Snow kiting is the winter and land equivalent of kite surfing (which has been the hot new thing for some five years or so), and it looks insanely fun. Forbes video anchor Kym McNicholas got to go along last weekend, and posted this video report:

CRV partner Bill Tai (pictured) is well known in Silicon Valley as a kiting ambassador and enthusiast, and has been organizing such trips for the past four years, with the group size growing each time. Many of the invite-only Utah participants, including McNicholas, had been to previous editions in Maui, though many were snow kiting for the first time.

This year’s snow-kiting participants included Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Tango CTO Eric Setton, Twitter Director of Search and Geo Othman Laraki, Apple Engineering Director Andy Belk, Speechpad CEO Konstantin Othmer, Triggit COO Susan Coelius Keplinger and Threadsy founder Rob Goldman. Co-organizer and CRV partner Saar Gur said via email that CRV “picked friends and techies who bring an awesome attitude to try the sport.”

The trip seems to function as a marketing event for CRV and a fun boondoggle for everyone involved. One repeat participant told me the trip only increased his positive impressions of Charles River Ventures, but that it didn’t necessarily mean he would take its money. He did say he’d be less likely to go to events that made him pay to attend.

This week: We got all-access passes to Skype for an interview with Julia Hartz, co-founder and president of Eventbrite, the four-year-old Web-based ticketing service aiming to unseat the big guys.

Using the Eventbrite Web interface, organizers can set up ticket sales and publicize their events using social media tools. It’s a labor of love, too, as Julia shares the big office with co-founder and husband Kevin.

Who: Julia Hartz

What: President and co-founder

Why: Hartz said Eventbrite has cracked the code on merging business and the social graph. It enables event organizers to publish events online and sell tickets, then publish the events to Facebook. And if your event is free, so are Eventbrite services. Julia says it is democratizing the ticketing industry, but it can’t all be free. Eventbrite saw $100 million in ticket sales in 2009.

Where: eventbrite.com (Web site); @eventbrite (Twitter); San Francisco, Calif. (analog place)

Who else: Eventbrite services put it in competition with most of the ticket-selling world, especially Ticketmaster, which is now owned by Live Nation (LYV). But Hartz said most of the people using Eventbrite for the first time are switching from using spreadsheets.

Five Stats You Won’t Find in Her Facebook Profile

Worst Job Ever: I was an intern on the set of “Friends.” It was this awful experience taking place in this wondrous environment. There was a serious level of paranoia there. And basically, my job was to hold a phone and anytime it rang, I had to go find that person on the set. My second worst job was as a barista at The Ugly Mug in Santa Cruz. I would drink like three mochas and eat some pastries during my shift and then be depressed for the rest of the day.

Her Big Event of 2010: I’m really looking forward to Chirp, the upcoming Twitter conference. That and maybe F8, the Facebook conference.

Gadget of the Moment: My new iPad…just kidding. I guess just my Apple (AAPL) iPhone. We’re kind of a gadget family. Our two-year-old has a Pleo, because we can’t get a puppy in our place.

Wants to Be When She Grows Up: I want to be a great mom.

Fails At: Being a working mom and running the start-up. I feel like I’m never doing 100 percent in either. I feel 80 percent in everything. Kevin would say I fail at taking big risks–stuff like skydiving or petting a spider at the children’s museum.

Bio in 140 Characters

Hartz grew up in Santa Cruz. She went to Pepperdine for a degree in being a TV exec. She was at MTV, FX, then left for the start-up world.

The Five Questions

You started Eventbrite in 2006–why this and why then?

Well, I’ll just be honest; it had a lot to do with logistics. I’d just moved up here and Kevin and I had just gotten engaged. I was about to go to Current TV and didn’t know if that was the right move. We got to talking about all the events we heard about after the fact, and all the event “postcards” we got on our car windshields. There was little to no innovation in the events market. Unless you were using Ticketmaster, you really had no access to tools and technology that could help you as a smaller events planner. Also, Kevin was very close to PayPal, so we were looking at what we could do based on the PayPal API. The transaction is where it began.

So, you and Kevin have sort of made Eventbrite your baby. How does being a start-up couple change things?

