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Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in

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Speaker 1: which we speak with some of the brightest minds working

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Speaker 1: in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety.

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Speaker 1: Twenty years ago, Jeb Terry got an eye full of

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Speaker 1: the NFL up close when he made the roster of

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Speaker 1: teams like the forty nine Ers and Buccaneers as an

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Speaker 1: offensive guard. Today, he's playing a very different position, but

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Speaker 1: still getting an eyeful of the sports world as CEO

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Speaker 1: of Cosm, a fascinating new business enabling fans to see

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Speaker 1: games in specially designed venues with customized screens so massive

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Speaker 1: you can trick your brain into thinking you're watching court side.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back to talk about this business with Jeb

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Speaker 1: in just a moment, and we are back with Cosm

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Speaker 1: CEO Jeb Terry. Jeb, thanks for making the time to

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Speaker 1: talk to me.

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Speaker 2: Andrew, appreciate you having me on. Excited to share more

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Speaker 2: about COSM.

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Speaker 1: So we got to start with just explaining the experience.

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Speaker 1: I had the honor of going down to your la facility.

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Speaker 1: I got to see it. Describing it though, I just

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Speaker 1: want to make sure let's talk about it like you

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Speaker 1: were telling your grandma. The what the cosm experience.

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Speaker 2: Is, Well, what we can all agree on is that

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Speaker 2: it's a must sy to believe. When you try to

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Speaker 2: describe it, you use words like immersive, experiential, hires, all

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Speaker 2: these you know, really compelling word choices, and you kind

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Speaker 2: of sounded a hyperbolic at times. But at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, this whole thing is about a concept

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Speaker 2: that we call shared reality. It's leveraging all the amazing

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Speaker 2: immersive technology that's out there in market, some of the

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Speaker 2: stuff that we built ourselves, but leaning into the experience economy,

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Speaker 2: and it's this notion of wanting to be with a crowd,

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Speaker 2: having fun, celebrating the energy of the room, and it's

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Speaker 2: about being the best watch party.

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Speaker 3: That's really what cousms about.

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Speaker 1: Technically speaking, though, let's talk about it from that perspective.

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Speaker 1: Explain in terms of the size of these screens. The

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Speaker 1: resolution wow us with the numbers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's essentially a twenty six meter diameter LED display

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Speaker 2: that's twelve K resolution that wraps up and around you

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Speaker 2: and over your head where hundreds of fans can sit

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Speaker 2: within this dome environment and see eight K plus resolution

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Speaker 2: that our media team is producing to put you in

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Speaker 2: that best seat in the house. We're switching cameras, we're

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Speaker 2: following the action. We're really giving the fans that incredible

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Speaker 2: first person experience like they're actually at the event itself,

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Speaker 2: and we do it live. So this is something that's

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Speaker 2: really technologically advanced. That is a net new offering and

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Speaker 2: market and a new experience that we're seeing people really enjoy.

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Speaker 1: And look, like I said, I was there in La

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Speaker 1: I could vouch for this. And the thing I want

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Speaker 1: to make clear to people because obviously you got to

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Speaker 1: see it to believe it. A podcast isn't the best

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Speaker 1: place to describe the experience. But you know, there's lots

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Speaker 1: of technologies like I'll think about Apple Vision Pro where

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Speaker 1: it's more like you could see where the product is going.

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Speaker 1: It's not quite there yet, your product it's there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you're going to innovate it and make it

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Speaker 1: even better in the coming months or years. But this

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Speaker 1: is a fully baked vision, wouldn't you say, Or am

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Speaker 1: I maybe selling it short and it's got a lot

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Speaker 1: more to go?

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Speaker 2: No, this is a very well I'll say it's well baked.

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Speaker 2: There's always room for improvement, and the fact of the matter,

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Speaker 2: is by owning our own technology stack and everything around it,

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Speaker 2: we're always going to continue to improve. That's that's the

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Speaker 2: core of our whole company ethos. One of the things

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Speaker 2: we like to say is we are the venue of now,

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Speaker 2: not the venue of the future. The venue of the

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Speaker 2: future implies obsolescence. We always want to be now, whether

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Speaker 2: it's today or ten years from now. We want to

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Speaker 2: be the best of breed experience, showcasing the best technological

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Speaker 2: advancements possible, and that's why we built the company that way.

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Speaker 2: But we feel great about the fan feedback we've been

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Speaker 2: getting the experience. We're seeing seeing the fan reaction coming

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Speaker 2: in for the first time and then watching fans come back,

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Speaker 2: and we're starting to see people come back time and

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Speaker 2: time again for the same sport category or even other

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Speaker 2: sports or other entertainment offerings. And that's what's really gratifying

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Speaker 2: is when you can see that fan them light up

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Speaker 2: when they see the experience and they experience the food

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Speaker 2: and drinks and everything around it. That's core to it.

