Playing the Long Game: How Start-Ups & Entrepreneurs Win in Sports

What does it take to win as a founder? Founders in sports operate in a uniquely ambiguous environment, where clean datasets are rare and decisions must be made long before the evidence is conclusive. Whether predicting athlete behavior, reading early consumer signals, navigating distribution, driving product adoption, or raising capital, the best founders are experts in decision making. This panel brings together leaders who have repeatedly built with conviction under uncertainty, from creating fantasy sports infrastructure before the industry existed to pioneering hydration analytics, investing in sports as a wedge into massive adjacent markets, and committing nine‑figure capital to women’s sports long before demand was proven. Together, they’ll break down how they distinguished signal from noise, which metrics actually predict durability, and how they built cultures capable of making high‑quality decisions at scale.