Early-stage venture capital firm Benchmark announced the appointment of Chris Tsakalakis as its newest Entrepreneur-In-Residence. Tsakalakis, who served as president of StubHub after leading eBay‘s acquisition of the company, plans to pursue new opportunities in e-commerce, marketplaces and health tech.
Prior to joining Benchmark, Tsakalakis served for nearly eight years as President of StubHub, the world’s largest online ticket marketplace. He came to StubHub after leading eBay’s acquisition of the company in 2007.
In 2014 StubHub made major changes to its business models, including shedding 100 jobs and closing many of its regional box offices. Not soon after those changes Tsakalakis left the company.
Many industry insiders said they weren’t surprised to see Tsakalakis’ exit. Throughout the prior year, Tsakalakis and StubHub had several major missteps, including its “All In Pricing”, where he misjudged analytical evidence about the negative effect that service fees had on sales. StubHub dropped the “All In Pricing” model after his departure. News magazine Amplify, in a story on the departure, explained that “It wasn’t that we weren’t making money,” said one former high-level executive. “It was that the company needed to change and there was no clear vision. There was no leadership to get StubHub to where it wanted to be — the destination website and brand for all things entertainment.”
In his new role, Tsakalakis plans to explore new business opportunities in the areas of e-commerce, marketplaces and health tech.
