The Upside Newsletter

This week we had the honor to interview Kai Bond, partner at Courtside Ventures , a leading sports tech VC, focused on early-stage sports, fitness, and gaming companies.  Kai is a repeat founder, starting 3 companies and has spent the last 5 years as an early stage investor in NYC. 📝Show Notes:Throughout our conversation, we talked about his background (3x founder, Comcast Ventures, Samsung NEXT,...

This week we had the honor to interview again Dr. Ron Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then four years in the NCAA. 📝Show Notes:   Throughout our conversation, we talked about the various leagues (NBA, MLS, Laliga, Premiere League)...

This week we had the honor to interview Pete DeNagy, President of Acommence advisors, and founder of IOT America . Pete is also the former GM of Samsung enterprise.  📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we touched on his background, his view on the top 5G/WIFI 6 use cases in sports stadiums, the biggest benefits he sees for teams to use 5G/WIFI 6. He also gave his view on how 5G/WIFI 6 can...

This week we had the honor to interview Dr. Ron Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then four years in the NCAA. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we touched on his background, his view on the COVID-19 crisis, but also what te...

This week we had the honor to interview Josh Margulies, Director of Integrated Brand Marketing for the Jacksonville Jaguars a top NFL team.  📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we touched on his role at the Jags, the great job his team is doing in terms of fans engagement. Josh also gave us his advice for teams looking to offset loss in ticket sales due to COVID-19, and we talked about his...

This week we had the honor of chatting with Richard Hanbury, CEO of Sana Health . 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we touched on how Richard got the idea of Sana Health, how his technology works, and how it can help players with sleep, recovery, pain, then we talked about his future plans for the next 24 months.  🚀 Best Quotes:  Here’s some of the key discussion points and best quotes...

This week we had the honor of chatting with Len Zaichkowsky, PhD, retired Professor from the Boston University, World-class’ sports biofeedback expert, and performance consultant who has worked with many elite pro teams (Vancouver Canucks (NHL), Real Madrid, National Spanish soccer team…) over the years. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we touched on how he started his career in biofeed...

This week we had the honor of chatting with Matt Arden the head of content and media at the NBA 2K League. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we touched on the main reasons behind the launch of the NBA 2K League’s Three For All Showdown tournament, the new studio in New York, what the NBA 2K League has learned so far since the beginning of the tournament, and where the content and broadca...

Increasingly, our voice — and the voice of our apps, digital assistants and smartphones is having a larger role in the way we get things done both at home and in our professional lives. Last year, we had the honor of chatting with  Adam Cheyer , the founder of Siri (sold to Apple), Viv Labs (sold to Samsung), and known as a world’s pioneer in the world of AI. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversa...

This week we had the honor to interview Vasu Kulkarni partner at Courtside Ventures a leading sports tech VC in NY. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we talked about how he got into the VC world, what he is looking for when considering investing into a startup, and what he believes are the major trends in sports tech and which sports tech sectors are likely to benefit from the current en...

This week we had the honor to interview Blake McFarland, Senior Manager of Esports for Sporting KC, a top MLS team. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we talked about about Sporting KC's decision to enter Esports, but also what they’ve learned so far as being part of the eMLS league, what the challenges have been and what their plans are for the next two years. 🚀 Best Quotes:  Here’s som...

Ben Payne, Director of Esports at McLaren This week we had the honor to interview Ben Payne, the head of eSports at McLaren, a top F1 team. 📝Show Notes:  Throughout our conversation, we talked about McLaren’s decision to enter esports, the response from their fans so far and the impact on their business, the recipe for success for a sports organization to enter the  esports market..and McLaren’s...