On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. For the person listening, that's left, dude. I don't necessarily have that fulfillment of what you are, like, the love, the passion. I'm just doing it because it makes me money, or I'm doing it this for 3 years, and then I'm selling Is there a layer to passion that person, whether they haven't achieved that level of success, what can they glean from this passion that you're expressing?
You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz, featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the reel of the reel, on what it takes to build a assess and how you too can get there.
Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and kings like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast today. I've got Chris McCarthy here on the king stage. My bearded brother from another mother. How are we doing? I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me here today. Respect the beard.
Gotta gotta show up for the beard for sure. Yeah. Mad, mad respect. From from the screen, I can kinda see yours as a got a reddish tint. Is that right? Yeah. I gotta got the gentry look going on all the time, and I got a few white ones coming in here, but I think that's just because of the business, but it's all good. It's wisdom. They tell me it's wisdom I'm starting to get them into. And I'm not sure what to think about them, but they say it's wisdom. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know.
Like, I guess he just gotta embrace it. Right? Yeah. That's right. Chris, I'm so thankful that you're here. Spend some time with us. What kind of business do you have? So we and my co founder and I, we cofounded a sports tech startup. So we work with professional sports teams to help them increase their sponsorship sales and their fan engagement with their partners. Wow. That is that is a succinct answer. What's up?
In inside of that, I wanna know, like, the story and how you got there, but my first question is always the same. There's a for every successful person that I've met. There is a burning desire. And I wanna know what's deep inside of Chris that just can't be quinched. What is that? Yeah. I just like, I think back, like, to an early age, like, I feel like I always had, like, an entrepreneurial flair in university. I started, like, a delivery business on campus.
And, you know, I I was featured in the newspaper and everything, and that was, like, my first kind of, like, Forte and Tall partnership. But I took business admin. One of my classes was entrepreneurship, and I just fell in love with the idea of being able to, like, you know, make your own schedule and just the freedom that a founder and entrepreneur can give you. So I have a really unique story.
I played professional hockey, ended up, like, transitioning into the front office, and then came across a pain point naturally while I was working with my my now cofounder, and we found a pain point that a lot of other teams in professional sports had So we made the decision to make the jump. And I just think, like, I I was always kind of in the back of my mind looking for an opportunity and do something and make a difference in the world and put my stamp and leave a legacy.
And that was, like, part of the reason why, and I'm also, like, a huge sports fan, like, growing up here in Canada and, you know, being a hockey player. And to be able to work in professional sports has always been a dream of mine, but to work with dozens or not. It's not 100 of professional sports team for me. It's just like a dream come true. So I love what you do. Do what you love. Love what you do. I truly believe that.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I I could see that coming through, you know, and some of the, you know, rather cliche things that you've said that I've I've said myself, that that the listener might be hearing you say those things and go, well, you know, but I would challenge to say that the kind of the cliche is is pretty right. It's like it's cliche for a reason. And so for you, for your for your history here, like, there's a stamp. There's a legacy.
Like, you said, like, just you were just kinda rolling there for a minute. I was feeling it. But what is that meant for Chris? Okay. So you're you get to work inside of professional, sports. I can see that being a dream of yours being a professional athlete yourself. Like, okay. I see that. The like, has that changed? Has that developed for you over time? Did you are did you always know that? If that's the dream and you're living it now, is there anything else?
Like, give us a little bit of picture there. Yeah. No. I think the dream growing up here in Canada being, like, a huge, like, you know, hockey. It's culture. Right? So, like, my dream was always to play in the NHL. Like, a lot of Canadians growing up. I had a couple devastating knee injuries, like, in my drop gear back to back, and it kind of sent me down another path.
I always thought I'd play, like, a high level professional hockey, and I was able to fill out live that dream of playing minor pro hockey, but I figured, like, once I gave up on, like, the dream that I could work in the front office and what came across this pain point, and I just was so passionate about the problem that we're solving because we ran into it so many times selling sponsorship and just hearing, no, no, no, and the reasons why our teams are
looking for digital assets that are businesses are looking for digital assets. They wanna be able to collect customer analytics in this data age that we're living in, and we just didn't have anything like that. So we saw a huge niche opportunity in the market create something great and, you know, be able to, like, live out some of our dreams. My cofounder Shannon is also a huge sports fan. So together, we get to travel the Wolfe.
