December 16, 2025 • 30 mins
From the basketball court to the corporate boardrooms of the largest global sports brands in the world, to a locker-room–inspired idea that took off, first-time entrepreneur Jasmine Maietta’s Round21 was off to a stellar start. She’d made a quarter of a million dollars in seven days and was the first-ever Web3 company to pitch on Shark Tank—right at that moment, the NFT market bottomed out. Join Ben and Kathleen Griffith as they chat with Jasmine about her innovative approach to branding, sports sponsorship, and apparel; the future of fandom and the arts; scaling while maintaining identity; and the necessary evil of killing off parts of the business you love. These are The Unshakeables.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Jasmine Maietta is a former pro basketball player and a veteran of giant athletic companies like Reebok, Under Armor, and Peloton. She also has another distinction.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I actually pitched the first Web3 brand on Shark Tank
with digital physical.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Products. Thanks to early success, with $250,000 of sales in just seven days in partnership with NFT company Bored Ape Yacht Club, Jasmine spent six figures building out.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
This website that looked like a metaverse where you could
pull and drag and drop the rotating 3D objects.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And how much would you say you spent on aggregate
on the Web3 metaverse strategy.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Probably half a million dollars and then it all came
crashing down.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Welcome to the Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
On the Unshakeables, we're sharing the daring moments of small
business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
of how they got through it. And Kathleen is here today. Now,
I had a personal conflict, so Kathleen stepped in to
(01:21):
interview our guest. This time, and Kathleen, you're going to
share Jasmines story with us, so thanks for stepping in.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I'm no Ben, but I had a good time with her.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah. I thought you guys would hit it off. And
I listened to the episode. I thought it was terrific.
So let's get going on today's episode, Round21 from Washington, DC.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
As we mentioned at the top, Jasmine is an athlete.
She played professional basketball in Spain coach Stateside and stepped
into pickup games in the gym later.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It really was my identity as a basketball player that
led everything that was me, including my wardrobe my friend set, etc.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And basketball defined her career path. When she was ready
for a corporate job, she wanted to stay close to sports.
She joined Reebok when she was twenty six.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I knew I was a fish out of water, but for some reason felt like I just had to be corporate. So I tried to be corporate, but within a couple of weeks, I had shifted back to, "Hey, I'm going to work out in the morning and make friends that way." And it worked. I was truly bonding with the senior leaders at Reebok playing pickup basketball.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
That realization changed her trajectory. Later she moved to Under
Armour and there was no hesitation.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I was like day two in the gym at 6:00AM,
recognizing that that is my identity and that's my ability
to connect with people.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Jasmine was on brand marketing teams throughout her career. During
her time at under Armour, she saw a change in
how younger generation looked at sportswear. No longer satisfied by
mere functionality, they wanted more.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Under Armour was, at the time, a head to ankle brand. They were trying to break into footwear, and we were disproportionately talking to people around the relationship they had with their feet and how sneakers speak. And when sneakers speak, it is a reflection of one's identity. They wanted to know increasingly not about the technology that Under Armour had become famous for, helping you stay light, dry, and fast, through an apparel lens. They wanted to know what's the story, what's the colorway? Who else is wearing this?
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Will it be sold?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Those are indicators of image, and image through fashion is
identity and identity is brand and.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
If you think of a brand that exemplifies this, you
might think of Peloton, where Jasmine was Global VP of brand.
Peloton sells bikes and treads, but the bike wasn't the brand.
The people who bought the bike or downloaded the app,
the teacher they loved, they were the brand and through
that brand a community formed. Jasmine saw that firsthand.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I recognized the power of community.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I recognize that, yes, everybody has their own experience, but
they do still want to come together. And I had
never left that idea and that inside around the people
or the brand and really wanting to create a platform
that respects diversity.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
It was at this point that something was coalescing in
Jasmine's mind, an idea that would combine all the threads
from her professional life, her individuality and love of sports, sports,
whereas fashion and the power of community. The thing had
a name, Round21 and had a clear brand. It just
had to come together, and crucially, this would not just
(04:51):
happen through sports, but through art.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I had always been a fan of art, whether it's small galleries and boutiques or even the idea of fashion being representing ideas. And art was going to be a part of Round21 because art has always captured history as it's happening.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty. Round21 grew on paper,
but she didn't make her move.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think I waited a while because I didn't have
to start it then, it was me benefiting from the
idea being a side hustle in my forties where I
could earn a living and still feel like, Okay, I
don't have to take on all that risk. But when
COVID hit, risk went out the window because the world
and our life was at risk.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
This yolo urgency and the privacy COVID demanded allowed Jasmine
the safest creative conditions to test her vision for Round21.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
There was no way to go lower.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It was only upside to try because if it failed,
everybody was working from home. Anyway, it would be like, hey,
I took time for COVID.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
I would go back to I guess real life.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
The conditions were set, but Jasmine had no cash.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
A startup without any money, without any i'd say momentum
would need to start and capitalize within an authentic place
within sports.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And she'd spent her career cultivating that authenticity.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Because I had spent so much time in locker rooms,
I knew very few people do that there's a ping
pong table in almost every locker room. It's like the
world of sports, other favorite sport, and it's completely unbranded.
