Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
Speaker 1: which we speak with some of the brightest minds working
Speaker 1: in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety.
Speaker 1: Twenty years ago, Jeb Terry got an eye full of
Speaker 1: the NFL up close when he made the roster of
Speaker 1: teams like the forty nine Ers and Buccaneers as an
Speaker 1: offensive guard. Today, he's playing a very different position, but
Speaker 1: still getting an eyeful of the sports world as CEO
Speaker 1: of Cosm, a fascinating new business enabling fans to see
Speaker 1: games in specially designed venues with customized screens so massive
Speaker 1: you can trick your brain into thinking you're watching court side.
Speaker 1: We'll be back to talk about this business with Jeb
Speaker 1: in just a moment, and we are back with Cosm
Speaker 1: CEO Jeb Terry. Jeb, thanks for making the time to
Speaker 1: talk to me.
Speaker 2: Andrew, appreciate you having me on. Excited to share more
Speaker 2: about COSM.
Speaker 1: So we got to start with just explaining the experience.
Speaker 1: I had the honor of going down to your la facility.
Speaker 1: I got to see it. Describing it though, I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure let's talk about it like you
Speaker 1: were telling your grandma. The what the cosm experience.
Speaker 2: Is, Well, what we can all agree on is that
Speaker 2: it's a must sy to believe. When you try to
Speaker 2: describe it, you use words like immersive, experiential, hires, all
Speaker 2: these you know, really compelling word choices, and you kind
Speaker 2: of sounded a hyperbolic at times. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, this whole thing is about a concept
Speaker 2: that we call shared reality. It's leveraging all the amazing
Speaker 2: immersive technology that's out there in market, some of the
Speaker 2: stuff that we built ourselves, but leaning into the experience economy,
Speaker 2: and it's this notion of wanting to be with a crowd,
Speaker 2: having fun, celebrating the energy of the room, and it's
Speaker 2: about being the best watch party.
Speaker 3: That's really what cousms about.
Speaker 1: Technically speaking, though, let's talk about it from that perspective.
Speaker 1: Explain in terms of the size of these screens. The
Speaker 1: resolution wow us with the numbers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's essentially a twenty six meter diameter LED display
Speaker 2: that's twelve K resolution that wraps up and around you
Speaker 2: and over your head where hundreds of fans can sit
Speaker 2: within this dome environment and see eight K plus resolution
Speaker 2: that our media team is producing to put you in
Speaker 2: that best seat in the house. We're switching cameras, we're
Speaker 2: following the action. We're really giving the fans that incredible
Speaker 2: first person experience like they're actually at the event itself,
Speaker 2: and we do it live. So this is something that's
Speaker 2: really technologically advanced. That is a net new offering and
Speaker 2: market and a new experience that we're seeing people really enjoy.
Speaker 1: And look, like I said, I was there in La
Speaker 1: I could vouch for this. And the thing I want
Speaker 1: to make clear to people because obviously you got to
Speaker 1: see it to believe it. A podcast isn't the best
Speaker 1: place to describe the experience. But you know, there's lots
Speaker 1: of technologies like I'll think about Apple Vision Pro where
Speaker 1: it's more like you could see where the product is going.
Speaker 1: It's not quite there yet, your product it's there. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're going to innovate it and make it
Speaker 1: even better in the coming months or years. But this
Speaker 1: is a fully baked vision, wouldn't you say, Or am
Speaker 1: I maybe selling it short and it's got a lot
Speaker 1: more to go?
Speaker 2: No, this is a very well I'll say it's well baked.
Speaker 2: There's always room for improvement, and the fact of the matter,
Speaker 2: is by owning our own technology stack and everything around it,
Speaker 2: we're always going to continue to improve. That's that's the
Speaker 2: core of our whole company ethos. One of the things
Speaker 2: we like to say is we are the venue of now,
Speaker 2: not the venue of the future. The venue of the
Speaker 2: future implies obsolescence. We always want to be now, whether
Speaker 2: it's today or ten years from now. We want to
Speaker 2: be the best of breed experience, showcasing the best technological
Speaker 2: advancements possible, and that's why we built the company that way.
Speaker 2: But we feel great about the fan feedback we've been
Speaker 2: getting the experience. We're seeing seeing the fan reaction coming
Speaker 2: in for the first time and then watching fans come back,
Speaker 2: and we're starting to see people come back time and
Speaker 2: time again for the same sport category or even other
Speaker 2: sports or other entertainment offerings. And that's what's really gratifying
Speaker 2: is when you can see that fan them light up
Speaker 2: when they see the experience and they experience the food
Speaker 2: and drinks and everything around it. That's core to it.