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Speaker 2: And one of the things Andrew I missed probably was

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Speaker 2: that the F and B offering is really part of

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Speaker 2: this whole entire shared reality experience. We want to make

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Speaker 2: sure you have great food, great drinks, comfortable seeding. It's

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Speaker 2: not a theater, and we give all those amenuties you

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Speaker 2: might expect at club or VIP sections of these arenas

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Speaker 2: and stadiums being built today.

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Speaker 1: We should also make clear that the LA facility is

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Speaker 1: just one building you have in market. There is a second,

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Speaker 1: I believe in Dallas, and a third coming to Atlanta

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Speaker 1: and a big number projected for twenty thirty. Walk us

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Speaker 1: through that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So our goal is to take COSM global. You know,

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Speaker 2: we've been working on this a while and we built

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Speaker 2: the whole back end so that we can scale this.

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Speaker 2: It's why we opened two essentially at the same time,

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Speaker 2: is to really define that multi point thesis. We've announced

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Speaker 2: Atlanta and we have big, big aspirations to take this

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Speaker 2: from now to open to over one hundred one day.

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Speaker 2: That's that's our goal. We really think that's achievable because

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Speaker 2: we look at all these major markets both in the

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Speaker 2: US and internationally and they can support that COSM location.

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Speaker 2: And we've been working on this real estate scale to

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Speaker 2: continue to widen those opportunities and grow. You know, I'd

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Speaker 2: love to one point get to where we're opening ten

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Speaker 2: a year. We're not there yet, but that's aspirationally where

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Speaker 2: we're going. As we get to this big scale and

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Speaker 2: each venue Andrew is a essentially a node in a network.

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Speaker 2: We can take the same feed and distribute it all around,

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Speaker 2: really increasing that overall audience or that single source and

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Speaker 2: addressing the demand in various markets.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, going to be interesting to see

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Speaker 1: how you scale. And I'm curious about the financial side

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Speaker 1: of this. I think you guys recently got a two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollar infusion that values the company

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Speaker 1: at a billion dollars. Sounds like a lot, but the

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Speaker 1: truth is these facilities probably cost a ton.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're really comfortable with what our facilities are costing

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Speaker 2: right now. We didn't go into this thinking anything's going

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Speaker 2: to be a loss leader, and we structured this to

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Speaker 2: ensure that we can monetize these venues properly and justify

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Speaker 2: the capex it costs to build these things. So as

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Speaker 2: we look at this scale, we raise the money for

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Speaker 2: pure growth capital. It is about deployment and scaling more

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Speaker 2: and more and more on a single site. These are

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Speaker 2: operationally profitable. This is why how we structure this business.

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Speaker 2: But it's about this long term scale and the viability

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Speaker 2: of the enterprise and the valuation that you mentioned. It's

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Speaker 2: really indicative of the enterprise that we've built. We're not

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Speaker 2: just a single venue builder. We have our COSM Media

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Speaker 2: and our Technologies orgs where we sell through our technology

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Speaker 2: and services to the broader ecosystem across a lot of

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Speaker 2: different industries. So we really have a good steady state

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Speaker 2: of monetization of where we're going and a number of

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Speaker 2: opportunities that we're going to be deploying our technology and

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Speaker 2: expertise around the world in addition to everything we're doing

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Speaker 2: in the venues.

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Speaker 3: So think of the.

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Speaker 2: Venues as the best consumer expression of our brand and

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Speaker 2: all of our tech. But everything you see in there,

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Speaker 2: from the display to the production, to the app to

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Speaker 2: the back end XMS system is CAUSM and that's really

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Speaker 2: where that valuation is supported. In those scale opportunities as well.

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Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the origin story of COSM,

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Speaker 1: because I was interested to learn that you guys have

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Speaker 1: your roots in the planetarium business, which actually makes a

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Speaker 1: ton of sense. It's just I've never even thought about

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Speaker 1: that as a business.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing when you sit back and think

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Speaker 2: about it, You're like, oh, I kind of get it.

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Speaker 3: It makes sense.

