Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events Podcast

You can say whatever you want when it's the truth. This week, a staffer was deposed in a case. It was his first experience with a process we've, unfortunately, gotten to know too well over the past few years when dealing with some bad actors. After talking to the lawyers, he called for advice. It's simple: tell the truth and sleep well. The truth is easy to remember, consistent, backed up by evidence, and, most importantly, noble in a world that becomes more devoid of it every day. If it's the truth, you're protected by the First Amendment. Just another reason to always tell the truth. Working in sports vs being the customer I have a fun job. And I go out of my way to post the fun things our team gets to do. But that's just a sliver of what we do. (and we do it because it works). So many people apply to work in sports thinking they'll "get to go to all the games." We hear things like: "I'll go to the game, get to know everyone, see their activations, and help make them better." Yes. That is 1% of that job. We also have a number to hit. A business to build. Customers to get in front of so we can learn about their needs and how we can help them. Do you know who gets to have all the fun at the games with no responsibility? The customers being entertained. So if you want to go to games and have a great time, there is a job for you: Build a huge business that people want as a customer. Then they'll take you to the games and you can enjoy. As for the rest of us, my team included, going to the games is 1% of the gig. Work in sports because you love it and its meaning. But know, you're not going to actually watch much of the game if you're doing it right. (Sidebar: I got to do it the fun way on Wednesday. And it was pretty great.) Volatility and opportunity Scary times for some. That's the time to move. In the winter of 2021, the "delta" variant of COVID was all over the news. Live events were closed. Companies in our industry were dying. Our bank, Pac West, essentially dropped us, offering us a "renewal" at punitive terms. We had been building out our events technology, which we now call "GMC"—guest management and credentialing. We had identified a company we wanted to acquire. The only problem was that nobody wanted to invest in live events—and I mean nobody. So what did we do? We took on expensive debt—12%+—and used the cash on our balance sheet to buy the company. It was expensive. It wasn't reckless; we were in a position to be fine if it didn't go well, but we believed the bounce back in the economy was closer than others thought. It worked. We've integrated that business and thrived. Even more so, the debt was bought out within a year. A home run. Only because we were willing to take a calculated risk when nobody else was. Courage is a competitive advantage.

We're 17 years into TicketManager. As of this writing, we have approximately 175 people, including full-time employees and contractors. But we weren't always here. And business, when it's your business, is personal. Hiring and friends has been a learning experience. Here's what I've learned, and the scars from it.

There's always turmoil - tariff volatility is just today's I've been doing this at TicketManager for going on 18 years. I can't remember a period longer than 30 days when there wasn't some crazy turmoil in the world. It's a selling point for the news and something people say to each other all the time to justify whatever they're looking to justify—whether it's anxiety, poor performance, or a lack of vision for the future. Since we started this company, we have had a Global recession, a Series A squeeze, a global pandemic, the city around our HQ burned down, a Covid bounce, a white-collar recession, historic inflation, and on and on. Today, it's the tariff volatility Tomorrow it'll be something else. That's the game. As an entrepreneur, complaining about it and yearning for certainty is a waste of time. If it were easy, everyone would do it. There's nothing better than thriving through those things. It brings a sense of accomplishment I didn't understand going in. StubHub pulls its IPO as the ticketing darlings of the mid-2010s are cratering. When I left StubHub in 2007, I had drinks with a couple of executives there. They couldn't believe why I was leaving. I told them, simply: I don't think you have any defensible moat. Eventually, the content providers, tours, bands, and teams are going to find a way to get back control of what they're selling. And I believe they should have that control. Then what? It turns out I was very wrong about how long it took, but we're here now. The primaries are stronger than ever. Ticketmaster and Live Nation are thriving, Tickets.com is doing well, and AXS is growing and has found its market. All three are monetizing their tech and including secondary in their offerings. The secondary, however? Behind the scenes, there are a lot of phone calls from investors and weary CEOs looking for homes for companies that were supposedly worth hundreds of millions or “billions” just a few years ago. StubHub can't find a way to service its debt Vivid Seats' market cap has dropped to under 600 million, making it nearly impossible for them to go private. Meanwhile, investor Todd Boehly is getting heat in London for his involvement in the secondary. The list goes on and on. There are many other darlings who raised too much money and still can't turn a profit. If they stop paying for CAC, the numbers get terrifying (StubHub is in this boat - anyone who read their S1 saw the inefficient marketing spend). The spigot has closed. And some big names are starting to look like they're about to become zombies if someone doesn't pick them up on the cheap. I believe there will be at least two transactions and two CEO scalps by Q2 2026. Augusta further proves the big are getting bigger. The Masters market went bonkers this week. It's a trend that's been happening recently with major events that have a static home. The sought-after events that have a regular home are becoming increasingly powerful, while events and teams in smaller markets are struggling. Companies are still spending; they're just moving the spending around as they become more sophisticated. I had lunch with a mentor several years ago, and he said something that still bothers me today. He was talking about how AI is coming and it's probably going to wipe out the middle class. He used the example of truck drivers, thousands of whom were going to be out of work in the near future. He told me, "You have to get on the other side of the fence before there is no middle class, because that's how it is in most of the world" (he is not from the United States and does not live here). That gap seems to be growing in live events right now. People can't get enough of the top events, like The Masters, The Kentucky Derby, The US Open of Tennis, and The PLAYERS; they're all thriving. There seems to be no end in sight to their hospitality offerings. The customers can't get enough. To that end, our team on the ground is reporting a number of broken StubHub orders. Customers coming to us asking for help after they went to pick up their badges and were turned away. Augusta is going to shut down the secondary market. And we're here for it.

The Abyss: The day I was introduced to the real-world of work. Desperation, tears, callousness, and a harsh reality that I am not special.

This week we talk about the upcoming Cruel Summer for ticket re-sellers, how confidence men try to make themselves the victim - as shown this week by Ticket Junky - and Bob Myer's mantra as the GM of the dynasty Golden State Warriors.

