Kind: captions
Language: en
excellent hey everybody welcome to
another episode remember that we are in
the beta phase here but this is startup
Theory I am joined today by Scout Day
and Alex tuio over there who's goingon
to walk us through what we're doing what
is up Alex what's going on Tom how are
you I'm good man you ready for this
always always ready nice man you guys
are blowing up on Instagram
congratulations on that uh some pretty
rapid growth you guys have had some big
posts I was digging through your feed
and uh yeah man there's some really cool
stuff going on over there so obviously
nobody at home knows or I'll say very
few people probably know about your
company so why don't you give us a quick
uh synopsis about what you guys are up
to yeah absolutely so what we're working
on at Scout we're basically building an
online recruiting platform right now
we're just focused on baseball that's my
background played four years at D1
baseball um and what we're really
looking to do is just use technology to
improve Athletics overall uh starting
with the recruiting process and starting
with baseball um and so what platform
does is we expose high school players um
to access MLB Scouts so basically high
school players submit their highlight
tapes or other video footage um we have
a team of Scouts that watch the footage
um give the players some feedback score
the players and then we have a certain
criteria that the scouts set um that
basically verify um if a player is a
verifiable college Prospect or not and
so what we're looking to do with our EV
evaluation process is really two things
is one one give as much value to the
player as possible in terms of the
access and the feedback from the Scout
and two is really create a network and a
platform that coaches can trust um to
really level the playing field for uh
college recruiting and specifically
baseball um okay so that's really how we
work and you know what we're up to all
right cool man so I've got a few
questions so the first one is um you're
using MLB Scouts is there a reason
you're not using College
Scouts yeah so MLB Scouts they're at the
Pinnacle Talent evaluation you know
that's what they're paid to do for a
living um they're they watch baseball
all year round um they're in charge of
selecting the players that we watch on
TV um so there's no one more qualified
to basically say you know look this
player is going to be a great player an
average player not so great player so
that's really why all right so but walk
me through what the in fact let me um
really fast explain to the audience so
um obviously I'm getting these companies
I don't know anything about baseball um
but I understand how to work backwards
on a business and figure out you know
obviously where the value is what the
mission is and then how we reverse
engineer that um and get to the most
streamlined process so um Alex one of
the things when I was going through what
you guys submitted to us was your um
value proposition takes like a 90 degree
turn in the middle of explaining what
your business is um and I I have four um
what I would say are viable business
opportunities given the setup of what
you're doing I don't know which one you
want to pursue I think they're all
viable so we'll go through those one by
one but first I want to understand like
um every company needs a mission and the
reason you need a mission is it becomes
the filter what to say yes to what to
say no to how to structure your business
um so give me in a in a tight sentence
not with a lot of commas and and uh you
know run-ons but what's the mission of
scout day to give as many players the
opportunity to play at the college level
and get an education okay perfect so um
for those watching at home I think
you'll see how some of the things that
they submitted to us um they don't align
with that and so I want to go through um
why you've chosen that um whether you
think that's the biggest business
opportunity given some of the things
you've already put on your own map
including AI um and big data and some of
the deep learning techniques that I
think you guys are going to get into
later um because
if your goal really and in the
presentation that you gave to us it
really seemed like the thing that was
driving you uh was education and you
just said it there in your mission
statement um part of this is to get an
education and I just want to know like
if I can call on that and so I
is that really the driver or is the
driver to help people play baseball I
mean baseball's a huge driver of driving
uh student athletes to college um there
are many athletes who wouldn't able to
get accepted to college without baseball
so I'm just a huge advocate that Sports
is a huge driver to success in the
classroom and in life there's so many
parallels um so that that really is at
the core of our mission uh baseball is a
huge part of it neither it's not a 5050
split it's not a 9010 split they're just
both it's just a happy marriage between
using Athletics and not letting
Athletics use you so that's really where
the mission comes into play it's not
literally all focused on the baseball
piece or all focused on the education
piece it's it's connected you can't
really have one without the other and
for many players that's really the case
you know using baseball to get to the
pro level or to get to the college level
to get that degree um it sports are
super important it's not just what
happens on the field it's you know what
you really learn while you're on the
field but also off the field as well
okay so um if if that is a a major
driver for you help me understand then
so if my goal is to get the
not necessarily to get them into the MLB
but the goal is to get them into a
college so that they get educated why
don't you work closely with colleges
instead of working closely with the MLB