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Speaker 2: So the planetarium, it's the first immersive or experiential venue

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Speaker 2: ever created the goals to take into space. And you

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Speaker 2: probably remember one of the first times you went in,

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Speaker 2: right that that awe inspiring surprise and delight as a

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Speaker 2: kid when you went into a planetarium. And so when

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Speaker 2: we set out to bring the CAUSEM vision to life,

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Speaker 2: we looked at all these opportunities and how do we

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Speaker 2: make this happen? And my chairman and I my chairman

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Speaker 2: a guy named Steve. When we're ideating around how do

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Speaker 2: you make this thing happen, I'll say Steve when the

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Speaker 2: I not the y okay, I was like a second

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Speaker 2: to clarify. Yeah, So really thinking through this, and he

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Speaker 2: already known he'd always been fascinated with the planetariums and

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Speaker 2: and really had understood and had a lot of passion

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Speaker 2: for it. And so looking at it, it's like, wow,

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Speaker 2: this planetarium is underlying technology is pretty incredible, and so

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Speaker 2: we could leverage that tech to do more things, and

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Speaker 2: it turned out it made sense for us to acquire

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Speaker 2: that business. So today we are still the largest planetarium

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Speaker 2: company in the world. We power over seven hundred globally,

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Speaker 2: and so that software has been hardened over time, decades

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Speaker 2: and decades, and so it's not like we just came

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Speaker 2: up with something and slapped together and opened a venue, right,

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Speaker 2: it's that infrastructure that's been built, and so now we're

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Speaker 2: able to leverage a lot of that same core discipline

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Speaker 2: of putting data in cool dome surfaces and now bring

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Speaker 2: that to life within our venues. You know, the prevailing

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Speaker 2: game engines of the world today, like Unreal and Unity

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Speaker 2: we are Our engine is very similar to that, and

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Speaker 2: we're compatible with both engines, and so you can drag

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Speaker 2: and drop and bring content from all types there. We've

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Speaker 2: also acquired two other companies. One was Livelike VR. We

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Speaker 2: bought that company in twenty twenty as a carve out

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Speaker 2: of Live Like and they are a VR production company

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Speaker 2: for live sports. A great team, had great tech. We

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Speaker 2: had the opportunity to buy that business and bring it

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Speaker 2: in and we still service that industry. So we produce

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Speaker 2: immersive content. We worked with the Olympics and the World

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Speaker 2: Cup and a number of others. We work with a

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Speaker 2: number of headset providers today. And then we also bought

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Speaker 2: a company called C three sixty, which is really known

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Speaker 2: for the pylon camera on NFL Sundays. So if you

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Speaker 2: watch NFL, you know when the guy's diving over the

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Speaker 2: goal line and they cut to that camera. Yep, that

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Speaker 2: is us a majority of the time. And so having

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Speaker 2: this tech deployed and all this unique capture methodology, we're

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Speaker 2: able to bring that in in one house. We call

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Speaker 2: it Cosm, So that's the Cosmos meets the coliseum.

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Speaker 1: It's funny you bring up the brand name because I

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Speaker 1: get it now, but I still think this new business

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Speaker 1: of yours needs its own brand name that is a

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Speaker 1: little more evocative of the experience my two cents. So

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that's something you're even thinking about.

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Speaker 2: Well, so it's interesting you say that. When we were

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Speaker 2: coming up with the name, you know, really, this this

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Speaker 2: combination of Cosm of Colisseum and the Cosmos, like the

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Speaker 2: science education vertical, is critical to who we are. It's

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Speaker 2: part of our foundational elements. It will always be important.

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Speaker 2: So we really wanted to pay respect to that industry

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Speaker 2: and our clients there. And of course the Colisseum side

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Speaker 2: Cosm was also a four letter domain we could own,

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Speaker 2: which is was did did you know? Is meaningful to

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Speaker 2: think about? But early days we were laughing. It's we

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Speaker 2: want to be like the Q tip of the experience economy.

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Speaker 2: Who would have known a Q tip is a cotton

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Speaker 2: swab on a stick, right, and who wouldn't know what

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Speaker 2: the useful? But I say a Q tip and you

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Speaker 2: know exactly what that is?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 2: So hard to explain. So that's the beauty of trying

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Speaker 2: to define a category. You have to be comfortable being

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Speaker 2: misunderstood in the beginning, and then when you get the

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Speaker 2: aha moment, hopefully we can drive traction and all the

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Speaker 2: earned media will build what that brand is and what

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Speaker 2: cosm really means.

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Speaker 1: Well in terms of defining the category, you know, the

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Speaker 1: obvious comparison here is going to be the Las Vegas sphere,

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Speaker 1: which there's similarities, but there's also a lot of big differences,

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Speaker 1: and so I'm just curious, like, how do you are

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Speaker 1: you dealing with that in the marketplace right now where

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Speaker 1: people just assume that is what you are, How do

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Speaker 1: you see that?

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Speaker 2: We really view this as a rising tide type of analysis, right,

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Speaker 2: The immersive form factor and the sphere is an amazing facility.

