Can a Rec League Out-Earn the NBA?

EDITED IMPORT

Connor Renton's first rec league was 11:30 p.m. in a church gym, with a smelly pinny, a referee who was high, and a scorekeeper eating a burrito. He wanted to feel like a pro. He felt like a bum. So he built the alternative.

Brodie is now one of Canada's fastest-growing companies: an adult basketball league with a concierge at the door, photographers and videographers every night, live-streamed games, AI highlight clips, and an app that treats your pickup stats like 2K. In this episode, Connor walks through the season COVID killed, the pandemic side business that left 10,000 boxes in his parents' garage, the phone call that took Brodie from 8 teams to 40, and why he raised venture capital and then deliberately slowed down.

He also makes a case every founder should hear. If another company could copy your startup tomorrow, is it actually changing anything?

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

02:17 A church gym, a smelly pinny, and the idea for Brodie

04:52 Why the sports world "retires" you before your prime

08:25 COVID, 10,000 boxes, and the call that saved Brodie

16:38 All in, and hating being an operator

22:01 Why cheap rec leagues fail, and pricing for 500 paid staff

31:26 The Brodie app: Strava for basketball

39:07 Making every player feel like a pro: the media flywheel

56:42 Pumping the brakes after raising VC

1:04:34 Bad coaches, the Three D's, and running a company like a team

1:08:57 "Bigger than the NBA," and the startup copy test

🏀 Brodie: brodierec.com

🎙️ StartWell Podcast: https://startwell.co/blogs/insights

📍 Recorded at StartWell, 782 King St W, Toronto (https://startwell.co/)