Eventbrite is the world's number one online ticket provider. We had the opportunity to talk with founder Renaud Visage about his company, collaborations with other startups, and his perspective on the German, and especially Munich, startup scene.
Hello Renaud, please introduce yourself briefly for anyone who doesn’t know you yet!
Hi, I'm Renaud Visage. Eleven years ago, I the world's leading ticketing provider Eventbrite co-founded. As CTO, I oversee our technological development and infrastructure. In my free time, I enjoy traveling the world, exploring new cultures, and pursuing my passion as a photographer.
“We are not constantly looking for the exit”
How do you handle funding at Eventbrite?
So far, we've raised around $200 million from venture capitalists. We've handled our investors' money very responsibly. Everyone who wants to build a sustainable company should do the same. For us, sustainability means: We want to become the world's largest marketplace for events, and we're not constantly eyeing a possible exit. While we definitely want to go public, this is just another step toward our long-term goal.
© Eventbrite
More business sense in Munich
How do you perceive the startup scene in Germany and especially in Munich?
The German startup ecosystem has grown enormously over the past ten years and, in my opinion, is one of the top networks in Europe. The scene here has matured comparatively quickly and is now at least on par with communities in other European countries. My co-founders and I have followed this process closely. Currently, Berlin is the main focus in Germany. I find that unfair, especially because many Berlin startups are struggling to become profitable. Munich startups seem to have a stronger business sense in this regard; the global tech industry should pay more attention to them.
You want to increase your presence in Munich. What motivated you to do this, and what do you hope to achieve with this location?
Munich is one of the hubs of the German event industry. We have been a ticketing partner of Bits & Pretzels, and have accompanied its development into one of the most exciting tech conferences in Germany. Last year, we also ticketed Internet World Business for the first time, and this year we're doing the Holi Festival of Colors again, and now also Isle of Summer. And in addition to these larger events, we currently offer tickets for over 450 events in Munich. This already provides a solid foundation, and it demonstrates the need for innovative ticketing in the state capital. We now want to build on this.
You also have a base in Berlin: What do you see as the biggest differences between the German capital and the Bavarian capital?
Through the "Eventbrite lens," our penetration of the event market in Berlin is much higher than in Munich. Currently (January 2017), there are more than twice as many events on Eventbrite in Berlin (over a thousand) than in Munich. We want to balance this out. And more generally, we notice the difference between the two startup cultures. Berlin startups often focus on consumers, while Munich startups tend to focus on offerings for businesses, such as Shore, Celonis or Magazine.
How does the US scene view Germany?
Germany is a must for any US company that wants to succeed in Europe. If you can gain a foothold in a market as specialized as Germany—which presents its own challenges—you can usually succeed in the rest of Europe as well. This applies to heavyweights like Amazon, McDonald's, and Google, as well as to US companies in the creative and digital sectors. It's no coincidence that Germany was one of our first launch markets in Europe.
Close relationships with other startups
What do you think the German startup scene is still missing?
A greater awareness of profitability and the willingness to build a company beyond a profitable exit. Furthermore, there are too few investors willing to provide financial support for a longer launch pad. Our own investors have been on board for several years now, and this is precisely the kind of commitment that helps startups become global players.
Does Eventbrite now also work with startups? If so, to what extent?
We maintain close relationships with many startups in the events sector and have integrations with over 150 partner companies such as Mailchimp, WordPress, and Salesforce, as well as European companies such as Eventkingdom, Boomset, and Cleverreach. Many companies also use our open APIs to list events in their region in their online offerings, for example.
For one thing, this approach helps us focus our development work on our core competencies; there are so many sub-areas and secondary services that we could develop and offer ourselves, but specialized providers are usually better at it, and we would dedicate too many resources to them that we would lack for our main product.
This is also better for our customers: With Eventbrite, they get the best ticketing and event technologies and can link their Eventbrite profile with their favorite services for email marketing, CRM, surveys, invitations, etc. via our partner program.
