The GUILD Meets Eventbrite

Lessons from an Entrepreneurship-in-Residence

One crucial quality in any entrepreneur is resourcefulness.

At the GUILD, a young startup that offers a networking service for professional women to connect one-to-one with other women nearby, we don’t just inject resourcefulness into our product. We live and breathe it every day.

When Felicia Terwillinger came to share a glass of champagne with the GUILD and suggested a short-term partnership growth gig, we shook hands then and there. Felicia is a dynamo when it comes to making connections and bringing people together. Within a month, she had communicated the GUILD’s values to her network of like-minded companies and closed one partnership after the next.

Huddled up in December in a cozy “living room” in a co-working space in San Francisco’s Financial District with a cup of mulled wine in our hands (yes, this is a pattern), we asked ourselves where we would congregate following our two-month residence at the Argent Accelerator. Now, maybe it was the wine talking, but we like to dream big. One of us then proposed a wild idea, and someone else said, “It can’t hurt to ask. What do we have to lose?!”

So, come January, we found ourselves at the reception desk of Eventbrite, ready to start our month as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. We had been invited to share the beautiful and bountiful office space of a company that embodies the Silicon Valley fairy tale.

Founded in 2006 by Kevin and Julia Hartz, Eventbrite has grown into the world’s leading event technology platform, hosting millions of events each year in 180 countries. With more than 600 employees around the globe, the company has been the recipient of numerous awards, including being named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Workplaces for Women.

To give you a first-hand feel of what it’s like to join a woman-focused startup in San Francisco, we asked our marketing intern Emma Sandrolini (a soon-to-be graduate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of San Francisco) to describe her experience at Eventbrite.

Knowing that every company starts somewhere, it seemed fitting my time at the GUILD would begin at Eventbrite, a company that has experienced tremendous growth over the past decade. I was early that Tuesday morning, so I pulled out my phone to pass the time, only to be welcomed by two very friendly “Britelings,” Claudia and Jesse. The flowing conversation eased me into my office for the next month. Within the first few minutes of my first day, I had made connections with two bright and passionate women who seemed to personify the GUILD’s mission of building stronger networks between women.

My team soon arrived, and we were off for a Cribs-like tour of the “Briteland.” It quickly became clear that it would be hard to leave this amazing workspace. Smoothie bar, anyone?

Walking through the different divisions of the office, I saw women leading and laughing, and encountered devoted, diverse, and engaged employees who genuinely enjoy what they do. The culture was refreshing. And I found that the GUILD and Eventbrite have similar goals: to provide a service that improves people’s lives by facilitating connections.

Posted around the walls of Eventbrite, words such as “Customer Centric”, “Innovate” and “Curiosity” were constant and uplifting reminders of the GUILD’s values. Just walking into the kitchen to grab a midday coffee, I overheard meaningful conversation instead of the standard weather chat. I saw people smile, collaborate, and ask each other questions. I witnessed a company that leads by example.

Now that our time at Eventbrite has come to a close, I truly believe that you become what you surround yourself with. As a marketing intern, I spent a lot of time working on communications for our second big event, CauseConnect. Our event was a huge success, and I attribute that accomplishment to our time working at what has grown into the world’s leading event technology platform.

The experience was an inspiration for the GUILD team and will guide our culture moving forward as we conquer the startup world.

We’d like to thank both the company and the kind people of Eventbrite for your hospitality, for letting us occupy your nicest conference room and scribble on your whiteboards, and for sending us so many user testers! We hope we contributed to your open-minded culture and helped to keep you nimble and resourceful.

A big thanks also to GUILD member Felicia Terwilliger, for the crazy idea that became reality, for the connection, and for making our Entrepreneurship-in-Residence at Eventbrite happen! And the GUILD is still on the move. We’ve just been offered a new home on the Embarcadero, just down the street from the elite social club, The Battery.

Launching and growing the GUILD is teaching us how essential it is to connect with women, and every time we take up another residency, we learn from our host company and increase our circle of powerful women.