Justin Bass is a Managing Director in the Sports and Entertainment Group at MAI Capital, where he joined in 2022 and has worked with professional athletes and high-net-worth individuals/families for over 25 years. MAI Capital Management, LLC is a full-service wealth manager for high-net-worth individuals and high-net-worth families; plus, a provider of targeted investment solutions for financial advisors and institutional investors. Justin provides wealth management, investment advisory, family ...
Jul 29, 2024•31 min•Ep. 153
In 9 markets and with millions in revenue per year, Gio Marcantoni is the founder of Volo Sports. Started as a 16-person Bocce league in Baltimore in 2010, Volo Sports now has over 300,000 members nationally. Similar to how youth sports clubs have been rolled up, Gio Marcantoni has taken a similar approach to adult social sports. Chapters: (00:30) Volo inception (06:45) GTM strategy (08:00) Business model (10:00) Scaling internally (12:50) Bootstrapping to start (15:10) Adult social sports marke...
Jul 24, 2024•31 min•Ep. 152
Raising over $76M, Stephen Smith has taken Kitman Labs from an Irish sports data company to a global solution. Kitman Labs was founded, pioneered, and powered by practitioners and data scientists consumed by the question of how to optimize human achievement. Stephen Smith and Kitman Lab’s platform provides a holistic, unified view of the individual and the organization – making progress faster and more efficient. Chapters: (01:00) Kitman Labs (02:45) Evolution of sports analytics (04:50) Wearabl...
Jul 22, 2024•26 min•Ep. 151
A former college athlete, Matt Wheeler and his teammate started a sports recruiting platform in 2008 and have grown it substantially over the years. SportsRecruits offers student-athletes a platform to handle their college search and recruiting process from end to end. Using robust analytics around who is looking at your profile, video and academic information, SportsRecruits helps student-athletes and their families navigate a stressful and expensive process. Chapters: (00:45) SportsRecruits ba...
Jul 17, 2024•25 min•Ep. 150
Before becoming an NBA agent and a trailblazer in shaping the college NIL space, Daniel Poneman spent over a decade as a scout and consultant for more than 300 Division I colleges, NBA teams, and international franchises. Profiled in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, Daniel rose from teenage scout to Chicago basketball mainstay. Since then, Daniel Poneman has helped hundreds of young men from Chicago's most underserved neighborhoods receive college scholarships through the "Undiscovered...
Jul 15, 2024•32 min•Ep. 149
Peter Simon runs the sports investment division for Simon Group Holdings, which was founded by his father Sam Simon. Sam Simon is a legendary immigrant entrepreneur having launched Atlas Oil Co. in 1985 with a single delivery truck, and has built it into a multi-billion gallon-a-year fuel wholesaler with over 500 employees. Formed in 2022, Simon Sports is a sports investment firm and management group that serves as an umbrella for Sam and his son Peter Simon’s sports ventures. Peter Simon attend...
Jul 09, 2024•23 min•Ep. 148
Chris Van Dusen is a Senior Partner at Solyco Capital, a vertically Integrated PE/VC, Action Services, Public & Private Wealth Investment Firm that delivers capital solutions for late-stage startup and growth companies. Solyco Capital has made some of its first sports investments since its inception, showcasing the industry's appeal. Chris Van Dusen was a former D1 baseball player and successful entrepreneur having sold multiple businesses before entering the investment world. Chapters: (01:...
Jul 01, 2024•37 min•Ep. 147
Minutely works with the largest media properties in sports as a video optimization platform for digital publishers. Amit Golan's background boasts a wide spectrum of talents having served as a special forces unit Commander to being a teacher, mentor, entrepreneur, and mentor at Google. Minutely was founded in 2014 to drive video engagement and revolutionize the online video consumption process into a more financially rewarding and compelling content source. Chapters: (00:50) From B2C to B2B (06:...
Jun 26, 2024•30 min•Ep. 146
After successfully exiting Rivals (Yahoo) and 24/7 (CBS), Shannon Terry began building his third sports media platform in On3. On3 is a top resource for college sports, recruiting, and NIL. Shannon Terry and On3 are consistently in the news cycle thanks to their proprietary “NIL Valuation” system. Chapters: (03:40) Rivals (06:00) 24/7 Sports (10:45) On3 inception (13:05) NIL valuations (18:00) College sports utopia (22:40) Future of the NCAA (24:40) Women’s sports (26:40) Shifting media world (2...
Jun 24, 2024•34 min•Ep. 145
Lance Dietz is an investment partner who focuses on sports, collectibles, well-being, and gaming. KB Partners raised a $100M+ fund to deploy capital into the early stages of sports. Lance Dietz played college basketball at Army West Point, has an MBA from the University of Chicago, and joined KB Partners in 2018 as a principal before reaching partner status in 2021. Chapters: (01:15) Top trends in sports (03:15) How to learn new verticals (08:50) Talent entering industry (11:40) How to get inves...
