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The Best One Yet
🍌⚾ "Burn the Boring" — Savannah Bananas Co-Founders Jesse & Emily Cole
Ep. 1599
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Watch the interview on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/eyS-eokvP-U
Everyone laughed when Jesse and Emily Cole said they were going to save baseball by turning it into a circus. The traditionalists said it was a mockery. The investors said it wouldn't scale. Babe Ruth woulda blushed.
But today, while the Red Sox and Yankees yawn in the dugout, the Savannah Bananas are selling out those very same stadiums… while on stilts.
In this episode, we sit down with the husband-and-wife co-founders to uncover how they turned a struggling startup - with so much debt they had to sell their house - into a viral phenomenon with a waitlist of over 1 million people.
We dive deep into their "Fans First" business model, why they refuse to take VCmoney, and how "burning the boring" let them create a new sport and disrupt a 100-year-old industry.
They even got engaged in the middle of a (rainy) baseball game.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
- The "Anti-Business" Model: Why they refuse to take investors, sell advertising, charge for hot dogs, or collect sales taxes.
- Burn The Boring: How they audited every second of a baseball game to eliminate friction (goodbye, bunts and walks).
- The "Do The Opposite" Strategy: How a philosophy inspired by P.T. Barnum & Walt Disney helped them win in the attention economy.
- Metrics vs. Magic: Why Jesse and Emily ignore traditional ROI data to focus on "Return on Fan".
- (And why you should check the weather before proposing)
TIMESTAMPS:
- 0:00 - Intro: The "Cirque du Soleil" of Baseball
- 2:05 - The Meet Cute: How Jesse & Emily Met
- 5:20 - Why They Refused VC Money (Owning 100% Equity)
- 6:48 - The Walt Disney Lesson on Control
- 8:45 - Leaving $50 Million on the Table
- 12:55 - Burning the Boring: Inventing Banana Ball
- 19:00 - Failures: The "Human Pinata" Disaster
- 24:00 - The Strategy: "Whatever is Normal, Do The Opposite"
- 31:00 - Making Decisions on Intuition vs. Spreadsheets
- 42:00 - The Story That Defines "Fans First"
- 51:40 - Rapid Fire Questions
NEWSLETTER:
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OUR 2ND SHOW:
Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/
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About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.
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