There's a lot of clarity in hindsight.
— Julia Hartz
To force a culture creates something that is inherently not sustainable. It does not evolve forward.
Our team finds motivation in knowing that we're transforming the ticketing industry, this notion that we're bringing democratization to an industry and disrupting it using technology.
I didn't play any extreme sports growing up. I never surfed, and I grew up in Santa Cruz. I was very good at doing what I was told, taking direction, and staying middle of the road. I mean, they called me 'grandma' in college.
Working in MTV's development team, my days would consist of pitches and deciding which concepts we wanted to buy. We would then develop those into a pilot. Very few ended up making it to a full series, but if they did, I would manage the project alongside the show's creators.
I encourage women who are starting families to think about the five-year horizon. The first few years of parenthood are really hard, but if you stick it out, it gets easier.
Four Seasons' legendary brand epitomizes the highest standards for service in the hospitality industry worldwide.
If you have a cofounder, one of the benefits is you'll get from point A to point B two times faster.
I wasn't the kid with the lemonade stand.
There's always a little bit of friction when you're trying to democratize an industry.
We focus on Eventbrite and our family. That's how we spend our time, full stop.
There is no finish line to leadership.
I'm a very connected and passionate founder. And I do model transparency and openness and loyalty in my actions.
My worst day is away from the office, when I'm traveling and not with the Britelings.
What I didn't appreciate about myself is that I'm good at coaching leaders.
For a global company, it is imperative to respect and honor local culture and weave that into the core company values rather than the other way around.
At Eventbrite, we care about the whole you, not just the employee you.
It's important for founders to think about how they would build their company from scratch - again.
Your first company is like your first baby.You have this unconditional, irrational love.
I live, breathe, and die by what kind of company we're creating.
I have not always been a risk taker.
During college, in Los Angeles, I interned all over Hollywood. Development roles appealed to me; they were a perfect blend of business and creativity.
Legacies are built on the practices of your company.
If you're going to be an entrepreneur, most likely you're going to be Type A - stubborn.
As far as funding and building a team, you being romantically involved with your cofounder really shouldn't play a factor in how you run the company and how you create a team or find resources. It's all about the partnership.
That seems to be my superpower - really understanding what motivates people.
It's extremely easy to get people to share what events they are going to because events are inherently social.
Work does come home with us, but home also comes to work. Our kids are regulars at Eventbrite's HQ in San Francisco.
Every day is sort of a jigsaw puzzle. You have to make sure that you're putting the most important things first.
I get extremely detail-oriented. In my most stressed-out days, I get way more focused on those details than anyone should be.
I think having a visionary CEO is awesome, and visionary leadership is one thing, but you also need checks and balances on whether this company can withstand a very honest and critical look at itself.
Getting to profitability does not mean all our problems are solved.
Ticketing is a people-intensive business to get it right on a global scale.
Millennials are the experiences generation.
One of the biggest mistakes that founders can make is doing something that maybe seems like a great idea, and seems like a good use of time, but actually isn't measurable, significant, incremental growth.
I think people are intelligent, empathetic, multi-dimensional.
My goal is to create one of the greatest companies that's ever existed, and that has everything to do with the people, the culture, and what our core values are versus what we build or how we're perceived out in the market.
Being a female head of a successful tech company means that I'm in a pretty niche category.
I graduated from college and went straight into a job with MTV.
I am excited to be working with the dedicated Four Seasons board and leadership team to build upon their reputation for industry-leading customer experiences while seeking out innovative ways to leverage technology that will help spur additional growth.
Humans want to know the hierarchy; it's important for there to be one leader.
As founder of Eventbrite, I've interviewed almost every single person we've hired.
I think there's a fine line, and once you cross it, you are in a dangerous territory of overhyping your company, your service, and your product and sort of under-delivering. But I think we probably could have been a little more overtly confident in the early days.
Getting over the stigma of needing to appear as if I do it all myself took about 12 months. I finally realized that the only way to be a successful, happy mother, founder, wife, and daughter was to accept the help that was being offered to me.
I'm thrilled to share the story of my journey in building Eventbrite and what I've learned along the way as a working mother and entrepreneur.
I think a universal feeling that we all share is that live experiences create indelible memories.
I love just being home with the kids and, seeing what they do when they're bored and then I just follow.
Great leadership and great companies aren't built overnight, and they're not built without capital. And capital can sometimes be counter-productive to building a great culture.
Eventbrite is 50-50 male-female, and this has been accomplished organically.
I know my daughter was dealt a very, very good birth card, but sometimes I feel like I want to honor the fact that she also drew a lottery that she didn't get to choose, which is that there is this thing called Eventbrite in our lives, and it sometimes takes precedence.
