WEBVTT - EYL #85 More Than A Game 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.280 You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.520 How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy? Just use Indeed. 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.680 Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.439 job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.000 the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.119 you can reach the people you want faster. According to 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.120 Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have forty 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.040 five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't wait 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.519 any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.200 and listeners of this show will get a seventy five 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.440 dollars sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:45.320 at indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen. Just go 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:50.160 to Indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen right now 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.040 and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.400 on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.080 all you need, all. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:03.279 Right, guys, Going back, E y L the edition. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:06.919 Fitting very fit, very fitting. 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.200 So we got a very very exciting episode something that 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.399 we haven't covered yet. Every every time you think we 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.880 cover something, it's always something. 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:15.119 Else to cover. 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.760 Yeah, this this, this is a big one. So the 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.000 gaming industry the gaming industry is a multi billion dollar 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:27.960 global industry that has turned into a real just everything exploded, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.120 It's really exploded. They got the World Series of Fortnite, 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:33.920 the World Series. It is the world. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:35.640 To man. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:41.080 Yeah, yeah, I was there. I was all right, all right, sixteen. 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:49.440 Crazy, unbelievable, unbelievable. So we're gonna do this episode justice. Yes, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.280 Austin Woolrich, who is the CEO and founder of the 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:55.320 Players Lounge, So this is a really. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:02:00.880 Cool co founder shout that we forget them Players Lounge. 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.160 So Players Lounge is a platform where gamers play their 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.840 favorite video games against others for process. So long story short, 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.880 you're doing what you're already doing, but you can actually 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.880 win cash prices, and it's for everybody. It's not like 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.080 you don't have to be the best player in the world, 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.040 like you don't have to be the top twenty five, 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.600 like the World Series of Pokers, like you got to train. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:25.760 It's like, you know, it's a platform that's actually opened 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.760 up for everybody and low barriers and entry as far 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:30.799 as money is concerned. But you actually can make a 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.440 lot of money. So they've paid out over twenty five 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:38.560 million dollars in twenty nineteen, tens of thousands of users. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:39.680 It's a really big thing. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:41.880 Yeah, all them days that your mom and dad would 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.720 tell you to turn the video games off, they might 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:45.520 want to start telling you to turn the video games on. 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.960 Man is it is a huge industry. And like I said, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.840 I'm just so I'm so upset that this wasn't around 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:52.399 ten years ago. 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:52.679 Yeah. 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:54.760 Yeah, So this this is a new world. This is 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:56.280 a new world that we live in where it's like, 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.520 you know, you don't have to work in corporate America. 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:01.920 You can play video games and make money, and you 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.160 can create a company where you can make money and 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:07.720 have other people play video games and turn into a 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.800 lucrative business. So, first and foremost, thank you for joining us. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:12.440 Appreciate it. 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.720 Orse of course I love what you guys do. Thank 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:16.440 you so much for. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:17.840 Having me, no problem. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.520 So yeah, let's get right into it. So players lounge, 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.480 all right? So what is the process? I I kind 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.440 of know because I read, but I think it's an 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.639 interesting story. How do you get because you was at 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.000 Wesleyan If anybody's not familiar, that's one of the best 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:31.960 colleges in America. 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:33.360 I think it's the most expensive one. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:34.800 Definitely the most expensive. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:40.280 It cost It costs a lot. It costs a lot 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.400 of money, so big money. You you you go to. 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.960 You know, this extremely prestigious university. What made you want 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:52.520 to really go into video gaming as a career. 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.000 Yeah, I think video games has just always been a 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.680 part of my life since I was a kid. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.600 I always been playing since a young young age, and 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:06.160 to fund my. 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:11.360 Video game addiction, I would actually sell my old video 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.200 games that I finished on eBay. And I was actually 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.520 just looking at my eBay account recently, and I made 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:22.479 it in nineteen ninety nine, so I was ten years old, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:23.760 so it was ten years old. 