because if I understand your mission
correctly then it doesn't matter if they
ever get to the MLB but it matters very
very much if they get into college right
so you mentioned kind of the direction
that we're looking to go using Ai and
different machine learning algorithms um
that's really where you'll see the
education piece come to fruition it's
all about matching players with the
right schools and the right schools
isn't necessarily just based on their
athletic profile um so I think it's more
a much bigger piece of our much bigger
Mission um being in beta right now it's
definitely difficult to portray all
different aspects of our vision right
now it is very baseball focused but on a
much bigger scale in terms of a big
business opportunity um that's more the
direction that we're looking to go is
using Sports using the technology to
make sure that players are having the
most success schools that they go to and
you know when our technology is ready
expanding into um the the lower Market
of the youth market and also into the
professional Market as well would you
consider it a failure if um a scout was
watching one of the players that you had
in your app uh they fell in love they
thought they were amazing they took them
directly onto the Yankees they play for
the Yankees for 18 years um they retire
Rich they're in the um Hall of Fame but
they never go to college would that be a
failure uh that's not really up to me
that's really up to the the athlete and
the player and if that player's happy
with that career I think that's all that
really matters um I don't necessarily
think sports or education really Drive
happiness so that's the path that the
player chose to stick to worked out and
he's happy so you can't really argue
with that right so I'm obviously trying
to trap you and and the the reason that
I want to know if that's a failure and I
I am going to force you to take a stand
on that is because it's going to
determine what you do from a business
perspective so I don't think that one is
better than the other clearly you don't
think that one is better than the other
but one is going to inform your business
model and one is not um and so if the
the like to me that sounds like a
resounding success and that to me like
just from my perspective and you know
honestly my perspective in in this is
totally irrelevant but to give you like
if if this were my business to run um my
mission
would be let's say just for argument
sake um I don't care about college right
because I don't think it's a predictor
of success and I'm ultimately interested
in turning that human into the most um
Elite human being that they can be uh as
I Define it which is that they acquire
as many skills that have utility and
they put that utility to the test in
service of something larger than
themselves so understanding how um being
able to use their athletic prowess to
play at an elite level to Garner the
attention of the world to have that
celebrity um through through their
accomplishments and knowing that usually
an athletic window is very very small um
I would say okay my goal is to get them
into the MLB now if part of what they
need to get into the MLB is to go
through the college program then I would
love to place them into college and I
would you know say okay there's two
paths before me there's um the
traditional stair step approach where
they're going to go to college they're
going to play hopefully for a D1 team
and then they're going to get drafted
but there's also playing for a smaller
college and then going to the farm
leagues and then you know getting bumped
up and maybe that's a trajectory that we
follow people on as well and so I would
know how to build my my business model
out because I'm trying to turn them into
a pro athlete right and um but there's
Clarity in that right so there's Clarity
in saying I don't care about education
rather than bifurcating it and saying
well I care about this and I care about
that and it's really up to them about
what they want it's like I'm going to
feel that in your business model I'm
going to feel cuz like think about me as
an MLB person you're going to come and I
know that you already have relationships
with people but you're going to come to
me and you're going to say hey dear MLB
Scout I want you to put a lot of time
and attention and energy on this but
here's why and it's going to become the
greatest resource to MLB recruiters ever
and we're going to help you get just an
unbelievable crop of talent into Major
League Baseball help us make that happen
and you know so here the the stair step
approach but I'm going to guess the MLB
recruiter also doesn't really care I
mean look if they're testifying before
Congress of course they're going to say
that they care about education but at
the end of the day do they really right
like didn't Ken Griffey Jr who was huge
when I was a kid didn't he go right into
the major
leagues probably did so did back then
yeah sure so um if you had to pick and
for the sake of this show you have to
pick uh education or
professional yeah I mean I think
professional um like I said me
personally you know you just voiced
obviously your personal mission and your
thoughts you know me personally
personally like I said I'm a huge
advocate for sports um I think Sports is
bigger than just a bat and a ball or a
helmet and a football um there's just so
much to be learned where you know you're
you're not necessarily going to learn
those skills in a classroom from a
textbook and you know everyone's
different this is just my opinion um and
I'm just I just believe from my own
experience that you know I know what
sports can teach you about being a
person and being a good part of society
and so I I think that's that's honestly
bigger than just getting a diploma um or
getting several diplomas like some
