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

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 se...

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,...

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...

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,...

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....

Three Things I Learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events:     Talking jobs today.     It's rough out there. Feels a bit like 2001/2. There are a LOT more people unemployed in the white collar jobs - especially higher up - than I've seen. And much more than media is letting on.     Three things I learned over the past month as we're hiring and seeing candidates along with what's changing. All tru...

This week we discuss Ticketmaster's most recent trip to Washington DC and why it is much ado about nothing

This week we talk the 2023 Super Bowl market, the chaos of the last time the Super Bowl was in Phoenix, the Snake Pit shutdown at the 2008 BCS Championship and some entreprenuerial advice from John Dutton

We've been doing the entrepreneur game for 15 years now. My how time flies. During that time, we've raised a number of rounds, for us and for companies we help advise, and been through a few processes. There are a lot of ways to raise money- many of which are glamorized. However, at its core, raising money is finding a partner you'll be working with for a long time. Years not months in most all ca...

1. Cash comp + Stock comp + Applause = Total Comp. We all have a finite amount of money, stock, and applause we can spread out on our team. And applause is just as, if not more, important as cash and stock comp. Applause for everyone and you have applause inflation. It means nothing. Too little applause and the scarcity makes it matter more. Applause, for most, has the same impact as cash and stoc...

Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events: 1. "All I'm doing it laying people off and closing down businesses." - a seed stage VC fund of mine. "We use leverage to fund deals. Leverage is exponentially more expensive now and getting worse."- a Private Equity MP friend of mine. "It's never been a worse time to work at a start-up" - another VC friend. I disagree. There's no better t...

1) You live in the future - and you'll get used to it. As a career progresses, there are fewer short term wins. There's always a bigger goal down the road. The goalposts are constantly moving. And when you hit that big goal? You'll have moved onto the next one months before. Find the wins in the day to day and learn how to be gracious when others congratulate your team on a month/quarter/year/deca...

The Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events: (Apologies for the poor sound quality on #2) 1. Authenticity has demolished the status quo. In everything. One word took over the day at our summit conference two weeks back: authenticity. Kenny Smith shared the secret to how Inside The NBA has stayed so relevant for 22 years with a number of stories about honesty and authenticity. Th...

The Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events: 1. Don't let fear make tough decisions for you. Do what you think is best for your company even if it is wildly unpopular - like going back to the office 4 to 5 days a week if you believe that's what your company needs (not all do). We get comments of amazement all the time when doing zooms and people see we're fully in the office fou...

On October 5th 2009 we got our first big break. CNBC reporter, and now friend, Darren Rovell posted an article featuring a stat we'd pulled from a number of early customers: our estimation, based on our numbers and experience, that companies wasted 43% of their tickets.* https://www.cnbc.com/id/33182576 The article did so well, I got a phone call at 5:30am the next day asking if we could go live o...

Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech, and Live Events 1. "Just because you're doing a lot more, doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done." Great quote by Denzel. Such a double edged sword on this one. It is true. Hustle culture creates busy and busy can be counter productive. But: stuff needs to get done. A lot! And if it doesn't, our startups don't last long and die a death by a thousa...

Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events: 1. Quiet quitting isn't new. Been hiring staff 20+ years and there's always been the "do just enough" group. More power to them on their new marketing slogan. Now we're not saying anyone needs to burn the midnight oil or work weekends/holidays, we've covered that here before. And too often there are extremes cited in a rational discussion...

Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events: Ticketing rumors and happening this week: 1. SeatGeek raised $238m from, essentially, the group that made up the cancelled SPAC. That's a sizable show of confidence. It means more deals are on the way. This late in the game (Series C), raises that size aren't speculative. They are usually meant to fund well-defined objectives which are al...

Three Things I Learned in Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events: Sending kids off to college week! Who we are in the transitions - maybe the most important crossroads of our lives. One of the greatest pleasures of my life was volunteering with high school kids for 11 years. I got to know them and watch the grow through HS and had a front-row seat while they transitioned into a new life. Here are the...

What I learned about vacation after 15 years running a business. Taking a vacation is different for everyone. We all have our own pressures. Taking vacation as an entrepreneur is something I'm still learning to do - 15 years in - from experience and from many mentors. Here are six things I learned about vacation. Hope they help you skip a few speed bumps along the way: 1) Always take one. No excep...

Had quite an adventure in Orlando watching our 12 year old son win a silver medal in the Junior National Volleyball Championship in front of a surprisingly big crowd. 12 year old volley is serious business to many these days. That said, it was a really fun experience and I learned so much about life and work. Here are three things I learned at Orlando AAU '22 1. "You don't want to be the kid every...

Three Things I learned in SaaS, Sports, Tech and Live Events: The death of the modern Pac-12 We knew for years USC leaving the Pac-12 was going to happen - I said it on the radio numerous times. And it finally happened. Here's what I learned from the news and how it applies to our business: 1) Remember "History doesn't repeat itself, people do"? Voltaire's premise applies here. Take the time to re...

Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events On Quitting The great resignation, companies pulling offers, Gig workers and recessions are all in the news these days. Today, what I've learned about quitting - both in my experience and seeing others. 1. The stigma of labeling someone a quitter can be weaponized to enable bad actors and further encourage their poor behavior. "Nobody li...

Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events 1. Time kills all deals. SeatGeek and Red Ball called off their $1.35b SPAC deal which looks like it will lead to the SPAC getting dissolved (they have until August to merge with a company). In 2017, we had a company try to acquire us. Diligence lasted three months and we still weren't much closer to getting a deal done. Though I wanted...

hree Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events 1. If you want to finish first, first you have to finish. Saw this on F1's Drive to Survive and it rings true in business. Recession and inflation are the words of the week with all kinds of doomsdayers out and about. They may be wrong and they may be right. Doesn't matter. If we knew that answer, we'd be on somewhere on a beach earning 2...