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:25.440 I don't even know how. I couldn't even. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:26.760 Explain how I was doing it back then, but I 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.039 was like literally going on the computer, selling like my 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.040 N sixty four games, my PlayStation games, and getting the 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.840 money somehow via PayPal, and then going to the game 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:38.560 stop or whatever and buying. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.040 The next game that I wanted. And so it's always 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:40.800 been a part of my life. 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:46.200 And even a few years later, actually got paid twenty 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:51.080 dollars an hour to help some family friends children like 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.080 beat the games that they were stuck in so they 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.400 had their own PlayStations or whatever, and they were stuck 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:59.039 in i don't know, like Spiral the Dragon or some 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:00.920 game like that, and I would just come over and 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.159 get paid like twenty an hour to just help them 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:05.920 beat these games. 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.200 So you like a video game tutor. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:09.360 Yeah, exactly, exactly. 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:11.080 And I think it was more. 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:16.360 So my family friends kind of engaging and putting some 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.159 some fuel onto my entrepreneurial spirit and like kind of 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.479 driving me to continue to go down that path more 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.320 so than like it actually being a wise investment for them. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.240 But but yeah, that's definitely been Biggins has always been 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.920 a part of my life. And so when I was 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.840 at Wesley in my freshman year, I actually came across 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.800 the site that is now a competitive Player's launch. I'm 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.760 not going to say their name, but they provide similar 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.120 offering where you can play video games against other people 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.080 for money. You're betting on yourself playing vide games against 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.000 other people around the country for money. And so I've 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:55.919 always been really big into FIFA as one of the 0:05:55.920 --> 0:06:00.800 games that I've invested at, and so I was playing 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.640 on the site and one summer I won a couple 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.360 of brand on your FIFA and the money actually hit. 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.599 My account, and I was like, I'm the man. 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.200 Yeah, it's made more than some kids making in the 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.760 internship over the summer just playing FIFA for a couple 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:18.760 of weeks. I just found like a guy and just 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:23.400 took his money, Like fell a little bad. I took 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.200 that money and went to went to Florida, went to 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:26.280 Miami with my boy. 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.560 So you know, the crazy part is that, like you said, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.279 you were ten in nineteen ninety nine, So like for 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.599 the kids that are listening now, it's like before you 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.560 could play online, you had to go to your friend's 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.560 house to take his money, you know what I'm saying. 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.800 So once you got online with it, it's like, all right, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.159 well this is a new game, right. 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.000 So it how I see it is that like you 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.120 have your certain circles that are wanting to play video 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.120 games against you for money, and then over a course 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.760 of course of time, like they're not down to play 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.640 you anymore because clearly you're better if you got to 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.080 give odds and stuff like that. And so this platform 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.960 really expands the pool of people to play against her money. 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:04.000 Exponentially. 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.919 It's like every single circle that comes into this one pool, 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.080 and now you have like thousands and tens of thousand, 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.960 one hundred thousands of people how to play with for money. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.800 Okay, so yeah, so you say so use that all right? Yeah, 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:21.920 so you say that you was playing a FIFA, you 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:23.560 won a couple of thousand. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:25.320 What happens after that? 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.720 So that kind of opened my eyes, like looked like 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:34.680 this platform, it works, and there's a big opportunity here 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:37.560 we could build our own. And so. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.240 I was at Wesleyan playing soccer there and my eventual 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.720 co founder is Zach and I actually talked about this 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.800 idea because we played PIFA pretty competitively at college. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.280 We would go into each other's dorm room before a game. 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.200 We couldn't be going out on like a Friday because 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.200 we had a game on Saturday, and so the whole 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.520 soccer team would go to someone's dorm and just like FIFA, 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:02.400 like for money for sure. 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:04.920 So they started they started out as little tournaments in 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:05.920 the dorm rooms. 