Podcast appearances and mentions of Kevin Hartz

Michael Kim is the Founder of Cendana Capital, a fund of funds that makes anchor investments in very early stage VC funds.We talk characteristics of the best investors, how Cendana does diligence on fund managers, portfolio construction best practices, Michael's “60x rule”, and why high ownership to fund size is the main driver of returns.We also get in to how VCs are using AI, the competition between Seed and multi-stage investors, why US endowments are under siege, and how secondaries are driving most early stage venture returns today.Michael also opens up about the early days of starting Cendana, the 18 month grind raising Cendana Fund 1, the day he almost died, and ranking in the top 2% globally in Call of Duty.Special thanks to Roger Ehrenberg, Kevin Hartz, Semil Shah, Jeff Claviar, Beezer Clarkson, Jack Altman, Jeff Morris Jr, Sheel Mohnot, Nichole Wischoff, Ted Alling, and Rick Zullo for their help putting this episode together.Thanks to Bolt for supporting this episode. Check out their world record largest (up to $1m in prizes) at: https://bit.ly/ThePeelBoltHackathonTimestamps:(4:24) The day Michael almost died(5:10) Call of Duty & video games(9:34) Hiring @ Cendana(10:31) How Cendana uses structured and unstructured data(16:51) How VCs are using AI(19:55) Why secondaries are driving most early stage venture returns(22:01) Deciding when to sell secondaries(24:28) Best performing venture funds ever(27:26) The best VCs have amazing access to the best founders(33:42) Why Cendana backs Solo GPs(35:57) How to invest over time and hype cycles(41:35) Why multi-stage firms are investing earlier(44:45) Cendana's current thesis: High ownership % to fund size(45:51) Why Cendana started backing non-lead VCs(48:41) How Cendana does diligence on fund managers(52:22) VC NPS Scores and Ron Conway's Silver Bullet(53:49) Good vs bad new VC firm strategies(56:36) Determining defensibility of a strategy(57:57) “Messy middle” software buyout fund(1:03:25) Portfolio construction best practice(1:08:11) Michael's 60x Rule(1:14:28) How Seed funds compete with multi-stage funds(1:20:05) Should you collect logos writing small checks?(1:21:07) Becoming an LP for the city of SF(1:24:42) Taking 18+ months to raise Cendana Fund 1 in the GFC(1:26:48) Warehousing the first Cendana Fund 1 investments(1:29:56) How to do a first close(1:34:29) Why it's hard to kill a VC firm(1:37:00) What happens to ZIRP tourist fund managers(1:40:22) How to raise a Fund 2 or 3 today(1:42:07) “US endowments are under siege”(1:44:55) What the best GP LP relationships look like(1:46:41) What Fund of Funds get wrong(1:50:43) The three most interesting trends in venture todayReferencedCheck out Cendana https://www.cendanacapital.com/Deep Checks https://www.deepchecks.vc/Prior episode with Eric at Bolt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q6n1vqUrF4Follow MichaelTwitter: https://x.com/MKRocksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kim-cendana-capital/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder and General Partner at A*, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments. Before establishing A*, Kevin co-founded Eventbrite and guided the company as CEO for its first 11 years before it went public. His entrepreneurial journey also includes co-founding Xoom, a digital money transfer service that PayPal acquired in 2015 for over $1 billion. Kevin has established himself as a successful angel investor with seed investments in companies like PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Ramp, Trulia, and Anduril. His investment portfolio also includes early stakes in prominent companies such as Uber, Palantir, SpaceX, Square, Gusto, and numerous others.00:00 - Intro04:25 - Kevin's North Star06:27 - The Bottleneck to Entrepreneurship09:20 - The Explosion of Capital in Private Technology Markets11:52 - Monopolies and the Shift in Private Enterprise Value Distribution15:18 - Do Public Markets Price Themselves In?16:37 - When Is VC a Suitable Capital Instrument?19:09 - Agglomeration and The Future of Venture Capital20:56 - Cost of Capital and Competing in Venture23:09 - Is Value-Add Real?25:33 - On IPOing27:14 - Picking and Magnitude of Outcomes28:41 - Founders and Investors as Personality Types29:56 - Seed and Growth Investing as Distinct Skillsets32:02 - Incubations33:56 - Symptoms of Excess Capital35:55 - Can You Kingmake With Capital?37:17 - When Does It Make Sense to Raise a Huge Round?38:17 - Capital Efficiency39:39 - The Expansion of Technology Markets41:51 - Capital Innovation in Venture43:47 - The Endgame of Evaluation44:33 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?

Kevin Hartz, co-founder of Sauron, Eventbrite and Xoom, an investor in companies like Uber, Doordash, and PayPal, and one of Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurs, returns to the Unicorn Bakery for an insightful discussion on the future of startups and venture capital in 2025.In this episode, Kevin shares his outlook for the upcoming year, including the industries with the most potential, the impact of generative AI, and how founders can navigate the challenges of the current market. From building lean startups to understanding the evolving IPO landscape, this episode is packed with actionable advice for entrepreneurs and investors alike.What you'll learn:Why simplicity and focus will drive successful startups in 2025.How generative AI is disrupting industries and creating new opportunities.Why the global IPO and M&A market remains unattractive—and what founders should do instead.How to build a lean, capital-efficient startup in a competitive environment.How Trump taking over the White House influences the economy and Venture EcosystemALLES ZU UNICORN BAKERY:https://zez.am/unicornbakery Mehr zu Kevin Hartz:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartz/ A*: https://www.a-star.co/ Join our Founder Tactics Newsletter:2x die Woche bekommst du die Taktiken der besten Gründer der Welt direkt ins Postfach:https://www.tactics.unicornbakery.de/ Kapitel:(00:00:00) "Be aware of dramatic changes" - Which industry will lose the most?(00:05:55) What are the biggest changes for founders under the new government and Donald Trump?(00:09:21) VCs will continue to throw money at startups?(00:15:46) Why IPOs will stay unattractive(00:20:33) How will the VC Ecosystem be affected by less M&A and therefore no paybacks to Limited Partners?(00:22:57) AI-Predictions 2025(00:27:23) Kevin's Advice for Founders in 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz said “I do” to Kevin Hartz twice: once when they got married, and again when she decided to become a co-founder with him. Julia says she doesn't even remember the latter moment. All she knows is she trusted Kevin's entrepreneurial instincts and it paid off. But when Kevin needed to step down as CEO and have Julia step in, she describes the transition as going from “Candyland” to “Tron”.   In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Julia shares:  What her internships on “Friends” and “Jackass” taught her The unofficial exit strategy she and Kevin agreed on in case they didn't work out romantically Why it was bittersweet stepping up as CEO while Kevin navigated health struggles health struggled   How Eventbrite's IPO was the most diverse in NYSE history Why she takes it personally when female executive leadership exit the business after going public

