Kevin Hartz
Kevin Hartz is an American entrepreneur, investor, Co-Founder and CEO of Eventbrite, a leading global self-service ticketing platform. 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, Flixster, Airbnb, Trulia, Skybox Imaging and Yammer.
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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 from Oxford University.[citation needed]
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.[2] Five months after incorporating the company, it was acquired by LodgeNet[3] (NASDAQ: LNET).
In 2001, Hartz co-founded Xoom, an international money remittance business, along with Alan Braverman. He served as CEO of Xoom until 2005 and served on the Board of Directors of Xoom through its 2012 IPO[4] and subsequent acquisition by PayPal in 2015 for a total equity value of $1.1 Billion.[5]
Hartz founded Eventbrite, the global self-service ticketing platform, in 2006 with Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage. In November, 2015, Hartz announced to the company that he was temporarily stepping down for a medical leave. [6] He returned to work in January 2016.
Hartz is currently 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.[7][8][9] 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
- Lookout
- 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, and two daughters.
References
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- ↑ http://fortune.com/2015/11/12/eventbrite-kevin-hartz-ceo-stepping-down/
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