WEBVTT - Michele Kang 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.600 Michelle Can came the United States to get her education. 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:08.520 She's a native of South Korea. After she got her 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.160 education in the United States, she stayed here and became 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.760 very actively involved in the business world. Built a successful company, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.880 sold it, and now she's very involved in women's sports, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.720 and particularly women's soccer. I sat down with her to 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.239 talk about why she's so interested in revolutionized women's sports 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:28.520 and women's soccer. So let me ask you about how 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.520 you came to become a leading women's soccer team owner, 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.920 having had no experience as a soccer team player and 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.520 not having spent a lot of time in athletics before 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:39.519 you got into this. 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:42.640 Well, I was a good athlete, but not soccer. I 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.800 have to say it was by accident coincidence. I really 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.479 did not even know there was a professional women's soccer 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.600 league in the United States, let alone there was a 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:56.680 professional team in DC. And it was twenty nineteen when 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.320 the US women's national team won the World Cup, sort 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.640 of a celebration party on the Capitol and I was 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.080 invited and I got to learn about it, and since 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:09.399 then I was sort of convinced that I should join. 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.640 Initially as just a minority investor, and be a mentor 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.480 to a lot of young, incredible women. And when I started, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:18.280 I never had an intention that I was going to 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.400 go run multi teams around the globe. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.959 How many women's sports teams have sprouted up in recent years, 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:25.800 but are they profitable? 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:26.600 Not yet? 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.680 And you think they will be out presumably. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:31.800 Absolutely, But I mean, I'd say to be fair, if 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.600 you look at a lot of men's teams, if you 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.920 actually take their media deals, there aren't that many companies 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.120 that are profitable from just game day operations. So we 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.280 as an emerging league, our media deal is not as 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.440 big as some of this more mature league. So we're 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.080 getting there because we're building teams, we're building attendance. But 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.360 even game day operations were on our way at least 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:55.720 break given in a couple of years. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.800 So in an average women's soccer team game, let's say 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:01.480 how many fans will. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.000 Show up, so that we play at a stadium called 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.120 Audi Stadium, the sellout is nineteen two hundred and fifteen. 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.959 Last two games, which were quarterfinal and semi final of 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.440 the playoffs, we sold out and then exceeded this sellout 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:17.720 because we had standing room only. 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:18.880 How many women are on the. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.679 Team twenty five or twenty six. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.200 Yeah, they come largely from America. 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.200 It used to be because in the US especially, we 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.280 had a draft system. So the typical path would be 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.520 you play high school, local academy or clubs, and then 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.680 you go to college and scholarships hopefully, and then you 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.240 get drafted from the college system. But now it's booming everywhere. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.880 Clearly in Europe it's pretty significant, so there are a 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.840 lot more player movements, so we now have pretty significant 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:53.320 international players. But every team is limited to seven international players. 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.640 So I know from owning a sports team that only 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.560 one team takes a lot of energy and time. 0:02:59.080 --> 0:02:59.800 Tell me about it. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.080 So you decided after you bought the Washington Spirits to 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.480 buy some other soccer teams, So you bought stakes in 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:08.240 a team in England? 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:08.880 Is that right? 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.240 Yes, I bought a team called London City Linuses, and 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.040 that is the only one of the two teams in 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:21.440 the entire potentially Great Britain that are independent. Ninety nine 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.600 percent of the teams in Europe are part of the 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.960 men's team, but this is one of the only two 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:31.079 teams that was independent. 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.560 So now you have two soccer teams, one in England 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.960 and one of the United States. So I would think 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.360 for most people that might be enough, but you decide 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.080 to buy a team in France as well. 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:46.600 Yes, Olympic Leode Feminine is actually the best women's team 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.200 in the history of women's football in terms of how 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.400 many trophies the team has won. They are the eight 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:57.600 times champions of the European Pan European League and I 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:59.800 can't even count how many times they won the French 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.240 domestic lea the most successful team. 