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Speaker 2: I've been there. What they've done is really technologically very

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Speaker 2: very difficult, and they've been able to make it incredible

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Speaker 2: and the content they have it's a great experience. And

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Speaker 2: at the macro level we agree it's we are both

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Speaker 2: building technology led human experiences that leverage amazing audio and

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Speaker 2: visual We approach it differently. You know what they've done

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Speaker 2: with music and experiential cinema and things like that that

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Speaker 2: has been really, really impressive. We really focus on the

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Speaker 2: live side of it, like the live virtually live content

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Speaker 2: in and all the production around that, and our form

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Speaker 2: factors are very different. We're looking at a much more small,

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Speaker 2: intimate form factor that we want to take multiple spots

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Speaker 2: around the world, and that's a core differentiation. And then

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Speaker 2: you know, we both believe in a leveled up experience.

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Speaker 2: We want great hospitality, all those things. But there are,

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Speaker 2: like you said, quite a lot of differences within the

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Speaker 2: business models and the form factors and everything we're doing.

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Speaker 2: And then one of the other things that we focus

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Speaker 2: on is really multi day part programming, where we view

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Speaker 2: each venue like a TV channel where live sports is

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Speaker 2: the hero, and then we fill in day parts around

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Speaker 2: that to make sure we have a vast programming slate

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Speaker 2: to have an always on type of mentality.

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Speaker 1: And you guys, I think just recently signed a deal

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Speaker 1: with the NFL for some programming there. What is that about.

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Speaker 2: So now we've been able to showcase NFL games and

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Speaker 2: shared re cosm and something we're really proud of being

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Speaker 2: able to do. We've started with Thursday Night football, which

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Speaker 2: is great. We've been able to showcase some of that

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Speaker 2: Sunday night football as well, and we're going to be

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Speaker 2: continuing to expand on that slate of offerings and look

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Speaker 2: forward to sharing more when the time is right. But

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Speaker 2: we've been really really you know, privileged to be able

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Speaker 2: to work with the NFL. Will never well, you know,

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Speaker 2: at the end of the day, we're never going to

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Speaker 2: be better than that stadium experience, right, That's one of

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Speaker 2: the things that we want everyone to know. There's nothing

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Speaker 2: like being in a live stadium arena, but for those

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Speaker 2: away games, for the times people can't get into the venue,

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Speaker 2: when they can't make it there, we're a fantastic offering

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Speaker 2: and that's what we're seeing come to life now and

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Speaker 2: being able to add NFL programming to our slate has

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Speaker 2: been fantastic and something we've been working on for a

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Speaker 2: while with them.

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Speaker 1: We will hear more about the worlds of sports and

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Speaker 1: COSM coming together. In just a minute with more with

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Speaker 1: Jeb Terry, and we are back with Cosm CEO Jeb Terry.

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Speaker 1: We're just talking about the NFL plank of the sports

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Speaker 1: content that you guys do. I guess it helps that

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Speaker 1: you already had technology in these stadiums and so these

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Speaker 1: leagues were familiar with you. And the reason I say

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Speaker 1: it is because essentially we're talking about is you have

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Speaker 1: a set of rights deals with these leagues and that

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Speaker 1: is no small matter. I would imagine it could also

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Speaker 1: be very expensive. What is it like dealing with the leagues?

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm a sports guy through and through, layering technology

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Speaker 2: and media throughout, and honestly, it's a privilege to be

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Speaker 2: able to do it just full stop. The opportunity to

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Speaker 2: work with some of these things and deliver that prize

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Speaker 2: content to fans in a new way. It really is

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Speaker 2: a privilege that we take very serious. The responsibility to

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Speaker 2: represent these brands matters most. A lot of the reason

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Speaker 2: we've had success is as being a known entity in

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Speaker 2: this ecosystem, being able to be a technology service provider,

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Speaker 2: to a lot of these leagues is important. Being able

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Speaker 2: to work within the broadcast construct and framework is important.

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Speaker 3: Myself.

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Speaker 2: A lot of my colleagues were at Fox Sports and

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Speaker 2: other places, and so understanding how that all works and

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Speaker 2: ensuring we can fit in with our production and add

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Speaker 2: value back to the other stakeholders matters. So, yeah, we

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Speaker 2: are a technology provider, we are also a rights buyer,

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Speaker 2: and so that all centers around just a trusted relationship

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Speaker 2: and a partnership that we've been developing all the way

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Speaker 2: back to when I played and then having some of

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Speaker 2: the knowledge of the inner work is how this all

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Speaker 2: fits together, and you have to approach it in a

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Speaker 2: really humble, respectful way. You can't be a distracting science project, right.

