Julia Hartz at Female Founders Conference 2014

Hartz says choosing a co-founder is one of a founder’s first major decisions. She left television to build with Kevin, whose optimism helped her take the leap. They put care into working together, even while starting Eventbrite in a windowless room with makeshift desks.

In 2005 and 2006, San Francisco seemed an unconventional base compared with the area around Stanford. Hartz says the city suited Eventbrite’s focus on live experiences and helped the company avoid competing directly with larger firms. Sharing office space with about 20 startups, including TripIt, Zynga, Trulia, and Eventbrite, shaped the team’s early years.

Eventbrite launched with free and premium service tiers, but both included the same features, leaving customers unclear about the fee. When the company removed the free tier for paid events, attrition stayed low and conversion rose. Free events still mattered: Hartz says they made up 70% of the platform’s events and helped turn attendees into organizers.

As Eventbrite grew from three people to 300, Hartz saw many individual contributors become first-time leaders during a growth spurt. She later learned there were 60 leaders in the company and urged founders to consider why, when, and whom they promote. Moving people into leadership too early can leave them struggling and make strong contributors feel like failures.

Hartz says a clear philosophy gives a team direction while still allowing it to evolve. Eventbrite set a vision to bring people together through live experiences and adapted words customers used to describe the product into culture and hiring principles. The company also began publishing monthly employee net promoter score results to build a trusted feedback loop.