Eventbrite
Careers at Eventbrite
Mission
As the world's largest self-service platform for live experiences and event management, Everbrite allows people to find, host, promote, and manage any type of event via the company’s website or through their custom mobile apps.
History
Eventbrite was founded in 2006 in San Francisco by husband and wife Kevin and Julia Hartz, and Renaud Visage. The idea behind the startup came from the opportunity to democratize and disrupt the existing ticketing market, which was characterized by poor customer service, high fees and lack of innovation. Initially, Eventbrite did not have a product to advertise or any revenue for that matter. The team consisted of its three founders, who gradually came to realize the potential for capitalizing on the large volume of customer reviews that were getting indexed by Google and increasing visibility of the brand.
By expanding on the list of categories and events, Eventbrite soon began to organically evolve and by 2009 – managed to secure $6.5 million in funding after having been turned down by practically every venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. The company had survived both previous years on less than $250,000 annually, but upon raising additional capital – was able to expand the team to 15 persons. Founders Kevin Harz and Julia Harz were made CEO and President respectively while Renaud Visage served in the role of CTO.
During the economic crises of 2008 and 2009, Eventbrite was able to target and attract those who were hit the hardest by the crisis and enabled them to generate revenue for themselves. Although initially the company did not profit from the DIY trend, it became the catalyst for its subsequent exponential growth and increased discoverability.
A turning point in Eventbrite’s history was the opening up of its API, which permitted developers to build niche features and services the company wasn’t going to incorporate itself. This led to a total of 1.1 million attendees using the platform in 2014 alone and over $1.1 billion in gross ticket sales for organisers for the same period.
Presently, the company employs 450 ‘britelings’ across 8 global offices and focuses a large portion of its funds and resources on developing mobile applications that enhance user experience on its web site, permit seamless integration of social networking and event management and generally differentiate from competitors.
Benefits at Eventbrite
Business model of Eventbrite
Customer Segments
Eventbrite serves two customer segments, consisting of event organizers looking to increase the visibility of their event (which includes, but is not limited to: concerts, contests, parties, classes and workshops) and individuals, who wish to attend advertised events of interest.
Value Propositions
From the very beginning the strongest asset of Eventbrite has been its continuous dialogue and involvement with customers and users as well as active implementation of their feedback into the development of the platform and company services. Because the brand is built on user feedback – it is highly reactive, functional and easy-to-use, which increases its popularity with customers who’ve actively participated in its design.
On the other hand, Eventbrite offers viable opportunities to people of all social backgrounds to create and advertise events of any type, which can become a source of income. In this way the platform stimulates individuals to use it not only for recreational purposes (e.g. to locate a local event of interest), but for work and self-promotion as well.
Channels
Eventbrite has relied on a heavy social network presence as well as extensive word-of-mouth campaigns to grow its customer base. Because its product integrates customer reviews with the very service (event management) they offer – this has resulted in an unparalleled visibility on Google and other search engines due to the large volume of indexed user reviews of events marketed on the platform.
Awareness of Eventbrite has also been boosted by its move to open its API to developers for the introduction of new features, which make its product increasingly tailored to the needs and specifics of targeted consumer groups.
Customer Relationship
Eventbrite is an entirely self-service reliant platform, where users create, promote, manage, and host a number of live events. The entire interface of the website is built to be as functional and user-friendly as possible and there are a wide number of options to choose from.
Key Activities
Eventbrite focuses on the design and provision of its functional web platform and development of mobile applications that allow users to create, share, find and advertise a wide range of live events.
Its focus is on self-servicing the ‘people’ part of the ticketing industry. Event promotion on the company’s social media accounts is another area which the company is actively working on.
Key Partners
Recently, Eventbrite struck a successful partnership with Batchbook – a dynamic platform that enables companies to better manage their existing customer relationships as well as form new ones.
This tool has integrated seamlessly with Eventbrite’s creative approach to focus on the ‘human’ element in its business process.
Key Resources
One of Eventbrite’s highest regarded resources is its talent capital or the so-called ‘britelings’ –people who actively promote the brand over a number of social media channels. Another key resource includes the early adopted group of tech bloggers (IT technicians) as well as developers who contributed to the new features of the company’s API.
The company’s IT infrastructure is its key asset and resource as it’s the core of Eventbrite’s business and service distribution.
Cost Structure
Immediately upon securing funding in 2009 Eventbrite directed most of it into the development and growth of its human (talent) capital and expanded its working team from 3 to 15 persons.
It currently employs 450+ people across 8 international offices and continues to invest in its employees and corporate environment (as evidenced by being voted Best Places to Work in San Francisco six years running). In this sense the salary of its staff is the biggest block of Eventbrite’s cost structure followed by system maintenance and app development.
Revenue Streams
Eventbrite currently has two revenue streams – its free version for hosted events that are free of charge, which translates into increased visibility. A large percentage of free event organizers were reported to go on and become paid ones, thus saving the company money on marketing and sales.
Additionally, the model of Eventbrite relies on charging event organizers only per sold ticket rather than a subscription-based plan.
Because it was the first major player in this market in the US, the company saw some benefits of its innovative approach, but is currently competing against several alternative companies and services.
