Bending Spoons

The Eventbrite Story | Julia & Kevin Hartz

Jul 5, 2026 · 49:55

Julia and Kevin Hartz, the husband-wife co-founders of Eventbrite, recount building the world's second-largest events marketplace from a windowless phone closet with dog beds for naps, bootstrapping until product market fit emerged from tech meetups and spread organically across categories. They describe Kevin handing the CEO reins to Julia in 2016 after 10 years, the challenging integration of Tickerfly after its acquisition, and the COVID moment when revenue went negative within 14 days, prompting rapid refunds and credits that saved the company. The Hartzes also explain the sale to Bending Spoons for long-term stewardship, Kevin's $450M third fund at A* Star capital, and their joint venture Sauron, a home security business with Atomic.

Why We Sold To Grammarly | Rahul Vohra

Jun 21, 2026 · 1:01:18

Rahul Vohra, founder of Superhuman and now CEO of Superhuman Group after the company's acquisition by Grammarly, argues that email remains the most enduring layer of work identity and that AI will radically transform the inbox experience while distribution and taste-driven focus are the lasting moats in an era of near-zero software costs. He explains that email addresses are owned by companies and serve as the root identity and authentication unit, with professionals spending 3 billion hours daily on email. Voice features like Right With Voice on mobile now drive 30% of usage gains, and the 'Sent via Superhuman' signature still generates 20% of site traffic. The acquisition story reveals that Grammarly independently chose the Superhuman name via a branding agency, leading to the rare rebrand of the acquirer. Superhuman Group operates as a multi-product bundle ($15/$30 per month) spanning email, documents (Coder), writing agents (Grammarly), and proactive AI (Superhuman Go), with priorities on M&A to fill missing categories like chat. Vohra also angel-invests via Todd and Rahul Capital, backing companies like Loyal (which received FDA efficacy approval for a dog lifespan drug) and…