Speaker 2: And one of the things Andrew I missed probably was
Speaker 2: that the F and B offering is really part of
Speaker 2: this whole entire shared reality experience. We want to make
Speaker 2: sure you have great food, great drinks, comfortable seeding. It's
Speaker 2: not a theater, and we give all those amenuties you
Speaker 2: might expect at club or VIP sections of these arenas
Speaker 2: and stadiums being built today.
Speaker 1: We should also make clear that the LA facility is
Speaker 1: just one building you have in market. There is a second,
Speaker 1: I believe in Dallas, and a third coming to Atlanta
Speaker 1: and a big number projected for twenty thirty. Walk us
Speaker 1: through that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So our goal is to take COSM global. You know,
Speaker 2: we've been working on this a while and we built
Speaker 2: the whole back end so that we can scale this.
Speaker 2: It's why we opened two essentially at the same time,
Speaker 2: is to really define that multi point thesis. We've announced
Speaker 2: Atlanta and we have big, big aspirations to take this
Speaker 2: from now to open to over one hundred one day.
Speaker 2: That's that's our goal. We really think that's achievable because
Speaker 2: we look at all these major markets both in the
Speaker 2: US and internationally and they can support that COSM location.
Speaker 2: And we've been working on this real estate scale to
Speaker 2: continue to widen those opportunities and grow. You know, I'd
Speaker 2: love to one point get to where we're opening ten
Speaker 2: a year. We're not there yet, but that's aspirationally where
Speaker 2: we're going. As we get to this big scale and
Speaker 2: each venue Andrew is a essentially a node in a network.
Speaker 2: We can take the same feed and distribute it all around,
Speaker 2: really increasing that overall audience or that single source and
Speaker 2: addressing the demand in various markets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, going to be interesting to see
Speaker 1: how you scale. And I'm curious about the financial side
Speaker 1: of this. I think you guys recently got a two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollar infusion that values the company
Speaker 1: at a billion dollars. Sounds like a lot, but the
Speaker 1: truth is these facilities probably cost a ton.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're really comfortable with what our facilities are costing
Speaker 2: right now. We didn't go into this thinking anything's going
Speaker 2: to be a loss leader, and we structured this to
Speaker 2: ensure that we can monetize these venues properly and justify
Speaker 2: the capex it costs to build these things. So as
Speaker 2: we look at this scale, we raise the money for
Speaker 2: pure growth capital. It is about deployment and scaling more
Speaker 2: and more and more on a single site. These are
Speaker 2: operationally profitable. This is why how we structure this business.
Speaker 2: But it's about this long term scale and the viability
Speaker 2: of the enterprise and the valuation that you mentioned. It's
Speaker 2: really indicative of the enterprise that we've built. We're not
Speaker 2: just a single venue builder. We have our COSM Media
Speaker 2: and our Technologies orgs where we sell through our technology
Speaker 2: and services to the broader ecosystem across a lot of
Speaker 2: different industries. So we really have a good steady state
Speaker 2: of monetization of where we're going and a number of
Speaker 2: opportunities that we're going to be deploying our technology and
Speaker 2: expertise around the world in addition to everything we're doing
Speaker 2: in the venues.
Speaker 3: So think of the.
Speaker 2: Venues as the best consumer expression of our brand and
Speaker 2: all of our tech. But everything you see in there,
Speaker 2: from the display to the production, to the app to
Speaker 2: the back end XMS system is CAUSM and that's really
Speaker 2: where that valuation is supported. In those scale opportunities as well.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the origin story of COSM,
Speaker 1: because I was interested to learn that you guys have
Speaker 1: your roots in the planetarium business, which actually makes a
Speaker 1: ton of sense. It's just I've never even thought about
Speaker 1: that as a business.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing when you sit back and think
Speaker 2: about it, You're like, oh, I kind of get it.
Speaker 3: It makes sense.