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.080 Uh no, that was just like for fun. It didn't 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:11.679 have to do with players on. We didn't start players 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.720 on back then. But like the idea was kind of 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.720 an inceptualized in that environment where like I just did 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.440 it on a site for money, and then we're also 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.440 like experiencing those circles. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.720 I was just talking about in the dorm rooms at college. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.200 And so we started spitball on the idea, but we 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.400 had soccer, we had school work to do, and it 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.439 never really evolved beyond just a couple of conversations. 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.560 But I can fast forward a little bit. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.240 And so we graduated college in twenty eleven, and then 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.000 Zach and I ran into each other in twenty fourteen, 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:48.800 and that's kind of when the ball got rolling. 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:51.440 So you start, you start. 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.640 You got the idea and you want to take it 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.920 and make it a real company, Right, So what's the 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.520 first step as far as that is concerned, Like the 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.599 blueprints that you kind of sitting down with Zach and like, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.480 all right, this is the framework on it. 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:10.480 So we had our initial like spitballing of the idea 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.720 when we were sophomores, and nothing, it didn't really come 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:18.320 in fruition. And then graduating twenty eleven and three years later, 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.560 I'm watching the World Cup and I'm like, damn, I 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.760 really miss playing FIFA, and so I immediately ordered an 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.120 Xbox and my friend and I just started playing a 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.080 couple of games with FIFA, and I was like damn, 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.400 Like I really missed playing FIFA with my friends and playing. 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:38.840 FIFA for money, and like like just the whole vibe 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:39.160 of that. 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.680 I really miss that. And so I was thinking, like, Okay, 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.160 so how can I recreate that experience? Because in New 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.280 York people have small apartments, and people are working a 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.240 lot and have conflicting schedules, and so it's not as 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.920 easy to get people into like a room to play 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.160 like a bunch of FIFA together as a I was 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.800 in college, and so I thought of an idea where. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.320 Why don't I just go to bars and say, hey, 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:08.920 you guys have. 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.960 A Bengo nights, have a trivia night or whatever to 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.960 bring patronton on a traditionally slow night like a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.560 Why don't I introduce a FIFA night? And so I 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:25.480 partnered with a bar in Williamsburg and I had maybe 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.560 like fifteen or twenty or so of my friends ready 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.720 to come to this event. And the day before I 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.200 run into Zach, my college soccer teammate, at the gym. 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.360 He just moved back from Brazil because he was at 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.560 the World Cup, and so I'm like, yeah, we should 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:41.040 come to this event, like you're gonna love it. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:43.720 We're gonna be playing FIFA for money. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:45.760 It's a tournament, just ten dollars entry fee, and like 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:47.000 the wind will get like two hundred. 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.679 He's like, damn, that sounds really dope, Like you need 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:51.320 help doing it, Like I want to help, And I 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:52.920 was like, yeah, for sure, Like this shit is a 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:53.760 lot of work. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.760 Setting it up, so I could definitely use some extra hands. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.960 And so the first event was it was a great success. 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.320 We had like maybe fifty people packed into a dive 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.640 bar in Williamsburg, and we realized that, like there was 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:10.360 definitely something here. We recreated that environment that we had 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.160 playing FIFA in college, where like there was money on 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.160 the line, everybody was friends, people were meeting new people, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.199 we were playing good music. And so before starting Player's Launch, 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.400 I was like a full time rap producer. So at 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.920 these events played like all the music that I wanted 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:29.080 to hear, like all the newest rap and all that shit, 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.560 and so it really made it to like a party 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.360 at the same time. And that's kind of how Players Lounge. 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:38.560 That's how it really started. It was just an event 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:43.079 company that hosted FIFA tournaments at bars with cash trucks. 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.680 So you guys went from Brooklyn, you killed the city 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.920 right in Manhattan, then you started spending expanding west, right, 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:51.119 didn't you go to San Francisco. 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:54.440 Yeah, we did a couple events in San Francisco. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.520 We went through an accelerator program out there at UC 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.959 Berkeley at the Business School, and so we threw a 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.440 couple of events out there, and then we did a 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.880 partnership with Anheuser Bush and they flew us out to 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.840 Toronto to do like a big event out there. So 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.719 we were touching different parts of the country and North America. 