This week we explore confidence. I am "arrogant, condescending, think I'm better than everyone and an asshole." I am also "authentic, can be trusted when it matters, loyal, and a leader who is put in the game, meeting, or situation, when it matters." The characteristics I have in my life have led me to be called all of those names quite often. We live in a world that values confidence while also hating and resenting it at the same time I want my kids to be confident and I see that in them. I also see how the world treats that confidence. Three things I've learned about confidence. Part one:

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events  A wall-to-wall week in New Orleans and what I learned:  1) Sometimes an event outgrows it's home. The Super Bowl has outgrown traditional hosts in Miami, Tampa Bay, and New Orleans  The thesis going into the event was that hotel rooms are going to be an issue. They were.  New Orleans is amazing. I hadn't spent much time In the city before last weekend. I'd heard it is "not for me," but I had a different experience. I really enjoyed it and had a fantastic Super Bowl experience.  I'm not sure that's the same experience most fans had. Due to a lack of rooms, many had to drive into the city for the festivities - and that was near impossible come the weekend. The one venture we made out of town was to take an airboat tour of the bayou. Upon arriving back, our Uber would have taken an hour-plus to go the final mile. And that was on Saturday. Sunday was worse.  It's not just a New Orleans thing. The game is too big now. As much as I enjoy many of the great host cities, I think we're going to see a lot more of the more traditional conference cities hosting the game. Miami and Tampa will still host, but I'll be surprised if New Orleans does again in the next ten years. Especially after how well LA, Phoenix, and Las Vegas did hosting the games.  2. Miami and Las Vegas broke our expectations for the Super Bowl market  I was very wrong, publicly, in my estimation of what the Super Bowl tickets would cost. Part of that equation was the hotel rooms. The bigger part? New Orleans was actually a fairly expensive game, we just remember the outliers more.  In "Thinking Fast and Slow," Daniel Kanhemann lays out, in great detail, the case that we remember and over-index to extremes in most situations.  I believe that's what happened this year as the internet oversold the weakness of the market.  Ratings were as high as ever (ignore discussions of records. Everything is a record now since they changed the way they count ratings) and the market was fairly strong when compared to the first match-up between the Eagles and Chiefs in Phoenix in 2023.  It just didn't match Miami or Vegas - and that's a great thing. Tickets need to be affordable to fans. A $5k get-in is not.  Since 2000, only a few Super Bowl's stand out with get-ins over $2500: Phoenix in 2015 (and for no-longer-existent market reasons), Miami in 2020, and Las Vegas 2024.  Most other Super Bowls are well-under $3k with some under $1k.  I, like many, was starting to think maybe the maker is just more expensive now.  Maybe not.  Good thing that's not my job  3. Thank You  I started the Three Things as a journal for my kids.  The support I get from friends and even strangers who walk up to me and say they enjoy reading my LinkedIn posts makes me so happy.  People actually read it.  Crazy.

The final Three Things of 2024! This week we discuss: 1. How 2024 was the first "return to normal" for B2B businesses since the Covid "Pandemic" 2. The New Orleans Super Bowl is setting up to be the most expensive of the 2020's 3. Gen Z and the changing of Malcolm Gladwell's "Overstory"

This week I discuss a very common mistake sales people make at the end of the year, why we all have a choice between "scary" and "boring" in our careers, and how an HR person set me on course as an entrepreneur in my early twenties.

A rough time to be a ticket marketplace. The local social costs of running a successful business "Winning is the best way to go viral"

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, and Live Events The 2024 World Series and this coming Tuesday, Election Day. 

A few hiring and career thoughts while espousing advice to others this week in sports tech. 1. $10k for the rest of your life? 2. Soulless jobs pay more. Why are we surprised? 3. The positive "negative" reviews

As quickly as Lyte exploded on the scene... it imploded and left customers holding the bag. What I've learned about vendors and cheats in my 17 years at TicketManager, where we've been stolen from plenty.

The Origin Story - Part 1 17 years into our business, the question I get asked the most is: What led to the beginning of TicketManager. It is a simple story. Part one:

This week: What I learned at the US Open about corporate hospitality, careers in the sports world, and sponsorship Valhalla.

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, and Live Events The "Hospitality" Conundrum The ticketing market has come a long way since I started at the LA Dodgers in 2001. Back then, tickets were dramatically underpriced and sold to season ticket holders for teams and "insiders" (read: brokers) for major events. In the mid-2000s, the NFL caught on to the price vs market disparity and created a program they called "On-Location," where consumers could buy tickets bundled with a room and hospitality for a price exponentially higher than face value. Simply: They could charge the actual market price for the tickets and hide the difference in the package. Nobody could break out what costs what. Since then, hospitality has exploded with private equity stroking huge checks to get in the game (Sixth Street & Legends, Arctos & Elevate, Endeavor-via-Bruin Capital & On-Location, Liberty and Quint, and so on). Hospitality is now offered at nearly every major event and, for many, business in the hospitality game is booming. Revenues are setting records annually, though we don't know how profitable the business is as there are usually large upfronts paid for the right to sell hospitality exclusively. Three things I've learned from being in/seeing all the hospitality over the past year at all the biggest events

This week:   1. They're stealing from you. All of them. Be guarded about your tech, business model, and customers. We share examples and names of those who did it to us   2. "I don't give b--w jobs but I know when they're being done wrong" - Bill Maher. How his quote is applicable to the early days of a business   3. Why Scott Galloway's career advice is wrong - All-Star Game edition 

The unmitigated disaster that was the 2004 AEG Olympics. Sometimes great people have terrible ideas. In 2004, I worked at AEG as a sales person. AEG had just finished building the Home Depot Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park). It was a multi-use sports facility with a professional stadium for the LA Galaxy with training facilities for track, tennis, cycling, baseball, and more. The AEG brass had a big idea: We could bring companies in for a team-building company Olympics. The market for such events was big and we could leverage the entire property for a daylong event. They laid out the plan and we, AEG's internal staff, were going to be the guinea pigs. I can't properly relay how much of a disaster it was.

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events I mentioned back in April that we had to take a hiatus until after Memorial Day "for reasons I'll share then." Well, we were in court. In a jury trial for nearly a month. I'll be sharing a LOT about that experience after appeals. But for now: Three things I learned about telling the truth during the most stressful month of my life: 1. You cannot hide who you are in court. In a trial, everything is public. Much more than you might think, too. Your emails, slacks, instant messages, texts, and even your personal notes. This trial looked at everything that happened between 2010 and 2020—ten whole years. Witness after witness got up there and tried to bend the truth. They'd be shown an email they wrote themselves and then try to explain why it "doesn't really say what it says." Some were so absurd they'd claim entire sentences were "typos". It would be silly if it weren't so tragic. Tell the truth—all the time. You'll have nothing to hide when you end up on the stand, like I did for an entire day. 2. "He doesn't know what to do!" Lying and deceiving are standard operating procedure for the vast majority of people. We sat and watched one person after another knowingly lie. They couldn't even look us in the eyes in the hallway. But that can work to our advantage. We only know the world we know. When they strategize, they think of what they'd do in certain situations, such as cross-examinations. What they'd say. They read emails through their own corrupted lens. They can't fathom we'd actually get up and tell the truth. My favorite moment of "The Miracle On Ice" is near the end of the game. The Soviet Union's coach doesn't pull his goalie. Coach Herb Brooks turns to Craig Patrick and gleefully shouts "He doesn't know what to do!" He didn't know to pull his goalie as he'd never been in that situation. We had a similar moment when their attorney was attacking me in cross-examination. I had to try to hide my smile. The truth was going to deliver us. 3. If you are inauthentic, people can see it. Even if you worry they can't. We were so nervous. We knew we were telling the truth. We knew the evidence was clear. We knew who was being paid through "consulting agreements" to testify. But we didn't know if the jury would see it. They did. Our lawyers got to talk to them after the trial ended. 11-1 on all counts. I wrote in April that it was Daniel's faith that got him thrown in the lion's den and only his faith could get him out. I lost my father four days before I took the stand. He was the most honest man I've ever known. I watched people take advantage of his integrity time and time again my whole life. But he never wavered - he always did the right thing and told the truth. No matter the cost. And when we needed it most, the truth was our most powerful weapon.