And I thought, what if we transition this place where
the players are coming together to the ping pong table,
but reimagine it as a canvas for art, and that
(06:42):
would be where Round21 would start without any competition.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
To be honest, if you'll remember sports in twenty twenty,
the NBA had a bubble season where all the teams
were living in a bubble in Florida. It was the
chance she'd been looking for to start Round21, but Jasmine
had no idea who to contact. She cold DMed everyone
she could find, and finally Scott O'Neill, former CEO of 76'ers,
(07:08):
connected her directly to the NBA.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
The order was seventy two paddles. I made them my hand.
We used Hinokie wood from Japan, like we went all
in on R and D.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
I felt like I'm betting on myself. Am I doing
this or not?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
So why not bet big? And you may be thinking,
why put so much work into ping pong paddles that
are going into a locker room when no one will
see them.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
When I launched Round21, I knew I wanted to try
and create a category of one, and I think with
Pingpong nothing felt off the table, because how do you
create a category of one? You go somewhere people haven't gone.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
While all of this was going down, something else was
happening online. A series of audio apps were leading live
streams in digital rooms every day.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
One of those apps was Clubhouse. I was listening to
Clubhouse and basically the whole world of art was tuning
in and commenting on the power of digital art and
tokens and NFTs. I recognized that the art world was
paying attention to this decentralized value and ownership. And then
(08:18):
NBA and this company called Top Shot, Dapper Labs was
disproportionately investing in what are these now digital collectibles.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
If you remember Pokemon cards, these were kind of like that,
but online, NBA fans or sports collectors buy a pack
or a moment from a player in the form of
a video clip, and then they'd own that clip.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And I was very sure that no one would compare
us to Nike or Wilson or Spaulding if we were
a digital first company, So I was like, why don't
we try this? So the thesis was, how does the
art become a digital membership if you will, for a
collector to use to access the physical version.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
For example, if Jasmine sold a digital limited edition basketball
designed by an artist, purchase of that digital asset would
give you access to get that basketball in real life.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And feeling like you're a part of something is sports,
you know, Membership to being a Knicks fan is loving
the Knicks. Maybe you go to a gay maybe buy
a T shirt, but there is a sense of membership
and people still want physical things. So the digital to
physical felt like it would be a scalable model.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
So Jasmine set out to find digital artists.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
To work with.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We were essentially on a listening tour trying to develop
what that could mean for our business. In twenty twenty,
at the holiday time, we did launch a Kickstarter that
was supposed to help fund holiday gifts around ping pong
paddles for families to come together. So we were still
playing that physical card, but we certainly were thinking about
(09:56):
how technology would be a key part of what we built.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
This Ion Tech.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
During the building phase, led her to another round of
cold emails, but this time with the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
If you remember the Ape NFTs that were all the
rage in twenty twenty, she had an idea to take
her hypothetical digital basketball into a real world digital and
physical basketball. It's not as confusing as it sounds, I promise.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I emailed the founders and I was like, Yo, do
you want to do this?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Seven days later we launched. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
They got access to buy the board Ape basketball and
having the token gave you access to buy it, and
in seven days a quarter of a million dollars worth
of physical goods sold to an NFT community. But it
was physical goods. I'm like, let's just do this fifty
times a year.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Kathleen, how was your first interview? It's scary, fun, intimidating,
none of the above.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Jasmine was just so dynamic. I saw so much of
myself in her story because she was a corporate soldier.
She had had really senior positions at huge companies.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Was she super tall?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
She read super tall, and she did the whole interview standing,
so she was alluring presence.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yeah, I felt like I needed a stand up.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I was just listening, going, I bet she's really tall.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Yeah, you know, and she represents what a lot of
people do, where you do all the right things and
then you're looking to make the leap start your own business.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
My first reaction was, this woman is brave. She's not
afraid to try stuff, She's not afraid to bet on herself.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
One of the things I wanted to talk to you about is, which I think is a unique dynamic when you've worked in the corporate world or you've worked with big brands, so you're not as intimidated, that she did particularly well is she went out and started pitching big brands- to partner with.
She did like out of the gate. And I have
a tool that I like to use. They're called outrageous asks,
(11:50):
which I want to come back to, but essentially the
idea is you think of something that you could ask
someone to partner with you that makes you seem certifiably
crazy because they're like, you are so punching above your
weight right now. But she did a few of those
with sending cold emails and the.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Woman has moxie, yeah, Chutzpah, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
It, and got these responses, and then there were kind
of these exponential outsize returns with this. I did one
of these with Warren Buffett. I had seen his documentary
Becoming Warren Buffett on the plane and I was like,
I need to see this guy. And so my outrageous
asked to him was can I fly from New York
City to Omaha, Nebraska for five minutes of your time?