people do these days um and and if I had
to pick that's that's what I would pick
okay so um I'm a big fan of binaries so
we're gonna say that educa we don't care
about education so officially um Scout
day is anti-education is that
correct I'm obviously kidding but just
just to like be binary the the model
that you want to pursue for we'll just
say for the sake of today for clarity is
going to be to get into the MLB yes sure
okay perfect um and the reason that I
labor that point dear people watching at
home is the clarity of your mission is
is like step number one like you just
have got to know exactly what you're
trying to make come true because the
moment that you have any fuzziness on
that the moment that you don't know
exactly what you're trying to make come
true you're not going to know what
systems to build into place um and the
the whole idea behind a mission is not
only that it be something that's in you
that you're passionate about that's
going to get you up and get you going
when things get hard which they
inevitably will but it's knowing what to
say yes to and what to say no to so the
thing that kills business isn't usually
a lack of opportunity it's oftentimes
too much opportunity and people not
knowing what to prioritize and what to
say yes to so um lesson number one
because look obviously Alex the vast
majority of people at home the
businesses that they're going to run
have nothing to do with baseball but
there are core principles that are going
to apply to everything and I would say
that is one of them like really really
knowing what your mission is so all
right our mission is to get people into
the MLB now more things in your pitch
actually makes sense the one thing to me
that was sort of like I you know I
didn't understand it because it didn't
line up with everything especially not
um the AI was the education component um
because you know if you really follow
this to it its natural extreme if you
guys really 10 years from now whatever
you have this AI unit running it's able
to diagnose and ESS people people are
going to start using it younger and
younger right and you're going to have
the parents that really want to see
their kid turn into something and
they're using it when their kid's like
six right and I'm not saying that's bad
at all look at Tiger Woods look at the
there were chess Champions where
literally the the the guy he was a um I
can't remember if he was into chess but
anyway he says to his wife we're going
to have two kids and I'm going to turn
them both into um chess Grandmasters
they ended up being women and he did he
turned them both into um chess Grand
Masters because he just started teaching
them from such a an obscenely young age
I don't think that's necessarily bad but
just like that would be that will be the
natural outcome of this tool right if
you make it um
so understanding that that's where
people want to take it then you know
we've got um we've got something going
so I'm being told to look at the cameras
more uh so you'll forgive me Alex I
promise I'm not ignoring you uh but um
okay so um if we're going to try to get
people into the MLB I I broke it down I
think that there are four potential
business opportunities for you um so
number one hi number one is a social
platform that connects high school
players to MLB Scouts number two would
be a curated Cadre of talented players
that Scouts can turn to to pick from um
so not necessarily worried about any
social aspect number three is the
artificial intelligence play that
identifies top players and helps them
improve their game so the one we were
just talking about where you know people
are um filming their six-year-old and
uploading it into your um machinery and
then uh number four an artificial
intelligence play that identifies
identifies top players and Farms the
leads to MLB Scouts so not trying to
usurp them so the difference between
three and four is uh in number three the
MLB Scouts are going to hate you and in
number four the MLB Scouts are going to
work with you um does have you guys
thought through those four do you know
which one of those um is going to be
your path to revenue yeah it's
definitely going to be the AI component
I just believe that if you don't have an
AI strategy you know it's going to be
pretty tough in you know 2018 2019
that's not the only reason why I want to
use AI I think that it's totally um
right for the recruiting industry and
Athletics in general um in terms of
those options I think number four is
probably the most feasible uh mainly
because while AI is great no matter how
great our machine is there's going to be
things that a machine can't measure like
heart and character and things like that
that won't be able to be ever really be
measured um if it if it does let's
uncover this video and uh say how wrong
I was but um I think the the marriage
between MLB Scouts and Technology um you
know baseball seen it with saber metrics
uh it's worked out not to the extent
that maybe a lot of people thought it
could um so I think keeping the
humanistic involvement is going to be
super important uh to Our Success okay
and so if we're doing that and just to
be clear for everybody watching at home
and our Facebook audien is disappeared
um the the AI component um that he's
talking about would help identify top
players and then would feed them into
the MLB Scout so basically you guys are
a resource specifically for MLB Scouts
yeah um
now what becomes your path to
revenue um I mean we're mainly looking
at at the subscription model with a
platform like ours and who's paying the
subscription it would be the player uh
especially if we get our AI to the point
um that we're looking to get it it
really becomes an all-inclusive Player
Development platform um where you can
basically train yourself um get deep