Speaker 2: So the planetarium, it's the first immersive or experiential venue
Speaker 2: ever created the goals to take into space. And you
Speaker 2: probably remember one of the first times you went in,
Speaker 2: right that that awe inspiring surprise and delight as a
Speaker 2: kid when you went into a planetarium. And so when
Speaker 2: we set out to bring the CAUSEM vision to life,
Speaker 2: we looked at all these opportunities and how do we
Speaker 2: make this happen? And my chairman and I my chairman
Speaker 2: a guy named Steve. When we're ideating around how do
Speaker 2: you make this thing happen, I'll say Steve when the
Speaker 2: I not the y okay, I was like a second
Speaker 2: to clarify. Yeah, So really thinking through this, and he
Speaker 2: already known he'd always been fascinated with the planetariums and
Speaker 2: and really had understood and had a lot of passion
Speaker 2: for it. And so looking at it, it's like, wow,
Speaker 2: this planetarium is underlying technology is pretty incredible, and so
Speaker 2: we could leverage that tech to do more things, and
Speaker 2: it turned out it made sense for us to acquire
Speaker 2: that business. So today we are still the largest planetarium
Speaker 2: company in the world. We power over seven hundred globally,
Speaker 2: and so that software has been hardened over time, decades
Speaker 2: and decades, and so it's not like we just came
Speaker 2: up with something and slapped together and opened a venue, right,
Speaker 2: it's that infrastructure that's been built, and so now we're
Speaker 2: able to leverage a lot of that same core discipline
Speaker 2: of putting data in cool dome surfaces and now bring
Speaker 2: that to life within our venues. You know, the prevailing
Speaker 2: game engines of the world today, like Unreal and Unity
Speaker 2: we are Our engine is very similar to that, and
Speaker 2: we're compatible with both engines, and so you can drag
Speaker 2: and drop and bring content from all types there. We've
Speaker 2: also acquired two other companies. One was Livelike VR. We
Speaker 2: bought that company in twenty twenty as a carve out
Speaker 2: of Live Like and they are a VR production company
Speaker 2: for live sports. A great team, had great tech. We
Speaker 2: had the opportunity to buy that business and bring it
Speaker 2: in and we still service that industry. So we produce
Speaker 2: immersive content. We worked with the Olympics and the World
Speaker 2: Cup and a number of others. We work with a
Speaker 2: number of headset providers today. And then we also bought
Speaker 2: a company called C three sixty, which is really known
Speaker 2: for the pylon camera on NFL Sundays. So if you
Speaker 2: watch NFL, you know when the guy's diving over the
Speaker 2: goal line and they cut to that camera. Yep, that
Speaker 2: is us a majority of the time. And so having
Speaker 2: this tech deployed and all this unique capture methodology, we're
Speaker 2: able to bring that in in one house. We call
Speaker 2: it Cosm, So that's the Cosmos meets the coliseum.
Speaker 1: It's funny you bring up the brand name because I
Speaker 1: get it now, but I still think this new business
Speaker 1: of yours needs its own brand name that is a
Speaker 1: little more evocative of the experience my two cents. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's something you're even thinking about.
Speaker 2: Well, so it's interesting you say that. When we were
Speaker 2: coming up with the name, you know, really, this this
Speaker 2: combination of Cosm of Colisseum and the Cosmos, like the
Speaker 2: science education vertical, is critical to who we are. It's
Speaker 2: part of our foundational elements. It will always be important.
Speaker 2: So we really wanted to pay respect to that industry
Speaker 2: and our clients there. And of course the Colisseum side
Speaker 2: Cosm was also a four letter domain we could own,
Speaker 2: which is was did did you know? Is meaningful to
Speaker 2: think about? But early days we were laughing. It's we
Speaker 2: want to be like the Q tip of the experience economy.
Speaker 2: Who would have known a Q tip is a cotton
Speaker 2: swab on a stick, right, and who wouldn't know what
Speaker 2: the useful? But I say a Q tip and you
Speaker 2: know exactly what that is?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: So hard to explain. So that's the beauty of trying
Speaker 2: to define a category. You have to be comfortable being
Speaker 2: misunderstood in the beginning, and then when you get the
Speaker 2: aha moment, hopefully we can drive traction and all the
Speaker 2: earned media will build what that brand is and what
Speaker 2: cosm really means.
Speaker 1: Well in terms of defining the category, you know, the
Speaker 1: obvious comparison here is going to be the Las Vegas sphere,
Speaker 1: which there's similarities, but there's also a lot of big differences,
Speaker 1: and so I'm just curious, like, how do you are
Speaker 1: you dealing with that in the marketplace right now where
Speaker 1: people just assume that is what you are, How do
Speaker 1: you see that?
Speaker 2: We really view this as a rising tide type of analysis, right,
Speaker 2: The immersive form factor and the sphere is an amazing facility.
