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’

Before joining the Success desk, she co-authored Fortune’s CHRO Daily , extensively covering the workplace and the future of jobs

Emma has also written for publications including the Observer and The China ject, publishing long-form stories on culture, entertainment, and geo

Courtesy of EventbriteEventbrite CEO Julia Hartz ditched her cushy TV career working on hit shows Friends, Jackass, and The Shield to bootstrap the ticketing platform with her two cofounders, scaling it from a windowless phone closet

Most people would jump at the idea of working on hit TV shows Friends, Jackass, and The Shield, but Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz left it all behind to pursue her passion of bringing people together

The pitch was: “Come work on something that doesn’t exist

We’ll use our own money to fund it, and if it’s a disaster, we’ll just be broke,’” Hartz tells Fortune

But it all started when Hartz and her husband—serial entrepreneur and early PayPal investor Kevin Hartz—assembled a dream team to get Eventbrite off the ground

Hartz had to sacrifice her job to put all her energy into Eventbrite, skirting the route other entrepreneurs have gone down: juggling a full-time job while scaling a company on the side

Instead, she found it best to wipe her slate clean and leave her TV career behind to pursue Eventbrite

It was a fessional gamble that paid off in the long run. “I’ve seen entrepreneurs do that, and I think that that’s a clever way to gain validation and duct market fit, without putting yourself in such a perilous state,” Hartz says. “I did not do that.” Inspiration struck during her 9-to-5 job in TV working on Friends and The Shield Hartz started working at just the age of 14—pouring coffees in cafes, and driving kids to after-school activities—and hasn’t taken her foot off the gas since

While attending Pepperdine University, she worked as an intern on the set of hit TV-show Friends, later scoring an internship at MTV in the series development department

It was a “magical” experience that eventually landed her a job at the station—once she graduated, Hartz went straight into shows including Jackass, The Shield, and Rescue Me across MTV and FX

Part of her job entailed reing fandom events, and suddenly, something clicked. “I remember going to this fandom event that was insanely niche, and feeling the energy of the people in the room, it just stuck with me,” Hartz says. “It was this palpable, kinetic energy…When we started Eventbrite, I was thinking that all along: ‘How do we enable the people who gather others around these niche passion areas and create this magic?’” While most couples may wring their hands at the idea of putting their finances on the line to launch a company together, Hartz’s partner was enthusiastic going all-in on a light bulb moment

The Silicon Valley hub had the connections and industry access to help get things off the ground

So just that, she set up shop in Potrero Hill, the “warehouse district”. “I was moving saw horses and plywood into a windowless phone closet on Monday, in this warehouse district in San Francisco, going in my head, ‘Wait, what if he’s crazy?’ Well, it’s a little late for that,” Hartz says. “I’ve been working since I was 14 with no break

Facebook made Eventbrite one of its first connect partners, solidifying a huge new customer base looking for community events to partake in

Hartz said “the world collapsed” in those dire years, and people were desperate for community while facing hardship

It was a tough era for corporate American workers, but was an opportunity for Eventbrite to bring them together

Over the next decade the would amass a total of $373 million in equity funding through 11 fundraising rounds, according to Pitchbook, attracting investors Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital and Square

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