Kevin Hartz is an American entrepreneur, investor, Partner at Founders Fund and Co-Founder and Chairman of Eventbrite, a leading global self-service ticketing platform. In addition to founding three companies (Eventbrite, Xoom and ConnectGroup), Hartz is an early-stage investor and advisor to successful startups including PayPal, Pinterest, Lookout, Uber, Airbnb, Trulia, Skybox Imaging and Yammer.
Hartz was born in Berkeley, California and raised in Orinda, California. He holds a BAS from Stanford University in History, as well as an MA from Oxford University.
Hartz began his career at Silicon Graphics (SGI) as the product manager for Virtual reality browser Cosmo Player. Subsequently, Hartz was a co-founder of ConnectGroup, a startup providing high-speed Internet access to the hotel Industry. Five months after incorporating the company, it was acquired by LodgeNet (NASDAQ: LNET).
In 2001, Hartz co-founded Xoom, an international money remittance business, along with Alan Braverman. He served as CEO of Xoom until 2005 and served on the Board of Directors of Xoom through its 2012 IPO and subsequent acquisition by PayPal in 2015 for a total equity value of $1.1 Billion.
Hartz founded Eventbrite, the global self-service ticketing platform, in 2006 with Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage.