WEBVTT - How to Think Big and Other Advice from Kay Koplovitz 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:10.800 Welcome to Made by Women, a new podcast by the 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:15.760 Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. At a 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.319 moment when businesses face some of the biggest challenges in 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.800 recent history, we bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.600 shared learnings to help you successfully navigate in today's environment. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.159 Every Thursday, Made by Women will showcase the experiences of 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.640 legendary women, entrepreneurs, fierce up and comers, and everyday women 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:41.080 who found success their own way. Consider this your real world. 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.960 N b A designed for the new Now. I'm Kim 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:52.640 Azarelli and thanks so much for joining us today. K 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.160 Koplewitz is a television pioneer who has shaped the way 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:01.320 we live and watch HEV for decades. The eventual founder, chair, 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.600 and CEO of USA Network, K became enamored with satellites 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.360 as a University of Wisconsin student, inspired by the work 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.440 of science fiction author Arthur C. Clark. In ninety seven, 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:17.320 K launched one of the first satellite delivered basic cable networks, 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:22.240 Madison Square Garden Sports Network, which later became USA Network. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.600 With that launch, K became the first female network president 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.080 in television history. KA is the visionary who created the 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.520 dual revenue stream of licensing and advertising, which networks still 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.920 followed to this day, and after building and running the 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.040 network for over twenty years, Ka helped sell USA Network 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.640 for four point five billion dollars. One of the most 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.920 influential people in entertainment, K complots today is sharing her 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.880 unmatched knowledge with other women entrepreneurs through two organizations that 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.520 she has co founded, Springboard Enterprises and Springboard Growth Capital. 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:08.240 Enjoy my converse station with K Compliments. So, Okay, thanks 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.639 so much for joining us. It's so lovely to join him. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.280 Thank you so much. Okay. Obviously, your career has changed 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.639 the landscape for so many things, whether it's cable television, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.840 the way we think about entertainment, women's entrepreneurship. You have 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.079 been a leader in so many areas, and we're so 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.400 pleased that you're here to talk to us today. It 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.000 seems that this goes way back, and that you learned 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.320 the art of negotiation at a very young age. Perhaps 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.120 kindergarten is that right, Yes, it is. Actually I was 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.080 the five years old at the time. I was in 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.000 my second year of kindergarten where I, my parents and 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.560 I were living and my dad had built a new 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.679 house in the next town and it was about Christmas 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.880 time and he said, well, we're moving to our new house. 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.640 And I said to my dad, well, I really can't 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.280 move now. What do you mean you can't move now 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.880 we're moving, you're moving with us. Well, I said that 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.760 I really can't move down. It's a you know, something 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:03.880 I've got to do. And he said, well what do 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.079 you got to do? And I said, I've got to 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.800 graduate with my kindergarten class. And he looked at me 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:13.840 like I here she goes again, and he said, well, well, 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.200 how are you going to do that? You're moving And 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.799 I said to him, well, dad, you have to raise 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.760 my allowance by fifty cents a week so I could 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.320 take the bus to the next town and go to 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.480 kindergarten class and graduate with this is Washington's kindergarten class. 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.080 That's what I want to do. And he looked at 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.400 me and he went, okay, but don't you ever ask 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.080 your mother for a ride. We're not going to take it, 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.560 no matter how cold it is. It was in Milwaukee, 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.920 Wisconsin cold winters. And I said, no, I never gonna 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:45.720 ask for a ride, never gonna ask for any help. 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:47.560 Just give me my fifty cents a week and I'll 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.880 take care of it. And that's how I won my 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:55.600 first negotiation. Well, that was really the beginning of something extraordinary. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:57.960 The writing was on the wall, as they say, So 0:03:58.080 --> 0:03:59.880 from that point on, you were sort of a girl 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.680 on a mission. And I mean to bring you forward 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.480 to college when you became fascinated by the potential of satellites. 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.000 How did that come to be? I was between my 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.600 junior and senior year at the University of Wisconsin at 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.680 the time, and I had been working my way through school, 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:16.520 working lots of jobs, and I thought, I've got to 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.839 get out of Wisconsin see something about the world. And 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.280 I decided to go after Europe with my backpack and 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.200 five dollars a day and see what was happening and 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:26.840 give myself a little bit of a break. And I 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.920 was in London at the time and I saw walking around, 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.919 I saw this poster for a lecture being given on satellites, 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.800 and I thought, Wow, that could really be interesting. I 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:39.760 think I'll go in there and listen to this lecture, 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.720 which I did, and the lecture was talking about the 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:48.080 power of geosynchronous orbiting satellites which had just been launched 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.559 um in the previous year, and he was talking about 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.560 how powerful they were and he only needed three of 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.200 them to connect people all around the globe. And furthermore, 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.520 they couldn't be jammed. We are in the time of 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.720 the Cold War with the Soviet Union at that point 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:08.799 time and also China uh and he was saying that 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.839 this was a way to communicate with people around the globe. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.440 I just thought the message was so powerful that there 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.760 was an idea that would never let me go. And 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:24.720 this lecture was Arthur C. Clark, a renowned science fiction 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.640 writer but also a well grounded scientist, and he was 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.440 talking to the class about geosyncritus orbiting satellites, which we 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.600 took for granted today but just had been launched at 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.120 that point in time. That was It just gripped me 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.920 as an unbelievably powerful idea, an idea that would never 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.920 let me go. And I went on to pursue the 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.280 idea that went to graduate school, wrote my master chiefs 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.200 Sun Satellite Technologies, and I think the potential impact it 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.159 would have on the communication structure, which of course it 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.360 has well. That another amazing moment and was a forecast 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.359 of what was to happen, and from there you write 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.640 your thesis, and you get into television and you get 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:12.719 involved in the legendary Thrilla in Manilla Championship boxing fight. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.279 Can you tell us why this was a pivotal moment 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.880 for you? Sure? At that point in between, I had 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.520 worked at the Communications Satellite Corporation, so I really worked 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.160 in bringing satellites into the communication here in the United States, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.760 and at that time in nineteen hour in nineteen seventy 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.880 and there are cable systems starting to grow around the country, 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.040 but they really didn't have a way of connecting efficiently. 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.400 So HBO is in its really early stages that would 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.280 send tapes around and they will arrive at cable systems 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.039 ghetto damaged or torn. It wasn't a really good way 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:55.640 of distributing a signal. And along came the opportunity with 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.640 the Thriller for Manilla in nineteen seth Tower thirty nineteen 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.040 seventy five. HBO actually was a client of mine. They 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.760 brought that to Vero Beach, Florida, UH and I was 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.720 a representative for them, and we brought that signal via 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:15.920 geoshyp critis orbity satellites ninety miles around the globe live 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.200 from Manila into Vero Beach, Florida and showed the industry 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.760 and members of Congress that satellites could be used for 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.960 commercial purposes. Up to that time, they had not been 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.040 used for commercial purposes in this way. And that was 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.160 the night that changed the course of television history and 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:39.520 the night that launched my career to launch USA Network. So, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.520 coming out of that one incredible championship boxing fight, you 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.520 changed the trajectory of cable television and you go on 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.840 to launch the first satellite delivered basic cable network, which 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.800 was then called Madison Square Garden Sports Network and later 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.680 became USA Network. Did I get that right? Yes, you did. 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.320 Let me just say that, yes, the launch was with 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.320 Madison Square Garden. It was the Madison Square Garden Sports 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:08.320 Network actually brought all the professional sports to cable before ESPN, 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:13.040 so Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL Augusta National 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.600 Golf Tournament, the US Open, Tennis, the less goes on 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.080 and on um and so we broke open the window 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.960 when sports at that time was really a weekend event. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.360 Uh it was you know, the game of the weekend, baseball. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.920 It was life world of sports on the weekend, and uh, 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.000 then Monday night football and that was it, And I said, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.640 why not every night? Sports are played every night every night? 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.200 So I went after every major league sport brought them 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.719 all the cable. So broke open that window in the 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:46.360 sports arena UM and went on afterwards the renaming the 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.120 network USA Network and brought in entertainment and broke open 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:55.600 many entertainment windows for the cable industry. So I got 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:57.520 plowed a lot of ground for the industry. But it 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.640 was certainly a lot of fun doing it. There was 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.240 something very unique about USA Network and that you changed 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.240 the way the business model operated. How did that come 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.800 into being? Yes, I uh at television at the time 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.320 was operated totally on advertising revenue. Starting up a nascent network, 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.000 there was not enough distribution to rely on. We didn't 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.160 have advertising revenue to start with. Maybe two percent of 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.920 the revenue came out of advertising when we started UM 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.840 with pilot programs with advertisers like Bristol Myers. But it 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.520 really you needed to get the distribution. So licensing was 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:38.600 what I changed in network television, that the networks paid 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.840 the TV stations to carry their signal. I reversed the 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.959 process and in cable the cable operators paid the programmer 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.240 to get the programming, so we had to reverse the 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.880 model really interesting, and that really changed the course of 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.920 the way we think about cable TV today. What was 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.200 one of the biggest obstacles you faced in building your 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.800 business when I was built of USA network really was 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:05.520 a different time and sort of a development of businesses, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.080 certainly in the cable industry, and being the first one 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.640 out there launching a network, I really had to look 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.680 for ways to get into the business. There were a 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.080 lot of contracts in place, access to programming that I 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.200 wanted to license and so forth, and I had to 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.480 really create all these special windows and a strategy for 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.400 not only bringing all the sports major sports to cable 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.760 before ESPN was my idea, went out and did that, 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.080 but trying to get into the entertainment networks was very, 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:39.960 very different trying to license popular programming from broadcast networks. 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.600 There are windows that I had to really get into, 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.120 But that really wasn't the hardest thing for me. I'll 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.040 tell you what it was. Back then, women just weren't 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.000 allowed a lot of places, weren't allowed to go to 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.920 golf clubs and play golf with the guys, weren't allowed 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:56.880 to go into certain parts of restaurants. We want to 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.200 give you an example that people will understand. It has 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.120 to be at Augusta National where the Master's Golf tournament 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.800 has played. And in two I was able to license 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.200 the rights to carry the Masters on Thursday and Friday. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.760 I was always trying to get more sports during the 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.040 week and I worked with CBS that had the rights 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.680 on the weekend. So I was there at the club 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:26.200 the very first week of play. And they're on Thursday, 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:31.240 which was the traditional day for the media lunch, and 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:36.000 we were standing outside the clubhouse chatting UH and I 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.400 was chatting with Hoard Harden, who was the chairman at 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.439 the time, and there were about fourteen of us UH 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.319 and the others were a bunch of guys from CBS 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.800 and TVs from Japan. And now we're having a nice 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.280 time in Hordes. Oh, let's go, let's go to lunch. 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:54.440 Time to go to lunch. So we go into the 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.120 clubhouse and we're going up the stairs and Ord is 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.199 leading the way. I'm walking up the airs with him. 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.000 We get to the top of the stairs and it 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:09.040 turns around and he looks at me and he said, uh, okay, 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:14.160 we'd allow women on the second floor, and I said 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.200 to him, well, Hoard, what are we going to do 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.760 about that? That's when women couldn't go to the men's 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.439 lunch and room on the second floor. So what do 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.600 we do? We turned around and went down to the 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.880 trophy room to have lunch, where we proceeded to have 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.880 lunch for the next ten years until the second floor 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:39.480 was opened to women. So it just as illustrative of 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.839 some of the barriers that I really had to face 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.480 in building out the network. And it didn't really have 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:47.120 so much to do with the network. Had had a 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.640 lot to do with the culture. And so that wasn't 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:51.440 the only time. I mean, there were a number of 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.040 times that I went to meetings in different cities around 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.200 the country. The meetings were scheduled at eating clubs that 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.400 were men only eating clubs, or I would be invited 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.720 to an event to participate in an event, uh and 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.120 I would go to the event and a golf tournament 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:12.080 for example, or golf outing of some sort, and the 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:16.720 same thing would happen. So women were excluded from a 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:21.040 lot of the places that men congregated to do business, 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.600 and that probably culturally speaking, was one of the hardest 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:30.679 things to overcome, but undaunted, I persisted, Wow, that's incredible. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.400 Things have somewhat changed. Obviously there's other barriers today, but 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.480 that's a straightforward barrier, not being able to be there. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.079 How do they respond to people? Understand you and how 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.560 did they respond to you? In this people had to change, 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.320 as I illustrated with the story about Augusta. They had 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.400 to change. They had to do something differently because there 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.760 I was to do business with them, and what were 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:53.439 they going to do? Lock me out of the meeting 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.080 that I was there to do business. That it that 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.720 they didn't do that they generally thought of something else, 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:01.880 you know, that they would do, or they would go 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:06.320 someplace else, so to try oftentimes to be accommodating. But 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.680 you knew that when you were personally standing there, that 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:15.040 that cultural habits persisted for a long time and that 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.080 for most women they were really frozen out. And that 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.280 is a difficult thing to overcome. Actually, it's a cultural issue. 