Speaker 2: I've been there. What they've done is really technologically very
Speaker 2: very difficult, and they've been able to make it incredible
Speaker 2: and the content they have it's a great experience. And
Speaker 2: at the macro level we agree it's we are both
Speaker 2: building technology led human experiences that leverage amazing audio and
Speaker 2: visual We approach it differently. You know what they've done
Speaker 2: with music and experiential cinema and things like that that
Speaker 2: has been really, really impressive. We really focus on the
Speaker 2: live side of it, like the live virtually live content
Speaker 2: in and all the production around that, and our form
Speaker 2: factors are very different. We're looking at a much more small,
Speaker 2: intimate form factor that we want to take multiple spots
Speaker 2: around the world, and that's a core differentiation. And then
Speaker 2: you know, we both believe in a leveled up experience.
Speaker 2: We want great hospitality, all those things. But there are,
Speaker 2: like you said, quite a lot of differences within the
Speaker 2: business models and the form factors and everything we're doing.
Speaker 2: And then one of the other things that we focus
Speaker 2: on is really multi day part programming, where we view
Speaker 2: each venue like a TV channel where live sports is
Speaker 2: the hero, and then we fill in day parts around
Speaker 2: that to make sure we have a vast programming slate
Speaker 2: to have an always on type of mentality.
Speaker 1: And you guys, I think just recently signed a deal
Speaker 1: with the NFL for some programming there. What is that about.
Speaker 2: So now we've been able to showcase NFL games and
Speaker 2: shared re cosm and something we're really proud of being
Speaker 2: able to do. We've started with Thursday Night football, which
Speaker 2: is great. We've been able to showcase some of that
Speaker 2: Sunday night football as well, and we're going to be
Speaker 2: continuing to expand on that slate of offerings and look
Speaker 2: forward to sharing more when the time is right. But
Speaker 2: we've been really really you know, privileged to be able
Speaker 2: to work with the NFL. Will never well, you know,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, we're never going to
Speaker 2: be better than that stadium experience, right, That's one of
Speaker 2: the things that we want everyone to know. There's nothing
Speaker 2: like being in a live stadium arena, but for those
Speaker 2: away games, for the times people can't get into the venue,
Speaker 2: when they can't make it there, we're a fantastic offering
Speaker 2: and that's what we're seeing come to life now and
Speaker 2: being able to add NFL programming to our slate has
Speaker 2: been fantastic and something we've been working on for a
Speaker 2: while with them.
Speaker 1: We will hear more about the worlds of sports and
Speaker 1: COSM coming together. In just a minute with more with
Speaker 1: Jeb Terry, and we are back with Cosm CEO Jeb Terry.
Speaker 1: We're just talking about the NFL plank of the sports
Speaker 1: content that you guys do. I guess it helps that
Speaker 1: you already had technology in these stadiums and so these
Speaker 1: leagues were familiar with you. And the reason I say
Speaker 1: it is because essentially we're talking about is you have
Speaker 1: a set of rights deals with these leagues and that
Speaker 1: is no small matter. I would imagine it could also
Speaker 1: be very expensive. What is it like dealing with the leagues?
Speaker 2: Look, I'm a sports guy through and through, layering technology
Speaker 2: and media throughout, and honestly, it's a privilege to be
Speaker 2: able to do it just full stop. The opportunity to
Speaker 2: work with some of these things and deliver that prize
Speaker 2: content to fans in a new way. It really is
Speaker 2: a privilege that we take very serious. The responsibility to
Speaker 2: represent these brands matters most. A lot of the reason
Speaker 2: we've had success is as being a known entity in
Speaker 2: this ecosystem, being able to be a technology service provider,
Speaker 2: to a lot of these leagues is important. Being able
Speaker 2: to work within the broadcast construct and framework is important.
Speaker 3: Myself.
Speaker 2: A lot of my colleagues were at Fox Sports and
Speaker 2: other places, and so understanding how that all works and
Speaker 2: ensuring we can fit in with our production and add
Speaker 2: value back to the other stakeholders matters. So, yeah, we
Speaker 2: are a technology provider, we are also a rights buyer,
Speaker 2: and so that all centers around just a trusted relationship
Speaker 2: and a partnership that we've been developing all the way
Speaker 2: back to when I played and then having some of
Speaker 2: the knowledge of the inner work is how this all
Speaker 2: fits together, and you have to approach it in a
Speaker 2: really humble, respectful way. You can't be a distracting science project, right.