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Speaker 2: You need to come in and know that the linear

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Speaker 2: proposition and the end stadium experience that is the hero,

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Speaker 2: that is the product, and how do we fit in

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Speaker 2: and extend that right, help create additional offerings around that

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Speaker 2: construct and approach it very humbly. We've done that, we've

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Speaker 2: been able to enjoying some success there, and now it's

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Speaker 2: our responsibility to execute and live up to our expectations

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Speaker 2: and their standards so that we can continue these relationships.

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Speaker 1: And I just want to underline what you're saying for

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Speaker 1: those who might think that we're speaking maybe a little

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Speaker 1: too reverently about these kind of things. But I think

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Speaker 1: it's because the opportunity here really is huge if and

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Speaker 1: it is really a gigantic if you guys can carve

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Speaker 1: out what is sort of a new window of viewing

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Speaker 1: that is a sort of a midpoint between the home

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Speaker 1: remote experience and the in stadium and if you could

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Speaker 1: do that and you've got the rights deals, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: your business is going to be a rocket. And so

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Speaker 1: that's why we we we sort of speak in the

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Speaker 1: tones that we do about these deals.

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Speaker 2: You're you're, you're, you're exactly you're exactly right, and that

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Speaker 2: is the if. And so look, we had to come through.

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Speaker 2: And the only reason we were confident about even attacking

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Speaker 2: the if right really going out this is because of

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Speaker 2: the early prototyping and experiences that we're able to see

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Speaker 2: right in the earliest days and we were spinning up

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Speaker 2: some proof of concepts and trying to unpack what what

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Speaker 2: is this and it is the oh my gosh experience

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Speaker 2: when you're sitting in the technology and you've got the

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Speaker 2: right feeds and you're able to do that, and it

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Speaker 2: is just a immediate gut reaction moment that I've seen

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Speaker 2: time and time and time again, and how did you

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Speaker 2: do that?

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Speaker 3: Like? That is that is the question?

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Speaker 2: And then it was you were doing this live, like,

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Speaker 2: oh my gosh, how are you doing this live? Usually

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Speaker 2: these are you know, in posts and there's only thirty

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Speaker 2: second highlights. And so we saw that we were core believers.

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Speaker 2: Early testers saw it. We saw those reactions, and that

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Speaker 2: gave us the confidence to put the capital to work

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Speaker 2: to build these things and also approach all of these

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Speaker 2: rights holders to go out and try to do this,

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Speaker 2: and it took a ton of work. As you know, Andrew,

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Speaker 2: this is not a easy endeavor. And now that we're here,

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Speaker 2: we're seeing seeing fan reactions, we're seeing it go viral

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Speaker 2: all the ear in media, and we're seeing that value

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Speaker 2: proposition come to life. And then again it's our job

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Speaker 2: now to speak about it reverently and execute now right,

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Speaker 2: it's this execution phase to continue to mitigate the risk

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Speaker 2: downside of the if you know, bolster the net new

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Speaker 2: category conversation, and do everything we can to continue to

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Speaker 2: scale this business and showcase the power of shared reality.

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Speaker 1: Now we should note also that our friends over at

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Speaker 1: the Sphere who have a very guess differ a different business,

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Speaker 1: but they just did a deal with UFC, So is

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Speaker 1: that a validation or competition or maybe both.

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Speaker 2: Look Hats off to all those guys for getting that done.

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Speaker 2: That was an incredible, incredible event. We were actually given

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Speaker 2: our relationship as well. We're able to live stream that

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Speaker 2: into our domes, so it was like Sphere in a

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Speaker 2: dome like dome sception if you want to call it that,

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Speaker 2: and it was. It was awesome because we're able to

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Speaker 2: showcase all that amazing media and graphics within our display

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Speaker 2: as well, and so we created a really cool experience

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Speaker 2: kind of a I don't know if you want to

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Speaker 2: call it a satellite type experience, be able to extend

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Speaker 2: what they were doing in Vegas into our other venues

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Speaker 2: through that UFC relationship. So love to think that this

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Speaker 2: was continue additive to all the fight fans and other locations.

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Speaker 2: They had a roaring success in Vegas and this extension

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Speaker 2: was I think another great proof point of how we

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Speaker 2: have a big similar thesis right with us in the sphere,

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Speaker 2: but bringing in the right partners can continue to expand

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Speaker 2: that and offer these amazing technology powered experiences to others.

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Speaker 1: Patents is that something you hold for what the technology is,

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Speaker 1: because I would imagine that's got to be pretty valuable

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Speaker 1: to the business.

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Speaker 2: Look, we have a robust IP portfolio, yeah, and we

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Speaker 2: also have quite a lot of trade secrets as well.