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events 1) You can compete without being enemies. Competition is a part of life. If would be great if there was enough for everyone to be wildly successful, but we haven't figured that out yet, despite many wars. When someone else is stiving for what we want, and there is a limited supply, the easiest thing to do is de-humanize the other person and make them "evil" or "bad." It's human nature and the default position of so many people. When 'that' kid is playing 'their' kid's spot, rivalries begin for no reason. But it isn't necessary. One of my closest friends for the past 20+ years I met when we played the same position at USC. We competed every day. Another friend was a fifth year Senior at the same position when I was a freshman. I got playing time (he did too). Easy to see, though, that if I weren't there he'd have gotten more. I'm still friends with them both today and our families have become friends. Just because someone sees the same opportunity you do, doesn't make them evil. One caveat: Ryan and Trent are honest men who competed fairly. If others not competing fairly or legally, it's necessary to use the resources you have to defend yourself and those you're responsible to. 2. Nothing works harder than grateful I'm often asked a great question at the end of the interview process. It's usually a version of: "What characteristics make people successful at TicketManager?" I've spent a LOT of time considering the answer: People who want to be here. Been doing this sixteen years - and led teams at StubHub and AEG as well. There are so many diverse characteristics which can be very successful. Everyone is so unique. But all super-successful hires share the one characteristic that they have a choice as to where they will work and they really want to be here. It's not just "a little bit better" for them than elsewhere. If we can find that, we can build around it. I love my job so much that when I hear others talk about theirs I immediately think "I need to go work even more" I'm so thankful for it. 3. Sometimes your faith will get you into an uncomfortable situation, and it's only that same faith that'll get you out. Enjoyed a lesson on Daniel. His faith is what caused those around him turn on him and throw him in the lion's den to die. That same faith was the only thing that delivered him safely. Keep the faith and do the right thing. No matter how hard it can be in the moment. To that end, the Three Things will be taking a break until after Memorial Day for reasons I'll share then. Say a prayer for the good in the world!

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events Let's do a fun one this week: The top sporting events I've been to as a result of my job. 1. The Greatest Game Ever Played: USC - Texas Rose Bowl 2006 2. The Helmet Catch 3. Kobe's Finale 4. Tiger Wood's One -Legged Major 5. Super Bowl LIV - Chiefs vs Niners 6. The Fastest Knock-out in UFC History 7. Bama- Clemson 1 - The 2016 Fiesta Bowl Shootout 8. World Heavyweight Title: Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder 1 9. Corey Seager's Heroics - 2023 World Series Win Amidst Loss 10. The Infamous Plaster-in-the-Gloves: Cotto vs. Margarito 1 11. * Jason Lezak's comeback - The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Much more in the Substack about the experience along with some pictures. Please excuse that we didn't have cameras on our phones until 2007, and even then they were pretty bad, so I don't have the best pics of each event. Next time we see one another, I'd love to hear yours - along with a list of the top 5 in history you'd go to if you could

What I learned spending a week in Florida at The Players Championship, the de facto Super Bowl of golf.

This week we discuss: - Vivid Seats earnings call - Cops, Firefighters, Judges, and Entrepreneurs - Stand up for yourself, even against Tommy Lasorda

Cheating is inevitable in our careers and lives. What I've learned about cheating alongside a number of stories.

Nearly everyone wants to be a leader. We ask the same 11 questions in every final interview with our prospective teammates. When we ask where people think they want to be in ten years, nearly all candidates say they want to be leaders. But the truth is, many actually want to do something other than the actual work of leadership. They want what many believe comes with being a leader: money, power, and prestige. But strip what society has adorned to leadership, and most people would choose another path. Why? There are four things start-up leaders have to do that most people (really) don't want to do

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events Super Bowl Edition: Week 2 Las Vegas' debut as a Super Bowl host was a wild success. It was easy to get around, there was an abundance of rooms and entertainment venues, and even the game was easy to get in and out of. Three Things I Learned from the first Las Vegas Super Bowl: 1. Las Vegas will enter the new regular rotation. In the old days, the Super Bowl regular rotation was (with number of Super Bowls hosted): Miami (11), Southern California (11), New Orleans (10), Tampa (5), Phoenix (4) Recently, the NFL has awarded Super Bowls to the rotation cities and to cities with new stadiums. Las Vegas fell under the "new stadium" classification but, given the way the city hosted the game, the strength of the market, and the city's ability to handle inclement weather, there's no doubt Las Vegas will be in the rotation once a decade going forward. From the looks of things, the rotation will be (from West to East): San Francisco, Southern California, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Tampa and Miami 2. I failed at my promise The first years of TicketManager (then known as CEG and Spotlight) were very rough. We were broke, working every waking hour, and weary. I played golf one day with a an older pseudo family member who was about to pull away from his business and enjoy retirement. I remember the conversation vividly. He felt so guilty doing the things he'd earned - like playing golf and working a (gasp) eight hour day for a change. I was adamant in my response and feelings that I'd never feel guilty if we got through the dark times. And boy were they dark. All weekend in Vegas my better half noticed I looked detached and like I wasn't enjoying the incredible access we had with customers and partners. I turned down dinner invites and passed on access and invitations to others. Truth is: I felt really guilty. At our wind-down dinner on Sunday after the game, our VP Sales was clearly exhausted. I mentioned to my wife that "I hope he gets everything he deserves. He works so hard and cares so much." I hadn't seen him all week. She stopped me in my tracks when she responded: "You do too. And don't forget it." After dinner I was talking to an entrepreneur friend. I asked him if he was taking Monday off. "No" he responded "there's not point in it. It just delays the work I need to do anyways." Me neither. So many think being an entrepreneur ends with half-days and freedom. It doesn't. Freedom has fangs. And the to-do list never stops. I thought I'd be able to enjoy the fruits at some point. I now know that's not part of the game…and I don't want it to be. 3. When we work the event, we aren't part of the event. Last week I got to go to the Grammys, the Super Bowl, and the events around them. One thing stands out to me as strange: When the people who work the event post as if they're attending the event. It's strange to me. We're the servants of the event. We weren't invited to have the fun. It happens at every Grammys and Super Bowl party. Very strange.

