--- title: 'Olympic Champion and Eventbrite CEO on Building a Sports League' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=pSqnZBSesMo' video_id: 'pSqnZBSesMo' date: 2026-07-14 duration_sec: 0 --- # Olympic Champion and Eventbrite CEO on Building a Sports League > Source: [Olympic Champion and Eventbrite CEO on Building a Sports League](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pSqnZBSesMo) ## Summary In this conversation, Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and former Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz discuss the intersection of sports and business, focusing on building a professional volleyball league in the US. They share personal stories of resilience, leadership, and the importance of staying true to one's authentic self when facing challenges. ### Key Points - **Athlete's transition to business** [00:00] — Kerri Walsh Jennings describes her journey from pro beach volleyball to entrepreneurship, realizing the market was devaluing athletes and deciding to take action. - **Eventbrite's crisis and pivot** [01:30] — Julia Hartz recounts how Eventbrite faced negative revenue during COVID-19, and a team meeting led to a one-page business plan that redefined the company. - **Building a pro volleyball league** [03:00] — Kerri outlines the need for a professional league in the US to bridge the gap between NCAA and Team USA, creating a sustainable career for athletes. - **Finding the market niche** [04:30] — Julia advises focusing on the 'fatty middle' of the market, avoiding extremes like RSVP platforms or Ticketmaster, and serving the majority. - **Storytelling in women's sports** [06:00] — Kerri emphasizes that winning isn't enough; telling epic stories and building community are key to engaging fans. - **Daily rituals for grounding** [07:30] — Julia shares her non-negotiable rituals: breathing, meditation, journaling, and nature. Kerri calls this 'mastery' or enthusiastic endurance. - **Leadership during change** [09:00] — Julia describes leading Eventbrite through a sale by setting a tone of customer focus, mutual support, and fun, which freed the team from stress. - **Embracing authenticity** [10:30] — Kerri admits insecurity about lacking strategic skills. Julia reassures her that preparation and consistency matter more than being strategic. - **Originality as a competitive advantage** [12:00] — Julia advises Kerri to be original and not copy other leagues, as no one has succeeded in this space yet, which is a virtue. ### Conclusion The conversation underscores that authentic leadership, resilience, and a focus on community can drive success in both sports and business. Kerri's athletic discipline and Julia's business acumen complement each other, offering a blueprint for building something new. ## Transcript I was living this beautiful life of a pro beach volleyball player, but the ship was slowly sinking. Knowing what we know about this business, what would we do if we could do it all over again? So I said, let's go build that company. So just like you, Julia, I grew up in Northern California. I played all the sports growing up. Volleyball was my first love. And I've had a 30-year-plus love affair with volleyball. You know, my very first day trying out with Misty, I met my partner that I would win three gold medals with. I met my husband. But my kind of foray into the business world happened while I was still competing. I was living this beautiful life of a pro beach volleyball player, but the ship was slowly sinking and the market started to devalue us. And so finally, it's like, okay, I'm going to stop complaining and I'm going to do something about it. I have P1440, which is my youth to pro arm, which your daughter, I want to invite her out to come play. And then I have two pro ventures that I'm working on. One is MLV NorCal. And then our other pro venture is called Hero Volley, which is a beach volleyball pro festival. I know the product would be great because these athletes are hungry. They want to play here in America. They don't want to leave to go play in Europe for eight months, get paid 50 grand and come home and miss everything. You need to have the Olympics, the NBA. And our sport doesn't have that. So I took over as CEO of Eventbrite in 2016. 2017, we acquired our largest competitor. So we effectively doubled the company in terms of revenue and also doubled the headcount and all the things that come with that. And 2020 started with a bang. We were having an amazing start of the year. On March 3rd, I woke up with a text from our CFO and it just said, it's here. We were doing more refunds than revenue and we had negative revenue. So I gathered the team in this Zoom meeting and it was all very awkward and there were babies and puppies, you know, in the background. And one question came to me, so I asked it, which was, knowing what we know about this business, what would we do if we could do it all over again? And at the end of the meeting, we literally had a one-page business plan. And so I said, okay, let's go do that. Let's go build that company. I think ultimately a win for me today would be just tell me how. Like there's so many things. Like I remember telling my friend, ultimately in 20 years, I want to say I did what Julia did. I love that. This is the time for you to be building. And any time is time to be building. You can do it. And you can have more of everything. I believe this. And I would love nothing more than if we could take it to the board and just start going through ways that you can create what you want to create faster. This could be the biggest challenge in all of my sport, right? Okay, so we are considered the number one ticket at the Olympics, but then we go away. We need to figure out a way to unniche ourselves to become mainstream so that these athletes can have a true career. And what are some of those pieces to the puzzle? Okay, so we have the youth piece. Yeah. Secondly, the NCAA collegiate space. So there is incredible opportunity at the collegiate space. And then you have Team USA. So there's a big jump between NCAA to Team USA. But if you inverted this, this would be a triangle with Team USA at the top here. And then you've got like collegiate and then all this amazing youth opportunity as well, right? Yep. And so we just need a space for pro. Yeah. Which would be right under the tip of the pyramid. There you go. You know what I'm saying? So that's where Major League Volleyball needs your answer here. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, speaking of triangles, for Eventbrite, when we started, there was... RSVP platforms at the bottom here, that's not where we were playing. And then at the top, there was Live Nation and Ticketmaster. We also did not want to be in that space. So I think knowing where you don't want to be is sometimes the best first step, right? And then in the middle, what we found was everything else. And I like to call this the fatty middle of the triangle where Eventbrite could be a great solution. And the reason why most people live there. Yeah, most people live here. What do people who would come and support this league really care about? Like, what do they, what drives them? I mean, so interesting. I mean, Aspiration, I think, is a big one. They're part of a team that means something to the community, so it's bigger than themselves. I mean, another famous is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which is like, you know, after physiological things like water, we need security. And then, you know, and then you finally get up to self-actualization. And I think that down here is Wi-Fi, but you tell me. And one of the things that we can count on every four years is you're going to get a good story unfolding. Tell epic stories. Research says that in women's sports, winning isn't enough. And the beautiful thing about that is that good, because we're so much more than that. What I would like you to help me understand is how I can be the best asset I can be for these projects. Okay, so first of all, we just went through our rituals of how we get centered and grounded. And I'm curious for you, have you found a ritual off the court that centers and grounds you. Yes, I do every day, Julia. I breathe. Nice. I meditate. I journal. And I get in nature. Those are non-negotiables. Mindfulness, I mean, for lack of a better phrase, I guess. Yeah. So you have four tactics to basically recenter and to recalibrate. Yep. That's awesome. My work here is done. Okay. What's the thing that you do that most humans aren't capable of? What was the first thing that came to mind? Endure. Okay. Yeah. What can we call that? It's like... Mastery? Yeah. I'm so far from that. Yes. I want that so badly. Mastery, which is like enthusiastic endurance. Oh, my God. This is what every... business leaders actually seeking. And you have that, you know, having just gone through this major turning of the page for Eventbrite, we announced that we were going to be selling. And I said, Okay, let's get back to work. What do we got? And I just got like, a screen full of dead faces. So it took a beat, and I re centered. And I said, Let's do three things really well. Let's look out for our customer, Let's look out for one another and let's go have fun. Well, so what I just heard, you set the tone, right? You reminded them. Yes. And then that gave them the space to be nerdy, brainy genius. Exactly. But without the handcuffs of stress. Exactly. Okay. I like that. I could do that. I could do that very well. That's what the business world needs now more than ever. We need natural leadership. We need great leadership and we need team leadership. Well, you know, when I think about my career and just kind of the unfolding, like I'm not a very strategic person, which I feel like is hurting me now as a business person. I have this insecurity about me because what made me so great as an athlete now as a business owner and founder and woman who really wants to literally change the game for the better, I feel so nervous and insecure about that. Guess what? I have the same exact I have the same exact thing. You don't need to be strategic. You don't need to be the other thing. For 20 years, I have tried to build systems to be more strategic. And every single time I have failed or it's led me in the wrong direction. Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is that my preparation, the same things that allowed me to be great, don't change that. Even if you don't get to the place that you want to get to as a team, from a win perspective, you might have won in a different way that you didn't really realize was the point. All right, coach. Hey, I feel like this is an unfair question. Are you centered? Got your stance? Okay. If you were me, where would you start? I'm just going to tell you the first thing that comes to mind. Please. Okay. Which is to be original. Yes. I think that so often we are all trying to be someone else, whether it's we're masquerading as the business people or masquerading as the, you know, the powerful person. You want to create like specific, unique and memorable inroads for people who love this sport. And it's okay if no one else has done it or they don't do it in another league. Name the league, right? Totally, yeah. The best thing about this is no one has succeeded in doing this yet. And that's actually a virtue. You know, it's that you show up and you said that you do things consistently and that you care and that you have intention. And so I would say like, take all of that, bottle it up and apply it to this problem and don't worry about being someone else. Don't worry about being like the other leagues. Don't worry about, don't even worry about the pitfalls of other leagues. I really believe that. It's so good to hear it out of your mouth. Because I feel from you what I spent many years feeling myself, which is that you're trying to do it the right way. This is amazing. You're in trouble. How much? Anytime we've been in a really stressful business situation, I'm not kidding. I'm like, okay. Okay. Here's what we're gonna do. And the team has like finally figured it out. And I call it like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon move. You know, I'm like, let's get ready. Let's get down. Let's get ready to do whatever we need to do. Hell yeah. And so I feel like that's, you know, that's what you're an athlete.