Speaker 2: You need to come in and know that the linear
Speaker 2: proposition and the end stadium experience that is the hero,
Speaker 2: that is the product, and how do we fit in
Speaker 2: and extend that right, help create additional offerings around that
Speaker 2: construct and approach it very humbly. We've done that, we've
Speaker 2: been able to enjoying some success there, and now it's
Speaker 2: our responsibility to execute and live up to our expectations
Speaker 2: and their standards so that we can continue these relationships.
Speaker 1: And I just want to underline what you're saying for
Speaker 1: those who might think that we're speaking maybe a little
Speaker 1: too reverently about these kind of things. But I think
Speaker 1: it's because the opportunity here really is huge if and
Speaker 1: it is really a gigantic if you guys can carve
Speaker 1: out what is sort of a new window of viewing
Speaker 1: that is a sort of a midpoint between the home
Speaker 1: remote experience and the in stadium and if you could
Speaker 1: do that and you've got the rights deals, oh my god,
Speaker 1: your business is going to be a rocket. And so
Speaker 1: that's why we we we sort of speak in the
Speaker 1: tones that we do about these deals.
Speaker 2: You're you're, you're, you're exactly you're exactly right, and that
Speaker 2: is the if. And so look, we had to come through.
Speaker 2: And the only reason we were confident about even attacking
Speaker 2: the if right really going out this is because of
Speaker 2: the early prototyping and experiences that we're able to see
Speaker 2: right in the earliest days and we were spinning up
Speaker 2: some proof of concepts and trying to unpack what what
Speaker 2: is this and it is the oh my gosh experience
Speaker 2: when you're sitting in the technology and you've got the
Speaker 2: right feeds and you're able to do that, and it
Speaker 2: is just a immediate gut reaction moment that I've seen
Speaker 2: time and time and time again, and how did you
Speaker 2: do that?
Speaker 3: Like? That is that is the question?
Speaker 2: And then it was you were doing this live, like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, how are you doing this live? Usually
Speaker 2: these are you know, in posts and there's only thirty
Speaker 2: second highlights. And so we saw that we were core believers.
Speaker 2: Early testers saw it. We saw those reactions, and that
Speaker 2: gave us the confidence to put the capital to work
Speaker 2: to build these things and also approach all of these
Speaker 2: rights holders to go out and try to do this,
Speaker 2: and it took a ton of work. As you know, Andrew,
Speaker 2: this is not a easy endeavor. And now that we're here,
Speaker 2: we're seeing seeing fan reactions, we're seeing it go viral
Speaker 2: all the ear in media, and we're seeing that value
Speaker 2: proposition come to life. And then again it's our job
Speaker 2: now to speak about it reverently and execute now right,
Speaker 2: it's this execution phase to continue to mitigate the risk
Speaker 2: downside of the if you know, bolster the net new
Speaker 2: category conversation, and do everything we can to continue to
Speaker 2: scale this business and showcase the power of shared reality.
Speaker 1: Now we should note also that our friends over at
Speaker 1: the Sphere who have a very guess differ a different business,
Speaker 1: but they just did a deal with UFC, So is
Speaker 1: that a validation or competition or maybe both.
Speaker 2: Look Hats off to all those guys for getting that done.
Speaker 2: That was an incredible, incredible event. We were actually given
Speaker 2: our relationship as well. We're able to live stream that
Speaker 2: into our domes, so it was like Sphere in a
Speaker 2: dome like dome sception if you want to call it that,
Speaker 2: and it was. It was awesome because we're able to
Speaker 2: showcase all that amazing media and graphics within our display
Speaker 2: as well, and so we created a really cool experience
Speaker 2: kind of a I don't know if you want to
Speaker 2: call it a satellite type experience, be able to extend
Speaker 2: what they were doing in Vegas into our other venues
Speaker 2: through that UFC relationship. So love to think that this
Speaker 2: was continue additive to all the fight fans and other locations.
Speaker 2: They had a roaring success in Vegas and this extension
Speaker 2: was I think another great proof point of how we
Speaker 2: have a big similar thesis right with us in the sphere,
Speaker 2: but bringing in the right partners can continue to expand
Speaker 2: that and offer these amazing technology powered experiences to others.
Speaker 1: Patents is that something you hold for what the technology is,
Speaker 1: because I would imagine that's got to be pretty valuable
Speaker 1: to the business.
Speaker 2: Look, we have a robust IP portfolio, yeah, and we
Speaker 2: also have quite a lot of trade secrets as well.