Kevin Hartz is a Co-Founder and General Partner at A*, an early-stage venture capital firm. Prior to founding A*, Kevin co-founded Eventbrite, a publicly traded company, and served as the CEO for the first 11 years of the company. Before Eventbrite, Kevin co-founded Xoom, a money remittance company that was acquired by PayPal in 2015 for over $1BN. Kevin is also a prolific angel investor having backed companies such as PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Ramp, Trulia, and Anduril at the seed stage, and was an early investor in Uber, Palantir, SpaceX, Square, Gusto and many others. In Today's Episode with Kevin Hartz We Discuss: 1. What Makes the Best Founders: What questions does Kevin always ask founders in the investment process? Does Kevin prefer serial or first time founders? Why? Does Kevin prefer founders who are new to a problem or who are insiders and experts? When Kevin has gotten a founder bet wrong, what did he not see that he should have seen? 2. The Exploding Term Sheet That Cost $10BN: How did an exploding term sheet for the seed round of Airbnb cost Kevin $10BN? What did Kevin see in the seed round of Airbnb that so few other investors saw? Does Kevin agree that the best businesses often start off as ridiculous or toys? 3. From World's Greatest Angel to VC with $600M AUM: Why does Kevin think a barbell strategy of Seed and Series C is best today? Does Kevin agree that the Series B and growth stage is dead today? Why does Kevin strongly disagree that seed is the hardest stage of the market? Why does Kevin think that venture is less collaborative than ever? How does Kevin approach when to sell vs when to hold a position? What are his biggest lessons from seeding and holding Opensea? 4. Learning From the World's Best Investors: What have been Kevin's lessons from his relationship with Peter Thiel? What have been Kevin's biggest takeaways from investing alongside Roelof Botha in many deals? What have been Kevin's biggest lessons from watching and observing the great Pierre Lamond?  

Kevin Hartz ist nicht nur einer der einflussreichsten Seed-Investoren im Silicon Valley, sondern auch erfolgreicher Gründer. Neben Frühphasen-Investments in PayPal, Uber, AirBnB und SpaceX gründete er Xoom (Exit an PayPal für ca. 1. Mrd $) und Eventbrite (IPO). Mit seinem aktuellen Startup Sauron ist Kevin dabei, neue Technologien für den Home Security Markt zu entwickeln.Kevin spricht darüber, wie er herausragende Gründer:innen identifiziert und über den Teamaufbau in jungen Startups nachdenkt. Zudem arbeitet Kevin auf, wie er sich auf neue Technologien einstellt, diese bewertet und daraus Schlüsse für neue Firmen und Investments zieht.Abschließend diskutiert er seine Hypothesen zur Zukunft der Wertschöpfung in AI Startups und gibt Einblicke in die Zukunft von Sauron.Was du lernst:Wie identifiziert Kevin erfolgreiche Gründer:innen?Welche Bedeutung hat Flexibilität und Anpassungsfähigkeit im Unternehmensaufbau?Was macht einen guten Frühphasen-Investoren aus?Wo wird die Wertschöpfung in AI Startups stattfinden?Aufbau eines Founding TeamsWeiterführende Links:ALLES ZU UNICORN BAKERY: https://zez.am/unicornbakeryKevin Hartz:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartz/ A*: https://www.a-star.co/ Unicorn Bakery WhatsApp Broadcast: Hier erfährst du alles, was du als Gründer wissen musst: https://drp.li/jrq5SUnser WhatsApp Broadcast hält dich mit Einblicken in die Szene, News und Top-Inhalten auf dem Laufenden.Marker:(00:00:00) Importance of having a flexible mindset(00:03:33) Did the characteristics of great founding teams change over the last 20 years?(00:05:59) Great team & market opportunity: is it always working hand in hand?(00:08:16) Assessing potential in founders(00:21:25) First hires in Kevin's new venture Sauron(00:24:12) Why incubations are often bad ventures?(00:29:24) Kevin Hartz thoughts on Fundraising(00:35:24) Inhouse creation vs. outsourcing?(00:38:21) Is the Go To Market Motion creating enough defensibility ?(00:40:52) Evaluating new trends and opportunities(00:44:40) Where will value creation happen in the future of AI?(00:52:36) What do you think about the lifecycle of companies?(00:57:53) The impact of AI on Startup Complexity: Will people focus on more complex problems or focus on building “easier” companies faster?(01:00:34) What are your takes on other ecosystems compared to Silicon Valley? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Hartz is not only one of the most influential seed investors in Silicon Valley, but also a successful founder. In addition to early-stage investments in PayPal, Uber, AirBnB and SpaceX, he founded Xoom (exit to PayPal for approx. 1 billion dollars) and Eventbrite (IPO). With his current startup Sauron, Kevin is in the process of developing new technologies for the home security market. Kevin talks about how he identifies outstanding founders and thinks about team building in young startups. Kevin also elaborates on how he adapts to new technologies, evaluates them and draws conclusions for new companies and investments. Finally, he discusses his hypotheses on the future of value creation in AI startups and provides insights into the future of Sauron. What you learn: How does Kevin identify successful founders? What is the importance of flexibility and adaptability in building a company? What makes a good early-stage investor? Where will the value creation in AI startups take place? Building a founding team Further links: ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY: https://zez.am/unicornbakery Kevin Hartz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartz/ A*: https://www.a-star.co/ Unicorn Bakery WhatsApp Broadcast: Find out everything you need to know as a founder: https://drp.li/jrq5S Our WhatsApp Broadcast keeps you up to date with insights into the scene, news and top content. Marker: (00:00:00) Importance of having a flexible mindset (00:02:31) Did the characteristics of great founding teams change over the last 20 years? (00:04:57) Great team & market opportunity: is it always working hand in hand? (00:07:14) Assessing potential in founder (00:20:25) First hires in Kevin's new venture Sauron (00:23:10) Why incubations are often bad ventures? (00:28:22) Kevin Hartz thoughts on Fundraising (00:34:22) Inhouse creation vs. outsourcing?(00:37:19) Is the Go To Market Motion creating enough defensibility ? (00:39:50) Evaluating new trends and opportunities (00:43:38) Where will value creation happen in the future of AI? (00:51:34) What do you think about the lifecycle of companies? (00:56:51) The impact of AI on Startup Complexity: Will people focus on more complex problems  or focus on building  “easier” companies faster? (00:59:32) What are your takes on other ecosystems compared to Silicon Valley?

