On Wednesday, ticket marketplace StubHub made its stock market debut. Despite closing 6% below its initial offering price of $23.50—giving the company a valuation exceeding $7 billion—this step into the public eye is a tribute to the co-founder’s long-standing determination.
Eric Baker, who is now StubHub’s CEO, started the business together with Jeff Fluhr in 2000, while both were students at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Even though this was just after the collapse of the dotcom bubble and the NASDAQ downturn, they refused to quit.
“Many of the less capable competitors disappeared, and those of us who remained got a genuine shot at establishing a stable, enduring company after that downward cycle,” Baker recalled during a 2022 podcast by Bessemer Venture Partners.
After a few years of progress, the company was expanding, but Baker and Fluhr disagreed on its future direction. In 2004, Baker was removed from the business.
The following year, Baker moved to London and launched Viagogo, which became an equivalent to StubHub for the European market. Growing Viagogo came with many hurdles, but he always hoped to unite it with StubHub, as he mentioned in the podcast.
In 2019, after eBay chose to divest StubHub—which it had acquired in 2007—Baker acted quickly. With financial support from investors like WestCap, Madrone Capital Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners, he bought back the company for $4.05 billion.
Shortly after the acquisition, the COVID-19 outbreak struck. Live events were called off and global lockdowns began, causing StubHub’s revenues to plummet.
StubHub managed to survive, and as in-person events returned, their ticket sales surged, fueled by blockbuster happenings such as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, and the Super Bowl.
In the first three months of 2025, StubHub’s revenue rose by 10%, reaching $397.6 million compared to the same period a year earlier.
“Looking back over our progress, I am truly impressed by the distance we’ve traveled,” Baker wrote in his founder’s letter for the S-1 filing, as he approached the long-awaited public offering. “We have overcome countless obstacles, including the exceptional disruption of COVID-19, which forced a full stop to live events in 2020.”
The S1 filing shows Baker holds a 4.7% stake in the business, while Madrone Partners, WestCap, and Bessemer Venture Partners own 24.5%, 12.3%, and 8.8% respectively.
