 My word, what a pleasure. So Julia, I want to start today and thank you so much for joining me for a second time My Dulcet British tones one enough the first time so thank you so much for this. Thank you for having me It's so enjoyable to be up here with mr. Harry Stebbings So I want to start say Julia tell me a little bit about the backstory How did you come to found really the leader and what we all know stays there the incredible company that is event bright? Well the story started around 2006 I was happily focused and working in a totally unrelated career in television development and I my basically my career path got hijacked by a serial entrepreneur by the name of Kevin Hart's and We decided to start event bright together and event bright really was born out of many years Of Kevin's career focusing on online payment processing. He was a Angel investor in Confinity labs, which became PayPal and then built zoom X. O. M. International money remittance So when we got together and started thinking about all the ways in which online payment processing still hadn't disrupted or democratized different industries live events seemed like Sort of the last passion of e-commerce where there was no great platform to serve all types of event creators of all types Of events and so we put our heads together and we met up with Reno visage our third co-founder and CTO and We started working on building something that could really empower Creators to bring people together around the world now. We're in a room full of entrepreneurs I want to start by asking a question you mentioned the differing backgrounds there Entrepreneurs born what do you think this is something that one can really transition into over time? You know, I think well, I think we are Interesting examples of entrepreneurs the event bright founding team You know, we came together from very different backgrounds and very different expertise and I Haven't and I are married. I guess that's probably an important point So I've been able to have a front-row seat to someone who I think is a natural born entrepreneur and I think one characteristic that I Observe in natural born entrepreneurs or that they're missing the chip that says this might not work out so there's this almost eternal and infectious optimism and You know myself. I don't feel like I was born an entrepreneur But I certainly found my passion in in becoming an entrepreneur and I think for me it was about satiating a curiosity and really learning by doing that spoke to me And so I you know, I I think that absolutely somebody can become an entrepreneur even if they weren't sort of you know Born one. I didn't have a lemonade stand growing up. I was a ballerina I was really good at doing what I was told and sort of following the rules and Through Kevin and through other great entrepreneurs around us. I I think that I've picked up some more risk-taking Abilities and skills. I'm sorry. I'm too interested. You said about kind of the chip that says it's not possible How do you balance when you're running a company between having that kind of meta vision that kind of empowers investors and the employees as a whole but also the reality that next quarters numbers and actually Simon in sales isn't hitting his targets and how we're thinking about the more granular elements of the business. How do you balance between the two? Simon in sales Simon Do you're lucky we don't have a Simon and say I'm very lucky that could have been a reality Well, I think the balancing so as leaders you have to balance multiple situations and realities and I think that what I've learned in the third almost 13 years of operating Eventbrite is that there is not one single truth except for Why we exist right so our our why is really around bringing people together through live Experiences it's around enabling event creators to be able to create any type of live experience Faster better cheaper. So that's the truth on the long term in the short term You have to be able to oscillate between the two I think that's just table stakes when you're operating a company in the early days that meant Are we actually going to build something that people will use and will more than just one cohort of early adopters use it for us the our earliest adopters were actually tech bloggers who were hosting meet-ups and using Eventbrite as a platform to gather other people and they were a great early adopter group because they did not hold Back on on all the feedback All the feedback and so we really built our product with this high-velocity feedback loop and our earliest adopters but I'll never forget the first day that I noticed that other types of creators were adopting Eventbrite and Remarkably they were speed-dating event hosts in New York So completely different part of our country totally different type of event and I remember thinking wow we might actually be on to something so you're taking these sort of baby steps along the way and With this, you know dream of a long-term vision and as that scales Just the components get Different, but you always have to balance the long term with the short term So we spoke about kind of the metaphorical Simon and sales But if we kind of apply it to the team I've interviewed over 3,000 people and the majority say that certain employees are destined for certain stages of company scaling Is that something that you'd agree with or do you think people have that kind of plasticity to move with stage? I absolutely believe that people are capable of having the plasticity of moving with the stage It's rare though. Okay, so it really comes down to curiosity How curious is that individual and curiosity breeds empathy? How empathetic is that individual towards either the mission or the customer and that breeds really the resilience to continually learn and grow and so I Guess like just by nature it would be pretty hypocritical for me to say I don't believe that somebody can scale with a business since You know, I I had zero experience 13 years ago and and here we are But I also think that it's important to understand when a team member Doesn't have that type of resilience or curiosity because it's not a given however when we when we recently went public and and On our IPO day at the New York Stock Exchange We had ten of our longest tenured we call