What I've learned about working the Super Bowl over the years - part one

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech, & Live Events: On layoffs, cuts, and competition 1. Surviving an attacking bear is a lot different than advancing a career. Growing up playing sports, there were always tryouts. And, unfortunately, there usually weren't enough spots for everyone. Usually, when someone doesn't make a team, get one of the promotions, or gets caught in downsizing, they focus on who they believe was the worst of those who did get the job. "They took 12 players, and I'm better than the 11th and 12th" is a trap. There are often reasons those last two are in their spots. An example: When I played club volleyball growing up, we had a team with invitation-only tryouts during my junior year. Nike had pulled together the best local players and started a club with only one team in one age group to win gold in 1997. The coach, flying in weekly from Los Angeles, took ten kids. I was tenth. There were a lot of better players than me who complained, but I was taken as a project with potential. The following year, I was a starter. In my senior year, we took ten kids once again. One of them, my good friend to this day, played defense. We took him over a lot of outstanding players who could play multiple positions. They all whined, and still do, that they were "robbed by politics" and should have been on the team instead of him. They are wrong. He was a good player, and, more importantly, he was the absolute best teammate any of us ever had. He was a huge reason for all our success- which made him more valuable to our team than any of those other guys. When a sales team does layoffs, they often cut the "bottom 30%." Now, I'm not justifying layoffs at all. (We're guilty of it once - 13 people at the beginning of Covid, when live events went away for a year - done before PPP - and hired them all back within six months.) But nobody in the top 50% is concerned. The top half of the leaderboard is usually safe. We're not running from a bear. We need to be at the top of the pack. Trust me, I've been 10th out of 10. It's not a place anyone wants to be. 2. Cut to the clear line. I learned a similar lesson from my better half, who was a competitive cheerleader growing up at the highest levels. Her coach would say every year there was no roster size; they would "cut to the natural line," which I find to be terrific wisdom. When we set out to hire X number of people for a team, we sometimes don't find enough talented people. But sometimes we find too many. I've found cheer coach advice perfect: Cut to the natural line. One of our best hires was an "extra" hire in 2013. She's on the executive team here today. 3. Sometimes it's just not personal. Everything is personal to us. It's who we are . But sometimes, there just isn't room and a decision has to be made. Sometimes, it's not because we're not good enough, it's because someone is a better fit for what they're looking for. I was told, in college, I didn't get an internship because I wasn't professional enough in how I spoke. Then I made a nice living in sales. I wish we lived in a world where we could hire everyone and everyone made the team. But sometimes, not making it is the best blessing.

This week's learnings include: - Wisdom from a very successful friend on selling a business - Why Stanford's loss is our gain as employers - The blessing of traveling on a shoestring budget for many years

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events:   1. Do the thing at the start of the year, season, or quarter,  not at the end.   We started TicketManager on Sept 27, 2007. End of a quarter and end of year We raised one of our rounds on Nov 1. End of year in final quarter   It's a really small thing, but we've had to explain it quite often when talking about YoY trends It costs nothing to wait until the start of a new cycle, quarter, or year.  There's plenty to explain along the way. I don't need something else.   2. The great RFP awakening.   2023 was a year of correction for SaaS businesses. Growth slowed for many, NRR dropped, Net Expansion went off a cliff (see chart), layoffs were rampant, FCF was king, and profitability mattered once again   But something else happened too: Discipline in services returned.   growth-at-all-costs businesses learned that growth has a cost. And it changed customer expectations.   Customer after customer came to us looking to switch vendors. The problem, the deals they were offering were money losers. I saw it in so many businesses too, specifically SaaS, Agencies, and live events.   Investors were eating that loss in the name of future profits only they learned those profits weren't coming.   Now those customers are wandering the market looking for someone to respond to their RFP terms.   Our answer has always been the same: No thanks. Suggest the same for you. Business is best when everyone is healthy. We're not going to pay $100 for something and sell it for $90.   3. Covid tried to kill the multi-year deal.   SaaS TCV bookings targets got smashed this year as customers felt burned being stuck in multi-year deals over Covid.   See #2 on this one. Don't break the math. Do what will grow your business into a healthy vendor your customers can rely on. Let your competitors repeat the mistakes of the past. Once in a one year, companies don't go to multi year.   4. Stars like confetti.   I hope you had a terrific holiday.   The fallen world is built to tear down beauty.   But when God shows it in moments, in people, and in nature, man is it breathtaking.   As Rustin Cohle proclaimed when looking at the vastness of the dark night sky in True Detective: “Once there was only dark, if you ask me the light's winning” Happy New Year.   #TeamLight 

46. "Wrestlers" - The Netflix Documentary on Al Snow's Ohio Valley Wrestling could be taught as a full semester course in business school. The show chronicles the plight of a small wrestling business which has been around for decades but is struggling to adapt to the ever changing environment around them (spoiler: the Netflix exposure gave them a huge bounce after the show). What I learned watching "The Wrestlers" and have seen in my career: a. "How we've always done it" - those sinking the ship are often the ones stubbornly killing their own business who will fight any change. OVW was once a prominent player in wrestling. Back in the day, there were wrestling territories. These were smaller outfits who would act as a feeder system to the bigger businesses - WWE, WCW (now owned by WWE) and AEW. In the past decade, the WWE has bought up territories and created their own minor-league where they develop talent. At the same time, cable TV, especially regional cable, has fallen off a cliff. OVW was on a fast track to bankruptcy until two new investors bought in. It's a fascinating watch to see how stuck in the past the wrestlers and Al Snow are when discussing what to do next. An example: The new investors wanted to tour more and partner with local venues - which seemed successful. Al wanted to build to a big Pay Per View at the end of the year with the goal of 500 buys. They got 70. Yes, 70. At $15 a piece that's a whopping $1,050. That market opp had passed, and they wouldn't adapt. Will happen to you to. How we do things in our business today is so different than five years ago. Oh, and when you're trying to implement change in your org or a customers? You'll get the same pushback. It isn't nefarious, it's human nature. b. Never act impulsively in the moment. There are multiple blow ups between managers, investors, and the "talent." People get heated. It happens. That's not the time to do anything. This isn't a Morgan Wallen tune. Get out of there before you damage your culture. c. Wanting something isn't enough. A harsh reality in life is watching someone who really wants something, works hard for it, and doesn't get it. The show is full of people who won't let go of a dream that just won't happen - both in the "talent" and on the business side. And they're stuck because of it. I wanted to play in the NBA. Good thing I gave that up as I love what I'm doing now. We can get stuck rooting for people, but, in the end, this is a business. We have to love them enough to help them move on. The show provided a bump for the stars. Had it not come to town, they were all reduced to wrestling in parks in front of hands full of people while working the night shift at the Holiday Inn to make ends meet. I don't get to watch a lot of TV, but The Wrestlers was worth my time if you're looking for something to watch.

