Interview
Company: SIDEARM Sports
Specific focus of the company: Provision of software and technology needed to power livestats, websites, and video streaming for over 600 high schools, colleges, and universities across North America.
Engagements other than business: Teaching in the university as an Associate Professor
Education: A graduate of iSchool at Syracuse University
Previous work experience: Teaching
Personality: Practical and fact-minded with undoubted reliability. Very perceptive, energetic, and smart person who really enjoy living on the edge (16 Personalities, 2016).
Motivations: Changing the way people experience the college sport through SIDEARM. Also teaching and/ or mentoring college students.
When, how, and why the company was founded: Company established in 1996. It started as a hobby and finally register it as a commercial entity. By then, there was no firm or company specializing in distribution of information about college, university and high school sports. The major challenge was the absence of software and technology required for livestats.
Opportunity the firm exploited: Presence of a huge market of consumers with no products and services.
What the company does: Provision of software and technology to facilitate college, universities, and high school sports livestats
Sales: The Company started with less than five institutions. Currently it serves over 600 institutions in North America.
Market status: Market not fully exploited and there is a greater opportunity for the company to expand.
Competition: The Company is facing competition from other technology focused companies
Threats to the business: Rapidly advancing technology which might render the technology currently used obsolete.
Strengths of the business: Dedicated, innovative, and talented employees. Company also has a huge loyal customer base
Weaknesses for the company: Offers only content in English and French language.
Process of pursuing the dream: Idea came while having coffee in a friend’s house. Observed the challenge his boy trying to catch up with college sports. Had to use several multimedia to piece up all the information.
Specific steps taken: Upon getting the idea, contemplated more about it. Armed with a good knowledge of software began to work on the solution. Built the idea from simple solutions to sophisticated architecture. Tested the solutions in the market and the reception was impressive. That became a hobby for some time before registering SIDEARM as a fully-fledged company.
People spoken to while pursuing the opportunity: Talked to several experts while pursuing the dream. They included designers, software developers, graphic designers, and web page developers. Talks also involved people already established in related but non-competing businesses. In addition, held talks with sports enthusiasts, college students, college sport administrators, and parents who had children participating in college sports. All of them provided crucial information that fuel the pursuit of dream.
Information needed before moving forward: Critical information included the market, support platforms, the cost needed to deploy the technology, the available skills, the trends on the sports industry, existing situation in transmission of college sports, and existing regulations.
Resources needed: To run the business, some of the resources needed included financial capital, human labor, offices, materials, and equipment.
Partnership with other people/companies: Initially, the idea looked vague and unattractive to many companies by then. Nobody was willing to partner. Most people contacted for partnership saw it as a non-starting business with little prospects of becoming a huge company. Sole proprietorship was the only remaining option.
Barriers that need to overcome: At first, there was poor reception of the product in the market. There was also challenges of finance. Again, talent to offer solutions for the business was lacking. In a startup the rate of employee turnover is high. Employees look for greener pastures where they are well-remunerated and also in companies which are more stable.
Lessons learned: No giving up. With best ideas capital is not a big issue. Being confident and soldiering on even when there appears to be no feasible way to overcome the barriers.
Length process took: Took long before the company picked up. Also took long before a selling product was deployed to the market. In a startup, it is better to seek services of experienced part-time professionals rather than fresh college graduates without experience. It takes long to train a college graduate before they are in a position to deliver. And in many situations, they leave when they are almost catching up with the trade. As a result, most of the expenditure goes to labor which contributes little progress to the company.
Work life balance: Being a family person with two boys, a fraction of time is spent in business and a fraction is dedicated to family life. In addition, there is the other job of teaching. Al these are very involving. The idea is to balance it in such a way that none of the areas is over emphasized at the expense of others.
Favorite task: Meeting with students and discussing how the concept can be improved.
Most difficult decision: Initially, my career was set to be a lecturer. It was very difficult deciding to go partly into business and teaching on one side. At some point, I wanted to completely leave teaching but my passion for teaching made me stay. Further, I interact a lot with a huge section of beneficiaries of my business and this gives me a lot of ides on where to improve in my business.
Biggest mistake made in the company: Not recruiting a business development manager early to help in marketing of our services and products.
Greatest risk ever: Taking a huge loan to pay employees instead of laying off at a time when there was no sales. That pays off because I would have had to recruit new staff since it took short time before the business picked up.
Sports: Favorite sports is rugby and table tennis. Always watch major rugby and table tennis events.
Business and diversity: Business is founded on the principle of respect for all groups and individuals irrespective of background. This is reflected in the core values of the business and the business organizational culture. The business offers solutions to all groups of people.
Pursuit of other opportunities to grow and innovate: The Company is currently embarking on a strategy to utilize the technology in the telecommunication industry. In trying to keep up with changing times, the company is updating its apps to increase more features and carry more content.
Opportunities to generate more revenue from the business: Besides the original idea of software and technology for distribution of sport’s content for colleges, the company’s website also carries some advertisements. The number of audience currently served is enormous and advertisers have found it a viable means of advertising their products and services.
Current financial challenges: The Company’s revenue has been growing over time and currently it is in a position to secure loans from banks.
Technological and legal issues: Like any technology-based company, there are issues to do it copyrights. Twice there has been legal actions taken against companies who wanted to infringe on the copyrights of SIDEARM Sport.
Advice for new comers: Most important to come up with a compelling idea which can gain acceptance over time rather than delve into a business with an idea which can fizzle out in a short time. Newcomers ought to take time analyzing whether their idea is really worth pursuing. Further, there is a need to conduct a thorough SWOT analysis. Newcomers should not worry about capital if they believe they have a superior idea. It is also important that new comers in the technology sector seek the advice of experts in the field before they embark on a serious program to implement their decisions. This is because, there could be better ways of developing the idea or that the idea might not withstand the test of time for a number of reasons. Finally, technology industry is very dynamic. One should not take long pondering about what to do next. The earlier the better.
Dream goal of the company: To become a global solutions provider to transmission of college sports. Currently working on how the idea can be established in other regions of the world like Europe.
References
16 Personalities. (2016). Personality types. Retrieved from: https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types