This week Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church sit down with Peterson Conway, headhunter, investor, and advisor who shares insights from his epic career working closely with Silicon Valley greats like Peter Thiel, Kevin Hartz, Keith Rabois, and Joe Lonsdale. Conway has assembled talent for the founding/early teams of Xoom, Palantir, Founders Fund, and 8VCStrap in for some crazy stories. Conway's journey highlights the significance of curiosity, optimism, and unconventional hiring practices in Silicon Valley. Conway reflects on the profile of talent he looks for and drills down to certain keywords he uses to search for seeking individuals with strong convictions and a "fight from the bottom" spirit.HR Heretics is part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: www.turpentine.co--SPONSOR: Attio is the next generation of CRM. It's powerful, flexible and easily configures to the unique way your startup runs, whatever your go-to-market motion. The next era deserves a better CRM. Join Replicate, ElevenLabs, Modal and more at https://bit.ly/AttioHRHeretics--LINKS:Zero to 1 by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters: https://www.amazon.com.au/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296Butthole Notorious: https://pconway-73418.medium.com/butthole-notorious-e4ac4ff12db4Peterson Conway: https://www.petersonconway.com/KEEP UP WITH PETERSON, NOLAN + KELLI ON LINKEDINPeterson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersonconway/Nolan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/—TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Preview(01:49) Intro(02:41) Peterson's Unconventional Path to Silicon Valley Success(09:23) Navigating Challenges and Learning from Silicon Valley Titans(16:18) Exploring the Magic of Silicon Valley and Beyond(18:56) Sponsor: Attio(24:46) The Dynamics of Connectivity, Safety, and the Future of Work(27:37) Exploring the Intersection of Fear and Love(27:55) The Therapeutic Journey: From Fear to Healing(28:13) On Guilt, Shame, and Vulnerability(29:55) Unfiltered Conversations: Embracing Discomfort(31:42) The Power of Silence in Communication(32:26) Team Construction and the Quest for the Right Hire(35:04) Recruiting: From Elite Schools to Keyword Searches for Grit and Determination(39:14) The Role of HR in Shaping Company Culture(43:36) On Unconventional Recruiting and Finding Hidden Gems(50:19) The Art of Asking for Forgiveness, Not Permission(50:41) Wrap This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hrheretics.substack.com

Shyam Sankar is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies in addition to the Chairman of Ginkgo Bioworks. Shyam holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. In Today's Episode with Shyam Sankar: 1. Journey to the Top of Defence: How did Shyam make his way into the world of startups and get a role with Kevin Hartz at Xoom? How did seeing Shyam's parents lose everything impact his mindset and drive? What does Shyam know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? 2. How the World's Governments Buy Defence: What is the playbook for selling defence to different governments? Why is the way that governments purchase and procure so broken? If Shyam were head of the DOD, what would he change? Why does the DOD "need to pick winners"? Which governments are the best to work with? Which are the worst? 3. A World In Conflict: What Changes: How does conflict change the buying process and urgency for governments? How do elections change the buying cadence and process for different governments? Looking forward to 2024, how does Shyam predict the state of different global conflicts? 4. Hiring 101: You Have To Hire Artists: What have been Shyam's single biggest lessons on what it takes to hire the best of the best? Why does Shyam believe that hiring great people is like talent management in Hollywood? Why does Shyam believe talent should be "shielded from budgets"? What have been some of Shyam's biggest hiring mistakes? How did he learn from them?

[Seed Investor in Paypal & Co-Founder of Eventbrite] Kevin Hartz, GP at A* Capital; what does he look for in a founding team?Biggest learnings -->  - Show investors that you have grit & intellect - how? It should be obvious from your background. 

Thomson Nguyen is now on his second tech startup. That's after raising over $12M for his first venture which was acquired by Square. His latest venture, Nearside has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Kevin Hartz, Ryan Peterson, Valar Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.

Elad Gil (@eladgil), entrepreneur and investor, and Kevin Hartz (@kevinhartz), investor and co-founder of Eventbrite, join Erik on this episode.They discuss:- What they think is special about each other's investing abilities.- How certain people are able to stay relevant in every investing cycle.- Kevin's latest venture and the path he took to start it.- SPACs and their advantages.- How to find your own angel investing style.- How venture will change in the next ten years.- Elad's COVID investment thesis.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

In a long-anticipated episode for her, Ally McCloskey sits down with Titan Co-CEO & Co-Founder and fellow Wharton alum, Clayton Gardner. Clay and team set out to democratize active money management by offering the proverbial 'back of the restaurant' investment menu to the masses. Said differently, Titan is an active investment management platform that unlocks world-class investment products and experiences for everyone. Since its founding in 2018, the company has graduated from Y Combinator and grown from zero to over $500M in assets under management and over 25,000 clients with essentially zero marketing budget, making them one of the fastest growing advisors on record. Titan also just raised its $12.5M Series A led by General Catalyst with participation from Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, Lee Fixel, Instagram founder Mike Krieger, Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz, and many others. In this episode, Ally and Clay discuss: -How Clay and his co-founder Joe reunited 6 years after meeting in Wharton undergrad to democratize active investing -the investor persona Titan was built for and why active management in public equities hasn’t gone out of style -Clay’s most memorable week in markets rejecting a portfolio company’s initial acquisition tender offer -his advice to entrepreneurs on product-market fit, when to raise capital, and how to measure true customer loyalty -what he’s most excited about in the future of investing -the investor he admires most And MUCH more Clay Gardner Clay (@virtualclay) is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Titan, an active investment management platform democratizing elite investment products and experiences for everyone. Prior to Titan, Clay was an investor at several hedge funds and investment firms including Farallon Capital Management and Cerberus Capital Management. He graduated summa cum laude from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the Wharton School and the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvaia where he earned dual degrees in Economics and Computer Science. As mentioned in the episode, you can download Titan's mobile app at www.titanvest.com and get invested in just minutes. For more Fintech insights, please follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ally's Twitter: twitter.com/AllyMcCloskey LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/

