How Eventbrite applies the growth mindset to bring the world together through live experiences - #GHConf18

1. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com

2. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Mission-Driven Growth: Bringing The World Together Through Live Experiences Brian Rothenberg VP of Growth @bmrothenberg 02.06.18

3. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com A company’s vision and mission are born from the startup’s founders. The mindset starts at the top.

4. Our mission: To bring the world together through live experiences

5. A clear mission isn’t enough. The ‘Why’ and the ‘How” behind it matters.

6. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com ‘Why’ matters because it’s how great leaders inspire action

7. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Your ‘Why’ is the purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do WHY Very few organizations know WHY they do what they do. It’s the very reason your company exists.

8. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Your ‘Why’ will color ‘How’ you uniquely do it WHY Very few organizations know WHY they do what they do. It’s the very reason your company exists. HOW Some organizations know HOW they do it. These are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competition.

9. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com When your team knows the ‘Why’ and the ‘How,’ the right ‘What’ follows WHY Very few organizations know WHY they do what they do. It’s the very reason your company exists. HOW Some organizations know HOW they do it. These are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competition. WHAT Every organization on the planet knows WHAT they do. These are the products they sell or the services they offer.

10. At Eventbrite, we’ve spent a lot of time synthesizing the ‘why.’

11. Our ‘Why’ then starts to blend with the ‘How.’

13. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com “Not having a platform that was easily accessible or self-service to sell tickets to events meant that nobody was catering to the long-tail and mid-market opportunity,” said Hartz.

14. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com “Things that were once available only to the biggest customers are now made available to the masses.”

15. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com "The idea was really to democratize ticketing," Hartz told CNBC. "We wanted to harness the power of technology to make it possible for anyone to create a movement, or an event or a live experience around any topic, passion, curiosity or cause.”

16. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Democratize Simplify Easy-to-use Innovation Open For the masses Accessible Self-service Any category Empowering Discovery Save time Create Free events Grow

17. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Our CEO/founders then evangelize this message to the world, and critically to employees. Over, and over, and over...

18. Repeatedly driving this message home shapes how the team seeks growth. It strongly colors how the front-line “do’ers” make decisions and work together.

19. Some of these decisions can be pivotal for a company’s growth...

20. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Eventbrite started out self-service and built for paid events

21. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com “When a platform is self-service, even the improbable ideas can get tried, because there’s no expert gatekeeper ready to say 'that will never work!'”

22. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Some of Eventbrite’s most foundational growth drivers were embraced when the spark happened

23. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Some of Eventbrite’s most foundational growth drivers were embraced when the spark happened

24. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Free-to-paidconversionovertime And thus, Eventbrite’s early freemium model was born...

25. Why was this embraced vs. rejected?

26. Why was this embraced vs. rejected? Because the ‘What’ aligned with our ‘Why’, and our ‘How.’

27. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Eventbrite is now the largest live experiences platform in the world by number of events and event creators 200M Tickets Sold Across 180 Countries in 2017 50M+ Ticket Buyers in 2017 $10B+ Gross Ticket Sales Since Founding

28. “How do we keep driving toward our mission in a way that is true to our ‘Why and our ‘How?’”

29. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Compound Growth vs. Step Changes 2

30. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Growth teams largely focus on iterative, compound growth What do “growth” teams do? 1. Analysis, model building, planning: “Why does growth happen?” and “how do we think we can do more of it?” 2. Experimentation & optimization: Brainstorm ideas that can make those numbers go up and to the right… lots of A/B tests for pretty short ideas that prove out the concept… if it works out, then keep investing. http://andrewchen.co/what-does-a-growth-team-work-on-day-to-day/

31. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com There’s a huge difference between linear and compound growth

32. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com As you scale, even with compound growth you may start to approach the top of your current hill Local Maximum Global Maximum

33. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com We felt we were approaching our local maximum, and needed to make a bigger shift How do we get here?

34. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Because the best companies do both: drive continuous compound optimizations and seek step-changes How do we get here? So that we can optimize again to here

35. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Eventbrite’s recent step-change opportunity 3

36. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com 37 For the past 10 years, we’ve had a one-size-fits-all product

37. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com For one, event creators placed different value on our product Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Perceived Value Perceived Value Perceived Value Price

38. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com That disconnect led to lost customers and lost revenue Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Perceived Value Perceived Value Perceived Value Price Lost customers Lost revenue

39. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Missing out on a segment of customers ≠ Eventbrite’s ‘How’ Segment 1 Perceived Value Lost customers !

40. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com We recognized that product segmentation and pricing would be major levers to expand reach and drive growth Good Better Best Perceived Value Perceived Value Price 2 Perceived Value Price 3 Price 1

41. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com “Available to the masses” “Empowering” “Self-service” “Easy-to-use” “Growth”

42. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com To validate, we first took a lean, growth-oriented approach

45. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Was likely going to get us here Was definitely not going to get us here But optimization alone wasn’t going to get us a step-function change

46. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com So, we embarked on more rigorous research to inform jumping to a whole new product package architecture

47. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Which we designed, re-built much of the product, and launched in a few short months

48. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Widely knowing the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ increased cross-functional coordination, speed, and quality of decisions

49. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com “We knew what we were driving toward and Why. And super importantly, everyone in the company did too. Many decisions that could have taken days or weeks, were actually made in minutes or hours. And because we had a framework for How we’d make the big decisions, it turned out that nearly all were at least directionally correct.” —Core team member, during retrospective Widely knowing the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ increased cross-functional coordination, speed, and quality of decisions

50. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Acquisition & Retention Package Distribution Essentials Professional Premium It’s early, but so far, so good

51. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Applying growth team process to our new package framework 3

52. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com We made the step-change. Now our growth team is pushing up the new hill using our iterative growth approach We were here How do we now optimize to here?

53. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Our new framework unlocked many new levers for optimization 2017 Traffic Funnel Conversion Virality 2018+ Package Selection Onboarding Package Upgrades Category/Geo Packages Expand Market via Lower-Priced Packages Many more...

54. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Which our growth team is now enthusiastically optimizing ● Clear North Star metric & KPIs ● Dedicated x-functional growth team: Product, Engineering, Marketing, Analytics ● High-velocity testing to learn quickly & find greatest impact, then doubling down

55. Quick recap: let’s bring it all home!

56. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Your mission, your ‘Why,’ and your ‘How’ matter deeply in how you grow WHY Very few organizations know WHY they do what they do. It’s the very reason your company exists. HOW Some organizations know HOW they do it. These are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competition.

57. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Your team widely knowing your ‘Why’ + ‘How’ will lead to the right ‘What.’ This empowers teams to work together toward it

58. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Embrace the ‘sparks,’ especially when they align with your ‘How’ Free-to-paidconversionovertime

59. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Step changes must align with your ‘Why’ and ‘How.’ Improve through #1 prioritization, deep customer insights + lean testing How do we get here? So that we can optimize again to here

60. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com The best performing companies seek step-changes and drive continuous compound growth toward the global maximum How do we get here? So that we can optimize again to here

62. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Teamwork is one of the biggest and most untapped competitive advantages Widely know your Why + How, and how they relate to your growth will lead to the right ‘What’ and empower teams to work together toward it

63. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com It’s a competitive advantage to widely know your Why and How → they will lead to the right ‘What’ and empower teams to work together toward it WHY Very few organizations know WHY they do what they do. It’s the very reason your company exists. HOW Some organizations know HOW they do it. These are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competition.

64. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Many companies grow in linear fashion

65. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Great companies drive continuous, compounding growth

66. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Takeaways 1. Lead with meaningful ‘Why’ and ‘How’ → the right ‘What” will follow 2. Company mission & founder vision matters. Understanding and alignment matters. 3. Step-change efforts + “growth” efforts need to be combined, especially at scale. 4. For growth goal setting: Align on a local vs. global maxima 5. Step function changes: Gain confidence via deep customer insights

67. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Takeaways 1. Lead with meaningful ‘Why’ and ‘How’ → the right ‘What” will follow 2. Company mission & founder vision matters. Understanding and alignment matters. 3. Step-change efforts + “growth” efforts need to be combined, especially at scale. 4. For growth goal setting: Align on a local vs. global maxima 5. Step function changes: Gain confidence via deep customer insights

68. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com There’s a huge difference between linear and compound growth

69. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Growth teams largely focus on iterative, compound growth What do “growth” teams do? 1. Analysis, model building, planning: “Why does growth happen?” and “how do we think we can do more of it?” 2. Experimentation & optimization: Brainstorm ideas that can make those numbers go up and to the right… lots of A/B tests for pretty short ideas that prove out the concept… if it works out, then keep investing. http://andrewchen.co/what-does-a-growth-team-work-on-day-to-day/

70. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Even with compound growth, eventually you approach the top of your current hill Local Maximum Global Maximum

71. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com We felt we were approaching the local maximum, and needed to make a bigger shift How do we get here?

72. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Because the best companies do both: drive continuous compound optimizations and seek step-changes How do we get here? So that we can optimize again to here

73. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Global go-to-market was massive. Required alignment with our mission and top-down prioritization. Overall narrative Package-specific positioning Customer communications & support to drive migration New sales & marketing content and funnel evolution Localization and execution across 8 major markets & 180+ countries In-product user experience (package selection, upgrades, etc)

75. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com While we shipped a bigger leap, we maintained a lean, growth-oriented mentality to prepare for a range of outcomes “We knew there was no way we’d get it 100% right, so we never assumed we had the answer. We built scenario plans, kept an iterative mindset and continued to question decisions along the way, testing where we could, all while staying focused on a singular goal.” —Core team member 1, during retrospective

76. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com 77 Free Events Paid Events Package 2 Package 3 Package 4+ And we have an expanded framework for future new segmentation + product/pricing packages, & new growth levers Package 1 Add’l Features Add’l Services

77. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Eventbrite’s Mission and the Company’s Growth Are Inextricably Tied 1

78. Eventbrite’s mission and the company’s growth are inextricably tied.

79. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com Why the ‘Why’ matters

81. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com 82 Some of the primary growth drivers were built-in, or embraced when the spark happened, because they aligned w/ the vision Originally intended to only support paid events. Organically event creators started putting $0 into price field. Rathe made free event functionality. This was a huge growth driver. Paid Events Free Events

82. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com 83 Free Events Paid Events Package 1 Package 2 Package 3 We developed new segmentation and product/pricing packages

84. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com 85 Julia Hartz / Founders [find and add inspirational photo(s)] The mental mindset starts at the top The mission and vision live with a startup’s founders. They then evangelize to the world, and to employees. (key focus for Julia for many years)

86. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com “... available to the masses.”

87. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com "Kevin and I were inspired by the idea of really democratizing ticketing. Essentially, making it possible for anybody to create a movement, or an event or a live experience around any topic, passion, curiosity or cause.”

88. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com As Kevin Hartz, CEO and founder says, he's "democratizing tickets," giving anyone the ability to easily create, organize, market and sell tickets to an event. While some of these events have been in existence well before Eventbrite, the ability to easily manage them has been lacking. The result has been the emergence of even more events as newbie event organizers, like me, feel empowered to put on an event, like VatorSplash, which is hosted on Eventbrite.

89. Eventbrite | Brian Rothenberg | @bmrothenberg | brianrothenberg.com 90 Eventbrite by the numbers in 2017... We’re the largest live experiences platform in the world by number of events and event creators. 200M Tickets Sold Across 180 Countries in 2017 50M+ Ticket Buyers in 2017 $10B+ Gross Ticket Sales Since Founding

90. 91 Some of these decisions can be pivotal for a company’s growth...