This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with
more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get
90% off your plan for your first 6 months at
xero.com/highflyers.
________
Kevin Hartz is the Co-Founder of Eventbrite and Xoom, and
Co-Founder and General Partner at A*, the early-stage venture
firm whose latest fund is $450M. Xoom was acquired by PayPal for
more than $1B, Eventbrite went public, and Kevin has backed some
of technology’s most important companies from the earliest
stages, including PayPal, Airbnb, Palantir, SpaceX, Anduril, Ramp
and Decagon.
In this conversation with Vidit, Kevin goes back to the
beginning: growing up in the Bay Area before Silicon Valley
became Silicon Valley, studying history at Stanford and Oxford,
returning home “fairly lost,” and nearly choosing medicine before
the internet pulled him into technology. He shares how
friendships with Peter Thiel and the early PayPal team shaped his
trajectory, why he chose to build Xoom instead of joining PayPal,
and what it felt like to later be “brushed aside” as CEO.
Kevin also reflects on building Eventbrite with his wife Julia
while raising a family, the relentless reality of being a scaling
CEO, and how identity changes when a company that defined two
decades of your life is no longer yours. He explains what the
PayPal Mafia taught him about talent, why the best founders
create leverage by surrounding themselves with exceptional
people, and why some founders are simply an “automatic check.”
They also explore A*, how Kevin finds the next generation of
breakout founders, the extraordinary valuations and competition
in today’s AI market, why relationships still matter at seed, and
what decades of building and investing have taught him about
ambition, judgment and the people you choose to spend your life
around.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian
Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP
Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit
Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with
more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get
90% off your plan for your first 6 months at
xero.com/highflyers.
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Meet Kevin Hartz
02:56 – Xero
03:56 – Childhood and family
16:00 – Stanford vs Oxford
21:00 – “I was fairly lost”
24:00 – PayPal, Peter Thiel and Xoom
30:00 – Getting pushed out as Xoom CEO
33:00 – Tech then vs now
35:00 – Why Eventbrite had to exist
43:00 – The reality of being CEO
45:00 – Building with Julia and becoming a dad
48:00 – What the PayPal Mafia taught him
53:00 – Investing in a wild market
56:00 – Who is Kevin Hartz after Eventbrite?
59:00 – Building A* after the SPAC era
1:02:00 – Finding the next great founder
1:04:00 – Why Ashwin was an “automatic check”
1:08:00 – Kevin’s dream dinner table
1:11:00 – The question Kevin asks every founder
1:13:00 – Why “I’d be happy to” is banned at A*
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The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the
world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance,
government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the
global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27
countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in
Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of
Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad
Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings),
David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Kevin Hartz (Partner, A*; Founder,
Eventbrite), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP),
Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z
Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio
(CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian),
Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam
Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John
Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures),
Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis),
Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square
Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese
(Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam
Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle
(CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev
Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High
Commissioner to India).
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