Julia and Kevin Hartz co-founded Eventbrite, a website that allows users to create, share, and join events worldwide. In this episode of the NFX Podcast, the two join NFX Partner Pete Flint to discuss their founder journey, financing, fundraising, scaling, unicorn status, and a deep dive on the little-known details of taking a tech company public via SPAC. Launched in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, Eventbrite has navigated through the pandemic with a refocused strategy and a leaner cost base. In September of 2018, Julia took Eventbrite public, making her among the few women to lead the successful initial public offering of a technology start-up.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Brian Vallelunga of Doppler.com a platform for managing environment variables (e.g. API keys) for developers. In this episode, Brian talks about raising a pre-seed round from Kleiner while he was still working at Uber, applying to Y Combinator for the 6th or 7th time, pitching a long-term massive vision (even in the early days), resisting the temptation of initial offers and the search for "partners not capital," how he made his investor intros go viral, pitching Peter Thiel, the importance of managing dilution, and much more. The Company raised raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Abstract Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Soma Capital, Nat Friedman, Aaron Levie, Dylan Field, Ben Porterfield, Jeremy Stoppelman, Kevin Hartz, Jeff Holden, Greg Brockman, Jeffrey Queisser and Peter Thiel also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

This week we’re having tea with Kevin Hartz, co-founder and chairman of Eventbrite. He's an early investor in startups like PayPal, Airbnb, and Pinterest. Most recently, he founded A-*, a new special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which raised $200 million to acquire A-One and take it public. In this episode, Kevin shares: 0:55: What a SPAC is and why he chose to start one 04:44: How he launched a SPAC in 60 days 15:45: The revenue number at which startups should go public 19:21: The difference between SPACs and direct listings 28:23: How SPACs work in practice Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at seriestea@mercury.com.

Elad Gil (@eladgil), entrepreneur and investor, and Kevin Hartz (@kevinhartz), investor and co-founder of Eventbrite, join Erik on this episode.They discuss:- What they think is special about each other’s investing abilities.- How certain people are able to stay relevant in every investing cycle.- Kevin’s latest venture and the path he took to start it.- SPACs and their advantages.- How to find your own angel investing style.- How venture will change in the next ten years.- Elad’s COVID investment thesis.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Elad Gil (@eladgil), entrepreneur and investor, and Kevin Hartz (@kevinhartz), investor and co-founder of Eventbrite, join Erik on this episode.They discuss:- What they think is special about each other’s investing abilities.- How certain people are able to stay relevant in every investing cycle.- Kevin’s latest venture and the path he took to start it.- SPACs and their advantages.- How to find your own angel investing style.- How venture will change in the next ten years.- Elad’s COVID investment thesis.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

It seems like in Silicon Valley is starting a SPAC. Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Kevin Hartz, Chamath Palihapitiya, maybe even your roommate. Reporters Cory Weinberg and Ross Matican trace the origins of the SPAC surge. We explain why these special-purpose acquisition companies have become so popular, some of the regulatory history, and what some of the downsides are. In this episode, we talked to: George Arison, co-CEO of Shift Technologies Milos Vulanovic, associate of corporate finance at EDHEC Business School Thomas Hennessy, co-CEO and president of PropTech Acquisition Corporation Jay Heller, head of capital markets & IPO expansion at Nasdaq Further reading: The Information's SPAC Target List What Private Tech Firms Should Watch Out For in SPACs Opendoor, in Announcing SPAC, Opens Up About Losses ChargePoint to Go Public in $2.4 Billion SPAC Deal