Speaker 2: You know, the thing about a patent is you got
Speaker 2: to publish it, and oftentimes we keep a lot of
Speaker 2: that in house without publishing when we don't feel like
Speaker 2: we need to. So we do have a portfolio of
Speaker 2: IP protection in place, which is great. We also have
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff working on that's still still very
Speaker 2: skunk works and incredible that we probably won't pursue patents
Speaker 2: on frankly, but yeah, technological expertise matters. And thinking back
Speaker 2: about the acquisitions we made this company, Evanson Sutherland was
Speaker 2: built all the way back in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 3: They were in the supercomputer race. At one time.
Speaker 2: They created sketch Pad, world's first graphical user interface. There
Speaker 2: is an amazing history there of computer graphic excellence and
Speaker 2: innovation that we're able to build on. I've in Sutherland
Speaker 2: from the namesake. Evans and Sutherland also contributed to the
Speaker 2: sort of dominicles. The first VR headset ever created in
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight. So this, this heritage and history is
Speaker 2: in our DNA, it's in our bones. And there's so
Speaker 2: many lessons that we've been able to learn and retain. So,
Speaker 2: for example, some of my team members now are tenured
Speaker 2: over thirty years within our business. So there's a lot
Speaker 2: of knowledge and know how that we really cherish and
Speaker 2: continue to try to foster and innovate around to do
Speaker 2: where we're going in the future.
Speaker 1: Now, given all that expertise, I wonder about yours. You know,
Speaker 1: what we know about you is your NFL career. You
Speaker 1: mentioned some time at Fox Sports, But explain your road
Speaker 1: to this business.
Speaker 3: Well, my road to this business.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not an ear path clearly, but it's
Speaker 2: filled with wins and losses and and everything along the way.
Speaker 2: But you know, I played at the fortunate of playing
Speaker 2: football the University of North Carolina. I'm a Rabbit tar Heel,
Speaker 2: so go heels, I have to say it, And was
Speaker 2: also able to attend their business school to get my
Speaker 2: NBA after playing football.
Speaker 3: But I went and played football for a while.
Speaker 2: I got the chance to be really, really good ended
Speaker 2: up being okay, So I got it was in essentially
Speaker 2: five years, from seven to sorry, four to eight. Then
Speaker 2: I went back to business school and did my full
Speaker 2: time NBA and uh my summer associate internship.
Speaker 3: I was at Goldman Sachs. I thought I was going
Speaker 3: to go down the banking route.
Speaker 2: Learned a lot really really important for me to transition
Speaker 2: from the league to a professional honestly and understanding that
Speaker 2: executive presence instead of going that route, started our first startup.
Speaker 2: At the time, it was called Gridiron Grunts. It was
Speaker 2: the audio version of Twitter. You know Twitter had tweets,
Speaker 2: We had grunts and yeah, we built it around professional athletes,
Speaker 2: authenticated content, and we built a platform that professional athletes
Speaker 2: could talk into their phone and fans can get at
Speaker 2: real time, and we try to monetize that with ring
Speaker 2: tones and all sorts of stuff that was going on
Speaker 2: right in the tens.
Speaker 3: Call it that.
Speaker 2: We eventually brought video to life within our platform and
Speaker 2: learned a lot. It was your definition of four guys
Speaker 2: in a garage with a startup, didn't know how to
Speaker 2: raise money, didn't know how to acquire a customer, didn't
Speaker 2: know about app store optimation, optimization, none of that. But
Speaker 2: we were great at building a really tight team. We
Speaker 2: were great at finding something of value, which was as
Speaker 2: authenticated content from professional athletes, and what we had to
Speaker 2: learn was how do we find an outlet for that.
Speaker 2: So what we did instead of building a standalone app
Speaker 2: where fans were subscribing, which what we set out to do,
Speaker 2: we ended up syndicating that content to news outlets and
Speaker 2: broadcasters and getting the authenticated real time source. And this
Speaker 2: was before you took cameras into the locker rooms, right,
Speaker 2: it was before you had mobile video, and so then
Speaker 2: we were able to do that. We were to create
Speaker 2: a pipeline that took real time video from an athlete's
Speaker 2: phone into broadcast and so we're working with all the
Speaker 2: broadcasters to bring that to life, and it was eventually
Speaker 2: called Straightcast Media. And so we went through a really
Speaker 2: interesting phase of learning on our end as executives. We
Speaker 2: were able to sell that company to Fox Sports. I
Speaker 2: came with that deal to Fox and was drewing a
Speaker 2: lot of the cross platform innovation. Sitting on the digital
Speaker 2: team and straddling that linear digital fence. If you think
Speaker 2: about how that has evolved, it was a great seat.