What I learned in business from playing sports in college. I played volleyball at USC. Not exactly the big time - but a fun time and the top of the mountain (at the time) for a small sport.* What was it like? I graduated high school in June. In July, I got a list of classes for the upcoming semester. As an athlete, I got to register first! Seems like a bonus, yes? No. It's for a reason. Practice was from 2-6 pm each day with occasional weight training, which would go until 7. Be there, dressed and ready, at 1:45. So I had to cross off 60% of the available classes. My day was simple during my freshman year:8 am to 1 pm: To take a full load, I'd have classes until 1 pm every day. That left me 45 minutes to eat lunch, get to the locker room, get dressed, get taped, and get to practice.2 pm to 6 pm: Practice. Competing hard with the best in the country to try and get on the court.6 pm Shower up, change, get to the cafeteria, and eat dinner.7 pm-9 pm: Mandatory study hours. Each athlete had to do ten supervised hours each week. If we wanted free time on the weekends, we had to get it done during the week9 pm: Back to the dorm for the first time since 8 am - if only just to drop off a backpack. That's 13 hours. If we had a group project with non-athletes, this was the only time we could meet - and they weren't keen on it as it was party time for most. Every. Single. Day. There were no days off. The football player's schedule was worse. Ten players were in my freshman class - ranked second in the country. One of them played all four years at USC. Four played for the USA and one, who didn't finish, was an All-American.  What I learned from playing sports in college:Hire college athletes. Having the physical ability to play sports has nearly zero to do with succeeding in most workplaces. Getting buckets on the hardwood or running fast won't help someone sell more insurance or write better code. But the discipline to get good grades while playing a college sport? That's miles ahead of most. The same goes for those who held down a job and got good marks in school.There's always someone trying to take my spot. The sooner we learn how to use that competition and fear, the better. I played a lot and even started a few times as a true freshman. The next year, the #1 recruit at the position chose USC. And then again the next. That's life. College athletes know that better than most.You better love what you do. I only played for two years at USC. When I got there, I loved volleyball. I played year-round and spent the summer after high school playing for Team USA. The following summer, I was burned out and, though selected to the U20 USA National Team, I declined and went home to Cupertino. One year later, I was done with the game - even though I started 10 of my last 11 matches and finished the 11th. My career path hasn't been much different. The more I've risen, the less balance there is. I learned early, I needed to love what I do. And I'm so grateful that I do.Shortcuts only hurt me. Nobody else. The cheating at USC was rampant. Thanks to friends on the football team, I got copies of tests in advance, had tutors try to do my homework for me, and even had my midterm essay swapped out with the starting running backs. I played volleyball. I needed to get an education. There were so many chances to take shortcuts. I learned not toNever underestimate what I'm capable of. Volleyball is a spring sport, so the first practices are in small groups. I was paired with a setter, Caleb, and a fifth-year senior, Trent, who played my position. He absolutely humiliated me. As one-sided a beating as one could endure. I called my dad after practice near tears to tell him I couldn't do this. The game is so much faster so much higher off the ground. He reassured me that they wouldn't have brought me there if they didn't think I could do it. Stick with it. I was seventh out of seven on the middle blocker depth chart at our first full-squad practice. I barely got to play. Only the top two started. I started my first match four months later. That felt like an impossible outcome after that first small group practice. A bonus non-work related one: Share this experience with the overeager youth sports parents. Too many push their kids toward this life without knowing what it really is. The glitz is nice, but there is a LOT of grit behind it.  College sports aren't for everyone. It turns out they weren't really for me - though I had some great times and learned many life lessons.Go Trojans =)

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events Be great and get left alone. A personal preference here but: I like being left alone to do my job. Now don't get me wrong, I love learning from those around, ahead, and behind me in their careers and seek those people out. But I don't like someone asking me what I'm doing, having regular check-in meetings, and micro-managing me. I don't believe most people do. Thing things I've learned to be left alone at work

This week we explore: - The sports business market and some of the current struggles - The sponsorship have and have nots - Bringing your whole fan to work

This week on the Three Things I discuss: 1) How much the curve has dropped for an enterprise business to be successful in 2023 2) What changing a job title did to our applicants and why it wasn't a good thing 3) Just how much junk mail is on LinkedIn

How having an offer pulled on me twenty years ago changed the way we team build

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events: 1. There's no food at the pantry 2. Our career and "La Catedral" 3. A great quote

Insider stories of LeBron's greatest game and how winning an argument would have sunk our business

Spent the week at the US Open and got inundated by content from the annual cloud meet-up at Saastr in the Bay Area. What I learned in a busy week in sports and SaaS!