ourselves brightlings and when I looked at the ten I was looking at the pictures. I realized that each one Had traveled this really interesting journey at Eventbrite and not one of them was in the original job that they took to join the team and So I think there's something really wonderful about that I think it comes down to the individual, but I also want to make Eventbrite the sort of more most Fertile environment to cultivate your career. It's in my best interest to Retain great talent and help them find development paths. You said about recognizing in those individuals. I actually interviewed Max Levchin recently and he said that when there's doubt, there's no doubt How do you think about kind of assessing when a stretch candidate is maybe that stretch too far and the kind of process that goes with that? Well again, I mean, I I love Max and so I love his his profound statements And and I I think he has there's a sort of degree of truth in that When you start to feel doubt that somebody can really step up and take on the challenge I think his point is that there is no doubt in that moment. I Tend to think of it a bit differently I think that you know when you when you bring someone into your team whether your early stage or late stage sort of stage agnostic You're making a commitment. It's more of a relationship than a transaction and so there is a sense of trust and commitment and investment really that happens between the company and the teammate and so I Think along the way if that trust breaks or if again, there's a in care in the Characteristic of the person themselves in the individual There isn't that sense of of willingness to stretch and resilience and ability to learn quickly Then it's probably not going to be the right fit for that right time more often than not that happens but there are there are plenty of situations especially at a vent right that I I can see where If not given another a different opportunity or a different slightly different path that person probably would have left a vent Right and now they're in a brilliant role for their skills and their their stage of career We did mention Matt's left in there We mentioned the IPO pre IPO you raised at funding from incredible incredible investors Lee at Tiger team at Sequoia I'm really interested imagine Hypothetically speaking I'm an angel investment of yours and you're advising me What would the advice be having been through multiple rounds with some of the best in the world and really having kind of gained the experience there? Oh gosh, well, um, you know, I think I very much benefit from Living with Kevin who is a prolific angel investor So I get to watch sort of front row as to as try to pick up that the patterns that he sees in entrepreneurs. I Think it's definitely at least I would bottle it up as conviction so strong conviction in mission and vision a willingness to listen and a So that those are two things that are sort of curiously balanced at any given time because Listening and taking advice, but also being incredibly convinced of your path Are sort of sometimes can be two ends of the spectrum So I think there's a delicate balance there and some of the of the most successful entrepreneurs I think are able to balance that and toggle between the two realities and I also think I You know part of being successful is just getting really comfortable with failure and it's It's astounding to me how much time we spend talking about the successes And we really don't talk about all the failures that happen to get to those points of success We as humans we tend to just forget them and so I find that some of the best Entrepreneurs who are attracting great investors are the ones who are really incredibly comfortable with who they are and with failure But just always hungry and I don't know where the I don't know how to create a Comminality between that the people who have that hunger, you know, I think that it's it's innate. It's within But it comes from many different types of people and entrepreneurs We spoke about kind of the funding itself there the funding allows for expansion it be a product or geo I'm always interested when you have that kind of market saturation element where you've reached maybe the critical mass And you're looking for that additional line. It could be South America. It could be an additional product How do you think about product expansion versus geo expansion? well for us a Vembrite the platform is built in a very modular and extensible manner almost Express expressly for that we have I For us, it's a huge market to expand into different categories of events and different geo so in 2017 we powered three million events in over a hundred and seventy countries and You know, there's no shortage of opportunity within this mid-market space. It's incredibly fragmented And so when we think about expansion It's through our platform and through the capability of our product to be Modular enough for us to be able to quickly develop new solutions that fit in A certain geo or category, but also to allow ourselves to be extensible So we've built an ecosystem that is Powering about a hundred partners that integrate with a Vembrite So when we step back and think about our manifest destiny It's really to induce the creation of more live experiences by being the enablement platform for creators and that and and the sort of playing field for us is this incredibly large Mid-market of live experiences that is in the billions of of tickets. And so that's what really fuels our I Well our growth and our investment and I think that when we when we think about sort of any path to prosperity It's through product Can I ask you spoke about kind of the billions of tickets the massive opportunity that you have? You've had in the past and also have in front of you something in the public markets have seen I'd love to say like take yourself back six months pre IPO What advice would you give yourself in that kind of very momentous time that you now know having been through it yourself? Well, that's a great question So when we set out to go public and we sort of started the process in earnest We had three objectives for ourselves one was that in the in the process to go public you hear a lot about how extractive it is of your time and Certainly, it's a very expensive