analytics into um where you are where
you could be and I would want upload
video to your
site sorry I would upload video to your
site and then your AI would analyze my
movements and that kind of thing correct
okay and then it would give me feedback
on my
performance right but with the with the
data that you know we can pull together
um it would be more predictive in nature
so we could look at historical data of
you know let's say uh players who are in
the MLB right now and be able to predict
out you know potential outcomes um based
on historical data because you've loaded
all that footage into the machine so
you've loaded that footage into the
machine hypothetically yeah we haven't
today hypothetically yes okay and walk
me through what's the um what year do
you think that the AI component takes
over because it's going to be very
different business models now with MLB
Scouts versus when it's
AI yeah I mean the how we implement it
is really going to be everything because
it's consumer facing so the UI and
things like that are still I mean the
uxui is going to be most important more
important than the AI because if we
build a product that's ugly or doesn't
work right or consumers hate you know no
one's going to use it anyways no matter
how good the algorithms are um so in
terms of what year I mean it's just all
dependent on how quickly we can gather
the data and figure out the right ways
to manipulate it um so one of the things
that you guys are going to want to
really be um thinking about is where the
curve of technology is going versus the
the business that you're building that's
really really important and when um the
people who made Siri before it got
purchased by Apple they were asking
themselves a question how long will it
take us to develop um our platform they
thought it would take about two to three
years and then they said okay uh I don't
care where the technology is today I
want to know where the technology is
going to be two to three years from now
and let's build our application for that
so we're not going to build the
application for what would work on a
phone of you know that year we're going
to build an application that will work
using Mo's law which predicts the rate
at which um technology will come down in
cost and size so we're going to predict
it for what we believe is going to be or
we're going to build it for what we
predict is going to be um the reality of
technology in two to three years which
with tech it's relatively predictable so
um I would really encourage you guys to
map that out to be talking to experts um
about where they think this is going to
be so that you know you know where is
machine learning going to be where are
neural networks going to be where is the
technology to actually trace the
movements and analyze that going to be
um you know however long you think that
it's going to take you to be ready for
it so if that that's two years if that's
five years um so that you have the the
technology being built to hit that part
of the wave and then also because I
think if you do that if your real bet is
AI um man my sort of Layman's guess
about where you're probably going to
need about five years that means you've
got a fiveyear um Gap to bridge with
your business model and so what I want
to understand is how you guys plan to um
use the Mechanical Turk which uh we're
back on Facebook excellent welcome back
Facebook it's good to see you uh just to
bring you guys up to speed first of all
this is startup Theory we're still in
beta and we are here today with Alex
tuio of scout day which is an
application that is trying to um help
young uh athletes I right now they're
starting in baseball but I have a gut
feel that eventually they will transcend
baseball and be covering all sports
their goal is to ultimately use um Ai
and deep learning to be able to feed
video footage into to um into their
machine learning and get uh automated
critique of that person's performance to
tell them what to do um in the meantime
they're working they already have some
relationships with Major League Baseball
Scouts and they're trying to become the
ultimate resource to those Scouts and
even when they go to the AI model they
want to avoid scaring off the MLB Scouts
by saying we're going to take your job
from you and they want to become the
resource to the MLB Scouts to basically
do what no human being can do which is
see everybody out there so anybody that
can upload footage um they would be
scanning and looking for based on
predictive algorithms that are based on
having uploaded lots of other historical
data they've not done this yet but that
would be their ultimate plan um to then
build that resource out so that they can
predict who's really the next crop of
talent so every year they're delivering
to these MLB Scouts all right so the
question that I have um that we're
really trying to pin down is how do you
cross that Chasm my Layman's guess about
how long it will take Ai and deep
learning to get to point where it can
actually assess uh video footage
movements um is is 5 years total
Layman's guess uh I want everybody to
understand that uh while I consider
myself a junior futurist I think we're a
little heavy on the junior um but no
matter what it is right we've got that
Chasm so um Alex was about to tell us
from just a pure business model Revenue
generation standpoint how they plan to
use their um what's called a Mechanical
Turk model uh which is where they're
using the humans the real live MLB
Scouts um to build the business model
yeah so our Revenue model is pretty
simple so the player pays for the
evaluation after he submits his video um
the Scout does the evaluation and do you
cut the Scout in on that yes that's
exactly how the economics of that work
out okay um and then the next the next
step of the revenue model um right now