Well, in working with somebody you know quite well, we sort of divide and conquer. We sort of have our own areas of the business that we strive to excel in, and we try to support each other. We received some really great advice early on from Michael and Xochi Birch, who co-founded Bebo. When we asked them how they worked together, they said divide and conquer–don’t work on anything together. That’s sorta what we do. And we do really well on a day-to-day basis. But if you get us behind the same spreadsheet, we’ll definitely be fighting for the mouse.

What sorts of mistakes have you guys made doing this?

I think we’ve been pretty good on avoiding most big mistakes, but I do think we’ve been too focused on making decisions around customer reactions…that sounds a little weird. Let me give you an example. So, we were a free service early on, then we were freemium. The problem was that our basic service was so robust that our premium service was only a little better. We were toying with the idea of going all paid for too long. When we finally bit the bullet and did it, we had very little decrease in use. We think it’s because event organizers don’t have to make an additional choice now about which service to use. The cost just scales with the ticket price. We just took too long to make the decision, I think.

You guys are building a pretty interesting picture of who attends what events. Are you planning to tread further into the social graph and begin recommending events to people based on past attendance?

Yes. We see that to be something that’s very exciting, but we want to do it in the right way. Hyper-relevancy is key to us, so, um, I can’t say how we’ll do it, but when we do it, we’ll definitely take into account what’s out there right now and try to innovate on that. I’d say that will happen in the broad window of the next two years.

What are your major moves going to be in 2010?

How about this? How about the fact that in five years, Eventbrite will be the only place that you will ever go to buy a ticket for any event that you would ever attend. I truly believe that, and I can actually see how we’ll get there. We are a smaller business and can move quite quickly. We don’t have a bullseye in your office with the Ticketmaster logo in the middle. We aren’t a Ticketmaster killer, but we see our model as becoming the status quo for all ticketing.

The In Living Color Interview

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100216/almost-famous-julia-hartz-of-eventbrite/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081211/lady-blog-network-blogher-gives-partners-a-pay-cut/ http://allthingsd.com/20081211/lady-blog-network-blogher-gives-partners-a-pay-cut/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:03:53 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=1989 BlogHer, a women’s ad network/publishing network and conference organizer, is cutting the amount it pays to its blog partners by 10 percent. That’s really sort of a double cut, since the blog owners/writers in its network get paid based on the ads BlogHer can sell, and ads are already under pressure.

The only real surprise here is that the BlogHer founders–Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins–don’t blame the economy for the cuts. Rather, they say that they have to reduce payments because they’re so successful:

When BlogHer’s network was created in 2006, we began with 35 blogs, a few advertisers and a small number of staff members to sell and manage the entire network. Today, BlogHer’s network is more than 2,500 blogs strong, and we’re working with dozens of advertisers each quarter. We have had to grow our technology infrastructure and staff dramatically to keep pace with network growth. Because many of these costs are fixed, expanding our network to compete for Fortune 500 advertisers has been a major investment.”

BlogHer was founded in 2005, and has received funding from Venrock, the Rockefeller family’s VC arm, and Peacock Equity, the JV between GE’s (GE) NBC and GE Commercial Finance.

Here’s the full text of the email from the BlogHer founders to their blog partners:

December 10, 2008
Hi everyone,

This is a long letter, but an important one, so thank you for your attention during this busy time of year. We’re writing to share with you:

* One change that BlogHerAds is making to our contract terms with you, effective January 1, 2009. This change will require your agreement, and instructions will be provided on how to indicate your agreement.

* One change in our payment processes, also effective January 1, 2009

* One new benefit: A new way to receive your payments online, immediately available to all members

This letter explains what the changes are, and how they will affect you.

In the past year, BlogHer expanded and competed for more advertising dollars for your blogs. The good news is that we successfully grew our business in the worst economy in the nation’s history. However, because of the current climate, we need to make some changes so that BlogHer can continue to invest in the resources necessary to recruit the very best advertising for your blogs.

* Contract Change -Your revenue share percentage

When BlogHer’s network was created in 2006, we began with 35 blogs, a few advertisers and a small number of staff members to sell and manage the entire network. Today, BlogHer’s network is more than 2,500 blogs strong, and we’re working with dozens of advertisers each quarter. We have had to grow our technology infrastructure and staff dramatically to keep pace with network growth. Because many of these costs are fixed, expanding our network to compete for Fortune 500 advertisers has been a major investment.