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.000 The Anheiser bushdy was kind of cool just to kind 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.480 of like explain the value behind that on both sides. 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.920 So for us, the value obviously was cash. They were 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.880 paying us money and they gave us more validity. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:35.920 And on their end, the value proposition was, hey, we 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.880 have this screw players lounge and we could present them 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.360 to bars as a way to bring in more traffic, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.800 and in return, the bars will get rid of a 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.240 millerte tap and add another Anheuser Bush tap. 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:50.360 And so that was kind of the partnership that that 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:51.520 we'd drawn up with them. 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.559 So as you kept doing it, are the crowds going 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.240 what are they looking at you say, at in the 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.600 Brooklyn one you had fifty What are the crowd sizes 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:00.679 is looking like? As you keep going around out the country. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:03.760 So we had different types of events. We had big 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:10.000 tournaments with hundreds of people. We had events where like 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.559 we found a group in Washington, d C. That we're 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:15.880 doing similar type of things PIPA tournaments, and we had 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.400 them come down. They got hotel rooms, and we had 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.960 a whole World Cup like New York versus DC. So 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:24.360 our whole our whole squad that the regulars that came 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:25.840 to the players on the events in New York played 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.280 against the regulars in d C. So that was a 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.360 really really fun event. That's probably the funest event we 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.960 ever did. And then the one in Toronto was pretty big. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.320 We had like over one hundred people there, but the 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:40.480 majority of it was just like very consistent weekly tournaments 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.120 or leagues. And so we had a website built where 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.120 like you had a leaderboard you can see where you 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.200 were at any given time. The leaderboards updated in real time, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.760 so you could pull out your phone and check the 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.080 website and see like, oh, you just lost the match, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:53.960 like where'd. 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:55.559 You go up or down? Or whould you go down 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:56.520 on the leaderboard. 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.120 So it's more like the consistent league and turnament and 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.200 flow that was really the bread and butter g. 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.800 So at what point does this really start to scale 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:06.640 and go from because it sounds like, all right, you 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.079 were doing like in person experiences in Brooklyn, Toronto, La, 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:15.760 different places, and with that it kind of grew and 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.840 became bigger than just the in person bar experience. So 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.680 at what point does it grow to having you know, 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.480 the first thousand people that are all over the world 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.640 using it, And it's really no longer the focus is 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.160 no longer in person. The focus is more just on 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:34.600 the internet. 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:39.200 So after about eighteen months of doing events, uh, there 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.440 wasn't really that much growth happening, and there was a 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.360 lot of work, a lot of like sweat, and it 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:51.640 was a large capital investment to continuously grow events because 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.040 you have to buy consoles, you have to buy gains 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.440 by controllers. Every time you had more people, you needed 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:02.720 more of that, and the expenses and revenue weren't growing linearly, 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:08.200 and so we decided to pivot. And the pivot was 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.400 going back to our conversations that we had in college, 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.320 like yeah, let's build a digital platform where anyone in 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.800 the country, anyone in the world can play anyone else 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:21.720 online for money. So it's basically expanding that circle that 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:26.680 I was telling you about earlier. And so it was 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:32.880 around November of twenty fifteen we decided, look, we're gonna 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.960 pivot from events and focus all of our efforts into 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:39.240 a digital product. And the digital product is gonna have 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:47.840 the DNA of the events, which was like a community 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.680 environment where you can see what's happening, you can see 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.640 who's playing. It's not like a casino or anything where 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.360 it's like people are siloed off in their little slot 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.360 machines and not really interacting. Like no, it's an environment 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.400 that we create that's popping, and you want to know 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.120 what other people doing, how much money. 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:04.960 Other people are playing for. 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.760 You want to transfer that DNA over into the digital products. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.200 And one thing that's really important that I definitely want 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.400 to share it with everybody is that pivoting is very 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.640 normal and its majority of startups and successful startups have 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.800 pivoted at least one time. And so you take kind 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.480 of what you learn from your initial build your MVP, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.320 so you can call the event our minimum viable products. 