Eventbrite：挖掘小型活动票务的商机

    2003年在圣巴巴拉参加一场教堂婚礼时，茱莉亚•斯提恩正巧坐在了凯文•哈茨的旁边，哈茨当时就下决心一定得和这位年轻迷人的金发女郎聊上几句。

    “她当时是一位成熟的23岁女郎，而我是一位青涩的33岁小伙”，凯文调侃地说道。

    “那时的我可傻了。”茱莉亚表示反对，“我都没有什么适合出席婚礼的服饰。”

    在婚宴上，他偷了一盘鸡尾酒，踱到茱莉亚面前向她献殷勤，当时担任MTV主管的茱莉亚正在和她的同事说话。“我记得，我当时就想‘这人有种！'”，她回忆说。

    公平而言，他们两个都有。十年来，他们结了婚，生了两个女儿。如今，凯文和茱莉亚经营着Eventbrite，在不同于票务巨头Ticketmaster的领域成为了最大的票务服务公司。凯文担任CEO；茱莉亚任总裁。在229位员工的帮助下，他们在179个国家已售出了1亿张门票，包括“西南偏南音乐节”（South by Southwest）和“湾区马拉松”（Bay Area marathons）活动的门票。(Eventbrite从每张出售的门票上收取很少的费用来赚取利润。)

    上个月，这家旧金山初创企业的票务销售额突破了15亿美元，而且销售呈现加速：票务销售总额的三分之一是在过去9个月实现的。据报道，像红杉资本（Sequoia Capital）、老虎环球资本管理公司（Tiger Global Management)、Khosla Ventures合伙人凯斯•拉博伊斯和投资人罗恩•康威等支持者至今已合计投资8,000万美元。

    当我们想到硅谷企业的成功故事时，我们常常认为它们是一夜成功，太多运气集于一身。这两种说法对于Eventbrite均不成立。这是凯文的第三家初创企业；他的第一家企业是为连锁酒店提供互联网服务管理，成立10个月就被以1,000万美元收购了。作为曾经的天使投资者，他的投资成绩可圈可点，包括PayPal、Pinterest和Airbnb等。而茱莉亚在好莱坞磨练过几年，曾经管理像FX的《The Shield》和《Nip/Tuck》以及MTV的《Jackass》等节目。

    因此，当凯文憧憬着活动票务服务可以并应当能够通过网络更好地实现时，这可不是靠运气。在Eventbrite之前，并没有一个被广泛接受的、面向个人和小型组织的在线票务解决方案。而巨头Tickemaster致力于服务大企业，它的目标客户可不是什么准备筹备乔迁新禧的初创企业或准备子女洗礼聚会的普通母亲。Eventbrite就专门提供这样的服务。

    “这个市场真正实现了活动管理和营销的民主化，为每个活动组织者提供了销售票务的工具，让信息可以传递到不久前还只有大型场地和机构才能企及的受众。”Eventbrite董事、前Ticketmaster的CEO希恩•莫里亚蒂解释说，

    “凯文一直站在时代的前沿，能够在流行到来前发现机会。”拉博伊斯赞同地表示，“很多长期活动的组织者都需要更高质量的票务和支付服务。”

    事实上，凯文曾经通过每天给拉博伊斯写邮件，说服这位朋友向早期还不为人知的Pinterest投资了50,000美元。

    如今，哈茨夫妇想拓展Eventbrite的终端对终端服务，并在全世界铺开，这样用户就可以将其用于票务流程的各个步骤：从在手机或台式电脑上发现活动，到参加他们选择的活动。去年，他们推出了“上门”（At the door）服务。这是一个信用卡读卡器，可以将iPad转变为票务终端，为独立的活动推广商提供了另一支付途径。

    从Eventbrite的发展势头来看，不可避免地总有一天会向行业巨头Ticketmaster发起挑战，但凯文并不着急这么做。“人们总是在问我们，‘你们为什么不进入他们的市场？’”那是一个竞争非常激烈而残酷的票务领域，将来在合适的时间我们一定会进入。但眼下这些市场...更加诱人。”（财富中文网）

    When Julia Steen parked in a church pew next to Kevin Hartz at a Santa Barbara wedding in 2003, Hartz decided he just had to talk to the fetching, young blonde.

    "She was a mature 23-year-old, and I was an immature 33-year-old," Kevin says dryly.

    "I was a hot mess," Julia disputes. "I didn't even have the thing I was supposed to be reading for the wedding."

    During the reception, he stole a tray of cocktails, and sauntered over to impress Julia, an MTV executive at the time, who was talking to her coworkers. "I remember thinking, 'This guy has cajones!'" she recalls.

    It's fair to say they both do. Ten years, one marriage in, and two daughters later, the Hartzs now run Eventbrite, the biggest ticketing company this side of Ticketmaster. Kevin serves as CEO; Julia as President. With the help of 229 employees, they have sold over 100 million tickets in 179 countries to events like South by Southwest after-parties and Bay Area marathons. (Eventbrite profits by charging a small fee for each ticket purchase.)

    Last month, the San Francisco startup crossed $1.5 billion in ticket sales, and sales are accelerating: One-third of its total ticket sales were processed over the last nine months alone. Backers like Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois, and Ron Conway have chipped in a reported $80 million to date.

    When we think of Silicon Valley successes, we often view them as an overnight phenomenon, the result of a lot of luck. Neither was the case for Eventbrite. For Kevin, it was his third startup; his first, an Internet service manager for hotel chains, got acquired for $10 million just 10 months after it launched. And as a former angel investor, his bets include some smart choices: PayPal, Pinterest, and Airbnb, to name a few. Meanwhile, Julia cut her teeth in Hollywood for several years, managing shows like FX's The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and yes, MTV's Jackass.

    So when Kevin dreamed up the idea that event ticketing could and should be done better online, it wasn't luck. Before Eventbrite, an easy, widely-accepted online ticketing solution for individuals and smaller organizations didn't exist. Tickemaster catered to the big names, not the startup that wanted to hold an office-warming or the mother who wanted to throw a baptism party. Eventbrite provides that.

    "It's a marketplace that truly democratizes event management and marketing, giving every organizer the tools to sell tickets and reach audiences that until recently were only available to the largest venues and organizations," explains Sean Moriarty, an Eventbrite board member and ex-Ticketmaster CEO.

    "Kevin has always consistently been ahead of his time, spotting things before they're cool," agrees Rabois. "Most of these people hosting long-term events needed a higher-quality product for ticketing for payments."

    Indeed, via daily emails to Rabois, Kevin convinced his friend to invest $50,000 in a little-known startup called Pinterest during its early days.

    Now, the Hartzs want to expand Eventbrite's end-to-end experience and do so internationally, such that users use it for every step of the ticketing process, from event discovery on their mobile devices and desktops, to getting through the door to the event of their choosing. Last year, they launched "At the door," a credit card reader that turns iPads into ticketing terminals, giving indie event promoters another way to take payments.

    Given Eventbrite's push, it seems inevitable the company, a veritable David, should take on its Goliath -- Ticketmaster -- but Kevin is in no rush. "People ask us all the time, 'Why aren't you going after them?' That's a very competitive, vicious ticketing space, and we'll get there in due time. But these markets are so much more ... attractive."