In this episode of the SLN podcast, John Peters is joined by his friend and fellow podcaster Tim Katt. Tim is an angel investor, the co-founder of TACK Ventures, and the co-host of The Game Plan Podcast. He has been around sports technology and media for over a decade and he shared his thoughts on working in sports.
Tim got his start with the Detroit Lions, which ultimately led him to work at Vice Media before launching the Global Sports Venture Studio for R/GA and the LA Dodgers. As an early investor in Overtime, Tim gave his thoughts on the digital media landscape and the toughest thing about investing in sports tech today.
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Podcast Highlights
6:25 – Launching Global Sports Venture Studios: “I had this background in advertising and this background in investing and I had this background in sports. So like I said, we went and we actually did it and we launched it. We weren’t exactly sure at all times what it was or what it was going to be. But overall, we considered it a success in the fact that we did something that hadn’t been done before and we helped these partners really understand the venture and startup ecosystem in sports tech.”
9:48 – Working for the Detroit Lions: “I was in this broadcast media role where I was filming practice, filming the post practice interviews, filming games, and then cutting the stuff up for social media assets. I would send stuff to the NFL network to be posted. And it was a great role. It was an incredible experience to be fully immersed within a team organization.”
14:20 – The Game Plan Podcast: “The Game Plan podcast is a platform where we introduce athletes and talk about the things that they’re doing off the field.”
18:50 – The lesser known athletes: “You mentioned you’re not necessarily familiar with all the guests that we’ve had, but the reality is a lot of times, those are the most interesting conversations, partly because I think the lesser known athletes are more willing to open up.”
26:40 – Overtime’s focus: “Kids actually look at it as kind of a friend and partner in the space, someone they can turn to. And I think that’s what differentiates Overtime from a lot of the other like social media accounts or other stuff that you see out there.”
32:21 – Balancing uncertainty and risk: “I definitely approach it with a very dualistic mindset of like, will this company succeed or will it not succeed? And I think it’s healthy as an investor to think that way, but at the same time, things are a lot more complicated than that.”
36:11 – Does pattern recognition kill curiosity?: “I will say that’s one of the hardest things I’ve had in investing in the sports tech space. And it’s less on the quantitative values or metrics as it is on feeling.”
40:21 – More solutions looking for problems to solve in sports tech: “The reason for that is because we’re all sports fans, right? Whether it’s an NBA team or a swimmer or whatever like almost everybody is a sports fan and what a sports fan and being a fan that comes with a lot of passion and in sometimes even disillusionment.”