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Speaker 2: You know, the thing about a patent is you got

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Speaker 2: to publish it, and oftentimes we keep a lot of

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Speaker 2: that in house without publishing when we don't feel like

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Speaker 2: we need to. So we do have a portfolio of

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Speaker 2: IP protection in place, which is great. We also have

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Speaker 2: a lot of stuff working on that's still still very

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Speaker 2: skunk works and incredible that we probably won't pursue patents

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Speaker 2: on frankly, but yeah, technological expertise matters. And thinking back

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Speaker 2: about the acquisitions we made this company, Evanson Sutherland was

404
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Speaker 2: built all the way back in the nineteen sixties.

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Speaker 3: They were in the supercomputer race. At one time.

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Speaker 2: They created sketch Pad, world's first graphical user interface. There

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Speaker 2: is an amazing history there of computer graphic excellence and

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Speaker 2: innovation that we're able to build on. I've in Sutherland

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Speaker 2: from the namesake. Evans and Sutherland also contributed to the

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Speaker 2: sort of dominicles. The first VR headset ever created in

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Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight. So this, this heritage and history is

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Speaker 2: in our DNA, it's in our bones. And there's so

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Speaker 2: many lessons that we've been able to learn and retain. So,

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Speaker 2: for example, some of my team members now are tenured

415
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Speaker 2: over thirty years within our business. So there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of knowledge and know how that we really cherish and

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Speaker 2: continue to try to foster and innovate around to do

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Speaker 2: where we're going in the future.

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Speaker 1: Now, given all that expertise, I wonder about yours. You know,

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Speaker 1: what we know about you is your NFL career. You

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Speaker 1: mentioned some time at Fox Sports, But explain your road

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Speaker 1: to this business.

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Speaker 3: Well, my road to this business.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's not an ear path clearly, but it's

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Speaker 2: filled with wins and losses and and everything along the way.

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Speaker 2: But you know, I played at the fortunate of playing

427
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Speaker 2: football the University of North Carolina. I'm a Rabbit tar Heel,

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Speaker 2: so go heels, I have to say it, And was

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Speaker 2: also able to attend their business school to get my

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Speaker 2: NBA after playing football.

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Speaker 3: But I went and played football for a while.

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Speaker 2: I got the chance to be really, really good ended

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Speaker 2: up being okay, So I got it was in essentially

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Speaker 2: five years, from seven to sorry, four to eight. Then

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Speaker 2: I went back to business school and did my full

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Speaker 2: time NBA and uh my summer associate internship.

437
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:38,879
Speaker 3: I was at Goldman Sachs. I thought I was going

438
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:40,359
Speaker 3: to go down the banking route.

439
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 2: Learned a lot really really important for me to transition

440
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,639
Speaker 2: from the league to a professional honestly and understanding that

441
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 2: executive presence instead of going that route, started our first startup.

442
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 2: At the time, it was called Gridiron Grunts. It was

443
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 2: the audio version of Twitter. You know Twitter had tweets,

444
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:02,240
Speaker 2: We had grunts and yeah, we built it around professional athletes,

445
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 2: authenticated content, and we built a platform that professional athletes

446
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 2: could talk into their phone and fans can get at

447
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 2: real time, and we try to monetize that with ring

448
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 2: tones and all sorts of stuff that was going on

449
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:15,639
Speaker 2: right in the tens.

450
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:16,199
Speaker 3: Call it that.

451
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 2: We eventually brought video to life within our platform and

452
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:23,720
Speaker 2: learned a lot. It was your definition of four guys

453
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,119
Speaker 2: in a garage with a startup, didn't know how to

454
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 2: raise money, didn't know how to acquire a customer, didn't

455
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 2: know about app store optimation, optimization, none of that. But

456
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 2: we were great at building a really tight team. We

457
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 2: were great at finding something of value, which was as

458
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 2: authenticated content from professional athletes, and what we had to

459
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,120
Speaker 2: learn was how do we find an outlet for that.

460
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 2: So what we did instead of building a standalone app

461
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 2: where fans were subscribing, which what we set out to do,

462
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 2: we ended up syndicating that content to news outlets and

463
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 2: broadcasters and getting the authenticated real time source. And this

464
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 2: was before you took cameras into the locker rooms, right,

465
00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:00,879
Speaker 2: it was before you had mobile video, and so then

466
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 2: we were able to do that. We were to create

467
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 2: a pipeline that took real time video from an athlete's

468
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 2: phone into broadcast and so we're working with all the

469
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 2: broadcasters to bring that to life, and it was eventually

470
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,680
Speaker 2: called Straightcast Media. And so we went through a really

471
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:19,159
Speaker 2: interesting phase of learning on our end as executives. We

472
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 2: were able to sell that company to Fox Sports. I

473
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 2: came with that deal to Fox and was drewing a

474
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 2: lot of the cross platform innovation. Sitting on the digital

475
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:32,719
Speaker 2: team and straddling that linear digital fence. If you think

476
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 2: about how that has evolved, it was a great seat.

