Rates & Barrels - Bonus Episode: The Athletic’s Small Business Story | Part 3 of 3

Episode Date: May 15, 2021

Part Three of The Athletic’s Origins story for Dell Technologies ‘Small Business Podference’ series. In this episode The Athletic’s co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann continue on about the company’s expansion into the U.K., how the team got through the shutdown of sports and challenges that lay ahead. Writers, Marcus Thompson, Anthony Slater, Zach Harper and David Aldridge give their thoughts on that process as well. For the complete lineup of episodes, visit delltechnologiespodference.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What we're offering is something really different. And I think that really is liberating for our writers to allow them to kind of emerge and go by what they see. Trust your eyes. What are your eyes telling you? Would you look at a game? What are you seeing? Trust them. And you can write stories off of that. It takes a while, but they start to trust their eyes and they start to trust what they think is happening, you know, and that makes all the difference in the world. And they can speak authoritatively about the team they cover, about the team they cover. Welcome to the final episode of Dell Technologies Small Business Podfront Series. I am Jade Hoy, executive producer of the Athletic Podcast Network. For the second year in a row, Dell Technologies has brought together the best podcasters in the industry to share stories, anecdotes of inspiration, and advice on how to traverse these unsettling times in the small business world. In episodes one and two, the Athletics co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansman brought us through the birth and development of a simple idea which was

to serve sports fans with exceptional journalism in a wide variety of sports that other outlets were increasingly unwilling to support. We don't ask for permission to do things here. That's an important aspect to our culture. If you want to do something, I don't want to hear about it. Just go do it. No ads, no pop-ups, no bull. What started with a handful of people was now hundreds of journalists, podcasters, editors, managers spread out across major cities in the U.S. and Canada. As detailed in episode two, the expansion into the Bay Area was a success,

but there would be no sleep. The team set their focus on a new market, the United Kingdom, and over the course of several days in late May 2019, most of the top sports writers in England were about to hear the pitch of a lifetime. What were sort of the challenges or thoughts and goals behind going over the ocean and going to UK? We had always pegged the UK as a country where we wanted to cover the Premier League. We wanted to do it at some point. Alex Mather, co-founder, CEO of The Athletic. I think something clicked for us in 2019 where we said the only time to hire journalists

is in the off-season. It looks like in 2020, there's a Euros tournament in the summer taking up the off-season. Little did we know that there wouldn't be a Euros 2020 in 2020. But we thought that 2019 was probably our best shot at recruiting. And so we had a board meeting and we basically said, we're going to invest X million dollars and we're going to go over to the UK and we're going to hire as many great people as we can. We're going to understand what garden leave is and notice periods and all that stuff that make hiring in the UK quite complicated.

But within 108 days, we went from board approval to launch. I'm Adam Hansman, co-founder and president of The Athletic. Sounds insane even to think back 108 days to go and launch in a new country with, I think we had 50 people at launch. Everything we'd learned in the US was launching New York and you have a 15 person staff. And so it's sort of triple quadruple the size of anything we had done stateside. The good news is we had a couple of folks that we had retained that knew the talent was really just a question of, could we go in, had a couple of folks that we had retained that knew the talent. It was really just a question of, could we go in, convince a bunch of the best sports journalists in the UK

to buy into this thing? I'm Akhil Nambiar. I am the GM of content strategy and analytics. It's funny, before I joined The Athletic, I actually took a month-long trip in Europe and the UK. And I would read papers. I'd understand what was happening there. And I would like read papers, I'd kind of understand what was happening there. And I remember telling Adam and Alex, I feel like my itch isn't scratched as a fan there. There's something that's still left to be desired. And a few months later, Ed Mallion, who is now our director of content strategy and analytics, he actually messaged Alex and said, I would love to just chat. 2018, we were really focused on doing things well in North America. 2019 comes around and Adam and Alex were like, let's think about the UK. What would it mean for us to go over there? And it was myself and George Kreshy, who was our soccer editor at the time. We got on the phone with Ed