We get to go to all these sporting events, and it's just, like, such a fulfilling thing for me. You know, like, you think of, like, Maslow's hierarchy of needs and yourself off visualization. Like, I'm living that moment right now where this is something I've always wanted to do in my life, and we're living it. So think another aspect of that is, you know, we're a team of 10 now. And, you know, my cofounder and I were the leaders of the company, and we have to provide for our employees.
We have to make sure that they're care of, make sure that they're happy, and make sure that they're for subs fulfilled as well too. So seeing them grow and and be promoted within the company and then take on responsibility and have other employees underneath them. Like, that's super fulfilling for me. So I think for for me starting this business, there's just so many reasons why and, like, so many things that, like, just fill my heart and fulfill me as an entrepreneur. Yeah. I I love Chaz.
And I think that that what you've described, obviously, I have I felt that many times in my life, but but even more so now with just a lot of the layers that I've added into my life, I've had people say Dude, you podcast all the time. You create these awesome events for entrepreneurs. In a couple of days, we're leaving to go on a on a cruise to Bermuda, which is with, like, a handful of other families that were doing this family mastermind, talking about business and family and marriage.
And to your point, I've kind of strucked this life that I saw, and I just happened to be bringing people with me, which is just awesome because Chaz happens to be my business. And so I I see what you're saying. I feel what you're saying. For the person listening, that's like, dude, I don't necessarily have that fulfillment of what you are, like, like, the love, the passion.
I'm just doing it because it makes me money, or I'm doing it this for 3 years, and then I'm selling, is there a layer to passion that that person, whether they haven't achieved that level of success yet, or maybe they have, but it's more like just exit x's and o's more like number pushing that they can, like, what what can they glean from this passion that you're expressing? Yeah. I mean, like, only on this planet for for so long. Hey. Like, couple examples.
High school friend of mine just a couple days ago passed away. Three years old died in his sleep. Mean, like, what other, like, example did you need to, like, get up in the morning and say, I'm gonna make an impact today. I'm gonna live my life to the fullest. Another example, I was driving a home with my friend last name who's driving me home after a board meeting that I Chaz, and he's kind of in a situation where he's not sure what he wants to do with his life.
He's in his early thirties, and He's looking to me. I've got this, like, successful business growing, and I'm really fulfilled. And, you know, I'm just trying to give him advice. Like, do something that you're passionate about. Like, find something that you love to do, and, you know, build a career around that. So, I mean, I don't know if that directly answers your question, but I think everybody listening to this podcast has the opportunity to do something great, no matter.
Like, your race, religion, your background. You know, my co founder and I, we started this business with 68¢ in our bank account, and we've grown our business exponentially over the last five and a half years. Look at your life. Think of, like, a 6 year, like, 5 year blocks. Right? Like, where do you wanna be in 5 years? We've taken our company from an idea to being backed by a fortune 50 company in the states and, you know, partnered with NASCAR. So if I can do it, you can do it.
And I want everyone at home to believe in yourself and have that mindset. Yeah. Yeah. Not even being backed by some of those things. I mean, we'll I'm sure we'll get into some of the the things that you're headed towards, but but you're looking at doing a seed round. You're looking at major growth. Like, talk about just that for, like, 30 seconds. I mean, there's a lot of things that, you know, my 0 to 5 years, and you've kinda, like, you know, in that short period of time.
Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah. I think, like, misconception for people is that you need to have all kinds of money to start a business. We were extremely scrappy in those early days. We did, you know, crowd funding. We we won pitch competitions. We got government grants, loans, lines of credit. Like, we just did whatever we had to do to progress the business forward. And then we got to a point where it was, like, really starting to grow and then the pandemic hit. Right?
So no one could have ever imagined that, but we were able to just, like, get through that and survive. And so I just hate it when people say, like, they have excuses for, like, why are they waiting for the conditions to be right before they start their business. And for us, like, getting to this point, we're we're really proud of ourselves. 90% of businesses fail within the 1st 5 years. So we've kind of, like, hit that that milestone. And, you know, we're also a women led company.
Only 2.7% of venture capital goes to women led companies. So right away, we're behind the eight ball in that sense, but getting validation from, like, a fortune 50 company, like Comcast NBC, and starting to work with these major league teams, really given us that confidence. And now we're attracting you know, major investors in in the sports tech scene. So, yeah, definitely, it's, you know, we've learned a lot along the way.
