Kevin Hartz Launches A* Capital After Building Eventbrite and Other Tech Companies
Kevin Hartz Launches A* Capital After Building Eventbrite and Other Tech Companies
Kevin Hartz, who co-founded Eventbrite and ran a payments company called Xoom, has started a new investment firm called A* Capital. He spent years building technology companies and working as an investor, and now he's putting capital behind new founders.
According to SEC records, Hartz worked at an investment firm called Founders Fund from 2005 to 2016, where he helped evaluate and invest in new companies. More recently, he created A* Capital, which operates as a venture capital fund — essentially a pool of money used to invest in early-stage companies in exchange for a stake in their future success.
How Hartz Got Into Technology
Hartz studied at the University of Oxford and started his career as a research assistant at an eye research institute. He didn't begin in technology — he stumbled into it.
His first significant business was Xoom, a company that helped people send money across borders to family and friends. That business eventually sold, and the money transfer space became crowded with competitors.
Along the way, Hartz made an early investment in a company called Fieldlink. That company later changed its name to PayPal, which became one of the world's largest digital payment systems. Being an early investor in PayPal put him close to the emerging world of online payments.
Building Eventbrite
Hartz and his wife, Julia Hartz, started Eventbrite together. The company built software that helps people organize events — from small local concerts to large conferences. It handles ticket sales and event discovery online.
Eventbrite became large enough to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker: EB), which means it is now a publicly traded company. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company adapted when live events shut down, shifting its tools to support virtual and hybrid events instead.
SEC filings show Hartz remains the chairman of Eventbrite's board of directors.
Years at Founders Fund
From 2005 to 2016, Hartz held a special role at Founders Fund, a well-known investment firm. He was both a partner (someone who helps decide which companies to invest in) and an "entrepreneur in residence" (a founder who stayed involved with the fund while keeping options open to start another company).
During those ten years, Founders Fund invested in companies like Facebook and SpaceX. Working there gave Hartz experience in how institutional investors think, and exposure to how different technology platforms grow from small startups to enormous companies.
A* Capital Arrives
A* Capital is Hartz's independent investment platform. The structure uses a common venture capital setup, where the firm raises money from wealthy individuals and institutions, then invests it in early-stage companies in exchange for ownership stakes.
The name — using an asterisk, a symbol from mathematics — hints at the idea of optimal solutions, though the firm has not disclosed its specific investment focus in public documents.
What This Means
The trend of successful founders becoming investors is not new, but it has grown stronger in recent years. When someone like Hartz moves into venture capital, they bring pattern recognition from their own experience. Because he spent decades in payments, events, and digital platforms, he can spot similar opportunities in other industries before other investors might see them.
What is notable here is that venture capital is shifting. Instead of only hiring professional investors who studied business, more investment firms are now led by people who actually built companies themselves. These operator-led funds can offer portfolio companies something beyond just money — they offer advice from someone who has navigated the same challenges before.
Hartz's track record spanning public companies, institutional investing, and early-stage success puts A* Capital in position to compete with more traditional investment firms. The combination of his network, experience, and capital gives the fund multiple ways to help founders beyond simply writing checks.