there's no Revenue model for the college
coaches uh for their membership just
because you know their engagement on the
platform is super important we're also
only in beta um but once once we um
finish up our mobile product and launch
it to the App Store um it'll be all
subscription based um for the player and
then eventually the coaches um for
having access to the app and certain uh
features that uh we're working on their
top secret okay uh fair enough and do
like how many MLB Scouts are there like
what what number do you max out at I
mean it it's tough to say because our so
our Target ml Scout is at the associate
level um which is basically uh part-time
um and the reason being is uh one
avoiding any potential contract issues
um for you know scouting supervisors and
and Scouts like that um two they're
they're more available to do these
evaluations um so the exact number I'm
not really sure just because the the
network is so deep um but there's
definitely a good number ballpark me is
it um a thousand is it 100 million no
it's not 100 million uh 30 MLB teams
let's say each team has 100 Scouts what
is that 3,000 3,000 3,000 um so okay so
one thing that would be obviously really
interesting is for you guys to run the
economics so there's going to be so many
and and this is really important um for
anybody watching along is you want to
run a scenario where let's say if I were
to capture 80% of the market what does
that look like and the reason that I
think that's important is you're going
to quickly see whether that's an
interesting number or whether it's a
number that's like okay well even if I
get 80% of the market which is virtually
impossible um I mean even if you're
doing this by yourself and no one else
ever enters the space getting 80% of
people to do anything is just I mean
it's it's virtually impossible so if at
80% the numbers aren't interesting then
pick it another business model now I
have no idea I don't know what your
metrics are but um I would run those
numbers and say okay there's 3,000
what's 80% of that if we got all of them
and they were on a monthly subscription
um I guess it's the players who are on a
monthly subscript destion but the reason
that the math is important on the scouts
is that it'll work backwards so every
Scout can handle how many players is it
10 is it 100 is it a thousand whatever
that number is like every live um
associate MLB Scout can handle let's say
it's 100 and so I've got my 3,000 time
80% times 100 that gives me the raw
number that I'm dealing with and then
times my monthly fee now if that's an
interesting number great we have a
business if it's not an interesting
number then we either find an alternate
Revenue model which I mean you could
create Scouts you could Branch into and
when I say create Scouts I mean that
could be a whole another Revenue model
where you go through a certification
process and you certify associate Scouts
and so MLB teams are turning to you to
certify their scouts because you can
give them you know so many hours of
watching video and having um you know uh
Amalgamated all of the information from
the other Scouts that you have and so
you know I whatever I'm making the stuff
up in the spot but you could do
something like that um alternately you
can go into other sports uh and you know
if we sat here brainstorm for 10 minutes
I'm sure we could come up with three or
four other
um viable Revenue models but so run the
math run the math run the math that's my
take home message to you guys all right
so
um we talked about the value uh we
talked about Ai and
connecting um what do the so how many uh
ballpark me how many associate um people
do you have uh signed up right now right
now we only have eight okay it's it's
all that we need being invad
um it's more more than enough so sure
and what's go ahead I was just going to
say what's your method for acquiring
more so if we're aiming at 3,000 we have
eight we have a lot of um Runway which
is awesome um but what's your plan to
attract yeah it's mainly word of mouth I
mean it's it's pretty similar to what
Uber does with drivers you know people
are driving around so Uber gave them a
platform to make money while they drive
and baseball Scouts are scouting so I'm
basically giving them a plat where they
can baseball Scout so um you know once
we get to at least some sort of
commercialized product in the App Store
um you know at that point I'll
definitely be more aggressive kind of
with the uh me personally or Scout Day
the company you know targeting the
scouts but right now it's just word of
mouth okay um cool so I have a bunch
more questions but I know that you have
10 questions how much time do we have so
I know where we're at about 15 more
minutes all right well you guys love it
when we do questions rapid fire so all
right so my first question was how does
a Founder overcome issues with
co-founders yeah so one I'm just a huge
believer in teamwork and like anything
and like a marriage um the most
important part of selection or the most
important part of any relationship is
selection so you have to make sure that
you're selecting people that think like
you think they need to share your vision
for the mission um they need to be as
passionate as you are and then from
there it's um really defining terms and
values and so making sure that everybody
understands here's our mission here's
how we view the world here are our
priorities like me forcing you to choose
between education and um you know a
successful Major League career like
that's critical and that's going to help
you determine who to bring on so you can
imagine if you brought on a Founder a
co-founder and you're um leaning towards
I really want to help these guys be
professional and I think education is a
really powerful path to that but it's