This week, I discuss Trey Lance and the cold business of business. Getting cut, getting our opportunity, and some great one-liners

"Oh, that's your guy?" - The worst thing you can hear in the industry, according to NBA Champion turned investor Brandon Williams. Williams espoused the importance of taking time to nurse relationships and fight off the urge to move too quickly in our careers and in deals. When we rush towards our goals and bring below par people to the table, our judgement of character will be questioned and that's not easily earned back. Up and coming conferences have enormous ROI. We built our business on the IEG conference. It was small and easy to get access to decision makers who mattered for us. I went every year and we sponsored it for the final few. The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was the same for us in the early 10's. I never missed it. Take chances on smaller conferences, like One-Zero, which are well-run, and you'll get incredible access to network with hard-to-meet influencers in your industry. Big and well known conferences can be good too but in a far different way as access is difficult to the network we're hoping to meet.  You're getting married, so forget the games. There is so much advice on how to raise capital. Much of it is terrific advice similar to terrific sales advice. Just remember, you're getting work-married. If they don't want to invest in you or your idea and cite a small reason, like 'losing momentum in the process' or maybe not having the best deck, then you dodged a bullet. The interest has to go both ways. Yes, a small percentage of companies move really fast. But most great companies, and some exceptional ones, take years and years.  Is there value behind the numbers? Everyone wants to talk about vanity metrics like % growth or top-line numbers, but real investors will see right through those. Yes, you may have a competitor doing "$100m at 50%" and that sounds scary, but what is the margin? Is there a path to actually making money? Spent a lot of time with investors this week and there is fatigue around companies overselling their position. If you're good, just tell the truth. It works. If you know it all, don't get offended when people question it. Had a heated (on their side) exchange with a founder. They're 50-50 founders who "will split everything equally and come to an agreement over all differences of opinions." We tried that. It didn't work and cost me friendships which are still mending. I politely pointed out what they're attempting is the exception, not the rule, and I really do hope it works out for them. The vitriol I was met (by one of them) makes it clear they've heard this before. I'm all for swimming against the grain. Yelling at the fish on the way by is a waste of time. "Riches in the Niches" - Andrea Pagnanelli of National Cycling League discussing LAFC's approach to partners as they built a billion dollar team. That kind of laser focus on a market leads to big outcomes. "I need to get up earlier" - Every time we travel east it takes only one or two days to realize….I need to get up even earlier when at home. East coast bias is real in enterprise/smb. 

Three Things I Learned This Week In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events World Ticket Conference Edition 1. The Empire Strikes Back Just a few years ago, the Viagogo purchase of StubHub was publicly flogged as "The Worst Deal Ever." Covid caused cost cuts and the orgs weren't allowed to operate together as they worked their way through government approval. At WTC, word was StubHub has reclaimed their market share, is, reportedly, doing big CAGR numbers, and the investors are "very happy with Eric." Ya'll know how much I love the Charlie Wilson's War "We'll See" scene. Applicable, again, here. 2. Boom times in the secondary market The public may hate brokers, but they're cleaning up right now. The feel of the conference was of fat and happy players doing great margins. Many expected these kinds of numbers were going to hit as we came out of Covid. It took longer than many thought, but it looks like they're here now. Taylor Swift, F1 and other 'new' popular events are driving the big dollars. 3. Is the MLB Deal Working? So far, market share numbers haven't changed too much post SeatGeek's MLB deal (rumored at ~$75m). We'll be curious to see how the market share wars play out through the year as there may be some noise in the signal. SeatGeek's integration wasn't ready for Opening Day and rolled out mid Q2 so that may be a reason there wasn't a big shift in the attached numbers. 4. Bots, Pricing, Distribution and Money There was much more private money interest at the show than in years past. Ticketing has long been something to be "disrupted" and there are generally a few investors who trickle in and out. That noise has gotten louder as private equity and VC dollars circle the live events and ticketing markets, yet again. The hot topics this year for investors: distribution tools, pricing tools, and "browser tools" (read: bots. Nobody knows what a bot actually is. There are a number of 'automation tools' which are really just bots but being packaged as something else). In fairness, it isn't really clear in the law what a bot is and does, so the opportunists will push that envelope as far as they can.

This week I talk about the Three Immutable Laws Of Sales  1) Sell Something Great  2) Be Yourself  3) Do No Harm 

We talk about kissing frogs along the way, the audacity of those who will ask for jobs after hurting you, and yetis. Enjoy!

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech and Live Events Spent last week at my son's Junior National Volleyball tournament in Orlando (3rd place!). What I learned about business (and life) from 5 days in Florida capped off by a surprise medal: 1. A loss can be a win more often than we think - part six. In 2011, we thought we'd hooked a whale. FedEx was doing an rfp to replace their internally built ticket management system, which was actually a pretty good system, as the owners were retiring. We drove the RFP, had a number of meetings, and the big pitch felt like a formality. It wasn't. We lost. It was crushing. The biggest opportunity to date and we lost it to a competitor. I remember the drink at the bar after like it was yesterday. On day 2 of Junior Nationals, our son's team got upset. A few really tough calls made what should have been a blow out a too-close game and the boys lost. The path to a medal would go through the #1 team in the country. We stayed in touch with FedEx. Just over a year later, a phone call came. The vendor had dropped the ball. They wanted to make a switch. We've been proud to be their vendor ever since. Turns out, the #1 team in the country was a good match-up for our boys in the quarterfinals. They won. If they hadn't lost those two close heartbreakers on day 2 and day 3, they would have drawn the eventual winner instead. The scene from "Charlie Wilson's War" continues to amaze me, in life and business. 2. Matthew 7 and I'm asking. Prior to the match-up with the top team, I was talking to a friend who is a Pastor. I told him "It's Matthew 7, and I'm asking." I have a hard time praying for wins. We're so blessed in so much I feel guilty and often sell GOD short. What he said to me blew my mind: "Ask. Let's be honest, HE already knows!" In 2016, right after we raised our B round, we were given a mandate: hire a COO. We searched for awhile and didn't have any luck. Finally, we found one. The perfect person. But, we couldn't afford him. We weren't having any luck in talent, so I called a dear friend I knew from Church who was a hitter in talent at Workday for advice- did he know anyone who we could call. "I'll call you back in five minutes" was the response. He called and asked me why I didn't ask him? I didn't think he'd leave his big time gig to join our shop. So I asked. He joined us. Then he called the COO and asked him. And he joined us too. Ask. It's okay. 3. Everybody happy makes nobody happy. In the world of youth sports everyone wants their shine. Business is no different and it's a lesson I learned the hard way. At the big tourneys, the coaches select the All-Tournament players. To adults, All-Tournament awards in 13u sports aren't a big deal. But they are to the kids. One coach wanted to spread the love around by giving all tournament to kids who hadn't won it before. Seems like a great idea. Jim Halpert had the same idea when trying to blend birthdays in “The Office.” I've tried it too at work with just about everything: food, awards, social events. Try to make everyone happy. And why not? Shouldn't we all be happy for one another? Doesn't work that way. I've learned to give the accolades to those who are earning them. Otherwise I've just created a mess of sore feelings and resentment. In talking to one of his star players parents after the tournament, that player was furious and "wouldn't come back next year." It was reinforced what I've learned too many times: Be fair. Be transparent. And be as just as I can be. Otherwise, nobody is happy.

