Julia Hartz Quits Hollywood Career to Build Eventbrite With $225 Million Valuation

Julia Hartz, the CEO of Eventbrite, made a bold career shift in 2006 by leaving her successful job in Hollywood television—where she had worked on shows like Friends, Jackass, and The Shield—to launch the ticketing platform with her husband, Kevin Hartz, and cofounder Renaud Visage. Rather than maintaining a traditional 9-to-5 job while scaling the business on the side, she fully committed to the venture, investing less than $250,000 of personal funds. “If it’s a disaster, we’ll just be broke,” she told Fortune. The gamble paid off. Today, Eventbrite is valued at $225 million and serves 89 million monthly users across 180 countries [1].

Hartz’s decision to pivot from TV to entrepreneurship was inspired by her firsthand experience with niche fan events. While working in television, she observed the energy generated when people gathered around shared passions. This insight led her to envision a platform that could empower individuals and organizations to create and share these experiences. With her husband’s experience as an early investor in PayPal, Hartz felt encouraged to take the leap into entrepreneurship. The couple relocated to San Francisco’s warehouse district, where they operated out of a windowless phone closet, moving “saw horses and plywood” by hand as they built the foundation of their company [1].

The timing of Eventbrite’s launch proved advantageous. In the mid-2000s, social media platforms were beginning to prioritize real-world connections, and Facebook became one of Eventbrite’s first Connect partners, providing a massive influx of potential users. The 2008 financial crisis further accelerated demand for community-driven events as people sought connection during a period of economic uncertainty. Over the next decade, Eventbrite raised $373 million in equity funding through 11 rounds, attracting top-tier investors such as Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Square [1].

Today, Eventbrite offers a diverse range of events—from wrestling classes and comedy shows to cheese raves featuring celebrities like Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski. In 2024 alone, the platform distributed 83 million paid tickets for over 4.7 million events. The company’s success reflects Hartz’s belief in the power of shared experiences and her ability to turn personal insight into scalable business innovation.

Source:

[1] title: Eventbrite’s CEO quit a cushy career in Hollywood to launch the $225 million company with her own money: ‘If it’s a disaster, we’ll just be broke’

url: https://fortune.com/2025/07/30/millionaire-eventbrite-ceo-julia-hartz-ceo-cofounder-personal-finance-quit-tv-career-hollywood-broke/