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Kelly offers multiple advice for entrepreneurs getting ready to start their new venture.  He spoke of the importance of problem solving, passion, planning, and integrity and how those principles among others helped him with his new ventures as well as winning the Season 2: Apprentice reality television show back in 2004.  The one piece of advice I received during my interview that really stuck in my mind was “Go Big!”

“GO BIG!  You will work the same amount of time raising $2M as you will raising $20M, so go big.  Make sure your audience and customer base can support large numbers.”

I believe Kelly was saying not to under estimate your ambition and shoot for the moon.  So I asked about my new venture idea in providing fantasy sports to local sports bars.  He said, “Sports bar customers are a transient population.  You’ll never get the numbers.”  I couldn’t let him stop there, “What about sports bars that have embraced social media? There are bars out there that have anywhere from 400 to 2000 fans on their FaceBook Fan Page.”  I could tell he wasn’t really sold when he reiterated going big. 

Even though we moved on, my mind was racing.  A part of me was glad that I didn’t have to worry about a big company like RotoHog coming after my idea.  The other part of me wondered if he was right.  My gut tells me that Kelly didn’t initially get the impact of social media at the local business level.  He didn’t know that I was already building a customer base in San Diego.  As more and more sports bars and restaurants catch on to social media the less and less transient their respective customers will become.  In fact, I believe if these sports bars and restaurants are properly networked together, then a stronger sense of community and camaraderie will prevail, hence the numbers will show up.  

Overall, my interview with Kelly Perdew was very insightful.  I consider Kelly a successful entrepreneur and his passion and drive are instrumental in growing RotoHog.  Kelly’s past experiences played a fundamental role in recognizing opportunity and shifting RotoHog’s business model and including the Entertainment Industry. 

My biggest takeaway from Kelly Perdew is to “Go Big!”  Here at SuperCommissioners, we plan to continue to refine our business and tournament model in 2010 before we “Go Big!”  We would love nothing more than to prove that SuperCommissioners’ business strategy will prevail at the local markets.

That's it for this three part series on Kelly Perdew's insights on Entrepreneurship & Fantasy Sports.  Stayed tuned for weekly blog posts once the season starts.

-Jimmy