Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events 3.20.23
A hiring bonanza, sports tech accelerators and the best advice I've ever gotten from an otherwise pretty crummy movie
Three Things I Learned This Week:
The job market has swung significantly. For the past decade, many of the most prominent recruiters wouldn't work on certain jobs we had open. Now? They'll take anything. And it's getting harder for applicants to stand out. As an example: We are always hiring SDRs. We grow from within and move them around into openings as they come up within our company. Historically, we feel great when we have between 4 and 8 qualified SDRs in our pipeline. We currently have 32. All ready to work from the office. The pendulum has swung and we all need to adapt.
Choose your tech accelerator very carefully. Getting into the start-up accelerator business has been a sexy proposition lately. We've seen just about everyone jump into the game: The MLS, NBA, Minnesota Twins, LA Dodgers, FC Barcelona and on and on. Here are three examples:
It's enticing to go try to "win" a spot in an accelerator, but make sure they can add very significant value to your business. Sat with a friend who raised $30m after going through a prominent teams accelerator. His feedback? "I wasted 5% and I got nothing out of the process." There's going to be a lot of that. Being successful climbing the ladder a pro team may have nothing to do with your business. Make sure they can add value before you give away any of yours. Your much better off finding an accelerator with professionals who have experience building a business similar to yours. Hold on to your equity, and partner with the teams and leagues later. We’ve had everyone try to get on our cap table and it is’t easy to say no - especially in the beginning.
"If you pray for patience, do you think God gives you patience? Or does He give you the opportunity to be patient? If you pray for courage, do you think He just gives you courage? Or do you think He puts you in a position to learn to be courageous and then put it to the test?" I won't spoil it by stating the source, but some terrific insight from an otherwise pretty crummy movie.