477
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,080
Speaker 2: So I got to learn and work of how are

478
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,240
Speaker 2: we doing any immersive presentation of the Super Bowl or

479
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,359
Speaker 2: the World Cup? How are we doing digital? What are

480
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 2: the social highlight rights?

481
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 3: Right?

482
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:48,639
Speaker 2: This is before you even knew that. So at the

483
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 2: time rights deals were this big when it got to

484
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,879
Speaker 2: social and digital. Now it's all slicensed up and so

485
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:57,159
Speaker 2: look that Fox Sports learning was so critical to what

486
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 2: we're doing now and understanding this ecosystem and how it

487
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,920
Speaker 2: all fits together. Was able to do some of the

488
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 2: biggest invest events in the world with these guys of

489
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 2: how do you take that linear portfolio and extended elsewhere?

490
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 2: And so did a lot there. Ended up leaving Fox

491
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 2: Sports after a tenure there and started going back into

492
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 2: the sports media tech landscape again. I explored the web

493
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:23,680
Speaker 2: three space a lot, almost built the first NFT project

494
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,639
Speaker 2: for sports rights, which was a really cool learning. But

495
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:31,199
Speaker 2: it's always this connection of sports media technology, right, how

496
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 2: do you how do you think through this construct and

497
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 2: bring something new to market that I think fans will

498
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 2: know and love because the through line is fan passion

499
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 2: Andrew right like there is there is fan passion for

500
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 2: all sorts, and fans like to self select and tell

501
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 2: you who they love and they like more of it,

502
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:52,439
Speaker 2: and so trying to create these new offerings and and

503
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,959
Speaker 2: and and you know that led me to build COSM.

504
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 2: Working with Steve Wynn who I mentioned before, and then

505
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 2: being able to build this business was really part of

506
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 2: that origin story and a lot of my lessons learned.

507
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: You know, when you talk about the holy trinity of sports,

508
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 1: media and tech, we should point out COSM is clearly

509
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:17,239
Speaker 1: primarily sports, but there's other nonsports kinds of entertainment, Like

510
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: what could we see that's not sports?

511
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, So you know, from an entertainment perspective,

512
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 2: we're looking at we're actually currently working with some real

513
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 2: trophy IP to bring that to life inside of our venues.

514
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 2: Thinking about calling it experiential cinema right, type of really

515
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 2: being world building right and coming in and looking at

516
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 2: it that way. We're not a first run cinema that

517
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 2: we're not in that business. We're not a first run theater,

518
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:43,360
Speaker 2: but think about how do you bring classics to life

519
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,919
Speaker 2: the world building elements. We also do immersive art, so

520
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 2: you think about the whole explosion of immersive van Go

521
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 2: and Team Lab and all of that stuff. Bringing that

522
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,120
Speaker 2: type of thinking to our venue. We're seeing great successful

523
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,680
Speaker 2: that really cool excuse me, new media art that comes

524
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,680
Speaker 2: to life, leveraging all of our tech platform We're also

525
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,479
Speaker 2: doing things like oh, from circ to solet that has

526
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 2: been a fantastic hit. And so think about we have

527
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 2: cameras underwater, we have cameras up in the trapees, really

528
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 2: cool site lines around that as well, and then also

529
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 2: layering in music and programming around that. So can I

530
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 2: bring Red Rocks live into La? Can I bring a No.

531
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,959
Speaker 2: Two performance into our venues? Bringing that to life and

532
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,919
Speaker 2: all that programming strategy around that. So that's how we

533
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 2: think about it, really multi genre across all these categories,

534
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 2: and the through line Andrews. All these categories have fans,

535
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 2: they have cohorts, they have people that love it and

536
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 2: self select and now our job is to showcase how

537
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 2: that comes to life with our venues.

538
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: And I get leading with sports. That makes perfect sense

539
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: to me. But I think you can also make an

540
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: argument that you guys are sitting on the cusp of

541
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: not just sort of taking the Red Rocks and Cirque

542
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: de Soles of the world and presenting them in the

543
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: most interesting way possible. But you could get into original

544
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 1: content that is not just oh, here's a movie on

545
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: a giant screen, but really approaching the art form in

546
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: a whole new way, not unlike we have seen a

547
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: lot of VR try to do with some degree of success.

548
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 1: So where is your head at on that opportunity?