not the only path and the other person's
only interested in that now just have a
fundamental disagreement about values
and so that's going to be a nightmare so
defining that stuff on the way in is
super critical um when something flares
up there's the easy way and the hard way
and so I'll give you an example of what
we did here at um at impact Theory I
told everybody look I'm interested in
being a part of a team but I want to be
really clear um if we can all agree on
something it's easy if we disagree my
decision is final and that's it and so
everybody coming in New like hey when we
hit log like I want to know what people
think and I think that these people are
here because they're incredibly smart
they're incredibly driven that nine
times out of 10 their ideas better than
mine and that's the joy right like you
want people that have great ideas but at
the end of the day I'm the ultimate
filter system and so you've got to
believe in my vision you've got to
understand my vision I've got to
overcommunication
ground rules then you go back to the
ground rules right and you say well
remember we said that this was while
education was an awesome path it's not
the only path and when in doubt we were
always going to air on the side of
helping these guys get into the major
leagues so that's going to influence our
decisions um obviously I can get more
specific if there's like a specific
thing like here's what we're um fighting
about but those are the general ideas
got it no perfect U so my next question
um just describe the challenges behind
creating a new market kind of like what
you did with Quest um you know I feel
like the protein and protein bar Market
wasn't where it was I feel like you guys
kind of pioneered that space so like
how' you break through those barriers
that I can imagine were there well it's
interesting so we didn't Pioneer the
space and where our what Peter Teo calls
a zero to one um was pretty interesting
because we came into a really crowded
market and there were 1600 other protein
bar company flavors um on the market
when we came in and our whole thing was
because yes this is a well-established
Market yes it's actually declining it's
even though it's overcrowded it's been
going down for several years uh but what
we've done is make the first bar that
tastes like it has sugar but doesn't
actually have sugar in it so you can I
think you may actually be um really
defining a new industry which is taking
technology to Scouts um and so it really
does become a zero to1 especially when
you get into Ai and so I think you're
going to have slightly different
obstacles so for us it was convincing
people that like imagine if your problem
was people said I don't Scout scouting
is total BS right that's where we were
and so we had to convince people because
people were telling us I don't eat
protein bars so we had to go convince
people no no no all the other protein
bars are this way but if you try this
one hi I'm supposed to remember to look
at you guys uh poor Alex you greedy
bastards um that if you um try our
protein ball you'll see that it's very
different and that became the the hurdle
for us was to really just get people to
try it right so but you're not in that
situation you're in a situation where
your value proposition is very different
I think is very exciting which is you've
got all these players remember he's
trying to monetize the players so you've
got all these players they are so hungry
and so desperate to break into the MLBs
anybody that can provide real value like
if you can actually streamline that
process and put them in contact with
either coaches that'll get them into
college or Scouts that are going to get
them into the major leagues like that's
the fantasy land right so I really think
you have something super powerful
because you're tapping into behavior
that already exists and that's what at
Quest we were trying to remind ourselves
and that's what we're doing here at
impact Theory we want to leverage
Behavior we don't want to try to change
Behavior so um you're it scares me a
little bit with the scouts because the
scouts are going to be resistant to
change but the uh the players I think
are are really going to be super excited
about what you have to offer so um that
really like you said it becomes about
getting the word out and the way that
you're going to do that is with
influencers and man you go get like I
mean let's just get ridiculous for a
second if you go get um A-Rod to say
dude if this had existed when I was a
high school player I'd be even more
successful than I am now right you get a
few people like that to say something uh
which is way more valuable by the way
than the scouts uh because they just
don't have name brand recognition but if
you go out and get some influencers and
obviously I'm Kidd I'm not kidding about
A-Rod that would work phenomenally well
but uh the likelihood of getting him to
do that um without some major cash
component is virtually zero but if you
go out to all the influencers that have
5,000 to 50,000 you know relatively
small people um they'll be super excited
to work with you if there's any kind of
rev share or anything or if you can
gamify the system um could also be
really cool so that the I mean imagine
that you have a leaderboard for the
number of people you get a certain
number of points for getting somebody
into a college you get even more points
if they go into the MLB right and that
there's a leaderboard and so it's like
hey all these um Associates who've
gotten somebody into college or to the
majors like you can go look at oh man
like I really want to get a hold of that
Scout and so you can use those guys that
are that all these players are listening
to on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter
to say like hey there's this new thing