Speaker 2: So I got to learn and work of how are
Speaker 2: we doing any immersive presentation of the Super Bowl or
Speaker 2: the World Cup? How are we doing digital? What are
Speaker 2: the social highlight rights?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: This is before you even knew that. So at the
Speaker 2: time rights deals were this big when it got to
Speaker 2: social and digital. Now it's all slicensed up and so
Speaker 2: look that Fox Sports learning was so critical to what
Speaker 2: we're doing now and understanding this ecosystem and how it
Speaker 2: all fits together. Was able to do some of the
Speaker 2: biggest invest events in the world with these guys of
Speaker 2: how do you take that linear portfolio and extended elsewhere?
Speaker 2: And so did a lot there. Ended up leaving Fox
Speaker 2: Sports after a tenure there and started going back into
Speaker 2: the sports media tech landscape again. I explored the web
Speaker 2: three space a lot, almost built the first NFT project
Speaker 2: for sports rights, which was a really cool learning. But
Speaker 2: it's always this connection of sports media technology, right, how
Speaker 2: do you how do you think through this construct and
Speaker 2: bring something new to market that I think fans will
Speaker 2: know and love because the through line is fan passion
Speaker 2: Andrew right like there is there is fan passion for
Speaker 2: all sorts, and fans like to self select and tell
Speaker 2: you who they love and they like more of it,
Speaker 2: and so trying to create these new offerings and and
Speaker 2: and and you know that led me to build COSM.
Speaker 2: Working with Steve Wynn who I mentioned before, and then
Speaker 2: being able to build this business was really part of
Speaker 2: that origin story and a lot of my lessons learned.
Speaker 1: You know, when you talk about the holy trinity of sports,
Speaker 1: media and tech, we should point out COSM is clearly
Speaker 1: primarily sports, but there's other nonsports kinds of entertainment, Like
Speaker 1: what could we see that's not sports?
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, So you know, from an entertainment perspective,
Speaker 2: we're looking at we're actually currently working with some real
Speaker 2: trophy IP to bring that to life inside of our venues.
Speaker 2: Thinking about calling it experiential cinema right, type of really
Speaker 2: being world building right and coming in and looking at
Speaker 2: it that way. We're not a first run cinema that
Speaker 2: we're not in that business. We're not a first run theater,
Speaker 2: but think about how do you bring classics to life
Speaker 2: the world building elements. We also do immersive art, so
Speaker 2: you think about the whole explosion of immersive van Go
Speaker 2: and Team Lab and all of that stuff. Bringing that
Speaker 2: type of thinking to our venue. We're seeing great successful
Speaker 2: that really cool excuse me, new media art that comes
Speaker 2: to life, leveraging all of our tech platform We're also
Speaker 2: doing things like oh, from circ to solet that has
Speaker 2: been a fantastic hit. And so think about we have
Speaker 2: cameras underwater, we have cameras up in the trapees, really
Speaker 2: cool site lines around that as well, and then also
Speaker 2: layering in music and programming around that. So can I
Speaker 2: bring Red Rocks live into La? Can I bring a No.
Speaker 2: Two performance into our venues? Bringing that to life and
Speaker 2: all that programming strategy around that. So that's how we
Speaker 2: think about it, really multi genre across all these categories,
Speaker 2: and the through line Andrews. All these categories have fans,
Speaker 2: they have cohorts, they have people that love it and
Speaker 2: self select and now our job is to showcase how
Speaker 2: that comes to life with our venues.
Speaker 1: And I get leading with sports. That makes perfect sense
Speaker 1: to me. But I think you can also make an
Speaker 1: argument that you guys are sitting on the cusp of
Speaker 1: not just sort of taking the Red Rocks and Cirque
Speaker 1: de Soles of the world and presenting them in the
Speaker 1: most interesting way possible. But you could get into original
Speaker 1: content that is not just oh, here's a movie on
Speaker 1: a giant screen, but really approaching the art form in
Speaker 1: a whole new way, not unlike we have seen a
Speaker 1: lot of VR try to do with some degree of success.