Jun 19, 2024•33 min•Ep. 144
Mike Nicoll is a former hooper turned award-winning filmmaker focused heavily on basketball's business side in his documentaries. The Spoils penetrates a shadowy financial system: America’s youth basketball industrial complex. With unprecedented access to the money game that dominates the sport, the film unravels the raw capitalism of the American basketball machine. Mike Nicoll has directed 3 feature films, best known for writing & directing "At All Costs" - a feature documentary acquired b...
Jun 17, 2024•39 min•Ep. 143
After 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, José Bautista has made the jump into entrepreneurship and investing. He took a majority position in Marucci Sports and helped them to an exit and has also invested in outwear company Canada Goose. José Bautista recently bought the majority position in a USL team, Las Vegas Lights FC. Chapters: (01:45) Owning a pro sports team (05:45) Transition from athlete to investor (08:15) Marucci Sports to exit (11:30) Due diligence and evaluating deals (14:15) MLB...
Jun 10, 2024•36 min•Ep. 142
With soon-to-be 16 eatertainment facilities, Chicken N Pickle is expanding across the country with their “TopGolf for Pickleball” concept. Chicken N Pickle is an entertainment complex that includes a restaurant, sports bar, pickleball courts, and a variety of yard games. Kelli Alldredge joined part-time at the first location and went full-time as the president in 2023. Chapters: (01:15) Landing at Chicken N Pickle (04:25) Rollout of more locations (07:10) Chicken N Pickle description (09:30) GTM...
Jun 05, 2024•30 min•Ep. 141
Recently closing out their $4M Series A round, Forever Network is adding more sports and new products and expanding to the United States. Forever Network is a social-first sports media company that started as a basketball social media page in Australia. in 2023, Nicholas Kelland joined Forever Network coming from the agency and marketing world. Chapters: (01:20) Forever Network origin story (04:25) Monetization (07:50) Expanding into US market (10:00) New product (15:10) Advantages of internal m...
Jun 03, 2024•27 min•Ep. 140
With ownership in 3 pro teams, including Premier League club Ipswich Town FC, Brett Johnson has made a name for himself as one of the best investors in sports (particularly soccer). Ten years ago, Benevolent Capital was formed by Brett Johnson and his twin brother Grant Johnson to invest in sports assets. Some of Brett Johnson’s other investments include Profluence Capital Fund I, Athletic Brewing, Terracycle, Oura, Getaway, and Carbon 6. Chapters: (01:20) Ipswich Town FC promotion to EPL (02:55...
May 29, 2024•30 min•Ep. 139
Acquired by 3STEP Sports, West Coast Elite is the largest basketball event operator on the West Coast with more than 100 events in 11 states. WCE is the premier grassroots basketball program and is a member of the Under Armour Association, WCE teams play a national schedule. Ryan Silver is the founder and CEO who previously ran a nightclub before creating West Coast Elite and Silver Waves Media. Chapters: (01:40) Starting youth sports club (06:25) 3STEP acquisition (08:25) West Coast Elite succe...
May 28, 2024•27 min•Ep. 138
ScorePlay now counts over 130 sports clients and has experienced great growth since the $5M seed round last year. ScorePlay provides a suite of products that help sports organizations automate their media workflows, grow their brand, and unlock new revenue streams. Victorien Tixier previously co-founded a digital suite for 5-side-football centers, Hydra, which was acquired. Chapters: (01:35) Creation of ScorePlay (03:10) Doing market research (06:15) Bootstrapping to start (08:30) Pricing models...
May 22, 2024•27 min•Ep. 137
PFL is the #1 fastest-growing sports league in the world quickly rising to challenge the UFC and is coming off a $100M investment from Saudi’s SRJ Investments. Donn Davis first entered sports as the Chief Legal Counsel of the Chicago Cubs in the 1990s. He would go on to hold several prominent roles across media, sports, and entertainment (including a senior executive at AOL) before founding the PFL in 2018. PFL disrupted MMA with the sports-season format and now operates 4 fight franchises world...
May 20, 2024•30 min•Ep. 136
As a 23-year-old business owner and coming off a $500k fundraise, Huck Sorock is looking to transform the referee space. The idea of Refr Sports stemmed a few years ago as Huck realized how much technology was growing in every category within sports but saw lots of improvement for the referee vertical. Huck Sorock is a recent graduate of Colorado Boulder and grew up an athlete playing juniors hockey. Chapters: (01:00) Entrepreneurial journey (04:50) Refr Sports (08:55) Stats on referee market (1...
May 15, 2024•27 min•Ep. 135
StatusPRO recently received $20m in funding including an investment from Google’s venture arm to transform training and gaming in sports. StatusPRO is a sports technology company that combines data, XR, and real-life experiences to provide a revolutionary suite of training and gaming products. Troy Jones is a former D1 quarterback who spent time at the NFLPA and Goldman Sachs before coming up with the StatusPRO idea and building alongside former NFL player Andrew Hawkins. Chapters: (01:20) Troy’...
