO, Eventbrite went public in September 2018 at a $3 billion valuation, though the stock subsequently declined and the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the events industry, forcing massive layoffs and strategic pivots. Julia's path to CEO was unusual—she co-founded the company with her then-husband Kevin Hartz, whom she met through work circles, and they built Eventbrite together while married. However, they divorced around 2015-2016, just before Julia became CEO, requiring them to navigate the complex dynamics of running a company together after their marriage ended. Despite this personal challenge and the pandemic's impact, Julia continued leading Eventbrite through difficult years. Her experience exemplifies both the possibilities of female entrepreneurship in technology and the extreme challenges of leading an events platform through a period when events became impossible, raising questions about business model resilience and pandemic adaptability.
Early Life and Education
Julia Hartz was born around 1976 in California and grew up in the region. Details about her family background and childhood have been kept relatively private, though she has referenced growing up in an environment that valued education and achievement.
Hartz attended Pepperdine University, a private university in Malibu, California, where she studied television production. This communications and media focus reflected her interests in events, production, and experiences—themes that would define her career.
After graduating from Pepperdine in the late 1990s, Hartz began working in events and production, gaining experience in organizing and promoting events. This work gave her firsthand understanding of event logistics, ticketing challenges, and the friction involved in traditional event management.
Meeting and Marrying Kevin Hartz
Julia met Kevin Hartz in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 2000s through work and professional circles. Kevin was an entrepreneur who had founded and sold several companies including Xoom (international money transfer, later sold to PayPal) and had investments in numerous startups including PayPal itself.
Kevin and Julia connected over shared interests in entrepreneurship and creating products that solved real problems. Their relationship developed as they discussed business ideas and opportunities in the emerging internet economy.
The couple married in the mid-2000s. Their relationship combined Julia's event production expertise with Kevin's technology entrepreneurship experience and access to Silicon Valley networks. This partnership would prove foundational to Eventbrite's creation.
However, their marriage would later end in divorce around 2015-2016, coinciding with Julia's transition to Eventbrite CEO. Despite the divorce, they maintained professional partnership as co-founders and board members—a challenging dynamic requiring maturity and commitment to Eventbrite's success above personal complications.
Founding Eventbrite (2006)
In 2006, Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz, and Renaud Visage co-founded Eventbrite. The idea emerged from Julia's frustrations with existing event ticketing and management tools. Traditional ticketing through Ticketmaster was expensive and oriented toward large venues. Smaller event organizers lacked good tools for selling tickets, managing registrations, and handling payments.
Eventbrite's initial vision was simple: provide easy-to-use online tools allowing anyone to create, promote, and sell tickets to events of any size—from small community gatherings to major conferences.
Early Years and Growth
Julia's roles in Eventbrite's early years included:
Customer Success: Julia focused on understanding customers—event organizers—and ensuring Eventbrite met their needs. She spent significant time talking to customers, understanding pain points, and shaping product development.
Community Building: Julia championed building community among event organizers, recognizing that events were inherently social and organizers could learn from each other.
Marketing and Brand: Julia helped establish Eventbrite's brand as accessible, creator-friendly, and democratic—anyone could create events, not just large companies with established relationships with venues.
Eventbrite grew steadily, attracting millions of event organizers across categories including music festivals, conferences, fundraisers, workshops, and community gatherings. The platform processed billions of dollars in ticket sales.
Key product developments included:
- Mobile apps for organizers and attendees
- Social media integration for event promotion
- Various payment options and international support
- Analytics tools for organizers
Becoming CEO (2016)
In 2016, Julia Hartz became Eventbrite CEO, succeeding Kevin Hartz who became Executive Chairman. The transition occurred around the time of their divorce, adding personal complexity to a major professional transition.
Julia's elevation to CEO represented several significant aspects:
- Female founder becoming CEO (less common than male co-founders leading)
- Navigating divorce while maintaining professional partnership
- Stepping into highest operational role after 10 years as co-founder
Under Julia's CEO leadership, Eventbrite continued expanding, processing over $3 billion in gross ticket sales annually across millions of events in over 170 countries.
IPO (2018)
In September 2018, Julia led Eventbrite through its IPO on the NYSE under ticker EB. The company priced shares at $23, valuing Eventbrite at approximately $3 billion.
The IPO was significant achievement—many companies Julia's cohort founded never reached public markets. However, like many tech IPOs of that era, Eventbrite's stock declined post-IPO as growth slowed and investors questioned profitability paths.
For Julia personally, the IPO validated years of building Eventbrite and established her credibility as a CEO who could lead a company through public markets.
COVID-19 Pandemic Devastation
The COVID-19 pandemic was catastrophic for Eventbrite. As lockdowns closed venues and prohibited gatherings, events became impossible. Eventbrite's revenue, which came from ticketing fees on events, collapsed by 90% almost overnight.
In response, Julia made painful decisions:
- Laying off 45% of Eventbrite's workforce (approximately 500 employees)
- Cutting executive salaries
- Raising emergency capital to survive
- Pivoting to online/virtual events capabilities
- Negotiating with creditors and investors
The crisis tested Julia's leadership under extreme pressure. Unlike many business challenges that are gradual, the pandemic eliminated Eventbrite's entire business model instantly. Julia's communication with employees during layoffs and her transparency about the company's situation were noted positively even in terrible circumstances.
As vaccines became available and events resumed, Eventbrite's business partially recovered, though questions remained about whether events would return to pre-pandemic levels and whether Eventbrite captured sufficient value from recovered event activity.
Post-Pandemic Evolution
After the pandemic, Julia focused on:
- Rebuilding Eventbrite's business as events resumed
- Investing in technology for hybrid (in-person + virtual) events
- Expanding internationally
- Improving monetization per event
However, Eventbrite faced new challenges including changed consumer behavior (some comfort with virtual events), competition, and investors demanding paths to profitability.
Legacy and Ongoing Challenges
Julia Hartz's legacy is still being written—Eventbrite remains an important platform processing millions of events, but its stock performance and pandemic impact have disappointed investors. Key questions include:
- Can Eventbrite achieve sustained profitability?
- Will events return to pre-pandemic frequency and scale?
- Can Eventbrite capture more value from events it enables?
- How sustainable is the business model long-term?
Julia's navigation of co-founding with a spouse, divorcing while running the company together, becoming CEO, going public, and surviving pandemic devastation represents extraordinary professional challenges. Her success or failure as CEO will ultimately be judged by Eventbrite's long-term performance.
Net Worth
Julia Hartz's net worth is estimated at $200-400 million, derived primarily from Eventbrite equity. Her wealth declined from peak valuations as Eventbrite's stock fell post-IPO and pandemic impact, though she remains extraordinarily wealthy by any standard.