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.640 You must have had this incredible ability to articulate your 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.560 vision because when you're building new and bringing people along, 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.000 that's always very difficult. And it seemed that many people 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.280 showed up once you laid it out. I think there's 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.800 one night where Bob It clicked for him and basically 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.760 said something like, tonight your dream comes true today. Did 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:40.520 I get that right? You got it right. It was 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.640 September thirte the thrill of him and then it was 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.960 his cable system. We're walking back to the hotel and 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:52.200 he said, Okay, tonight your dream comes true and and 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.680 indeed it did. Wow. And he was the one that 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.720 I was working with, the partnered with to launch Metison 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.320 Square Garden and then became the USA Network. So you 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.120 ran USA Network for twenty one years. In the process, 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.640 somewhere you launched the Sci Fi Channel. How did that 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.320 come to be? Well, I was looking for I had 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.320 really tried to launch a couple other networks, and at 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.600 that point in time, early on five years after we launched. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.600 Originally the owners of the company, Bob burse Translas company 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:24.920 was in a hostel takeover a bit and he wanted 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.200 to get some money out. So the Universal and Paramount 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.840 along with time Ache brought into the company and so 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.040 they were each of them had a minority position in 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.680 the USA, but they were the three of them together 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.200 and I really actually had a deal to buy out 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.920 the Financial News Network, which became a CNBC that was 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:49.200 floarded by said Scheiberg from Universal, who when in the 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.440 moment sitting in the conference room signing the contract with 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.280 thal Jones to be my partner on Financial News Network, 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.560 he pulled out. It was It was a devastating moment 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.760 after it worked a year and a half to get 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.560 it to fruition and so there when there were other 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.160 opportunities that I had. So when it came to sci Fi, 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.080 I thought, I know sci Fi fans are loyal and 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.280 their vocal, they would be a good supporters of the 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.440 sci Fi Network coming into being. And I had negotiated 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:22.280 the deal to buy the title sci Fi Network from 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:24.720 some people who had started as people from Florida who 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.560 had started, and I was signing the contract to take 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.920 them out because I didn't want any competition in the marketplace. 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.520 John Malone at that time had a propensity to bring 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.040 up competitors or vibe pistons and competitors. I was wanted 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:39.920 to take them out of the window. And I had 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.560 the contract negotiated, they were in the room reading it 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.720 one last time before signing it. I got a call 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.440 from Paramount, who had star Trek. You would think that 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.760 they would love Sci Fi Network. I got yeah. So 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:53.880 stand called me and he said, you know, I don't 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.400 think this is really a big enough idea for a 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.920 network and all this sort of thing. Well, I learned 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.480 something from my first experience of having a partner pull out. 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.119 I said, well, it's just two bads down because we 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.119 just signed the contract, so it's done. And actually I 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:10.919 didn't know for sure they were going to sign it, 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.639 but I didn't care at that point in time. Uh, 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.680 you know, I just I just was not going to 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.200 be thwarted again. And that's how it picked up Sci 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:23.040 Fi and and developed it. So fast forward. You ultimately, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.240 USA Network, after you running it for twenty one years, 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.440 was sold for four point five billion dollars. How did 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.240 that whole deal come to be? Well, there have been 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.480 the companies that were in the ownership of USA at 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:37.959 that point in time kept getting bought and sold and changed, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.000 and there were a lot of different people, um uh 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.320 in different companies out there. At the end of the day, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:49.760 at the Universal challenged a provision in the contract with Viacom, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.200 which had been you know, after we had first had 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.880 the people from Madison Store Garden and the paramount and 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.600 so just became Viacom part and they want a contract, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.119 so they got control of USA at that point in 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:08.320 time turned around. That was angered Bronford Jr. People were 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.400 stounded that he could win a lawsuit against Viacom at 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.120 the time. Uh. And it turned around the next day 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.679 and sold it to Barry Diller. So that's how it 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.120 came about. There was nothing I could do about that. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.760 I wanted to bube a company. It was not his choice. 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.280 His choice was to solid to Barry Dealer, so he 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.440 did and that sort of ended, you know, my association 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.760 with the USA Network, which came shortly thereafter. So that's 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.640 are those in the world of business. And I went on, 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.240 you know, to do many other things after that. Well, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.000 we're glad you did, even though probably at that moment 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.240 it didn't seem like the path you wanted to take. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.359 I would say for women in business, it was a 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.440 great moment because at that time, after selling USA Networks, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.359 you pivoted. You were asked to chair the National Women's 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.960 Business Counsel by President Clinton, and from there on you 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.320 have been an incredible proponent for women's entrepreneur a ship 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.719 founding First Springboard Enterprises, so can you tell us a 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.840 little bit about Springboard Enterprises, its mission and how does 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:11.719 it work. At that time, it was late into there 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:13.840 was so much money pouring over the transform and venture 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.280 capital and I didn't really know that much about the 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.160 venture capital market, but I saw all this capital. None 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.000 of it existed when I started Madison, Spare Garden Sports 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.560 and k USA. So I thought to myself, where on 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.720 the women. I looked around. There were no like five 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.080 women maybe five, um that you know, we're in the 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.040 market for venture capital, and I thought, why not? What's 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.240 happening here? We decided we had to go find the women. 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.840 We had to go out and see if they actually existed. 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.000 Uh so that you know, we thought they were ready 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.680 for equity investment like venture investment, and we've been a 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.679 call out. It was just a handful of us just 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.439 called out to our various networks and webout three hundred 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.240 and fifty applications and we were overwhelmed. We ultimately selected 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.639 twenty six of those companies to go through our first 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.240 scelerated boot camp, and they presented in January of two thousand. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.679 The amazing, amazing thing is that twenty two of the 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.240 twenty six of them got funded and we've been doing 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.439 that ever since. A lot of times people think of 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:16.960 women's entrepreneurship. Well, first of all, we do know that 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.160 women have trouble access in capital and that has been 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.480 something that's plagued women entrepreneurs. But we also know that 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:27.360 people think about women's businesses often as small. What's your 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.960 reaction to that. Oh, it's like fingernails on the blackboard. 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.679 I cannot stand the words tall and women in the 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:39.879 same sentence. It is that it's just just a monkey 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.040 on the beasts of women that they've had to carry 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.320 around for so long. And we are about women buildings, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.919 companies to scale and sustainability. We are about going big. 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.119 We are about creating wealth for women by their own 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.840 work and product that they're deliving into the marketplace. That's 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:03.320 what's really important. We need women to think big because 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.840 we are able to do this. I know after building 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.119 a company uh to afford and a half billion dollar 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.080 or value, that women can do this. You know, it's 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.879 not impossible. But what women need and what we are 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.439 providing to women is the ecosystem that is supportive. I 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.800 saw that in the first year of sperm Board Enterprises. 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:30.000 It wasn't just entrepreneurs and funders, investors, it was the 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.720 whole ecosystem. It was the lawyers, the accountants, the business partners, 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:39.199 the mentors, it was everybody that you needed in the ecosystem. 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.800 That's what we built a Springboard Enterprises, and that's what's 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:48.879 so important to the entrepreneurs. So many times women have 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:53.359 come to our accelerator program and in the first day 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.199 they're like, oh my god, I have never been in 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:01.840 a room with so many bright women who are willing 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.960 to share their experiences for my benefit. I'm overwhelmed with this. 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.320 That's the important thing. Another thing that you've done which 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.840 I find amazing because I think you just very well 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.600 dispelled the myth that women businesses are small. That next 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.480 layer of capital as they move into growth and expansion 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:22.760 capital has also been hard for women to get to. 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.639 Is that why you created Springboard Growth Capital? Well, my 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:31.040 two partners in on that are in Springboard Growth Capital 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:37.000 are investing in girlth stage companies generally speaking, and get 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.480 its targeted in the digital consumer space. Uh And largely 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:45.919 we're looking for the growth capital level of companies that 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:49.720 are raising twenty million dollars in up We're targeting that 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:52.639 so that the capital and the growth stages there to 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:56.520 continue to build and get to profitability and get to 0:22:56.760 --> 0:23:00.800 value for either a M and a sale to a 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.439 strategic or an I PO. So that's where we are 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:08.199 investing capital at growth capital to bring companies up the 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.800 growth curve, which is very important. You may not know 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:16.639 this intuitively, but when we started Springboard Enterprises, only about 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:19.800 one percent of the angel investors or women. Today it's 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:22.800