fundraise So I wanted to actually flip that equation and make sure that we would extract Serious value from going public and so for us that was part of the drafting of the S1 document Which is you know this hundreds and hundreds of pages pretty dry Business document, but within the S1 we created the business section and within the business section We really carefully drafted our mission and our principles and also what we're building and so it codified and simplified Who we're serving how we're serving them and for us that was incredibly valuable because when you're a start-up or a growth company You're just going going going going going and unless you are forced to step back and really put pen to paper In something that is going to live forever You don't necessarily get down to the level that we got down to during that that process the second objective we had for ourselves Was to bring in Exceptional investors and so we have had the pleasure of working with some of the best and at least in the IPO I wanted to make sure that we were able to connect with investors who could help us be better And and really who we could learn from and the third was to put our our customers front and center So to be able to tell our story Authentically through the eyes of our event creators because those are the people who we wake up every day thinking about how we can serve And they're entrepreneurs in their own right And so their stories really helped set the backdrop for what event bright has become and what we hope to You know mean to the world in the future and so all three of those objectives for me were really important to anchor the team Because at times you feel like it's a incredibly tedious process And I would have to give the team a big shout out for for hitting all three objectives And for me that was it was worth it. No, absolutely. It wasn't it was an incredible day But I do want to finish today on my favorite as you know, you've been through this before It's a quick fire on so I say a short statement and then Julia will give me her immediate thoughts in 60 seconds or less We have only I can ask you my own questions at the end Well, okay, okay I'm ready. Sure Thank you for warning me about that one. So your favorite book and why Julia? My favorite book is personal history by Catherine Graham because I find her to be an exceptional Inspiration okay the requirements for a successful CEO transition The requirements for a sex successful CEO transition when you're married to the previous CEO is to Communicate a lot I'm sure how to integrate people through acquisitions empathy Lots of empathy What's the biggest challenge about acquiring a company? Well, I think it's about I'm I'm Integrating cultures and making sure that you have a common point of view and so, you know, I think event bright has done a Good job at at bringing people together around the world through we've done nine acquisitions We have an incredibly strong culture which helps anchor us But we're also really flexible. So I always think about the culture as being a manifest manifestation of the people at the company at any given time and Because of that when we acquire teams and we integrate them into event bright the event bright culture has to Shift and make room and be flexible. And so I think having that type of empathy is really important Who inspires you most and why can I bang Kevin? You can ban Kevin. Okay Who inspires you most and why? Oh God, I don't can we come back to that when you come back here for someone listening now What's the one key thing you'd like them to take away from this conversation? You know, I think the secret to success in building a startup through a Gross-stage company into well, we've been public for about 60 days now. So maybe check back in here I Is really it is just being completely resilient and focused on the mission I feel like I'm on this sort of monorail journey and you know conviction is the one thing that keeps us going and keeps us as Growing year-over-year and so I just think that gets underrated sometimes and I feel like that that type of Singular focus is really important. Okay final one the next five years for you and for event bright kind of paint that picture Well event bright in five years will be powering more live experiences Then are even happening today. So our manifest destiny is really to induce more live Experiences through our platform And I think that we're well on our way to doing that. Are you gonna come back to who inspires me? I am this is my next one. Have we thought about it? You know, I think it's hard for me to pick one person. It really is difficult But I you know, I look at I I really look at other women who have charted the course and who have been a great sort of leaders in their own right and One woman who just joined our board is Jane lotter and you would know her last name because she's related to Estee lotter, but you wouldn't really know a lot about her because she's spent the last 20-plus years working her way up through her family business. And so I always find women who have you know really put one foot in front of the other and worked hard to be inspiring and And Jane would be one of those top top people who inspire me Well, I did well to leave you a minute and 30 seconds to ask me a question. Harry Stebbings. What is your favorite food? What is my favorite food? So I was actually asked by Julia before the show. What's one embarrassing thing about me? Just answer the question Harry I'm addicted to protein bars. What kind of it doesn't tell obviously Grenade, it's a make a protein bar and they do a birthday cake flavor. And do you how many do you eat a day? Generally five or six a day and I always travel actually with eight in my rucksack. That's really unique It is very unique. What's the one thing that you don't know how to do in your home domestically? I Have some flaws domestically Washing machines are still an anathema to me as the dishwashers So that would be anything to do with water and the things to do with water is a learning curve 2019 resolution for sure. And what is the name of your new venture firm? New venture firm is called stride.vc New UK seed VC fund partnered with Fred Destin. Awesome. Thank you so much Julia This was so much fun, and I was not expecting that. Thank you. Thanks