Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A professional female volleyball league raises $35 million, Japanese writer Chizuko Ueno is reviving women’s rights discussions in China, and Eventbrite’s CEO is powering in-person gatherings for creators smaller than the Eras Tour.
– A new era. It’s impossible for Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz to get through an interview without being asked about Taylor Swift. As the CEO of a live events platform, Hartz is often asked to comment on rival ticketing platform Ticketmaster and the Taylor Swift ticket sales mess that led to Congressional intervention.
But, as Hartz says in the most recent episode of Fortune‘s podcast Leadership Next, Eventbrite is focused on powering in-person gatherings a few magnitudes smaller than the Eras Tour.
“These aren’t Taylor Swift-sized creators who are putting on something that’s a machine,” Hartz says of the people who run events through Eventbrite. “These are local businesses and entrepreneurs that are trying to find product-market fit between their community and content they’re producing.”
In 2022, Eventbrite creators put on 5 million events with 284 million tickets sold in 180 countries. Ninety million people bought tickets through the platform, where the average ticket price was $40 and the average ticket fee was less than 10%.
Rather than once-in-a-lifetime special events (like the Eras Tour is for many ticket-buyers), Eventbrite events are part of everyday life. “We ticket the things that are happening during the week for you—that are happening all the time,” Hartz explains.
Still, the summer of Swift (and resulting Ticketmaster criticism) offers a few lessons for rival platforms. “Getting back out to being in community with people who love the things you love…and having it be so inaccessible—it’s insulting and it’s injuring to consumers,” Hartz says.
To help consumers, the 17-year-old platform is turning to AI. Eventbrite plans to use the technology to show consumers what events they would be interested in attending; “searching and browsing and discovering is going to be obsolete” in three years, Hartz says.
You can listen to Hartz’s full interview on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
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- Pressing pause. A panel of federal appellate judges temporarily blocked the venture capital firm Fearless Fund from awarding grants to Black women. The Saturday decision reverses a decision last week that allowed the fund, targeted by anti-affirmative action Edward Blum, to move forward with its grant program. Washington Post
- Pull up a seat. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reportedly chosen EMILY's List president Laphonza Butler to fill late Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat for the remainder of its term. Politico
- Investments spiked. League One Volleyball, the group setting up a new professional women's volleyball league, just raised $35 million in funding from big-name investors including comedians Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler, snowboarder Lindsey Vonn, and WNBA player Candace Parker. Axios
- Turning a page. Japanese writer Chizuko Ueno is garnering unexpected attention in China with books that center on women’s issues that the country's conservative ideology have long overlooked. Her books sold more than half a million copies in the first half of this year, ranging from broad discussions of misogyny to feminist approaches to elder care. Fortune
- Then there were none. Sydbank A/S CEO Karen Frosig, the first woman to enter the Danish bank's executive ranks and the only female head of any bank in Denmark, announced that she will step down next year. Frisog was initially hesitant about forced gender quotas among Denmark’s lenders, but is now calling for the implementation of necessary diversity efforts. Bloomberg
- Gobbled up. Meal kit delivery company Blue Apron, run by Etsy and Alibaba veteran Linda Findley, agreed to be acquired by fellow food delivery startup, Marc Lore's Wonder. Blue Apron was struggling when Findley took over and failed to generate momentum through the pandemic and supply chain issues. Wall Street Journal
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How Sara Reardon became the 'vagina whisperer' Time
The 24-year-old who outsold Oprah this week The Atlantic
Ice Spice's red-hot rise Variety
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"It was hard for me to do what I’m told, but I also never had any desire to be a director or be behind the scenes in that industry at all. I feel like I was always tugging a little at the constraints of it."
—Gwyneth Paltrow on the limits of acting—and what appealed to her about entrepreneurship, with Goop
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