and I remember texting George and I was like, this guy's instinct is spot on. Like he just knows what will make this business work. And from there we embarked on a week-long, just crazy trip where we met with a majority of the writers that we ended up hiring now. We talked to them about the vision. It was just an incredible whirlwind of an experience. We didn't know until we got into a couple of those first conversations. It was sort of just an open question. Was anyone going to believe us? And our brand name at that point was fairly unknown. Folks had done their research, didn't really know anything about the company. And, you know, we had to go in with basic brand reputation being very low and building that up. You know, some of the more fun conversations were connecting the great journalists in the UK with counterparts in the US to just talk about how we do business

and how we treat journalists. And some of those conversations were really cool. Welcome to the Ornstein and Chapman podcast on The Athletic. This idea that Real Madrid's structure makes it harder in certain ways as well. You know, you can't, you don't have a sovereign wealth fund behind you. You don't have one very, very wealthy guy like Chelsea doing. Is there ever a conversation to be had about changing the structure? One of the first things we did, you know,

with some of the folks that we had brought on early, we identified the top 20 people we wanted, and we created basically handmade specific pitch decks for each one of them. It had like specific designs for them. It had apparel with their name on it. And so we went in and did our homework. Like those top 20 folks,

we really did our homework and knew what they wrote, knew how they wrote, what their strengths and opportunities at our publication were. And so going into those meetings, you know, really flattering the folks. That was a really big piece. And what we've known all along is opportunities multiply as they're seized. And as like some of the big names started to agree, then we were able to really scale it out. That day, August 5th, 2019, I believe, it was just an all-out. Everyone announcing, all the writers sort of, you know, putting out their, you know,

why join the athletic. It was a sight to behold. We were just glad that the site didn't break. That was another scaling challenge, just making sure we could support.co.uk. All day long, sporting events from college to professional have been postponing events nationwide, even postponing entire season. This has been the craziest, most unpredictable few days in the history of sports suspended. Trust your eyes. What are your eyes telling you? No March madness suspended. Major League Baseball suspends its opener. NBA suspends its season along with NHL season suspended.

Major sports suspended. In March of 2020, the pandemic hit and the sports world would be shuttered, lingering in wait for months without anything to cover. The Athletic barely five years in was gaining steam and then this, a complete blackout of sports content. So I was in a hotel in Los Angeles by myself, just ordered dinner. And I'm watching whatever's on the hotel TV. And I check my Slack and it's blowing up.

We've got Tony Jones in Utah. Breaking news that they're just going to shut the game down. Well, I just saw Quinn Snyder point to the locker room and they're taking these players off the floor. Wow. Wow. It's just a real eerie silence in the arena. You just never see something like you saw tonight.

I think that this is a night that we'll all remember for a long time. We knew very little at that moment in time. And I'm sitting in this hotel room as the CEO of a sports media company with 600 people around the world. And the first thing that just comes to mind is we have to get our people home. It was pretty scary.

You know, first and foremost for our people in potentially harm's way at that moment, right? And we're just thinking, what is happening? at that moment, right? And we're just thinking, what is happening? It was difficult.

I mean, let's be clear about that. Marcus Thompson, senior columnist, The Athletic. It was tough. One of my strengths as a reporter is being able to go up to a guy and get him to tell me talk to me and have a conversation especially a unique one so being stripped of that was really tough and you know there had to be an extra level of creativity my name is david aldridge i am the editor-in-chief of the washington dc bureau of the athletic it was. And I give our group an incredible amount of credit

for coming up with different ideas. Will our subscribers want to read about sports bars that have been impacted by it? As it turned out, yeah, they did. Are they going to want to read about mascots? As it turns out, yeah, they would. You know, I wrote a story about all the credentials that I've saved over the years.