May 13, 2024•28 min•Ep. 134
With high-end clients like the NBA and MLB, Sweet Chameleon is taking on phygital collectibles led by Michael Dub. Sweet Chameleon lives at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds, leveraging additive manufacturing and blockchain technology to enable fans to create and customize physical and digital collectibles from individual creators and popular entertainment, sports, and gaming IP. Michael Dub has 25+ years of experience working in leadership roles at large media organizations, s...
May 07, 2024•21 min•Ep. 133
The "Redzone for Baseball", PLYR is aiming to revolutionize discovery, engagement, and interaction with sports through its players. After spending a handful of years as a wealth advisor, David Wurth made the jump to entrepreneurship by interviewing successful executives, athletes, and business leaders. CSQ is now an award-winning quarterly business and luxury lifestyle platform. PLYR was incubated from the platform. Chapters: (01:25) CSQ: Filling the Void in Media (04:48) From Media to Advisory ...
May 01, 2024•31 min•Ep. 132
The Defense Department, 90% of NFL teams, and many high-level performers including Andrew Huberman use Momentous products. Momentous offers high-quality nutritional and dietary supplements, researched and developed by leading scientific minds with rigorous quality control and independent third-party testing. Jeff Byers played college football at USC and then spent several years in the NFL before diving into the business world head-first as an entrepreneur. Chapters: (01:30) Thoughts on NIL &...
Apr 29, 2024•34 min•Ep. 131
With many years of experience in sportainment, Craig Winning is now taking on BatBox as they expand from Mexico to the United States. BatBox is an innovative experiential concept that caters to the underserved baseball fan market, offering a playful way for fans to engage with baseball and each other and offer corporate and private simulator sales to clients. Craig was previously at TOCA Social, Shorty’s, Punch Bowl Social, and has spent most of his career at the intersection of hospitality and ...
Apr 24, 2024•28 min•Ep. 130
An experienced veteran in sportainment, Ollie’s newest project is at the intersection of racing, socializing, and eating with F1 Arcade. F1 Arcade is a new simulation racing experience in the US, offering all the excitement, drama, and glamor of Formula 1. Ollie Raison has provided creative input to social entertainment businesses for many years including Bounce Ping Pong, Puttshack Mini Golf, Hijingo, AceBounce, Wonderball, Games Gurus, and more. Chapters: (01:15) From comedy to social entertai...
Apr 22, 2024•32 min•Ep. 129
Before launching his own agency, Jared was Head of Sports at Twitter/Vine helping establish deep ties within the social media world. Changing the way credit works for social content with Gondola and making creative content for sports leagues, teams, brands, and media companies with Fresh Tape Media. Jared shares valuable insights into content creation, trends in social media, sports, highlighting the evolution of content, the impact of technology, and the future of content creation tools. Chapte...
Apr 17, 2024•27 min•Ep. 128
After the acquisition of The Athletic, Evan Parker joined Alexis Ohanian and Brett Montgomery to build Mantel. Mantel is a community for collectors (starting in sports). Before joining Mantel as the CEO, Evan Parker was the General Manager at The Athletic and Head of Content at NASCAR. Chapters: (01:50) Career in Sports (03:00) Importance of Building Relationships (05:05) How Leagues vs Media Brands View Content (07:30) Collectibles and Mantel (12:30) Starting in Niches (14:20) From Corporate to...
Apr 15, 2024•31 min•Ep. 127
Recently raising their Series A round, we discuss the changing dynamic of digital sports activations and how they’ve been able to help organizations get closer to their fans. Vaidhy Murti has over a decade of experience developing production applications for high-growth, venture-backed startups, and Fortune 1000 companies WIT Sports is a digital activation platform that helps professional sports teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLS elevate their marketing efforts while providing innovative, turnk...
Apr 09, 2024•28 min•Ep. 126
“The Real Moneyball Guy”, the popular movie was partly based on Ari’s analytical and scouting experiences innovating Major League Baseball. Ari Kaplan created and led the Chicago Cubs analytics department, head of evangelism at DataBricks, Caltech Alumni of the Decade, and Intel’s AI Board of Advisors. DataBricks is one of the largest private companies in the world with over $1.6 billion in 2023 revenue. Chapters: (04:10) Exciting new sports tech (07:35) Background in sports (10:20) Evolution of...
Apr 05, 2024•33 min•Ep. 125
We dive deep into fan engagement, creating immersive experiences, and MVP Interactive + James Giglio’s new book Beyond the Jumbotron. MVP Interactive is a creative technology company specializing in designing and producing immersive consumer experiences for the world’s largest brands. Chapters: (02:45) MVP Interactive background (07:15) Defining a “fan” (11:05) Future of fan engagement/AI (15:05) Immersive tech examples (21:30) Leveraging brand equity (25:10) Insights on building in sports (27:5...
Apr 01, 2024•31 min•Ep. 124
