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

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,...

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...

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 fo...

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 co...

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 watchin...

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. Pr...

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 be...

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...

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...

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...

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 doi...