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech and Live Events 1. Selling out is bad advice. There are a number of gurus out there, led recently by one I admire a lot, Scott Galloway, offering the advice that chasing your passion is an outlier game for billionaires which means we're better off pursuing what we're good at. It is an important topic for me as I once had to make the decision to keep doing what I was good at, and safe in at a big stable company (News Corp), or jump ship to take a big risk on a short term job in sports (thanks Jerry Maguire for debuting at just the right time in my life). As I've gotten more blessings and 'things of this world,' I've had the chance to spend time with very "successful" people. Too many are miserable and stuck in the fuzzy handcuffs. They 'did what they were supposed to' and once they caught the rabbit, they realized they don't want the rabbit. Scott is so impressive. I really admire his content. Personally, I think he's very wrong on this one. I really do love my job. A lot. If he had put that content out and I had come across it in my 20's, I may not be here. I only get to go around this carousel once and I'm glad I'm doing it on the pony I chose and not the path of least resistance. Work is so much of our lives - I'd like to spend it on something I really care about - and by that, I mean something I'll do for the rest of my life even when it's not for money. 2. We all missed the point in the Karate Kid (At least Mr. Miyagi didn't). "Beating" someone proves nothing, changes nothing, and actually makes us all worse. Talking to some parents this week gave me a revelation I'm ashamed I didn't see earlier. We were discussing when a kid talks crap or tears down our boys and both dads advice to their sons in that situation was "well then go beat them and shut them up." Advice I've heard a lot and seems common. Heck, that's the entire premise of the movie (You're alright LaRusso!- forget how we've tortured you for months let's just move on). But what does that achieve? So we beat them in sports or business. Does that make us right? Better? Does it justify anything? Does that make us loving or help change the world for the better like I assume we want? Or does it just make us feel better personally while the vanquished change nothing about what they're doing? Michael Jordan beat everyone. Does that make him better? I watched his documentary and I can say with certainty I don't want to be 'like mike' at all. Or like Steve Jobs. Or, or, or. All it does is take us from "asshole" to "asshole who won at X." Trust me, I know. I won a lot when I was an asshole as a kid - and I'm very ashamed of all of it. I've never once seen someone change their feelings about someone or their actions after they lost to them. IME, when the 'good guy' beats the 'bad' guy, the 'bad' guy just comes back more intense. Try spending time with high schoolers these days - they ramp up the venom in ways that would make William Golding blush. Winning is great. I really like it. But not at all costs and it improves just about nothing. Just about everyone who change the world for Christ was murdered. 10 of the disciples, Paul, and on and on. The world "beat" them. But who changed it more? Work in progress for me. 3. SaaS is hurting and the buyers are flexing. We do multi-year deals for our software. We do this because, like most SaaS orgs, we lose quite a bit of money on a new customer for quite awhile before we get paid back and turn a profit (GMPP = X). Never before has there been more insistence on 1-year deals. I believe there are two reasons: 1) SaaS is hurting so badly, that many of these smaller/newer firms will cede and do the one year deal - which is bad for everyone and 2) As vendors get more desperate in the face of heavy churn, they'll do just about anything. The SaaS crunch hasn't hit us (thank you Lord), but we are seeing a change out there. Don't do bad deals. They're worse than no deals. 4. Self-promotion is necessary. Last week I shared that LinkedIn has gotten pretty cringy. In reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, the author highlights a number of super impressive people who didn't get accolades due to a total lack of self-promotion. Isaac Newton sat on breakthroughs for 20+ years. Reminds me of Jeff Clark finding, and surfing, Mavericks for 10 years before telling anyone else. It may be cringy, but there seems to be a need for it to a certain extent.

High school's coming to and end for a lot of our friends kids. I spend a lot of time with junior high and high school students as I've been volunteering with them through the church and sports for the past 24 years. It's only four years and yet so over-indexed by some that multiple people sat outside our 25 year reunion dealing with the anxiety of seeing everyone again. So, in the spirit of the season, here are the 6 most important things I learned in business as an also-ran in high school

1) Don't do bad deals. I know, I know, it sounds so simple - as most advice is. But it's one of the hardest disciplines to stay true to - as Learfield, and many others, are learning first hand. When things are good and booming, growth needs to come at all cost. Companies compete to "grab land" - buying up other companies, merging, and doing deals with big goals tied to them. On the other extreme, companies in down times give up on their cost discipline and start doing shorter term deals at lower prices - as Jason Lemkin points out here. Like anything else in business, avoid the extremes. Let your competition overpay for deals or undercut themselves. Some losses are good ones, as Learfield's competition is finding. Patience is the hardest part - when you know the math doesn't work but have to wait for competitors to learn it the hard way. We've had three competitors go bankrupt or change hands in distress just in the past five years, and that cycle will continuously repeat. https://sports.yahoo.com/learfield-losses-top-2-billion-235342487.html?guccounter=1 https://www.sportico.com/business/commerce/2023/learfield-debt-restructure-school-renegotiations-1234723296/ 2) Budget for crooks. Even when it's your own mistake. Back when I was at StubHub in the mid-00s, we used to use discount codes we called "fan codes." It was the early days and a customer would get a discount code to save money on a purchase - the most common being $25, $50, and $100 discount codes. Only one problem: whoever was responsible for the codes didn't put any restrictions on them. So what happened? A less-than-honest ticket broker got ahold of one of the fan codes, started buying baseball tickets for free (using fan codes) then re-selling the same ticket on the site. I don't know the exact number they got away with, but it was big. We've had multiple customers cross the FBI at TicketManager and when that happens, you don't get paid. We've seen ponzi schemes, employees stealing from their companies, and outright fraud. When you're early, vet your customers and budget for the crooks. 3. "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." - John Adams. When talking to people my age (old - mid 40's) there is more regret in the conversations than before. People wearing the fuzzy handcuffs doing a job they don't love to make opportunity for their offspring. Adam's quote is a great one: We do what we do, or our parents did what they did, so the next generation could explore their passion. I love my job.