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways “We see this SPAC phenomenon not as a flash in the pan, not as a quick up and down…but really an enduring vehicle to bring our innovation companies to market and we find that to be extremely exciting”– Troy Steckenrider What is a SPAC?A SPAC is a pool of capital that is used to invest in a private company and help them go public. The capital is raised on the public markets through a traditional IPO and goes into a bank where it is held for up to two years. During that 2-year time, the SPAC management team has an opportunity to go find a partner company, negotiate a deal with them, and take them public. What are the benefits of a SPAC?From the private company’s perspective, it’s an easier path to get into the public marketsFrom the SPAC’s perspective, it’s a way to invest in a company before it IPOs“A company with a strong management team with a clear competitive advantage in an unusual market will always find great investors and draw those great investors” – Kevin HartzRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder & Partner @ A*, a newly listed special acquisition company which raised $200M to acquire and take public a tech startup. Kevin is also the Co-Founder, former CEO, and Chairman Eventbrite (NYSE: EB). Before Eventbrite, Kevin was the Co-Founder & former CEO of online money transfer service, Xoom (acquired by PayPal for $1.1B). Kevin is also one of the most successful early-stage investors in the business with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb (Seed, Series A), Uber (Series B), Pinterest (Seed, Series A), Trulia (first check) and PayPal (Seed). Troy Steckenrider is Kevin's co-founder and Partner @ A*. Prior to A*, Troy was COO @ ZeroDown changing the landscape for homeownership with $136M in funding. Before ZeroDown, Troy spent 5 years at Opendoor as Director of Capital Markets. Before that hyper-growth experience at Opendoor, Troy enjoyed roles at both Bain Private Equity and McKinsey. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Troy and Kevin came together to co-found A*? What is a SPAC? What are Kevin and Troy looking to achieve with the SPAC? 2.) What does Kevin believe are the primary drivers for the rise in SPAC's over the last few years? How will they change the structure of both the VC and startup industry? How will the SPAC landscape evolve over the next few years? What is the biggest challenge they face? 3.) Why does Kevin believe that the fee structure for SPACs is egregious? How would they like to change the incentive structure? How does the timeline for a SPAC transaction compare to that of an IPO? How does the fee structure compare when comparing SPACs to banks in IPOs? 4.) Why did Kevin and Troy choose $200M for the right size for their first SPAC? How does the size of the SPAC determine the type of company the SPAC will merge with? What are Kevin and Troy looking for in their partner company? 5.) What does the fundraising process look like for a SPAC? How do SPAC sponsors deal with the challenge that LPs call pull out if they do not like the proposed partner deal? When evaluating SPACs, what do investors look to invest because of? What makes A* special? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Troy’s Fave Book: Churchill: Walking with Destiny As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder & Partner @ A*, a newly listed special acquisition company which raised $200M to acquire and take public a tech startup. Kevin is also the Co-Founder, former CEO, and Chairman Eventbrite (NYSE: EB). Before Eventbrite, Kevin was the Co-Founder & former CEO of online money transfer service, Xoom (acquired by PayPal for $1.1B). Kevin is also one of the most successful early-stage investors in the business with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb (Seed, Series A), Uber (Series B), Pinterest (Seed, Series A), Trulia (first check) and PayPal (Seed). Troy Steckenrider is Kevin's co-founder and Partner @ A*. Prior to A*, Troy was COO @ ZeroDown changing the landscape for homeownership with $136M in funding. Before ZeroDown, Troy spent 5 years at Opendoor as Director of Capital Markets. Before that hyper-growth experience at Opendoor, Troy enjoyed roles at both Bain Private Equity and McKinsey. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Troy and Kevin came together to co-found A*? What is a SPAC? What are Kevin and Troy looking to achieve with the SPAC? 2.) What does Kevin believe are the primary drivers for the rise in SPAC's over the last few years? How will they change the structure of both the VC and startup industry? How will the SPAC landscape evolve over the next few years? What is the biggest challenge they face? 3.) Why does Kevin believe that the fee structure for SPACs is egregious? How would they like to change the incentive structure? How does the timeline for a SPAC transaction compare to that of an IPO? How does the fee structure compare when comparing SPACs to banks in IPOs? 4.) Why did Kevin and Troy choose $200M for the right size for their first SPAC? How does the size of the SPAC determine the type of company the SPAC will merge with? What are Kevin and Troy looking for in their partner company? 5.) What does the fundraising process look like for a SPAC? How do SPAC sponsors deal with the challenge that LPs call pull out if they do not like the proposed partner deal? When evaluating SPACs, what do investors look to invest because of? What makes A* special? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Troy’s Fave Book: Churchill: Walking with Destiny As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways “We see this SPAC phenomenon not as a flash in the pan, not as a quick up and down…but really an enduring vehicle to bring our innovation companies to market and we find that to be extremely exciting”– Troy Steckenrider What is a SPAC?A SPAC is a pool of capital that is used to invest in a private company and help them go public. The capital is raised on the public markets through a traditional IPO and goes into a bank where it is held for up to two years. During that 2-year time, the SPAC management team has an opportunity to go find a partner company, negotiate a deal with them, and take them public. What are the benefits of a SPAC?From the private company’s perspective, it’s an easier path to get into the public marketsFrom the SPAC’s perspective, it’s a way to invest in a company before it IPOs“A company with a strong management team with a clear competitive advantage in an unusual market will always find great investors and draw those great investors” – Kevin HartzRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder & Partner @ A*, a newly listed special acquisition company which raised $200M to acquire and take public a tech startup. Kevin is also the Co-Founder, former CEO, and Chairman Eventbrite (NYSE: EB). Before Eventbrite, Kevin was the Co-Founder & former CEO of online money transfer service, Xoom (acquired by PayPal for $1.1B). Kevin is also one of the most successful early-stage investors in the business with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb (Seed, Series A), Uber (Series B), Pinterest (Seed, Series A), Trulia (first check) and PayPal (Seed). Troy Steckenrider is Kevin's co-founder and Partner @ A*. Prior to A*, Troy was COO @ ZeroDown changing the landscape for homeownership with $136M in funding. Before ZeroDown, Troy spent 5 years at Opendoor as Director of Capital Markets. Before that hyper-growth experience at Opendoor, Troy enjoyed roles at both Bain Private Equity and McKinsey. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Troy and Kevin came together to co-found A*? What is a SPAC? What are Kevin and Troy looking to achieve with the SPAC? 2.) What does Kevin believe are the primary drivers for the rise in SPAC's over the last few years? How will they change the structure of both the VC and startup industry? How will the SPAC landscape evolve over the next few years? What is the biggest challenge they face? 3.) Why does Kevin believe that the fee structure for SPACs is egregious? How would they like to change the incentive structure? How does the timeline for a SPAC transaction compare to that of an IPO? How does the fee structure compare when comparing SPACs to banks in IPOs? 4.) Why did Kevin and Troy choose $200M for the right size for their first SPAC? How does the size of the SPAC determine the type of company the SPAC will merge with? What are Kevin and Troy looking for in their partner company? 5.) What does the fundraising process look like for a SPAC? How do SPAC sponsors deal with the challenge that LPs call pull out if they do not like the proposed partner deal? When evaluating SPACs, what do investors look to invest because of? What makes A* special? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Troy’s Fave Book: Churchill: Walking with Destiny As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO of one (NYSE: AONE.U) is a familiar face in Silicon Valley. The co-founder and Chairman of Eventbrite (NYSE:LMT) is back with a new SPAC, and he isn’t shy about why his new vehicle might offer a great fit to help a privately-held disruptor bridge to being a publicly traded company. Kevin stepped inside the ICE House to lay out how SPACs like his “one” are evolving to meet the needs of companies that are ready to tap the public markets in an innovative way.   Inside the ICE House: https://www.theice.com/insights/conversations/inside-the-ice-house

We dive into everything you need to know about SPACs — what they are, why they're a compelling alternative to IPO/DPOs, and how they might play an even more important role in startup financing going forward — with two of the very best people to teach us: Kevin Hartz and Troy "SPAC Professor" Steckenrider of the newly-minted $200m SPAC, AONE. Share this episode: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/primer-on-spacs-with-kevin-hartz-and-troy-steckenrider-of-a-and-aone  Links: A* and ONE: https://www.a-star.co John Luttig's great Medium piece on SPACs: https://luttig.substack.com/p/spac-attack-everything-a-founder Bill Gurley on SPACs as an attractive alternative to IPOs/DPOs (posted after recording): https://abovethecrowd.com/2020/08/23/going-public-circa-2020-door-3-the-spac/ TLDR: SPACs are an alternative path for companies to go public, however until recently they were mostly obscure and little-known/used. Meanwhile, the traditional IPO process has become onerous and broken: it takes 9+ months of company time, yet investors get only 15 minutes of management access and must make a decision in