Speaker 1: So where is your head at on that opportunity?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're exactly right, And we've created an internal group
Speaker 2: called COSM Studios that what we do is we green
Speaker 2: light and finance these types of new media projects for
Speaker 2: display in our venues. And the really cool through line
Speaker 2: is we can actually take that same content and put
Speaker 2: it on headsets as well. So this cross compatibility allows
Speaker 2: us to reach more people when we want, and then
Speaker 2: for certain titles, we also make that available to our
Speaker 2: planetarium network. And so if you think about bringing this
Speaker 2: new media production to life and some of this original programming,
Speaker 2: that's what gets really really exciting is because you're I mean,
Speaker 2: you're exactly right where we can work with creators of
Speaker 2: all sorts. Some of these new media artists are just
Speaker 2: doing fascinating work, and we provide the tech and the
Speaker 2: platform and some of the financing for it to bring
Speaker 2: these ideas to life. And we feel great about that
Speaker 2: potential as we look at the windowing of our content,
Speaker 2: the day parting of the venues, the seasonality of sport,
Speaker 2: and how we fill it all in and there is
Speaker 2: so much opportunity. I'll tell you the one thing I
Speaker 2: think everyone can agree on is that in five to
Speaker 2: ten years the world will be more digital, more immersive,
Speaker 2: and will be closer to whatever the metaverse is going
Speaker 2: to be. Right sure, you know our goal is to
Speaker 2: be a thought leader and connector in that space, great
Speaker 2: IP to great hardware, leveraging our experience platform, whether that
Speaker 2: is live sport, whether that's other trophy IP, whether that's Originals,
Speaker 2: and continuing to build on that ecosystem so that we
Speaker 2: can always be a stakeholder in these evolving time that
Speaker 2: we're in right now, which.
Speaker 1: Is a fascinating place to be. And we'll have to
Speaker 1: check back in with you five years and ten years
Speaker 1: to see how it comes to play. But my last
Speaker 1: question is, you guys are in market now. There's two
Speaker 1: open facilities, so I know it's early days, but what
Speaker 1: have you learned? What have you seen in their reception
Speaker 1: that's perhaps some surprises along the way.
Speaker 2: We've learned that fans love the dome experience, they love
Speaker 2: coming to cosm, sitting in the Dome and it is.
Speaker 2: It is a hit for sure. We've also learned that
Speaker 2: it works for essentially every sport. That's something that has
Speaker 2: been fantastic to see, whether it's tennis or soccer, football, basketball,
Speaker 2: we've seen that work really, really well. We've also learned
Speaker 2: that it works for all this other new media and
Speaker 2: things like circ and the core of the concept is
Speaker 2: very sound and it works. We've also learned that we
Speaker 2: can execute it at a scale. So case in point,
Speaker 2: on Sunday alone, coming up, we have a Premier League
Speaker 2: match kicking off at six am in LA, going into
Speaker 2: two NFL windows that will be live, and so our
Speaker 2: ability to program this with live content all the time. Right,
Speaker 2: we've learned that we've built the company and the scale
Speaker 2: to execute that. We've learned we can do two venues
Speaker 2: at the same time, and hence we can do three
Speaker 2: four five with all of our tech stack and our
Speaker 2: production methodology. There's things where we can improve, to be sure, Andrew.
Speaker 2: We can improve on how we present the seating inventory
Speaker 2: with our app. We can improve how we build the
Speaker 2: back of house for our service and support. Right, the
Speaker 2: beauty is is that we're doing so much. Is that
Speaker 2: we can see every angle and hopefully improve the next
Speaker 2: time around. Right, we have our own ticketing app, we
Speaker 2: have our own back end XMS system, and so now
Speaker 2: we're able to start reaching let's call it normalization, and
Speaker 2: then we get to this maximization side of this constant improvement,
Speaker 2: and we're doing it across our entire stack. And you know, look,
Speaker 2: I'm able to speak in this confident manner because what
Speaker 2: we're seeing in market, and we're seeing how fans are responding,
Speaker 2: and we're seeing this appetite and demand even exceed some
Speaker 2: of our expectations.
Speaker 3: And so now our.
Speaker 2: Job is that you need to take all that earned
Speaker 2: media in the virality that we were all seeing and
Speaker 2: continue to convert it and convert fans to cosm and
Speaker 2: to ticket sales. And that's where we're starting to make
Speaker 2: that part of a core competency to continue to do
Speaker 2: that and raise awareness on the event level basis.
Speaker 1: Well, it's going to be interesting to see how your
Speaker 1: growth story plays out in the coming year. Jeb Terry,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on strictly business.
Speaker 2: Andrew appreciate it. We love to come back when we
Speaker 2: revisit this story and see where I was right and where.
Speaker 3: I was wrong.
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