I it's definitely been a journey, but the fundraising part of the business is a whole journey, a whole beast in itself. I think those early years, you have to be really scrappy, but building relationships is what leads naturally into these these investment relationships. It's not just like someone, like, throwing out cold emails all day. Like, that's I I would prefer it to, like, build the relationships naturally, and and that's just kinda how I roll.
So Yeah. I think you gave some great value there. I just gotta know, though, like, Chaz last purchase right before you knew it was only 68¢. Was it a couple bucks? Was it a Starbucks? Was it a big bird? Like, What was that last purchase that took you all the way down to 68¢ so precisely? It's probably on rent. We just reinvested everything that we had into, like, you know, ourselves. And, yeah, it was, like, we were working for 2 minor professional hockey teams at the time.
One of them was kinda pledging, and we went 11 weeks without getting paid from that one team. So, like, it was really tough to make ends meet, but we saw the, like, like, the the bigger picture. Right? And we wanted to, like, validate our platform with this team and ended up holding like, before playoffs, we never got paid, but, you know, these are the things that you have to roll with as an entrepreneur. But, yeah, it was we live pretty lean. Pretty lean back in those days, for sure.
Yeah. I mean, 6 years is. I mean, not not a whole lot of options there, but, but I love the word scrappy. I would definitely have put myself in that position or that that phraseology of scrappy. I still think I'm scrappy. Would you consider yourself scrappy still today? Absolutely. Like, we're we're frugal. I think another misconception is, like, wealthy people, like, aren't frugal.
I think there's a lot of wealthy people and they've gotten that way by being frugal and being cognizant about how they spend their money. So, yeah, especially when you're aggressive in your investment mindset, that's that's your mindset is growth. And what what we're not saying to the listener here is be frugal and be be afraid, be fearful. To me, scrappy is like, you know, 5 in, and I'm gonna take 4.
And I'm gonna put them I'm gonna put them back into marching orders to go to see what else I can drum up because I need another 5 to come in off of that off of that one. And, well, that one's not gonna that one's not gonna work. And I'm gonna possibly get 3 off of that one. So then there's 8 gonna come back, and I'm gonna take 7 out of Chaz, and we're gonna live on the 1. I took the one from the first set, one from the second set, and we're just gonna keep being scrappy here.
What for me, what that did, and maybe you can agree is that it just forced me to creatively solve problems. I'm already kind of a problem solver. As entrepreneurs, that's what we do Wolfe problems. But sometimes when we, like, purposefully put ourselves in situations where it's like, okay. What do I have to do here? Like, what what is the only way out There's an old book that I I have read many, many times, but it's called blue vase mentality. It's like, no. I I have to get this. Period.
I it's either this or I die. And when you put yourself in that position, magical things happen. Would you agree? Yeah. I definitely think so. Matt Higgins just put it out of the book called burning the boats and basically, like, don't have a backup plan. If you have a backup plan in your mind, you're gonna say, okay. If if that doesn't success, if I'm not successful, if it doesn't work out, oh, I've got this plan to fall back on. And I think that's like a death a desperation entrepreneurship.
Another word that I'll throw out in this conversation is being resourceful. I think a lot of founders, entrepreneurs don't realize how many resources there are out there. I'll speak for Canada because we're a Canadian company, but, you know, the government is really good at fostering, like, young business and that's something that Canada is really great at, but when it comes to, like, investment, there's a lot of, like, risk adverse investors in Canada compared to the United States.
So where we're doing a lot of our fundraising. And another thing that you said there, like, solving problems, like, I think we have a really big strategic advantage because my co founder and I are also, like, partners you know, we're able to solve problems in real time because 98% of the time we're together. So I appreciate that comment as well that you mentioned. Yeah. It it it really does go into scrappy. You know what I mean?
Like, I just feel like it just all falls into Chaz, but let let I wanna hear a little bit more about the story. So you're working for a company. It obviously was a stress like, period of time money wise. You got this idea, this concept. You guys decide to go in together on this. Give us, like, a little bit of that part of the story.
Yeah. So we were selling sponsorship for these 2 minor professional hockey teams and businesses that we were approaching in the community just kept telling us over and over again that they didn't just want the sponsorship inventory we were selling. And instead, they wanted something that could digitally activate our fans and allow them to collect customer analytics. And We didn't have anything like that. So we got really frustrated after hearing no, no, no, over and over again.