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:29.400 The event Company. 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.960 And so what we learned from the event company was 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.840 that one hundreds or even thousands of people were willing 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.800 to travel all across the Trystate, from all across the 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.400 Try State area to a random dive bar in Williamsburg 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.080 to play FIFA with the with like minded. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.920 People for five hours until two in the morning. That 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.440 happened twice a week. So we knew that people were 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.760 really really trying to do this, and we knew that 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:59.280 people were given that people were traveling from very far away, 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.520 there weren't that many options out there for them. And 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.119 then we started talking to our customers in person, like 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.040 what would you want from a digital product, like what 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:09.280 would translate. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.960 Over to make you want to use it? And so 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.040 we learned a lot there and interviews are very key. 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.200 And so we took all that information that we learned 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:27.400 and the clear desire that there isn't a feasible product 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.800 to allow people to do this from their own homes 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.800 as opposed to driving like two hours. We took that 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.520 information said all right, let's scrap the event stuff and 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:39.320 go fully digital. And so. 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.760 We needed money to build the digital products. And so 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:48.560 this is a great story. My co founder Zach. 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.919 He got word that a Wedsley and grad probably one 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.640 of the most successful Wesdy grads. This guy named Strauszelnik. 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.240 He's the CEO of Take two Interactive. They make grant 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.440 to photo NBA two K and he's also like. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.280 The chairman of this Viacom CBS conglomerate. 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.120 So he's like a real real big dog and he's 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.520 a Wedsley group. And so we got when that he 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:20.080 has these workout classes at six am every Thursday. And 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.720 Zach could tell anybody like when we were on the 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.520 soccer team, I hated working out, I hated going to gym, 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.560 hated lived in weights. I was just on the field, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.080 just cooking. But I didn't want to like do any 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.719 like workouts and shuff like that. But Zach, Zach enjoys it. 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.320 And so he's like, fuck it, I'm gonna go to 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.879 this workout class. I got a friend who invited me, 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.320 and I'm gonna go every Thursday, which ended up being 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:50.680 from like April to November, every Thursday until he's down 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:51.000 to have. 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:55.159 A meeting with us. I'm like, all right, go for it. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:19:00.560 And he was very successful. He went like. 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.600 Two three thursdays in a row, didn't get a word 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:10.760 with him. Five six thursdays later, maybe said hello, maybe 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.399 got an introduction, and then eventually he was able to 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.840 build up enough rapport to be like, hey, look, me 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.840 and my co founder from Wesley and we started a 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.920 company and esports company and NBA two K is part 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.800 of our vision. We sit down with us and hear 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.959 about it, and he was like, yeah, for sure, and 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:34.040 we went to uh we went to a brunch spot 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:38.600 in the upper east side of Strauszonik, and we were 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.960 so naive at the time and we didn't really like 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.520 know all this terminology of like evaluation caps and all 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.200 this stuff, and we and he was just like very 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.760 polite about it and very understanding. But he was asking 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.920 us to do like a bunch of like napkin math. 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:57.880 And we're just like, oh shit, like uh, like look 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.400 at bluster U. And then he ended up investing. 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.760 He ended up investing sixty thousand on the spot and 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:08.680 he was like, I love what you guys are doing. 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:10.080 I think guys are very committed. 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:13.399 And the digital product is definitely with the way to 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.199 go kill the events. Digital product is how you make 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.760 this a billion dollar business. The ceiling on the events 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:24.320 side is very low and very capital intensive, and you 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:28.199 have a much scalable business on the digital side. And 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.959 so I'm gonna leave, here's my gym bag. I live 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.119 at this address, take my gym bag back to my apartment. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.720 And then we got a deal. So we basically have 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.400 to like find out where this guy lives and take 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:43.520 his gym bag to a spot to secure the money. 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.640 Why was why was it was that like some kind 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:53.360 of just the ritual, Like it was a moment exactly. 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.480 That's probably the best analogy. It is definitely a Diddy 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:57.960 cheesecake moment. All right, you guys just take my bag, 0:20:58.040 --> 0:20:58.800