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events 1) "Do not let yourself be deceitful, arrogant, or resentful." We don't get anywhere tearing people down. In fact, what we'll get are friends and a community who agrees with tearing others down as a normal thing to do. So what will they do to us when we stand out? Sat at a youth sports event with a friend I admire. They were bought into a match their kid was playing in- moreso than usual, and I asked why? “That boy won't play with my son so we (notice he said "we" not "he" - making it clear this was a household belief and not the child's) need to beat him.” I asked why the other kid wouldn't play with their son and they didn't know. Never asked. Never wanted to understand others. Just immediately went to tearing others down for not doing what they wanted. It happens in our business every day- we've even shared in a past three things how many will make competition into bad people so they can self-justify crummy behavior. Stay away from people who quickly move to tearing others down. It's lazy. As Tony Robbins says: "If we see a big beautiful building we have two choices: 1) Build our own. That's really hard. Or 2) Tear theirs down. Much easier." Find the builders. Spend time with them. Join a company who views the world through the building and understanding lens. Life's better there. For more, check out Chapter 11 in "Beyond Order" by Jordan Peterson. Terrific reading. 2) "I love you enough to allow you to fail." South Carolina Women's Basketball super coach Dawn Staley offered a terrific piece of advice/constructive criticism to parents of the next generation. And just about every psychology book reaffirms her position. When I was 21 years old I fell ass-backwards into a job with a phenomenal boss - my now friend Roger Stewart. Everyone was gone one day and I had to enter the specs for a newspaper print ad in the northeast (I realize how old I am as I type this). I made a big mistake. It cost the company over $100k. For reference, I was being paid $36k/year. I was mortified. When Roger returned, he walked into my cubicle. I froze. He put his hand on my shoulder and told me it was an honest mistake, I clearly cared and had learned from it, and we were never going to talk about it again. We didn't. I've employed the same approach on a number of occasions here at TicketManager. What terrific wisdom from a perennial winner in Staley. 3) "Winners are never judged by how. They save that for the losers" - Beth Dutton. We've had GOD teach us quite a lot of lessons here over time. One of them: You have to learn how to lose, and what it feels like, before you can win well. By well, we mean with humility, grace and gratitude knowing those wins are much less about what we did and much more about the circumstances, and people, around us. Dutton's claim is too common in today's world, where winning, wealth, power and the like are once-again conflated with favor. It's the opposite. Winning can be the ultimate tool to erode a soul. Winning at all costs comes at a tremendous cost. 4) The LeBron Swift effect. Years ago, Bill Simmons penned an argument for why LeBron James was worth 10x what he was paid due to the impact he had on the economy around him. Think Deloris Jordan saying "The NBA isn't going advertise Michael Jordan, it's going to be the other way around." Earnings coming out the past month for the major public ticketing players shows just how much impact Taylor had on the primary and secondary market. She's the biggest live event money maker of our lifetime. What she does driving commerce changes the market by staggering numbers. Just go have a look. 5) "People usually relax when you tell them to." A good laugh.

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events 1. It's great to be a vampire in a bloodbath. But you gotta stick to your vampire roots. Applications at TicketManager are up 10x. Our business is doing great. But it was last year too. The difference? It's a bloodbath out there. And that means now, as in right now, is the time to hire stars away. Yes, it's scary to swim against the grain, but it is the only time stars will leave. They're stars - they're well taken care of and often difficult to poach. But when their peers are getting cut in droves? They'll take the phone call. Even the so-called "contrarians" are afraid these days. Talking to investors in venture and PE, they're all trying to win bargains citing "the current landscape." An easy translation of what they're actually saying is they were either: a) stupid and overpaying before or b) actually don't believe in their thesis. There was a lot of whining about dry powder and overpriced deals due to too much competition in the market. Well? Deals are down huge. Those who were whining need to be doing deals. Be bold and move now. Talent is out there. 2. Deceit always finds a way. Had drinks with a buddy the other day and his 18 year old daughter. At a bar. Where we were all ID'd. (which btw I'm fine with - drinking age should be 18 anyways but I digress). Her fake ID was immaculate. The technology states are using to create IDs is a quantum leap from the days where I paraded around as 'Thomas James,' a 26 year old from Virginia. And yet, here she was. With an ID so good it actually scanned as 21 years old on the card readers. This is why ticket brokers will always be around. They're incentives are more powerful to them than the incentives of those trying to stop them. Same goes with the bars and fake IDs 3. "Who are we to decide what's best for us in our lives?" Golf's world #2, Scottie Scheffler, remembering the advice his wife gave him as he was heading out to the final round to win the Masters. We can only do so much. We can prepare for the moment, do the work, put ourselves in position to win, and then know the outcome isn't in our hands - and that's okay. Nice to know in our 26-27 overtime loss last Thursday =). We'll be back.

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events 1. Fate and a George Foreman grill. Did you know Hulk Hogan was offered what would eventually become the George Foreman grill? Hogan had the first choice between the grill and a mixing device. Only problem was, he wasn't by the phone for the call. George Foreman was. He picked the grill. A $100m mistake by Hogan. Work/life balance matters. A lot. But the best ability, is still availability (thanks to Danny Ainge for that one). The world doesn't wait for us. The sooner we learn, the better off we are in this dog-eat-dog world. Sometimes, you just have to take the call. As my co-founder would say "If you can't reach me, you're not trying." A big part of our early success. We are available to our customers and partners at all times. 2. "They only show the golfers who are winning." We're in a recession right now, and even the NBA feels the pain (so do the other leagues not-named-NFL, they just haven't had that story told….yet) Sports have exploded and seem to have had no signs of slowing down. Well, kinda. The NBA announced this week there would be hiring freezes and cutbacks on expenses in fear of a coming recession (it's not coming, it's already here). Fact is the league is talking to the same sponsors we are and the lagging numbers don't look good. In honesty, numbers really haven't looked good for awhile and were just artificially inflated by the inflow of new categories of gambling, crypto and VC funded company deals - two of the three of which were never real deals in the first place. That money is gone and there isn't anything new to take it's place. Sponsorship goals are usually lagging indicators, which means a whole lot of teams are missing a whole lot of numbers this year. The reason it doesn't seem that way? We pay all our attention to the winning outliers. The NFL. The Taylor Swift's. The F1 races. The Masters. Meanwhile, the middle-of-the-road teams are drowning. And we need more than just the Washington Generals to play against. 3. Boxing, Horse Racing, Baseball and Blockbuster Video. Nothing is disruption proof no matter how it feels in the moment. Many years ago I sat in a keynote with Bob Bowman, then top person at MLBAM. He espoused baseball's success in staying relevant by citing “the three top sports in 1955 were baseball, boxing and horse racing.” Each sport is still plenty lucrative, but boxing and horse racing don't have the same place in the zeitgeist or anywhere near it. His boast was baseball still does. Nobody saw the NFL coming. Nobody believed in the UFC. This excellent quote from Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph this week "If you are unwilling to disrupt your business, there will always be someone willing to do it for you." So who's next? PLL? Pickleball? LIV? Maybe. But it's likely something we're not even considering right now. Kudos to baseball for disrupting themselves with widely loved rule changes. Easy to overlook how big a risk they took now that it worked out.