So we looked elsewhere in the industry to see what other teams were doing. And we found that so many teams were still using paper coupons. The medium between the fan and the sponsor with paper coupons is all kinds of cost associated distribution logistics. Like, there's they don't collect any data. Right? We're living in, like, a data driven age. So we saw, like, a huge opportunity. And so I remember one day I went home to Ottawa.
I was living, like, in Ottawa and and singing a Cornwall part time kind of thing. And I came back and Shannon had my co founder had created this free app maker that she had found. And she was like, look at this, and it was called fan save at the time. So, basically, it was, like, deals that sponsors could offer. So we went into the local businesses in the community where it's showing them. We're like, Hey, would you wanna put a deal on this to offer it to our fans?
And they were like, yeah, that's great. And then we were like, you can track all of the engagement and everything and they were like, well, that's really cool. So we're like, okay. Maybe, like, this is something, you know, we've gotten, like, the validation from the team us we've we've gotten the validation from the business, and we know from speaking to the fans all day that, you know, they're looking to support the team's sponsors.
So Chaz was kind of like our all home only once we got that validation from the partners Chaz there could be something here. And it wasn't long after that. We decided to take the leap and jumped out of the plane set the parachute. So Yeah. Go over 5 and a half years later. Here we are. Hey. Here we are. Going fast. Drive fast. Take risks. Okay. That's right. We're we're falling fast. That's right. That's right. We're rising files. I'm not sure. Right.
I was gonna say maybe it's, I guess, dependent upon your perspective, but Wolfe you wanna fall slow? But, yeah, definitely. Things are moving fast. Love it. Hey, Kings and Queens. Chaz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day.
And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify, we would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other.
Let's help each other grow. Other man. Okay. So I gotta ask you some practicals. You've you've got a lot. I'm sure to to think about over the last 5 years, but what was a good to that you made. We were just talking about this. You're falling fast. You haven't really known yet if the parachute pulls, and you're you're trying to pull it. What's the good decision that you made that that we can learn from? We you'd repeat it over and over. Yeah. Definitely. There's so many along the way.
And I think of 1, like, creating our advisory board. So you know, we were about a year into our business, and we heard the concept of an advisor and an advisory board and how that could lend credibility to your company, help you solve problems, give you support. So our first advisor was actually a judge that we met at a startup competition that we were in, and he just loved the concept and what we were doing.
And from there, we just met some other great people that were really bought into the vision and really, like, liked us as people. They wanted to be along for the journey and just not for any shares or any money, just for the prestige and just to be along for the journey. Right? So we've got an advisory board of 12, and we've got really incredible people. Like, the founder of the Ottawa senators, we've got executives that have worked in major leagues for over 70 years combined.
But we also have advisors on different aspects of the business, HR, PR. So really if we ever have, like, you know, a problem or a challenge that we're trying to work through. There's generally one of our advisors that we can turn to that we can get an expert opinion on. And can help us kind of, like, work through the problem or the challenge. So I think that's really been, like, beneficial for us since, like, since we enacted it. And they become such big supporters and such big champions of us.
And it just gives you even more confidence knowing that you have really credible people like that backing you. So think that would be one of one of the best decisions that we made early on. Yeah. I love that. I think that there's obviously wisdom in putting people around you. Chaz can help you work through problems. That's that's why gathering the Kings exist. I love how you guys did it for yourself. You've got your own little pocket of people there. I think that that's super valuable as well.
They're even more intimate with the, you know, the the problems that you guys have because it's just an ongoing basis. Is there a magic formula of 12? Or is it it can be less? Can it be more? Is that just what you ended with? I wrote down 12. I thought maybe I'd ask you. Yeah. I mean, we've we've kind of had some advisors in the beginning that have kind of, like, filtered out. They're they're still, like, advisors, but we kind of cap it at 12. So they're they're more like mentors.
Yeah, there was no, like, rhyme or reason. I honestly feel like we could have a 100 advisors. So many people have come into our lives that have just been really supportive and provided us with, like, great insights. So You know, we've created a really great, like, community, a really great network, and we've built kind of like a a really great name for ourselves and industry. So people wanna be a part of I love that.
Is there you just made a distinction between someone who's an advisor and potentially they graduate or move on, or maybe there's just a difference between a mentor and an adviser. What what is that difference for you? Yeah. I think just like for us, like, an adviser has, like, an official kind of title slapped on the music and adviser.
