4 Lessons learned growing a company which translate to just about anything
And how they helped my middle school son and I win our first fantasy basketball league together
My middle school son and I played fantasy basketball this year for the first time as something to do together. What started as an afterthought became something we did together every day. And we ended up winning. It was stressful and exciting as we got closer to the end. The lessons were the same as building a $100m start-up in so many ways.
Here's four things we learned running a start-up which we used in winning our fantasy hoops league:
The beginning is the hardest part
The competition is relatively even. Everyone is fresh, excited, optimistic, and working hard to win.
We started the season 2-3 and fell behind early in week six. It looked bad. But we committed to doing our best no matter how it was going. We finished 17-4.
When we started TicketManager, we had seven competitors. Three who were well capitalized, had big customers, and had been at it for a for years. It was hard. They were committed to winning business and they were starting from a better place than we were. They were working just as hard as we were and were just as committed to the end goal.
Like anything else, competition falls off with time. People lose or hit hard times and can't, or won't, bounce back. They make bad decisions and then quit instead of trying to right the ship. Everyone knows any fantasy league will have 1/3rd of the teams quit by years end. In the start-up game, the drop out rate is even higher.
A few months ago we hit a landmark in ticket management: the last founder of our competitors quit and left the industry.
They're all gone. It's just me. Yet here we are.
Be resilient through the start - it's the hardest part.
Play the long game with potential
My son loves Klay Thompson. He has been my son's favorite player for years. At the start of the season, Klay was hurt and had no timetable for return when we drafted him in the last round. We parked him on the IR, losing a roster spot, and it hurt our flexibility in the early games. But, we were planning on playing for the win in the end, so we kept him.
Back in 2013, we held interviews for our VIP sales team. It came down to two people - one of which was a superstar but it didn't seem like the job for them as the other candidate was a more traditional sales person. We hired the sales person. But we called the superstar and hired her anyways, even though we didn't have a job for her and had no idea what she'd do for us. We just knew we wanted her here.
Today, she's on our executive team and the heart and soul of the business.
At 8:22pm on Sunday night we were tied in the championship game. It was crazy how late it was - last day, last 20 minutes of a near 8 month season.
Who was left playing? Klay Thompson. Klay went for 41 points and won it for us.
Much like we're where we are b/c of that hire. Play the long game with potential.
Do the best with what you have. It’s never going to be perfect
We messed up the draft on draft day. Yes, I run a tech firm. Yes, 12 year olds can do fantasy drafts. Yes, I still missed the beginning which led us to auto-drafting James Harden (we're not fans) and other players we didn't like.
We didn't have roster flexibility at all positions so we decided we were going to make more moves than anyone else and play match-ups. It's all we could do. The team we played in the finals had almost no injuries, had Trae Young and Joel Embiid, who never got hurt and won the scoring title, and didn't need to make moves. We did. A lot. We maxed out our transactions. They didn't come close.
Our competition had more money, people, customers and resources than us. After our investor bailed on us, we had a big pitch with CenterPoint Energy in Houston to keep our company alive. We couldn't compete in a traditional way - like we couldn't in hoops. So we took a different route.
And it worked. We won.
Play through the ups and downs.
A high draft pick of ours, Collin Sexton, was lost for the season early on. Then Paul George went down for the second half and James Harden decided he didn't want to play basketball for a few months. Then Dejounte Murray, our best player, missed our playoffs.
A season will throw things at us we can't control.
A start-up? Even more so.
Top reps quit. Deals fall through. Investors change.
In 2008, our investor pulled out on us. We had $44k in the bank and six full-time employees to pay. He just left. No sorry, no nothing. We didn't have time to whine and mope. We were broke and had to figure out a way to win.
Despite the setbacks, we believed in what we were doing. So we kept doing it. Another player down? Keep playing. Customer chose someone else? Keep playing. Top rep quit? Keep playing.
You know what they say: "You can't have ups without downs."
Playing fantasy hoops was an afterthought when we signed up. We didn't think we'd pay much attention and, after messing up the draft, even named our team "Team Trying To Delete."
But as time passed, it became an incredible blessing we did together. Talking about our team all season long. Texting each other throughout the day. Winning was great. Looking back, though, the time together is what I'll never forget.
Funny how similar that is to how we see our journey here.