"Kevin Hartz tends to be first through the door. In 2001, he co-founded Xoom, back when sending money across borders meant standing in line at Western Union. In 2013, it went public, and in 2015, PayPal paid $1.1 billion for it. Four years after launching Xoom, he co-founded Eventbrite, which went public in 2018 and turned buying event tickets into something you could do without wanting to throw your laptop in the ocean."
"After a stint at Founders Fund, Hartz co-founded his own venture firm, A* Capital (a nod to a computer science algorithm), then in 2020, he spotted another trend before the masses: the SPAC boom. His blank-check company, "one," swallowed up 3D printing outfit Markforged in a $2.1 billion reverse merger in 2021, right as every other financier in Silicon Valley suddenly decided SPACs were the future."
"Now Hartz is onto his next thing - teenage founders, not as a social experiment but as an unplanned investment thesis. His firm recently cut a check to Aaru, an AI-powered prediction engine with one founder who was too young to get his driver's license at the time. Hartz is not alone in this by any stretch. The dropout-and-build movement, made most famous by founders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, is becoming a standard lifestyle choice."
Kevin Hartz built and exited major startups including Xoom and Eventbrite before forming A* Capital. He leveraged market trends, participating in the SPAC wave with his blank-check company "one" and a $2.1 billion reverse merger for Markforged. Hartz now targets teenage founders, investing in startups like Aaru led by founders too young for a driver's license. The dropout-and-build movement has grown from rare examples into a common path for ambitious young people. Programs and accelerators now support technically skilled young founders with grants and short accelerators, and many startup communities include large numbers of people without college degrees.
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