They're more involved with our company where mentors are kind of like one offs or people meet along the way that, like, you know, can help us in any way or provide advice from their experience. So an advisor is more involved in our company. We have kind of, like, monthly meetings where mentor doesn't have that, like, structure. It's just like, hey, if you can help us great, if we can help you even better. I'm a big believer in give before you take kind of thing and reciprocity.
So that's a big part of our our our mindsets. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Okay. So let's flip the coin here. What was a bad decision that you guys made that wasn't your finest hours, I like to say? When we started the company, we're like, let's create an app. Like, we didn't know anything about like, creating an app. We're both non technical co founders. So we Interesting. Fail forward a few times with our development.
I'll summarize the, the 1st couple years of our business trying to find the right developer, you know, without really knowing, like, what we were looking for. So I would say, like, the development has been tough, but, like, creating the app before the, like, the web app would have we're if I could go back in time, I would have reversed it. I would have created our web app first and then our mobile app second.
A lot of teams that in the beginning were like, oh, like, we don't want our fans to have to download another app. And we kind of ran into Chaz, whereas, like, So that's why we built our web app, which is, like, our website, but it's also embeddable into team websites and mobile apps. So, I mean, think we learned to log from it.
I'm not regretful for any mistakes or anything that I make because there's always an opportunity to learn, but if I could go back in time, that would be a thing that I would change. Yeah. I think that I mean, first off, that's, like, super unique of a of a of a decision. So I I just really appreciate you sharing. Do you think that that applies to other industries where consumers, generally speaking, don't wanna, quote unquote, download another app.
And maybe it's more convenient for them to, you know, open it up in Facebook or open it up from a website or be a little bit more convenient in a different way. In this case, for you, it was a it was a, you know, mobile website version. What do you think about that? Yeah. So I think of an example of a team that we're not working with that has 7 different partners of theirs that are offering deals to their fans. Once an in game event happens, such Chaz, like, a hot trick or anything like that.
And so they're sending their fans to download 7 different mobile apps to access these deals. They have to sign up rewards. The team is not tracking, like, any of the data. So from, like, our customer's perspective, like, they like, this team is not doing it right, and there's a lot of teams that are looking for this solution so that they can actually drive their fans back to their own digital assets as opposed to sending their third party platforms.
Another thing that I I recently ran into a couple days was a couple days ago is one of our teams was like, oh, we have some older fans, season ticket holders, and they have, like, flip phones. They can't access, like, the mobile app. And I'm like, well, how are they even gonna access, like, the web app? So, like, you know, dealing with things on the fly like that that come up and trying to find solutions, you know, it's just all part of it.
So Yeah. Yeah. I think think that's probably a, a dying problem, but but it still exists. I'm sure. The the other problem that we're kinda discussing is a little bit more of convenience. And also too, you made a huge distinction there of the your client, the the the team, they don't wanna necessarily take their resource and point people towards you.
And so you Chaz a business have to figure out how to make it the most valuable for them, which is keep their clients on their digital asset while collecting data on their behalf and probably on your behalf or and or some, you know, at least analytics that you can be able to share and or you know, use for your business function. So I love what you did there. It's like, okay. Well, this is what we thought was needed.
We analyze what what our clients were actually saying and and what the marketplace was saying was inconvenient. And the solution actually makes it better for the consumer. The the actual ticket holder as well as our client, the team holder, because we keep them on their digital assets all in round, which gotta figure out how this helps us as well, which obviously you guys have done. Otherwise, you wouldn't be in business.
So like, this is probably a years in the making type of conversation that we've been having, I assume. Yeah. The more fans Chaz redeem deals, the more of the sponsors are happy, the more the sponsors are happy, the the more the team is happy that their sponsors are happy. So we have 3 stakeholders. The team, the sponsor, and the fan. So we need to have, like, our messaging needs to be different depending on who we're talking to, who we're communicating to. Right?
If it's a fan, we wanna be more fan facing. We don't wanna be, like, telling them that we're collecting their data even though they sign off on terms and conditions just like every other social media platform, but that's not something that we would lead with. Whereas when we're talking to the teams, they're so desperate for data and to be able to understand the relationship between the fan and their corporate partners. So that messaging is a little different.