549
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're exactly right, And we've created an internal group

550
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 2: called COSM Studios that what we do is we green

551
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 2: light and finance these types of new media projects for

552
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 2: display in our venues. And the really cool through line

553
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 2: is we can actually take that same content and put

554
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 2: it on headsets as well. So this cross compatibility allows

555
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 2: us to reach more people when we want, and then

556
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 2: for certain titles, we also make that available to our

557
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 2: planetarium network. And so if you think about bringing this

558
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,959
Speaker 2: new media production to life and some of this original programming,

559
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 2: that's what gets really really exciting is because you're I mean,

560
00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 2: you're exactly right where we can work with creators of

561
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 2: all sorts. Some of these new media artists are just

562
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 2: doing fascinating work, and we provide the tech and the

563
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 2: platform and some of the financing for it to bring

564
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 2: these ideas to life. And we feel great about that

565
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 2: potential as we look at the windowing of our content,

566
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 2: the day parting of the venues, the seasonality of sport,

567
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 2: and how we fill it all in and there is

568
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 2: so much opportunity. I'll tell you the one thing I

569
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 2: think everyone can agree on is that in five to

570
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 2: ten years the world will be more digital, more immersive,

571
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 2: and will be closer to whatever the metaverse is going

572
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 2: to be. Right sure, you know our goal is to

573
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 2: be a thought leader and connector in that space, great

574
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 2: IP to great hardware, leveraging our experience platform, whether that

575
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 2: is live sport, whether that's other trophy IP, whether that's Originals,

576
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 2: and continuing to build on that ecosystem so that we

577
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 2: can always be a stakeholder in these evolving time that

578
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 2: we're in right now, which.

579
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: Is a fascinating place to be. And we'll have to

580
00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: check back in with you five years and ten years

581
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: to see how it comes to play. But my last

582
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: question is, you guys are in market now. There's two

583
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: open facilities, so I know it's early days, but what

584
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: have you learned? What have you seen in their reception

585
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 1: that's perhaps some surprises along the way.

586
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 2: We've learned that fans love the dome experience, they love

587
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 2: coming to cosm, sitting in the Dome and it is.

588
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 2: It is a hit for sure. We've also learned that

589
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 2: it works for essentially every sport. That's something that has

590
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 2: been fantastic to see, whether it's tennis or soccer, football, basketball,

591
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 2: we've seen that work really, really well. We've also learned

592
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 2: that it works for all this other new media and

593
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 2: things like circ and the core of the concept is

594
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 2: very sound and it works. We've also learned that we

595
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 2: can execute it at a scale. So case in point,

596
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 2: on Sunday alone, coming up, we have a Premier League

597
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 2: match kicking off at six am in LA, going into

598
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 2: two NFL windows that will be live, and so our

599
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 2: ability to program this with live content all the time. Right,

600
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 2: we've learned that we've built the company and the scale

601
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 2: to execute that. We've learned we can do two venues

602
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:18,520
Speaker 2: at the same time, and hence we can do three

603
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 2: four five with all of our tech stack and our

604
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 2: production methodology. There's things where we can improve, to be sure, Andrew.

605
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 2: We can improve on how we present the seating inventory

606
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 2: with our app. We can improve how we build the

607
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 2: back of house for our service and support. Right, the

608
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 2: beauty is is that we're doing so much. Is that

609
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 2: we can see every angle and hopefully improve the next

610
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:43,840
Speaker 2: time around. Right, we have our own ticketing app, we

611
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 2: have our own back end XMS system, and so now

612
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 2: we're able to start reaching let's call it normalization, and

613
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 2: then we get to this maximization side of this constant improvement,

614
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 2: and we're doing it across our entire stack. And you know, look,

615
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 2: I'm able to speak in this confident manner because what

616
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 2: we're seeing in market, and we're seeing how fans are responding,

617
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 2: and we're seeing this appetite and demand even exceed some

618
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 2: of our expectations.

619
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 3: And so now our.

620
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 2: Job is that you need to take all that earned

621
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 2: media in the virality that we were all seeing and

622
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 2: continue to convert it and convert fans to cosm and

623
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 2: to ticket sales. And that's where we're starting to make

624
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 2: that part of a core competency to continue to do

625
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 2: that and raise awareness on the event level basis.

626
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,120
Speaker 1: Well, it's going to be interesting to see how your

627
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: growth story plays out in the coming year. Jeb Terry,

628
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on strictly business.

629
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 2: Andrew appreciate it. We love to come back when we

630
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 2: revisit this story and see where I was right and where.

631
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 3: I was wrong.

632
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

633
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music.

634
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 2: We love to hear from listeners. Please go to Variety

635
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 2: dot com and sign up

636
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: For the free weekly Strictly Business news letter, and don't

637
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,680
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638
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: Strictly Business