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.520 Hey, so now you have this team, the French team, 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.480 the English team, you have the American team, and then 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:12.240 you now have minority stakes in male soccer teams as well. 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:13.880 Yes, and which ones do you have? 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.119 So Crystal Palace in England and olympicly on a men's 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:18.760 team as well. 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:20.080 Okay, so now you have five. 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:21.919 It's a passive and that one is passive. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:23.760 You have three that you control. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.600 Correct and actively managed. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:26.120 Actively managed. 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.119 As if that wasn't enough, you want to get into 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.880 the sportswear and shoe part of soccer as well. 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.400 There are reasons why women's football or women's sports have 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.200 been somewhat behind than men's sports. There are a lot 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:44.520 of key elements that would make any sports successful were 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.080 not present. So, for example, if you look at women's 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:52.360 teams as team sports, their training manuals are borrowed from 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.279 men's training manuals. There's no independent training manuals designed and 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.160 develop for women. While women's body is not the same 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:03.880 as men, hormone, nutritions, sleep, they all work differently, and 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.680 women are seven eight times more likely to get an 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.760 ACL injury than men. But we train exactly the same 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.200 way we train men. So there has to be investment 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.320 in understanding female body and especially with the hormone the period, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:24.880 how do they impact female athlete performance. Ninety four percent 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.200 of all science and medical research on athlete performance is 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:31.839 dedicated to men and the other six percent is not 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.000 dedicated to women. It includes women, So there's just absolute 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.719 lack of investment. So that has to be done. Now, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.840 I am crazy and ambitious, but I can't invest if 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.400 I have only one team. You talk about profitability and 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.120 the size of the revenue, You cannot afford that level 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.280 of investment, which is absolutely necessary. You can't do it 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.080 if you own just one team, But if you have 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.640 multi teams, then you can centralize the resources and do 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.120 it once and make it available to everyone. If you 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.280 think about global scouting capabilities, each team doesn't have to 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.119 build global scouting everywhere. You just go watch one game 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.080 and you don't need to send five people to watch 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.600 the same thing. So there are some things that you 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.640 can build centrally that you can actually put the necessary 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.240 level of scale investment. You can't just buy teams and 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.880 invest in teams, build training center and stadiums and you 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.120 think that actually that's going to advance the women's football. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.240 For example, the cleats, the boots, so they basically take 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:35.839 men's shoes, men's boots and then make it a little 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.080 narrow and little shorter and pink it. Well, apparently, I'm 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.200 told I'm not a scientist. The weight distribution when women 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:47.120 run is very different than men. The arches, our arches 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.560 are a little different than the men. So the shoes 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:54.000 the boots are one of the contributing factors for female injury. 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:55.920 So you need to invest in that. We don't get 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.240 enough media attention right women's sports. There is a media 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:03.280 company that's specializes that covers only women's sports. So I'm 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.200 investing in those things because the entire ecosystem has to 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.440 move together, not just the teams. 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.520 Is anybody from career call up and said, we have 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.720 some female soccer teams here and we'd like you to 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:15.200 buy one. 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.120 Nothing yet, nothing yet. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.240 But your ultimate plan with respect to what you're doing 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.920 in sports is to either buy more teams or to 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.760 just grow the value of the teams. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.120 What is your openmate game plan? 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:27.320 Yes, I do. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.320 I mean I think there's sort of a multi step. 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.760 I want to professionalize women's sports, right. I don't want 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.880 people to think that some of my women's sports is 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.040 a charity or a corporate DEI project this is a 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:44.200 legitimate entertainment product and it is a business that is 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.200 going to be profitable, break even profitable and enterprise values 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.640 and so forth. So I want people to take the 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.040 women's sports seriously. So I'm on a mission to prove 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.720 that women's sports is a good business, right, and that 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.120 comes from professionalizing it and investing in it. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:02.760 I want to get to the story of how you 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.600 be able to afford doing this. So it's a very 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.760 interesting story, but I think the best way to tell 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.400 it is to tell from the beginning. So you were 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:16.680 born where South Korea, and you were raised in what city, Soul, 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:18.560 and your parents were. 