The Managing Director Of The First Dodgers Accelerator Shares His Experience

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The future of technology, specifically sports and technology, is incredibly exciting. In a time where humans are constrained only by our imagination and where technological capabilities are accelerating everyday, the possibilities are endless. With all of this excitement, it can be rather difficult to focus on one thing. Building a company can be tedious, strenuous work that’s filled with long hours trying to solve the same problem over and over again. If you are someone who’s not entirely sold on the whole “startup founder” gig but still wants the excitement and challenge of building a company while simultaneously disrupting industries, then Dylan Boyd’s job might be just the one you have been looking for. Unfortunately, you can’t just fill out an application for his job.

“I work at R/GA Ventures building our vertical programs in industries we are excited about. Those today are Sports with the LA Dodgers. Commerce and Retail in SF, in Berlin Hospitality/Retail and catering startups. I was the MD at the Nike Accelerator and have built over 14 programs to date. I love startups. And I love founders. I also really love corporations and brands. So this is the perfect place for me”

Not bad at all. It’s kind of like being able to enjoy the excitement and fun of multiple startups without the headache of trying to build every single one of them from the ground up. More or less, it’s like when people joke about being able to “babysit” their friend’s kids when they don’t have kids of their own. You enjoy being around them, but you quickly give them back to their parents when they start crying and puking everywhere. But like I said, you can’t just apply for a job like Dylan’s. It requires many years of handshaking and learning to produce such an awesome opportunity.

“I am excited most by meeting new people and hearing new ideas. I get out of bed every day just as excited to learn more. I am a sponge like that.”

Backed with years of “sponge-like” knowledge and experience beyond his years, it was no surprise that our AMA turned out to be one of the most insightful yet.

Just recently we saw the next installment in what will come to be a not too surprising trend amongst major sports organizations with the announcement of the Philadelphia 76ers’ startup accelerator.

@Sixers launch #sportstech innovation lab with @KimballOfficeApply here: https://t.co/hIefgy8nOY | Sports ︎ Tech |

— Starters (@StartersHQ) April 19, 2016

This is a growing trend that Dylan is familiar with. In fact, he has to be in order to keep R/GA and the Dodgers Accelerator competitive.

“And how do we stay competitive? This is a full time thing. This is not a side project or a pet project but an Initiative that is evergreen.”

This is a year long process for Dylan and the teams at R/GA and the Dodgers. It takes time and patience to find the very best that the tech startup world has to offer.

“The way that the markets work we are seeing an opportunity to be the canaries in the coal mine to get out and find 100s of cos. Dive in deep into many of them and find 100 that are good companies that are solving these problems. Narrow those down to be impactful and additive to them and bring them into deals, business relationships or even pilots with not only the Dodgers but other teams and leagues.”

But why the interest? Where is the advantage for a sports team investing in early stage startups?

“We are out to solve problems that they recognize in fan engagement, player development The Dodgers Accelerator with R/GA is revolutionizing how fans, athletes, and sports organizations intersect with technology across the full ecosystems of sports performance, engagement and operations. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to; Fan Engagement, VR/AR, eSports, Sports Training, Smart Arenas, Big Data and Analytics, Fitness and Youth Sports, Commerce Solutions, and Sponsor Integration.

There are BIG areas of possible growth from a team ownership, team/player success — financial revenue and more.”

What kinds of companies are right for capitalizing on these types of opportunities? Better yet, what companies are the Dodgers and R/GA interested in investing time, money, and resources into?

“Our team reviews every single application that comes in. We look at the co, the team, the idea, the traction, any other investors and customers, We dig in on the founders. We call customers, we call any other investors, mentors or advisors. We sort them into sub verticals and we meet on them 2 times a week to discuss as a full team. We are looking for great driven founders with a clear vision on what they are building and why. We are looking for founders that are not just good at building and executing but also in listening and partnering.”

So what types of companies benefit from this type of experience?