And then for the sponsors, it's really, like, you know, driving in traffic into their business and allowing them to track that that engagement. So, yeah, 3 different kind of, like, communication kind of styles depending on who we're talking to. So we're always cognizant of that. Yeah. I love that. You guys are obviously analytical in your approach, but the vulnerability of, like, we just assumed and we just did it. Number 1, not even being, you know, technically appropriate.
I love what you said. Your your cofounder went on to a free app and basically hodgepodge it, which is so entrepreneurial. I love it. But then, obviously, some assumptions came out of Chaz. And and you guys got it figured out, which is the is the overcoming. It's the Like you said, if Chris can do it, you can do it. And so some some I don't know if this looks like the same in a marketing business or in a you know, in a in a drywall business or in a commercial manufacturing company.
Yeah. But it's the same it's the same principles that exist. So I appreciate that. I I wanna ask you about your decision making, and then I wanna move on to our speed round. In the decision making, is there, like, a formula that you follow? Like, you guys have a like you said, you got 3 stakeholders. You're trying to you know, please everybody. On top of that, you got investors, and you got yourselves and your team. So, really, you've got even more than 3 stakeholders.
What how how do you guys make quality decisions? Yeah, quality decisions. I think my cofounder and I, like, when we met right away, like, we were, like, finishing each other's sentences and, like, we just have, like, the same mind for business. Again, going back to being so close to each other and being able to solve problems in real time. I think that's like a a a big thing for us. Just trying to think of your question in in a different way with all, yeah, with, I mean, like, it's a lot. Right?
Like, you you lean on your advisors. You you lean on each other as co founders, then you trying to, like, empower your employees so that they can kind of take on more responsibility. Shannon and I have done a really good job of, like, breaking the business into 2 and both focusing on our strengths. Right? So My strength is, like, strategy, business development, sales, and marketing. And on her side, she's, like, an awesome marketer, She's the face of the company.
She does all the back end, admin, the legal, and everything like that. So and also the most important part is she takes on she takes the lead on the investment side of things. So you know, we both play to our strengths and we complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. So I think that's kind of like how we're managed we're also, like, very organized, essay we, but more so Shannon has made us more organized.
She's very, very organized and and that keeps us on track and There's a lot of tools that we use as well too. We've got our CRMs. We use Trello to kind of like manage our team and kind of like our accounts and things like that. So Yeah. There's lots of ways that we're able to kind of, like, manage all of our different stakeholders. Yeah. Love that. Appreciate it. In the speed round here, I wanna know the top KPI or the one that you would track forever and ever if you could only pick 1.
Yeah. It's easy. It would be a number of redemptions. So a number of deals redeemed by sports fans. Like, that's really, like, the main KPI. I mean, obviously, revenue is there, but, like, Like, if people aren't redeeming deals on our platform, our platform is not doing what we created it to do. Right? So that's, like, the absolute main KPI. You know, things like impressions on their their page and, you know, things like Chaz, like number of followers to a team's page.
Like, those are all important. But at the end of the day, it's like, stands are redeeming deals. Like, the the platform is not doing what it's supposed to be doing. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's your usage KPI and usage can be tracked an LTV. It can be tracked in. Do I have repeat customers, referrals? Like, there's a lot of maybe individual KPIs, but we're we're talking about is usage.
And for you being an app, people aren't literally using the app and then also redeeming or not the app, but the web app, then Ah, call yourself. Love that. See? Yeah. What what value do you bring if if important you because when we're promoting it yeah. No. It's so true. Like, if when we're promoting her and the team's promoting it and they're saying, oh, it's the app. Like, no. No. We don't want fans to, like, first of all, think it's an app and have to download another app.
It's a digital platform. And, like, yeah, that's the thing that we've dealt with. I'm so glad that you, like, made that distinction because, like, we've heard that so many times, and that's been a big part of our branding and strategy kinda move away from an app and more of, like, a digital platform. So sorry to cut you off. I wanted to throw that in there. I thought it was really important. Man, that's good. That's good. It happened in real time, right, right here before the listener.
So I gotta ask you a question about resources. You you've got people around you. We've talked about that, but what about a book or a podcast or an event something that you've got, like, business knowledge from that you can recommend. Okay. So books that I'm reading right that I am really into. It's called no one wins alone. It's by Mark Messier, long time NHL captain, and it's really about leadership and, you know, culture and building a team.