I didn't think anybody would read it. A lot of people did. There's like two big realizations that I had. One is just the creativity that we have across the newsroom. We had a channel called Let's Get Weird. And, you know, people across the company would throw ideas in there of things that we could write about. And that was cool to see. That response to that energy was cool to see. The other thing that was amazing for me to see is the way

the subscribers, you know, wanted an escape. And, you know, although there were no sports like happening at all, they loved what we were doing. And one thing I didn't touch on earlier, but when I left Facebook, I knew that I wanted to work at a place that could be the best part of someone's day. We're lucky enough and credit to our writers and audio folks and just all the creative folks in the company. You know, we produce something that can be the best part of someone's day. And I think through the pandemic, when things got really dark is when you saw how much this meant to our subscribers. So it gave you a bunch of hope through that time. We on our warrior staff, we had a nice little crew of four people.

We all knew what we were doing. We all had our own little avenues and we could kind of work with each other and create a synergy. To me, that's what got us through. And the fact that there were really no limits, you know, everything was on the table. We could be as creative and wacky and weird as we wanted to be. There was a period of time we had no content. You know what I mean? I think Adam can touch on that. Yeah, but maybe I'll start with some of the things

that we believe are positive coming out of the pandemic is really looking at a wider talent pool, a more diverse talent pool, a bigger pool to pull from when you're not just looking for people in the Bay Area, for example. And so when we've removed that constraint, we start to just operate at another level. We're able to bring on folks in Canada, in Australia, you know, any city or town in the United States.

And that really opens us up to creating a much more diverse and inclusive company. You know, with that comes challenges, right? With that comes communication challenges, especially for a startup. We're not a company with 25 years of momentum, right? The sort of the serendipity of like, you know, early day startups, two people chatting in an elevator and suddenly you've got a feature idea. I think that's the challenge going forward is how do you marry some of those really amazing aspects of a geographically disparate employee base, you know, with really collaborative, conducive behaviors. And that's like the best companies in the world are going to figure that out. And so, you know, challenge accepted on our side, for sure.

I went to my first live sporting event last night for the first time since 2019. And you just remember that feeling. And I think a lot of people are going to experience that over the upcoming summer and fall. And what we used to say, fall in love with the sports page again, and sort of fall in love with sports again. And the games aren't the same. Like we can admit that without fans and seats. But you know, that interest isn't going away.

You know what's interesting? Like the moment I took the job and started working, it was immediate that it was the right move. Like there really was no period of uncertainty. I met with them. We went and had orientation and we sat in an office in San Francisco on Jesse Street and just sitting in there talking to them, I was like, this was it. I actually felt a little, I felt, I just felt so vulnerable. I was thinking like, wow, if the newspaper would have made an incredible pitch

to me, I probably would have turned this down. Like I would have been nuts, right? Just because it was such a drastic change, and I had been at the newspaper for 18 years. I just felt very vulnerable. Like, I almost didn't get this, right? Like, if they would have just been better about it and sold me on some kind of dream, I would have taken it. That first month was like, this is it. This is exactly what I wanted to do. This is exactly how I envisioned it. Welcome to the BasketBuds edition of the Athletic NBA Show podcast on the Athletic Podcast Network. I'm Zach Harper. I think for me, there were a couple of things. One, it was people that I

trusted. And then just a lot of people I knew and respected were signing up and getting hired to be a part of the athletic. And the prevailing thought from people I knew who already worked there was this place is supportive in a way that no other place they've worked at is supportive. And to me, it was kind of the opposite of most places I had been before, because a lot of those situations were toxic. And this one felt like it was going to be supportive and that was just different to me. I'll put our group against anybody, anybody, any newspaper, any TV network. I'll put our group against anybody. There's just so much content. You know, we've got these really talented people that are writing about all these, all these teams and all these leagues and you can't keep up with it and that's why it's gonna

work because for what you're asked to pay for for all of that a month look i'm biased i work here but you tell me where you want to get this kind of content anywhere else yeah maybe netflix i mean yeah anthony slater warriors writer at the Athletic Bay Area. I remember very early on in the athletic being like, you know what? I can just marinate. I can sit in the locker room pregame. Yeah, all the other beat writers can go run back to their computers. No, I got to get in the locker room. I got to go try to get extra stuff. Postgame, I can wait as long as I want.

