Crisis Re-Founding Reset
Use a severe disruption to rebuild the company around its strongest core.
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 95%
The reset begins by stabilizing people and restoring the ability to operate under crisis conditions. Leaders then stop asking only how to preserve the existing company and instead ask what they would build if starting over under current realities. That question reveals the channels, customers, and economics worth preserving. Eventbrite identified its faster-growing, higher-margin self-sign-on channel as its core, narrowed the organization around it, and removed costs in service of that strategy rather than cutting evenly. The company then secured financing and followed customer behavior toward online events and Zoom integration. The mechanism converts disruption into focus: a changed environment supplies new constraints, those constraints force explicit choices, and the resulting smaller operating model creates the speed and financial capacity to pursue the emerging market.
Origin
Julia Hartz described the approach Eventbrite used after COVID-19 drove gross ticket sales from billions annually to zero and briefly negative in March 2020.
Core principles
- 01Protect people and establish operating continuity first.
- 02Design for the company you would build today, not the one that existed yesterday.
- 03Narrow focus before cutting costs.
- 04Preserve the strongest channel, customer, and economic model.
- 05Move fast enough to regain strategic options.
- 06Treat crisis adaptation as preparation for the next market, not temporary survival.
How to run it
- 1
Stabilize the people system
Address immediate safety and operating-continuity needs before attempting strategic redesign. Ensure the team can work and communicate under the new conditions.
Pro tip Seek advice from leaders already experiencing the operational change at scale.
Watch out A strategy cannot be executed by a team still dealing with unresolved basic disruption.
- 2
Ask the re-founding question
Ask what the company would do if it could start over in the current environment. Use the answer to escape assumptions embedded in the old operating plan.
Pro tip Frame the question around the future company, not merely surviving the present quarter.
Watch out Trying to preserve every pre-crisis activity prevents meaningful focus.
- 3
Find the strongest core
Compare channels and activities using growth, margin, customer behavior, and operating complexity. Select the core capable of supporting the rebuilt company.
Pro tip Favor evidence from actual platform behavior over historical organizational importance.
Watch out Revenue size alone may favor a high-touch channel with weak economics.
- 4
Cut toward the strategy
Remove activities, costs, and roles that do not support the selected core. Make the organizational design express the new strategic choice.
Pro tip Explain what the company is focusing on, not only what it is eliminating.
Watch out Uniform percentage cuts preserve complexity and weaken every priority equally.
- 5
Secure transition capacity
Raise or preserve enough capital to survive the disruption and invest in the renewed direction. Move quickly while financing options remain available.
Pro tip Pair financing with a credible reduction in operating expenses and a defined strategic focus.
Watch out Capital without discipline can recreate the inefficiency the reset was meant to remove.
- 6
Follow adaptive customers
Observe how frequent and resilient customers modify their behavior. Prioritize products and integrations that help those customers move into the changed environment.
Pro tip Watch search terms and platform activity for emerging demand before relying on surveys.
Watch out Do not confuse a temporary workaround with a durable customer shift without supporting evidence.
- 7
Build for the next market
Use the focused team to improve the core platform and prepare customers for multiple future scenarios. Measure progress by strategic strength, not restoration of the old company.
Pro tip Treat the crisis as a new starting line with a different competitive landscape.
Watch out Waiting for the former market to return can surrender the emerging one to faster competitors.
In the wild
After live ticket sales collapsed, Eventbrite moved its workforce home, reduced the company by 45%, removed more than $100 million in operating expenses, and centered the business on its faster-growing self-sign-on channel. It raised additional financing and followed creators moving online, including launching a native Zoom integration.
→ The company gained liquidity, a narrower strategy, and the capacity to support creators through a transformed events market.
A restaurant-management vendor loses most enterprise deployments during a prolonged industry shutdown. Instead of preserving every service line, it identifies self-service ordering as its fastest-growing, highest-margin channel, reorganizes around that product, secures transition financing, and builds integrations requested by surviving customers.
→ A smaller operation emerges with clearer economics and a product suited to the changed market.
Common mistakes
Cutting without choosing
Cost reduction that is not anchored to a future operating model leaves a smaller but equally unfocused company.
Planning only for survival
A plan that ends when the crisis ends misses the opportunity to build for permanent changes in customer behavior.
Protecting historical complexity
Treating every legacy channel and initiative as essential prevents the organization from concentrating resources on its strongest core.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for leadership teams facing a structural revenue collapse that invalidates major parts of the existing operating plan.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for ordinary quarterly underperformance that can be corrected without redesigning the company's strategic core.
From the transcript
“not a strategy of how are we going to get through this crisis, as much as what would we do if we could do it…”
“We couldn't be doing everything we were we were doing pre-COVID in the middle of this crisis and still make it through.”
“And it was a cut that we made not just for cost cutting sake, but actually to prepare the company to narrow its focus.”
From the episode
Eventbrite (with Julia & Kevin Hartz)
Kevin Hartz