Currently, you get a revenue share of 100 percent of gross advertising fees received by BlogHer. Effective January 1, 2009, we will apply your revenue share to 90 percent of gross advertising fees, thus reducing your revenue share by 10 percent. To document this change, we need to amend the first sentence of Section III.A.3 of our Agreement to read:

For the purposes of this Agreement, the term “Revenue” means the gross fees actually received by BlogHer for Advertising Impressions originating from the Advertising on Partner’s Blog, less an administrative fee equal to ten percent (10%) of the Gross Fees to cover sales commissions, costs associated with serving the advertisements, administrative third party fees, campaign referral fees and other miscellaneous administrative expenses.

Here’s what the difference will mean to individual bloggers:
Currently, on a $10 CPM, a network blogger earns $5 per 1,000 impressions if the number of impressions on the blogger’s site is equal to less than one million. With a 10% deduction from gross revenue to cover our operating costs, a network blogger will now earn 50% of $9.00, or $4.50 per 1,000 impressions. (As always, BlogHer will not take a revenue share on BlogHer house ads or on remnant inventory – 100% of that total revenue will still go directly to you.)

While we have needed to make this change for some time, we held off for as long as possible. We are acting now in order to continue aggressively pursuing new revenue for you and your sites.

What we are asking you to do now:

We have added a section to your BlogHerAds profile with a summary of this change. Please visit your BlogHerAds profile and check the box indicating that you accept these changes to your contract by December 19, 2008. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via our help desk form.

This is an opt-in contract change, so you must indicate your acceptance of these terms. If you do not visit your profile and accept these terms, we will have to suspend ads on your site, starting January 1, 2009, until acceptance is received.

Please accept these changes now by logging into your profile at
https://www.blogherads.com/user/login and clicking the Accept Terms of Service box.

* Payment Process Change – Net 45-days payment terms for each month’s payment of your revenue share

Our contract with you currently allows us to pay your revenue share 45 days from the date we receive payment from our advertisers. We’ve actually been paying you much sooner than we receive payment! BlogHer has consistently sent payments within 30 days following the close of each month for that month’s revenue. As we have scaled in number of both bloggers and advertisers on the network, we need to extend our payment schedule to 45 days from each month’s close, rather than 30 days. This is a more realistic schedule and will allow us to continue to scale, while continuing to get your payment to you more quickly and efficiently than paying you 45 days after we receive payment.

To effect this change, there will be a one-time 45-day gap between your payment for November’s revenue and your payment for December’s revenue. Subsequent to that you will continue to receive a check every 30 days, by the 15th of each month.

Here’s how your payment schedule will look:
Your revenue share for December 2008, which would normally have been received by January 31, 2009, will now be received by February 15, 2009. Going forward, you will continue to receive a check on the 15th of each month for the calendar month prior to the immediately preceding month (as long as you’ve earned or accrued at least $25 by the end of that calendar month.)

Near-term schedule:
November 08 revenue will be paid December 30th
December 08 revenue will be paid February 15th
January 09 revenue will be paid March 15th
February 09 revenue will be paid April 15th
March 09 revenue will be paid May 15th

* New Benefit (optional) – switching from paper checks to electronic payments

Many of you have asked about receiving ad revenue shares via electronic payments. Effective January 1st, BlogHer is making it possible for all members, domestic and international, to select PayPal as a payment option. We have switched to using Mass PayPal, which has the following benefits:

* No charge to you. BlogHer covers the entire surcharge for using Mass PayPal

* Using PayPal eliminates paper checks, and any inefficiencies with the U.S. Postal Service or if you should move physical addresses

If you are interested in switching to PayPal, you may choose the PayPal option of payment, along with entering your PayPal email address, by logging into your profile and going to Your account > Edit > About You, and selecting either check or PayPal under the Payment Preference header.

This change is optional and offered as a service to our bloggers. We hope it is good news to many of you! Please let us know if you have any questions about PayPal payment of your BlogHer Network revenue share.

As 2008 comes to an end, we are thankful for our partnership with each of you and proud of the pioneering publishing network for writers that we are building together. We and the entire BlogHer team will be working very hard to make 2009 a year of continued growth.

Best,

Elisa, Jory and Lisa

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