So that would be, like, a book that I'm reading right now. Like, some other resources I think are really important. We're a portfolio company for a few different startup accelerator. So Okay. One here in Ottawa. So there was a couple that we are local that really in those early years gave us a foundation and the mentorship and know, the resources to grow our business. And then recently, we were select to join this the Comcast NBC Sports Tech Accelerator out of 900 companies worldwide.
So we were the only company elected. So that was, like, huge opportunity for us. It's given us the opportunity to, like, work with partners like NASCAR and explore lives with, like, the WWE and other brands like that, but just a high level mentorship. The doors that they open in the sports world for us, the doors that they open in the investment world, like, when we talk about resources, there's, like, there's things like startup accelerators that are there to help you grow your business.
That's been a big thing. And then another third one I'll throw out has been pitching, and I'll throw in networking in with that because I think they're 2 of the same in a sense. We built our brand off of pitching at startup competitions. We've pitched on international stages down to local stages at 1 fest. We want a $100,000 convertible note. And, you know, it's just really grown our network and and our brand at no cost. So those are 3 resources.
Anyone can can can apply it for a pitch no matter how early you are, and we've proven that. Accelerators are, like, an awesome opportunity for you to build the foundation, but also grow your company. And then I think listening to podcasts and and reading books is another really important thing for your entrepreneurs and founders. I got one last question here for you. I wanna know if you had the opportunity to reach into the past and whisper in the younger Chris's ear. What would you say?
Be patient and be passionate. I've always been passionate about anything that I do. I've always thrown myself into Whatever I I do. I think there's, like, another cliche if it's worth doing, it's worth doing. Right? I'm not the type of person that kind of dips my toe in or kind of goes half ass. Like, I really like to to make the most out of opportunities. So being patient as well, I think, like, when people started a business, you know, they get that, like, overnight success expectations.
Sometimes they're they only see the successful businesses. Right? They don't see the 90% of businesses that fail. So I would say, like, when we were first starting this business, we thought, okay. We're gonna get, like, investment out there 3 years. We're gonna have major lead teams. And it didn't work out like that. Like, there was growing pains and there was a pandemic. And so be patient.
You know, if you put the work in and you're passionate about something, 9 nine times out of 10, you're gonna be successful. I firmly believe that. Yeah, man. I agree with you. Also, there's a there's a message of persistence in that patience, because the definition of patience is is basically long suffering. And that doesn't sound super awesome. You know, like, when when you really look at that, you're like, who wants to wait in long suffering.
And you're like but the reality of it is is that the majority of things worth it either take time or just this massive lift. Be otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it in my opinion. So I just appreciate your your vulnerability there. The listener find you, Chris? So first off, you got all kinds of ways that people need to locate you. I mean, maybe we're a sports fan, and we need to come check you out.
Maybe we want to get some sort of a sponsorship at some of your team's events, or or maybe we're just an entrepreneur and we want to chat with you, or maybe there's an opportunity to invest in your company. Sounds like potentially, how can we find you, Chris? Yeah. Definitely. So I fans looking to learn more about the company, you can go to fansavives.com, or you can download our mobile app.
You can follow your favorite teams, and you can start saving money from the businesses support those teams. So that's definitely the best way. We're on all the socials as well. For businesses that are interested and kind of like getting involved or learning more, there's a form on our website you can fill out an inquiry and I'll be getting back to you as soon as possible. So kind of thing, and I would love to tell you more.
And then for for entrepreneurs, for for people that are looking to kind of, like, learn more about our journey or looking to connect with me, I'm, like, a huge, huge LinkedIn user, I guess you could say. I have, like, a minor to LinkedIn. I just think it's such an awesome platform. Of course, I'm available on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all that good stuff, but my main platform of choice, is LinkedIn.
So whether you're an investor, whether you're a founder, or anyone just looking to to learn more. Like, I'll definitely reach out on LinkedIn. Well, I appreciate that. We'll put that information as well as all the other details in the show notes. And just really appreciate your time, man. I we had we had a heck of a time with with me in a new recording studio and and you with some shifting rooms over there, but, man, we we got this thing done.
And dude, I think you provided some incredible value here today. I just so appreciate you being here. We wish nothing but blessing to you, your partner, your team, the all the companies that you guys touch, all the consumers. Thanks for being here, man. Such a pleasure. Thanks for having me and a big fan of the podcast. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own. Carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 789 figure business owners is Chaz It's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the Kings literally exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, Chaz it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and and resonates with you.
And you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.