If I have to not turn in a story until the morning, it's okay with them as long as it's a good story because there is no deadline. And like, deadline is just kind of like a word that gets thrown around and the difference between print and online. But it's like a lifestyle change. It made my work better and my life just a lot easier, to be honest. When you had in your mind what the athletic could be and compare that to what it is now, what are some of the big differences? And also, what are some of the values that you've held true to with the company that you wanted it to be? It's a really good question. It's something that we think about a lot. Some of the things that are similar to what we had

talked about is great people, high quality journalism, great user experience, few, if any, ads, and a product that really serves a specific sports fan that I talked about. Right now, sort of on the edges is where it's very different. I think Adam and I started the company thinking it would be primarily like FiveThirtyEight. FiveThirtyEight meets Grantland. That was it. I don't think we appreciated at the time news breaking, investigative reporting, or just the sort of quiet excellence of a beat reporter who knows everything about their team. I don't think those things were internalized in 2016. That took years and years of us getting to know what makes the best sports

writers in the world tick. Yeah. One thing I'm really proud that we've never compromised on quality. I think that's just in our DNA as founders, as sports fans that we know when something doesn't meet that bar. And I think the evolution has really been what Alex was saying. Not only do we listen to our customers, we listen to the people that are ultimately serving those customers, which in our case is a team of journalists who are coming from these other publications where they're just miserable. And they're not doing good work. And just in a life principle, when you do something that you love and that you're proud of, chances are others are going to find it attractive and interesting. Like we've never been a tops down place of like,

here's what excellent reporting looks like, or here's what a good story looks like. We've sort of just known how to like spot quality and quality people more importantly, and really embrace that. Yeah, I definitely did not anticipate we'd be as big as we have grown, as quickly as we've grown. But you just learn how to scale into that. Still learning, most importantly. I think kind of cracking through to, you know, that next level, it's something that takes time because as people build more and more affinity for what we do, I think that's the thing that then translates to a brand and then allows you to compete with these larger companies. And, you know, given the fact that we were started in 2015 and we can even put our name alongside some of these incredible places like.

It makes me proud. And again, it's a testament to just everyone that we have here one other thing I like to say is although the brand is new any of our writers or producers or editors you all have been doing this for a really long time so it's like you all have been decades training to make this moment happen and you know we've found a recipe that works and you bring great people together. Although the brand is new, it's just a testament to the work that's happened by our writers, producers, journalists beforehand. And yeah, I think that's what's gotten us to be so successful today. I think it's liberating because it allows good writers and good reporters to really kind of put their individual stamp on a team. It allows

them to kind of go through their contacts, to come up with good stories that make sense for the team that they're covering. You know, whether it's a feature on a coach or it's a statistical analysis of a player, you can kind of go deeper and get beyond the surface and get beyond the the notebook about hamstring pulls and you know he's gonna be out seven to ten days nope I wouldn't ask anybody to subscribe to that what we're offering is something really different and I think that really is liberating for our writers. Trust your eyes. What are your eyes telling you?

Would you look at a game? What do you see? This episode is just one of many podcasts included in the Small Business Podcast presented by Dell Technologies. A podcast conference to get inspiration on topics like fundraising, building teams, or managing a business

in our current environment. From top podcasts like Mandy Woodruff and Tiffany Elish, Brown Ambition, Grant and Link, Gear Biscuits, and Gretchen from Happier with Gretchen Rubens. Visit DellTechnologiesPodFriends.com I'm Jade Hoy for The Athletic Podcast Network. visit delltechnologiespodfords.com. I'm Jade Hoy for The Athletic Podcast Network.