We're joined by two very special guests, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz and her cofounder, spouse and Eventbrite Chairman Kevin Hartz, to tell their story of building Eventbrite together (along with their lives and family) from the PayPal diaspora to bootstrapped business, unicorn status, IPO and now starting all over again in the wake of COVID with both a tragedy and a huge new opportunity in front of them as public company. If you want more more Acquired and the tools + resources to become the best founder, operator or investor you can be, join our LP Program for access to our LP Show (including the episode with Kevin on SPACs), the LP community on Slack and Zoom, and our new Book Club live sessions with authors like Hamilton Helmer of 7 Powers and Will Thorndike of The Outsiders. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/   New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode, and posting them here in the show notes and on our website. You can read them below or at: www.acquired.fm/episodes/eventbrite   Sponsors: Thanks to Tiny for being our presenting sponsor for all of Acquired Season 7. Tiny is building the "Berkshire Hathaway of the internet" — if you own a wonderful internet business that you want to sell, or know someone who does, you should get in touch with them. Unlike traditional buyers, they commit to quick, simple diligence, a 30-day or less process, and will leave your business to do its thing for the long term. You can learn more about Tiny here: http://tinycapital.com Thank you as well to Bamboo Growth and to Perkins Coie. You can learn more about them at: https://growwithbamboo.com https://www.perkinscoie.com/   Playbook Seeing the next technology wave before others do is rare. It provides a roadmap for what to build and invest in if you're willing to bet on that knowledge. Kevin worked at Silicon Graphics in the mid 90's. This led him to realize that internet services like PayPal, YouTube, and many others would be possible long before others (similar to Don Valentine realizing computers would penetrate every industry from his time at Fairchild). PayPal and its subsequent "mafia" was successful in part because of rapid experimentation. They observed what got used by customers and then doubled down. PayPal's "core" use case on eBay started as an experiment. International money transfer (Xoom) and event ticketing (Eventbrite) also initially started as experiments on the PayPal API before the eBay acquisition — and went on to become large companies. Julia, Kevin, and their cofounder Renaud had a prototype of Eventbrite running and serving customers even before starting the company — which gave them the confidence to do what seemed crazy on paper, but was actually "de-risked": start a company as an engaged couple, have a remote technical cofounder, bootstrap for 2 years after being turned down by VCs, etc. When a company is experiencing explosive growth, they often need to leave other huge opportunities on the table. PayPal knew international remittances could be huge, but didn't build it internally because of the need to focus on eBay merchants. The TAM for bringing an offline behavior offline is often WAY bigger than anything you can calculate beforehand. The range and size of what were previously niche or impossible use cases will often expand dramatically with easy-to-use online tools. This is especially true in long-tail use cases that can only be aggregated by self-serve internet-based software. One early encouraging sign for Eventbrite was its use to host speed dating events in New York. Before Eventbrite, it was nearly impossible to organize, promote, and charge for something like that. Now, organizers could suddenly become entrepreneurs and make real money hosting events like this. Most VCs ignored or were confused by this data (~"Call us when you attack Ticketmaster."), but they missed that it unlocked a massive new market which previously operated only through word-of-mouth and cash transactions (if at all). All three major dislocations of the 21st century — the tech bubble bursting in 2001, the financial crisis in 2008, and now COVID in 2020 — have only accelerated offline behaviors to online. COVID is unlocking a new wave of online event entrepreneurs for Eventbrite in the same way the financial crisis unlocked a wave of in-person event entrepreneurs in 2008-10. Starting with just one niche can be incredibly powerful; often your customers will then lead you to more. Before the speed-dating in New York (which was fully inbound), Eventbrite was used to organize tech meetups in the then-smaller tech community in SF. It was even used for the first TechCrunch Disrupt! Too much capital (and too little accountability) can hurt a company much more than help it. Capital covers up problems, distracts focus from customers, and leads to poor resource allocation. Kevin: "The periods where we had raised the most money privately were the hardest and most difficult for me, because we were really fighting this gravity of overspending and creating inefficiency. And it took us away from our roots as a capital-efficient, highly-effective perpetual motion machine [that we'd had as a bootstrapped company]." Being a public company not only instills more capital allocation discipline, but can ALSO afford a degree of financial flexibility that just isn't possible as a private company. Within weeks of COVID hitting, Eventbrite dramatically shrunk the size and scope of the company AND raised $375m in new capital from new and longterm shareholders. Both actions would have been difficult to impossible as a private company with a static valuation (and associated anti-dilution, ratchet terms, etc) that no longer reflected the reality of the current situation.

Connie & Alex review the week's events in tech and then talk to Kevin Hartz and Troy Steckenrider III, two of the co-founders of One, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) that has raised $200 million to pursue a reverse merger in the tech space.Music:1. "Inspired" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired)2. "Dream Catcher" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4650-dream-catcher)3. "Blippy Trance" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5759-blippy-trance)4. "Pamgaea" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea)5. "EDM Detection Mode" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3687-edm-detection-mode)

Ryan Petersen is the Founder & CEO @ Flexport, the operating system for global trade with over $1.3Bn in funding from the likes of Softbank, Founders Fund, DST, GV and First Round to name a few. Justin Kan is the Founder @ Atrium and Twitch (acq by Amazon for $1Bn). Justin is also a prolific angel with a portfolio including the likes of Scale AI, Digits, Cruise and Triplebyte to name a few. Matteo Franceschetti is the Founder & CEO @ Eight Sleep, the #1 Smart Mattress, designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. To date, Matteo has raised over $70M from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Kevin Hartz and Ryan Petersen to name a few. Steve Schlafman is a Coach and Investor @ High Output. Previously Steve was a Partner @ Primary Ventures in NYC and before that Principal @ RRE. CLICK TO LISTEN ON ITUNES In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) What was your realisation moment for stopping drinking? How did it come about? What was your prior relationship to alcohol like? 2.) For me I always found an excuse to not stop drinking, when you think about your attempts to give up, what excuses did you provide as reasons for continuing to drink? What insecurities and vulnerabilities did drinking hide and mask for you? How did it impact them? 3.) From a literal standpoint, how did you approach giving up the act of drinking? What tools did you find most helpful? What resources do you recommend? How has your life changed since you stopped drinking? Matteo, you have the data from Eight Sleep, what does the data say about how stopping drinking truly impacts your sleep? 4.) People often say that stopping drinking kills your social life, what would you respond to that commonly held belief? What other core misconceptions do you find people hold towards drinking? To those considering giving up drinking, what would you advise them? What do you know now about alcohol that you wish you had known earlier? As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