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.480 My father was a professor. My mom was an elementary 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:26.560 school teacher turned politician. Later, my father was educated in 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.400 the United States. He got his graduate degree, so he 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:36.840 had relatively open minded about gender issues. Korea, clearly at 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.719 that time, was a very traditional society where girls were 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:43.120 supposed to do certain things, study certain things, and when 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.360 you graduate from college, then you get married and you 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.720 have children and all that. So there's sort of a norm, 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.760 the social norm that you're supposed to follow. But my father, 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.439 who had three girls, had a little different ideas because 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:00.240 he was exposed college in Japan and graduate school in 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.120 the US that girls can do whatever they want to 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.160 do in the future. And he instilled that idea in 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.440 US and I don't think my sisters really took up 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.080 that idea, but it just had a lot of impact 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:13.360 on me. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.000 And then you had an opportunity to go to college 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.880 in the United States. And in those days, as I 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:23.120 understand it, Korean families saved up money so their daughters 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.800 could have money to get married. And so your parents 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.800 were saving up money for you to get married, and 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.400 then you said, I want to go to the school 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:32.480 in the United States. 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:32.840 And what happened. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.520 Yeah, So, especially at that time, unmarried young women going 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:42.280 to America alone was just unheard of and not acceptable, right, 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.800 No parents in the right mind would send an unmarried 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.520 young woman to a foreign country. So I had to negotiate. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.160 So at that time, Korea was going through a lot 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:57.920 of political turmoil, sort of a democracy movement driven by 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.840 a lot of college students in college cam so the 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.080 colleges were shut down. So I kind of said, well, 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.080 you know, I want to go study, but the schools 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.720 are shut down. I can't study. And if you don't 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:15.640 let me go, then I may participate in these demonstrations 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.439 and my career, my future could be ruined. 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:19.520 Who knows. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.320 And I kind of use a little bit of a 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.560 threat but also a little bit of a negotiation, And 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.480 I said, give me just for one year's worth of 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.520 the tuition and living expenses, and after that I'll figure 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.120 it out, and when I start making money, I'll pay 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.160 back every penny. And when I get married, you don't 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.920 have to spend the time. I'll figure it out and 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.520 I pay everything back and some more. 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:43.560 So they agreed to it. 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.040 Now, you went to the University of Chicago, But how 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:47.720 did you happen to pick the universe of Chicago as 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:49.520 opposed to many other universities. 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.520 Well at that time, actually I was studying economics in Korea, 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.439 and which was also kind of unheard of for girls 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:56.800 to study economics. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:58.160 I said, I have to go there. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.360 I have to learn economics where the real economics is taught. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.640 So that was why I picked Eros of Chicago. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.439 And So was it a culture shock for you to 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.960 kind of deal with all these Americans in Chicago? 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:12.440 Or it wasn't a big problem. 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.360 It was really not a big problem. I mean, I 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.480 just really enjoyed it being on my own. My parents 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.680 were not really rich or famous, but still the environment 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.360 or the circle that I grew up, I was always 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.760 so and so's daughter, so and so's granddaughter, so and 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.880 so's sister. I absolutely hated that I wanted to go 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.719 where no one knew who I was. So it was 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.559 like free at last, and I just enjoyed every minute 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:41.839 of it. 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.199 When you graduated from you in Chicago, you decided to 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.120 go to business school and you picked the Yale School 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.360 of Management. Why did you pick that school of Management? 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:49.360 Which a very good one? 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:49.880 Yes. 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.360 At that time, Yale actually was about ten years old, 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.040 and their mission and vision was not to create another 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:02.239 Harvard Business School, but rather very different, unique educational institution, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.040 and that was mix both public and private management. And 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.199 the best part to me was it was a very 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.600 small class, about one hundred seventy or so at that time, 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.520 if I'm not mistake in Harvard had about eight hundred students, 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.920 and of course it was drawing upon the incredible faculty 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.080 members of Yale University, and I just really thought that 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:24.440 that was the best program for me. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:26.720 All Right, so you graduate from Yale School of Management, 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:28.000 what do you decide to do next? 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.520 At that time, actually I had a three ten year 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.640 plan for my future career. First ten years I was 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.560 going to go into consulting, strategy consulting, because that's the 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.760 fastest way to learn every aspect of business. So I 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.680 thought the strategy consulting was the fastest way. But the 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:47.400 second half was going to be if you want to 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.080 be a leader and CEO of any organization like Fortune 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.760 five hundred company, it's not about whether you can build 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.840 the most sophisticated Excel spreadsheet and pricing strategy, but rather 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.760 how do you manage and how do you lead organizations? 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.640 Especially how do you move people sideways to get them 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:05.560 to do what you want them to do, people who 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.040 work for you, people who you work for, and that 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.360 you can do only in a fortune five hundred environment. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:12.720 And I didn't really like it. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.120 So I decided to spend the next decade in a 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.360 fortune five hundred company focusing on organizational kind of leadership. 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:23.280 And then the third decade was I was going to 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:25.320 take a shot at becoming a CEO of a fortune 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:26.160 five hundred company. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.400 Okay, that's fairly ambitious schedule. So the first part you 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.120 want to do, go into consulting, im But so you 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:32.640 do that? How many years with Arthur D. 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:33.040 Little? 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.360 I did probably outn't know, four or five years or 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:37.240 maybe six years. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:39.560 And then you went to ernstign Young correct in the 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.600 consulting side. Yes, okay, so you did that for a while. 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:46.560 And then you left ernstign Youong and you joined North 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:50.600 of Brummin, which to the average person is a defense company. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:52.719 Were you in the Washington RAFA? Yes, you moved to 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:54.280 Washington area and you. 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.800 Were involved in their healthcare business or their technology business. 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:03.160 So I joined as a strategy officer. But then I 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.800 really wanted to go run something. My goal was to 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.199 learn how to build an organization. How you build leadership. 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.000 So I asked to give me a P and L organization. 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.520 So they gave me this health business, which they thought 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.480 was so bad that I couldn't screw up right, So 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.040 she asked for it. We're going to give it to her. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.960 If she doesn't do a good job, no harm done, 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.440 because it's already too very bad anyway. 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.200 And that's how I ended up careousness. 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.960 In healthcare for Northrop Brummen. But at that time, what 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.440 is your family saying back in career? Do they keep 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.120 calling or saying, now you're going to come back? 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.040 Well, then they kind of gave up on me, and 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.360 they probably had no idea what I was doing. And 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.120 you know, at that time, especially in Asia or you 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.960 know even in the US at that time, women go 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.400 into the business world or get an advanced degree. You're 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:58.480 either a lawyer or accountant. I was none of those, right, 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.520 So they kind of gave up understanding what I was doing. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.080 But somehow I wasn't doing too badly, so they're like, okay, 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:05.720 she's okay. 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.440 So at some point you decide I'm going to be 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.600 my own boss and entrepreneur. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.640 It was hard, but it was easy at that time. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:19.200 President Bush forty three declared that every American who wants 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.480 to have an electronic medical record will have one by 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.440 twenty fourteen. So he put his stakes in the ground 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:30.200 and start investing in all the doctors and hospitals implementing 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.680 electronic medical records. So the boom was kind of happening, 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.840 the IT investment, And when you're in the middle of that, 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.080 you get that bug and you can see like how 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:42.600 the dots could be connected. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.840 Whenever you start a company, you have to get some 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:46.880 capital to pay people and so forth. 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.360 So where did your capital come from? 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.840 So I certainly had offers, But you know, I've been 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:53.880 saying this to a lot of people as well, that 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.720 I did not take any external capital. 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:58.520 I literally bootstrapped. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.960 I think if I took external capital, if I were them, 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.280 I would not have let me take the kind of 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.400 risks that I took. So I knew that, so I 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:09.600 didn't want to do that to them. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.680 The name of the company was what cogni sante What 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:13.280 does that mean? 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.280 So that means that you know something about health healthcare. 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:18.400 Sante means health in French. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.520 So you were doing consulting and effect or helping companies 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:23.520 in the healthcare world. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.960 Ultimately it reduced the costs and improve the care and 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.000 so for But using technology, every doctor you visit, if 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:31.720 you want to get a second opinion, you have to 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.880 go get your MRIs and X rays all over again 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.120 for various reasons because it's different hospital systems, insurance purposes 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.360 and all that. But if you can have actually interoperable 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.480 IT system where all is, whether it's a picture or 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.560 doctor's notes, could be shared in real time or elect 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.280 electronic form, you don't have to take another MRI. So 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:59.680 it's a really efficient flow electronic flow of medical records, pictures. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.760 Prescriptions and so and all that. So interroperability. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:03.360 What year did you start your company? 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.800 Technically two thousand and eight, right before the market crashed. 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.600 Yes, okay, two thousand and eight, and then you sold 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:14.280 it last year twenty twenty four two accenture, I think 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.560 it was, Yes, So you sold it, walked away, started 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:19.080 a company called Kanishka. 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:20.800 Can you tell us what that does? 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:21.600 Yeah? 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:25.760 So that's the globally first multi club organization that includes 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.800 only women's soccer team or football teams. There are a 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.640 lot of examples on the men's side, City Football Group, 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.600 Red Bull, Redbird, all that, but This is the first 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.040 on women's side, and as we've been talking about, I 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.879 own on multiple teams and I wanted to kind of 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.760 create that synergy and economist of scale and scope. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:47.280 So it's the. 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:52.080 First in the world. And it's named after a Spartan 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:56.000 princess who lived in BC three hundred plus years. She 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:01.720 was a princess very much into horseback riding and she 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.879 wanted to compete in the Olympics and the chariot racing 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:10.160 was an Olympic game, but women were not allowed to compete. 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.280 Instead of complaining, she found out a loophole which was 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:18.000 at that time chariot racing. The medals were awarded not 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.840 to the racers but to the owners of the horses, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.480 and she went out and hired a whole bunch of 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:27.840 male chariot racers and had them compete and she went 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:28.920 to gold medals. 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:30.800 So do you get as much pleasure out of what 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.480 you're doing in soccer as you did in building your company. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.840 Yeah, I think it's probably a little different, But yes, 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:43.080 I'm enjoying it. Although I have to say every weekend 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.560 I have to watch just about even the seasons are 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.679 not quite the same, and they're not quite aligned. But 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.080 every weekend when all three teams watch, I don't think 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.080 I'm going to live up my natural lifespan because every 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:56.879 weekend I have to watch three games. 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:58.320 It's just like nail biting. 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.120 So you've been a bit of a leader in being 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:06.000 an external investor in a women's soccer team, and let's 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:09.600 say France and in England, do you think other women 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.800 and or men are going to start investing external investors 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:13.879 into these kind of teams. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:14.280 Yeah. 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.360 So when I first arrived in England and France, everyone 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.119 felt very badly for me, and they thought I was 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.240 going to fail miserably. How can you do this when 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.720 you don't have sort of the brand equity to leverage 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.000 from men's team or in communities like Leone and so forth. 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.880 But now I can tell you that some of these 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.680 Premier League teams and some of the top division teams, 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.200 they're not necessarily spinning off the team like what I've 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.240 done in Leone, we totally spun off the women's team 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.000 from men's team. But now some of the teams are 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:56.800 spinning up women's teams inside their mothership and they're actually 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.800 a recruiting investor separately. So Chelsea is another sample, They 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.600 actually separated women's team and they have separate investor group. 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:06.320 Some of the teams are now following. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.320 So when you go to the games in Washington or 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.359 Paris or London, are you fans coming up to you 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:13.480 for photos? 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:14.400 Selfies? 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.120