I'm a part of go check it out upload
your footage I think you grow very very
quickly awesome all right so my next
question is what's the right balance
between selling the execution of today
versus selling the vision for tomorrow
like in a conversation like ours or you
know for a lot of startups investors or
advisers um like what's the right
balance of like the small picture versus
the big picture
um well any uh oh God any investor in my
mind worth their salt is going to want
to see what you're doing today um I
really want to believe that we live in a
world where people remember the dot boom
and bust and they know that just buying
stuff pie in the sky is ridiculous but
nonetheless people still do it so know
your audience um know if they've
invested heavily in the future before or
if they're like a meat and potatoes
fundamentals and they want to see like
where your business is but I will
promise you this if you're profitable
you can stay in business no matter what
anybody thinks if you're not profitable
then now you're beholden to your ability
to tell a grand story about the future
and I just want everybody to understand
no matter how much VC money you get
eventually if you're not profitable you
go out of
business we all clear on that like that
like that's crazy to me that we've lived
in this weird world of technology where
companies that never ever become
profitable will stay in business for
like 10 10 years before anything real
happens which is why like people were
making fun of the guy at um at Instagram
for selling for a billion dollars first
of all I'm going to punch you in the
mouth if you ever make fun of somebody
for selling for a billion dollars that's
crazy like that's so much money you
whatever you want to do in life you can
do at that point um and then also he had
no Revenue he sold something pre-revenue
for a billion dollars it's crazy so
anyway that's like a a one in 500
million chance focus on the fundamentals
convince people about what you're doing
right now your job is to get influencers
and other MLB Scouts and players to
believe in what you're doing and they
want to be helped today right so if your
mission you didn't tell me your mission
was to get rich you told me your mission
was to help people get into the majors
and that the power of Athletics is
something you really believe in to see
people optimize their life and live like
this really powerful existence where
somebody helps them really become great
at something and I think that's awesome
and I think that's admirable um and so
if that's real and that's really what
you want to do then focus on today man
focus on actually helping those kids get
good at baseball and to feel good about
themselves and really U manifest their
Destiny yeah right yeah they're on fire
there we go if I had if I can't drop the
mic's held otherwise I drop
it yeah all right so so my next question
so we talked a lot about Mission at the
beginning of the the show um but how do
you really involve the mission from a
branding perspective like you mentioned
our Instagram page um what I'm really
trying to do right now is brand
considering we technology company in
beta there's not much to sell so how do
you really involve that mission and
branding is it through content or like
what are your thoughts yeah so it's
definitely going to be um largely
through content and I think um that
we're living in an era where somebody
like yourself should really be stepping
out out front you should be creating
content so if you guys look at their
page by the way it's Scout day is it
Scout Day on Instagram yeah I can't get
the one word for some reason H don't
worry about it so Scout Day on Instagram
check them out they're really growing
rapidly it's really great you guys are
using contest well um I see people
really really respond when you give away
swag um but right now your page looks um
it doesn't have like I don't see you you
know what I mean there's no sense of the
people behind it and since you have a
mission you want to lead with that
mission so the reason like at Quest I
used to be invisible I wanted to be
invisible and they were bugging me from
like the first eight months of being a
company they wanted me to start creating
content stepping out front I was super
uncomfortable with that and and I lied
about my birthday on Facebook I think to
this day it's it's a fake birthday
because I was so freaked out about
social media like I understood it as a
business tool but I did not jive with it
as a personal tool and it really really
took me a long time to embrace it now
obviously I've gone Full Tilt in the
other direction and I literally I'm you
know filming stuff all the time and
we're releasing content daily so I think
you step out front I think you tell
people about the mission I think you
preach the mission I think you really
help some kids um improve their game get
some testimonials let people see that
you actually believe in what you're
doing let people see that you're really
delivering people value to people's
lives and then use those testimonials to
get more people because if you can give
away the product and build a business
you've really got something and if
you're actually helping people's game
improve if the scouts are like holy hell
like you're really helping me scale my
efforts and I could never touch this
many people when I was having to fly
everywhere and now you're allowing
people to submit to me and I can look at
these videos and I can really tell
what's going on and you streamline that
simplify it give me an awesome uiux for
me to interact with the footage and now
my efforts are scaled three five times
like whoa they're loving you they're
doing testimonials to get other
associate people into the Scout side the
players are like oh my God I'm getting
real feedback from an MLB Scout that's