In this episode, Tej Singh interviews Matteo Franceschetti, the Co-Founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, the world's leading sleep enhancement company. Named one of the Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, Eight Sleep is redesigning the traditional concept of a mattress, by developing cutting-edge AI and machine learning models to track bio-signals during sleep to optimize body recovery and rest. Eight has raised $70 million from leading Silicon Valley investors, including Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and angel investors like Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz and Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Immad Akhund, CEO of Mercury.co which provides banking for startups. In this episode, Immad talks about going through Y Combinator (twice), his 6-step process for raising capital, lessons learned from making over 100 angel investments, how to sequence investor emails and how often to follow up, how to decide if your deal is "fundable" and much more. The Company most recently raised a $20 million Series A venture round led by CRV. Clocktower Technology Ventures, Dreamers VC, Liquid 2 Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, CSC UpShot Ventures, Melo7 Tech Partners, Thirtyfive Ventures, Serena Ventures, and 500 Startups. Various angel investors such as Elad Gil, Naval Ravikant, Christina Brodbeck, John Bautista, Kevin Hartz and Andre Iguodala also participated in the round. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $1.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

This week, Cory speaks to entrepreneur and investor Kevin Hartz, who’s well-known for co-founding the leading global self-ticketing platform Eventbrite. In this weeks episode, Kevin talks about how he got started as a 26-year-old founder, gives advice on how to connect with brilliant people, the moment he knew he was onto something big, the best way to attract and retain talent and much more. -- Eventbrite Co-Founder and investor Kevin Hartz has always placed a significant amount of importance on learning. While earning a Master’s Degree in British History from Oxford University seems like an odd path for a tech entrepreneur, Hartz says that it “was an opportunity to learn how to learn.” Kevin has used that ability to grow a company that in 2013 surpassed $2B in sales. In the early days of Eventbrite, Hartz and the Eventbrite team shared offices with other entrepreneurs and startups including Clickster (acquired by Warner Brothers), Tripet (acquired by Concord), and Zynga. “Mark (Pincus) had his first office in the office we had…we always had these really great founders around us.” Kevin has learned important lessons from entrepreneurs and investors from Roelof Botha to Peter Thiel. “Peter has always challenged me on conventional thinking. I think that we can always be in this mode of kind of going with the flow and not even realizing it, realizing that there are other realities out there. Peter, in any conversation, always has a provocative, unconventional view of the world.” Early in my journey as an entrepreneur, many have learned, from Kevin and others, the importance of surrounding myself with other motivated and talented entrepreneurs, and people with other views and skillsets. While Cory was building relationships with and learning from hundreds of entrepreneurs, he was encouraged to find a way to bring those connections together while providing them value. Cory created the NextGen Conference in 2009, which is now Internapalooza, and I invited Kevin to speak. He spoke at the first event and they’ve stayed in touch since.

Kevin Hartz is one of the few leaders in Silicon Valley who has had an incredible career as a repeat founder, business builder and investor. He co-founded Eventbrite, the born digital ticketing leader, in October 2005 with his wife Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage. Kevin served as Chairman and CEO through late 2016 before turning the CEO reins over to Julia while remaining Chairman. Eventbrite had a very successful IPO in September 2018 valuing the company at well north of $2 billion. Prior to building Eventbrite, Kevin co-founded Xoom, the money remittance business, in 2001, and he served as CEO until 2005. Zoom also had a successful IPO before being acquired in 2015 by PayPal for about a billion dollars. Kevin's been a very successful investor as well. Some of his most successful early stage investments include Airbnb, Pinterest, Trulia, Skybox Imaging and NewFront Insurance which we talk a bit about in this episode. Kevin was also a partner at Founders Fund. In this episode, we mainly talk about Kevin’s journey in creating and building Eventbrite, including the spark behind Eventbrite in creating user experiences, the secret to making successful acquisitions and how to navigate being married to your co-founder. Episode Highlights: 2:36: What was the spark for Eventbrite? 5:11: How is Eventbrite used to create live experiences? 6:12: What are the benefits of a platform? 7:49: Are there things you did early on so that the platform could thrive? 8:34: Looking back, is there anything that you would have done differently or re-prioritized that would have allowed you to move quicker? 10:11 What do you look for in a great hire? Anything to avoid? 12:46. Eventbrite is well known for its organic user adoption. Is that something that you planned? How can other companies learn from your success? 14:35: How do you get the right fit? 16:19: How do you keep a leg up on the competition? 17:43: Has starting a company with your spouse given you added perspective about how to evaluate teams and how they interact with each other? 20:27 How much time do you spend on what competition is doing? Should founders get hyper focused on entrenched competition? 32:49 What are some of the rules of the road for making acquisitions? 24.52: What other benefits have you had as a business builder from being an investor? 26:13: Tell us about New Front Insurance, a new company that you’ve just invested in 28:03: What is your favorite book to recommend to entrepreneurs 29:13: What's something that you believe that isn't conventional at most others don't believe 30:15: What's one thing you wish you could go back and tell yourself when you were just getting started as a founder.