“If we look at last season we had Cos {companies} that were successful are the ones that really put the time in to get the most out of the network, meetings, work that R/GA does and dug in with Mentors. Stage wise — we can move the needle on all levels from pre seed to series A/B Cos.”

“One of the mantras of what we are doing is to be “Additive”. My goal is not to take a founder away from what needs to be done, not to force meetings or sessions or things to happen they don’t need, but look at each one and build a way to work with them that works best to help them get to where they need to be.”

The Dodgers Accelerator isn’t just limited to startups focused on baseball either.

“It is not JUST about baseball. It is about sports. We bring in and talk with NBA/MLB/MLS/NFL/European Leagues and more. We also work with folks like AEG and Live Nation and other venue owners. PLUS we bring in brands to the table to give us opinions and feedback as we consider teams for the program. We love hearing what people think. We love to listen. This allows us also to decide how we can make the most impact wit our team, mentors and connections.”

Last year, the Dodgers Accelerator worked with 10 companies.

“Last year I looked at close to 1000 Cos from 33 countries. I filtered to over 500 to dive in deeper…”

As for this year…

“We expect this year to work with up to 7. Or 8. We aren’t really setting a solid/fixed number. We want to find the RIGHT companies. So whatever that number ends up being.”

Virtual Reality

Like most new and emerging technology, sports are a perfect target for implementation and development. We are a generation that would much rather pay for an awesome experience than any tangible product. We all remember our first ballpark experience; the atmosphere of being at the game and the excitement of the crowd are very memorable. The ability to replicate that environment in a virtual reality experience is incredibly exciting.

“I LOVE VR. I personally have been tracking it for a long time. I have tried almost all of them including Magic Leap. I recently got a early release of the HTC Vive and LOVE IT. We have it at the office now and it was just taken to a team offsite in the woods of all places today and Friday.”

As someone who has had the chance to experience this firsthand, I can attest that there is no possible way to describe the feeling of being “under the goggles”. It’s just something that you need to try for yourself.

Although we have seen a ton of early movement in the sports VR space, even a few frontrunners, there are still plenty of opportunities in this early market.

Opportunities

…Training the mind and body in new ways — sports — virtual reps, watching and BEING in game film, studying the way a pitchers shoulder drops in a certain pitch, how wide receivers hips at him out, how the footwork of Stephen Curry can telegraph his intentions.

Like any market that’s prime for disruption, the opportunities don’t come without a cost. There are plenty of challenges that anyone looking to get into the space will face.

Challenges

1. Storytelling  – This is not flat TV — stories may no longer be linear — but rather choose your own adventure. How do you facilitate in a game/movie/show/experience when I can look and move in any direction, yet still have the ARC of the story matter?

2. Market adoption – When will we see enough devices in the market to matter and make a market? Consumers are going to have HTC Vive, Oculus, Google Cardboard, and Sony’s PS4 VR. So we will see 10–20 hardware solutions come to market — think early cell phone markets — and then eventually 5 or more of these will sell or distribute enough units to have 1MM-10MM users. But how long will this take?

3. Tools  –  The pick axe and shovel movement is needed in this space. It is hard to get out ahead of this without investment VC or resources. Although this market will be live in 6 months and growing in a year, we’re truly 2–3 years out from a large market. Unity might be able to own this pick axe and shovel market or firms like Adobe and Microsoft that have reserves. But, we need to wait and see just like we did in the mobile market for platforms, tools, developer resources, and more to occur.”

Artificial Intelligence

I am personally very excited about the coming invasion of chat bots and the use of artificial intelligence. These emerging technologies are incredibly interesting, specifically in the sports space. Sports are a treasure trove of big data, and this makes them a prime target for disruption via AI. Despite this, we haven’t heard much about startups doing things with AI in the sports space. But, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

“I will not share any yet but know we are looking at some. Quite a few are small and stealthy still. shhhhhhh.”

Although Dylan was reluctant to offer up any information about specific companies, he did mention that most of the companies he keeps track of are all included in this public Twitter list. There are 725+ companies, so happy hunting.