crazy I actually know this guy and he
was the one that got so and so you know
into the Mets or whatever and now
they're like I can't believe I'm getting
feedback from this and it's real value
then people are just going to go crazy
we've had people submit rap videos that
they did about our company uh we get
people offering us equity in their
company routinely um because we're
putting out this content we're telling
people how we want to help the world
we're doing it all for free and so
people can see like this is real like we
actually want to do this and we actually
want to help people and it really works
and if it really works people are going
to come all right we've probably got
about two minutes left at this point one
one more question all right one more all
right pick a dooy this is probably good
one for the audience I'm sure a lot of
other entrepreneurs feel the same but uh
so as a Founder how do you overcome
moments of
self-doubt so to me this is like it it
is exactly like getting great at
baseball right if you want to be a good
pitcher you need to be pitching a lot
you want to be good at batting you need
to bat a lot you want to be good at
fielding you got to take a lot of ground
balls so that is the same about
self-doubt like it is a process of
getting control of your mind and getting
control of your emotion and
understanding what practicing that looks
like um mantras are maybe a little silly
but they are incredibly powerful and
your mind will um wire around the things
that you obsess over the most and so if
you think about your doubt and start
getting panicky and nervous um then your
mind is going to wire for that if you
catch that moment of self-doubt and you
say a mantra even if you don't believe
in it like if you say I'm the kind of
person that will learn whatever I need
to learn from this like let's say that
before we started doing this today that
you were you were feeling anxious and if
you said look I'm the kind of person I'm
going to learn from this no matter what
you're going to notice your anxiety
levels drop just from saying that just
from saying like I'm going to learn from
this no matter what you're going to
begin to wire your brain and your
identity which for me is everything
you're going to create that identity
about being the learner you're going to
reinforce that in your mind and then
because you said that to yourself right
before you came on and we started
talking you now put yourself in the
frame of mind of learning it makes it
feel more like practice instead of
performance and you're going to get the
gyration of the mind working around that
you're going to focus on the Improvement
you're going to focus on the learning
and then that doubt is reduced because
what are you going to doubt your ability
to learn right so it's just reframing
the situation focusing on practice and
and grinding it out for the win what's
your Mantra um basically I was just
giving you real ones so those are mine
right so I um I switched my self-esteem
from being right being smart to
identifying the right answer faster than
anyone else and um always being the
learner and in in shifting that and
thinking about life as practice instead
of performance and thinking about what I
can learn instead of what I can get out
of you know any given interaction um it
it just changed everything and and
lowered my anxiety levels lowered
self-doubt because my thing is there's
there's only something to doubt like if
you're trying to be great in that moment
if you're trying to look at yourself
right now today as the Pinnacle of your
Evolution instead of like a a point on a
very long timeline that extends long
Beyond where you are today so I don't
look at myself as as the end of anything
right so I'm in the middle of a process
of learning and so if I suck today
that's okay because I can get great
tomorrow and um all of that just really
um helps me overcome doubt awesome cool
well guys if you haven't already during
this feed taking a look at Scout Day go
check them out it's really interesting
and ask yourself how the fundamentals
that we've talked about today um once
abstracted from the specifics of their
business how could it apply to yours I'm
always trying to keep this Universal so
don't get lost in the um specific words
all the things if I'm able to bring
value to something that is a business
that I don't know anything about it's
because it's a universal principle um
also Alex I think the questions that you
asked were fantastic because they really
were um very Universal for people and so
I'm grateful for that and hopefully um
that really helped you guys out and guys
go uh support what they're up to it is
uh really really interesting and uh love
supporting the people that have
submitted here to uh startup Theory and
by the way if you guys would like to
submit to Startup Theory go to uh impact
theory.com and you'll see the submission
form there where will they see the
submission form exactly contact page so
and you can also write us at connect
impact theory.com and that uh deep uh
soothing voice that you heard off is the
one that will be replying to you that is
Agent Smith and then of course the ever
amazing Cindy will also be there to
support so uh submit it in guys and uh
we will do whatever we can to help make
your business a success so thank you so
much for joining us for this episode of
startup Theory we are in beta so um let
us know what you think that we could be
doing better we are very very eager to
get your guys' feedback and everybody
thanks to Alex tuio for joining us today
and for his company yeah buddy uh we're
really excited for you man absolutely
thanks for joining us all right guys
that's it for now if you haven't already
be sure to subscribe this is a weekly
show and until next time my friends be
legendary take care peace out