Kevin Hartz is one of the few leaders in Silicon Valley who has had an incredible career as a repeat founder, business builder and investor. He co-founded Eventbrite, the born digital ticketing leader, in October 2005 with his wife Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage. Kevin served as Chairman and CEO through late 2016 before turning the CEO reins over to Julia while remaining Chairman. Eventbrite had a very successful IPO in September 2018 valuing the company at well north of $2 billion. Prior to building Eventbrite, Kevin co-founded Xoom, the money remittance business, in 2001, and he served as CEO until 2005. Zoom also had a successful IPO before being acquired in 2015 by PayPal for about a billion dollars. Kevin's been a very successful investor as well. Some of his most successful early stage investments include Airbnb, Pinterest, Trulia, Skybox Imaging and NewFront Insurance which we talk a bit about in this episode. Kevin was also a partner at Founders Fund. In this episode, we mainly talk about Kevin’s journey in creating and building Eventbrite, including the spark behind Eventbrite in creating user experiences, the secret to making successful acquisitions and how to navigate being married to your co-founder. Episode Highlights: 2:36: What was the spark for Eventbrite? 5:11: How is Eventbrite used to create live experiences? 6:12: What are the benefits of a platform? 7:49: Are there things you did early on so that the platform could thrive? 8:34: Looking back, is there anything that you would have done differently or re-prioritized that would have allowed you to move quicker? 10:11 What do you look for in a great hire? Anything to avoid? 12:46. Eventbrite is well known for its organic user adoption. Is that something that you planned? How can other companies learn from your success? 14:35: How do you get the right fit? 16:19: How do you keep a leg up on the competition? 17:43: Has starting a company with your spouse given you added perspective about how to evaluate teams and how they interact with each other? 20:27 How much time do you spend on what competition is doing? Should founders get hyper focused on entrenched competition? 32:49 What are some of the rules of the road for making acquisitions? 24.52: What other benefits have you had as a business builder from being an investor? 26:13: Tell us about New Front Insurance, a new company that you’ve just invested in 28:03: What is your favorite book to recommend to entrepreneurs 29:13: What's something that you believe that isn't conventional at most others don't believe 30:15: What's one thing you wish you could go back and tell yourself when you were just getting started as a founder.

Eventbrite co-founders Julia and Kevin Hartz join Bloomberg’s Emily Chang on "Bloomberg Studio 1.0" to discuss the company's ticketing business and the path to IPO.

Kevin Hartz is a Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the world's most prestigious and successful VC funds with prior investments in the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, SpaceX, Spotify and many more incredible companies. Prior to Founders Fund, Kevin was Founder & CEO @ Eventbrite, the company that powers thousands of millions of events around the world with backing from the likes of Sequoia and SV Angel. Before that Kevin was the Founder of Xoom Corporation, the international money transfer company that went public in 2012 and was acquired by Paypal in 2015. Kevin has also been a prolific angel with a personal portfolio including Airbnb, Uber, Paypal, Pinterest and Yammer.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Question from Brian Singerman: How did Kevin come to be the world famous Kevin Hartz? What was Kevin's entry into the world of VC? 2.) How has Kevin seen his investment decision making and evaluation process change when comparing his angel deals in Uber, Paypal and Airbnb to today, investing institutionally with Founders Fund? 3.) How does Kevin see believe his time in operations lends to him being a better investor today? Does Kevin agree with Pat Grady @ Sequoia in stating, 'the rate of decay on operating experience has never been greater'? 4.) With no Monday morning Partner meetings, if a Partner wants to push a deal through, how do you do it at Founders Fund? How do you structure those conversations internally? 5.) What have been Kevin's biggest learnings since joining Founders Fund? How did Kevin look to scale the VC learning curve as fast as possible? What elements did Kevin find most challenging? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Kevin’s Fave Book: Peter Thiel: Zero To One Kevin’s Most Recent Investment: HyperTrack  As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kevin on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Zoom is the No 1 Video and WebConferencing Service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including online meetings, video webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms and business instant messaging. Plus, it is the easiest solution to use, buy and scale with the most straightforward pricing. Do not take our word for it, Zoom's their partnership with Sequoia in their latest 100m funding round says it all. Zoom is a must for your business.  Vidyard is the video platform for business that helps marketing and sales teams drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Microsoft, McKesson, Lenovo, and LinkedIn rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewer into customers. Check them out at vidyard.com.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Kevin Hartz - Founder & CEO of EventbriteVideo: http://www.siliconreal.com/episodes/2015/5/13/blast-from-the-past-kevin-hartz-founder-ceo-of-eventbriteSUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/SiliconReal VIP EMAIL LIST: http://bit.ly/SiliconRealVIP  This week on Silicon Real we're digging into the archives to bring back one of our most popular guests ever - Kevin Hartz, the Founder & CEO of Eventbrite. Kevin's episode originally aired back in July 2014 and was an instant hit. As the Founder and CEO of Eventbrite, Kevin Hartz has quite an impressive C.V.  Not only does he run the world's leading self-service ticketing platform with $200 million of investment that has processed over 200 million tickets worth over $2.5 billion, he has also personally invested early in PayPal, AirBnB and Pinterest among others.But Kevin isn't your typical Silicon Valley CEO.  He is introspective and philosophical noting that Eventbrite has been fortunate over the years to ride the waves of other successful technologies like Google search and SEO.  He is also aware that in our ultra-connected social media world, us humans ultimately crave real, in-person interactions and events.Those that watched or listened to it the first time round will know it's well worth revisting, but for those of you that are new to the show, strap in and prepare for a fascinating episode with the head of one of Silicon Valley's true success stories.https://www.eventbrite.co.ukMore Silicon Real:http://www.siliconreal.comhttp://www.twitter.com/SiliconRealhttp://www.facebook.com/SiliconRealhttp://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/silicon-real/id668705287?mt=2

Kevin and Julia Hartz discuss what it really takes to be a thriving startup organism in challenging ecosystems. As well as sharing insights from the early founding days of Eventbrite, the husband and wife co-founders explain the importance of continual focus on cultivating talent, maintaining sustainable advantages, and driving relentless evolution inside a company.

Kevin and Julia Hartz discuss what it really takes to be a thriving startup organism in challenging ecosystems. As well as sharing insights from the early founding days of Eventbrite, the husband and wife co-founders explain the importance of continual focus on cultivating talent, maintaining sustainable advantages, and driving relentless evolution inside a company.

Kevin and Julia Hartz discuss what it really takes to be a thriving startup organism in challenging ecosystems. As well as sharing insights from the early founding days of Eventbrite, the husband and wife co-founders explain the importance of continual focus on cultivating talent, maintaining sustainable advantages, and driving relentless evolution inside a company.

Kevin Hartz is the Founder & CEO of Eventbrite

In this interview, Kevin Hartz explains the best way to approach large markets and hire talented people. He reveals the importance of scaling methodically, creating an advisory board and being customer centric.

Kevin Hartz shared a number of great lessons from his extensive career building and launching hit startups.