(12:29):
But the kicker was I found out that he went
to McDonald's drive through every single morning for six decades.
So I said, I'll get in at the beginning of
the drive through and out at the end of the
drive through, so there's no added time to your day.
I got it, not now, But it wasn't a no,
It wasn't an ever. And I say that to say
some of the things that helped propel my small business
forward early days were reaching out to really big brands
(12:53):
or very well known people to mentor etc. Who ultimately
said yes, I'll.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Tell you what it reminds me of it. It's a
good know thyself thing as well. I remember someone who
worked in the fundraising business told me there's basically two
ways you can ask for money, which asking for money
is a not for profit is the same as asking
for a piece of business as a for profit business.
And he said, you either go with the foot in
the door technique or the door in the face technique.
And I said, say more yeah, he said, well, the
(13:20):
foot in the door technique is you meet someone and
you say, I have this great cause I'm saving, you know,
kittens with one leg. Would you give me five dollars? Sure,
I could give you five dollars. Well, if you'd give
me five, could you give me ten? You can save
two cats? Sure I could give you ten. Listen to
my final ask, could we make it one hundred? You
ramp it up over time. I got my foot in
the door and then I slowly pushed it. Okay. And
(13:41):
then there's the door in the face technique where you
give the same pitch about how you should save these
cats with one leg, and then you say my only ask,
could you donate five thousand dollars? Five thousand dollars And
someone starts to slam the door in your face, and
you say, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. How about just
one hundred dollars? Okay, I could do a hundred. I
ended up at the same hundred dollars. And one is
the foot in the door and the other's the door
(14:01):
in the face. I can think of examples in my
professional life or with my clients where both of those
techniques have worked, where your ask starts small and builds
over time, or where your ask is outrageous and then
ratchets back. It's a good opportunity to think about what
you're asking for and also what your personality is and
what you think you can deliver, because I can think
of situations where both of those might be appropriate. If
(14:23):
I go back to the conversation you had with Jasmine,
I think she really was more foot in the door.
She didn't ask for anything unreasonable, but she was brave enough.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
To ask to ask.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Yeah, And I think that's something anyone who's listening can
think about, Like what are you sitting on? That is
an ask you want to make, but you think you're
not ready, You know you're not big enough, Like go
make it, Go make that ass.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And also if you're shy, get over it right Because
she said she DMed everyone she could think of on
LinkedIn and just like sprayed and prayed and she eventually
got through to some guy from one of the NBA teams,
and she just was relentless that's right.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Okay, she's got her foot in the door, and now
she's going even bigger. She had a date with some sharks,
so shark tank. Okay, so we're in the tank. I
know what a rigorous process it is to get in there.
Know those guys, Well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
There was a sense from the sharks that there's something here.
I was definitely validated that self expression and creativity and
fashion through sports had never been articulated this way.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
And the business was balanced, very very lucky.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
We had essentially come into twenty twenty with physical goods,
and then I had been listening and learning the digital side,
so I knew that we're not a digital company. How
did the digital and the physical work together? And by
the time the taping was happening, we.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Had just had a major win the Bored Ape drop
we talked about earlier.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
My narrative was true, and so I guess that diversification
within our business has paid off. Even though sometimes we
were working essentially on two different companies at the same time.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
During the rest of the year, they continued operating these
two companies, one physical, one digital.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
We've got the.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
NFT explosion happening in the background. You're riding that wave.
You're seeing tremendous results. You've just come off Shark tank
pitching that this is at least part of the business
and an investible proposition. When are you saying, oh, no,
white knuckle, we have gone too far.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Definitely, by the end of twenty twenty two the beginning
of twenty three, we were playing digital to physical and
the entire i'd say ecosystem or industry around NFTs was
really leaning into membership, and I was witnessing how many
of those communities that had leaned all the way into that.
We're struggling to manage the voices in a way that
(17:02):
felt constructive. And we launched our membership holiday twenty twenty one,
and by being a member, you received a mini hoop,
but we didn't make anybody pay to be a member,
Thank goodness.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
What are you seeing with your community? Are they turning
away from it too? And are you seeing the trend
shift in that way?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Not really, because FT owners and web three kind of
people are very committed to that lifestyle and considering a
decentralized worlds like the future.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
But the present for Round21 was all about the physical goods.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
All of our physical goods were working. We had the
WNBA Players Association deal with Brittney Griner working. We had
a US women's national team World Cup program working with
Dick's Sporting goods. There were all of these indicators that
the physical world and the business was there, and that
the NFT the membership he didn't need to serve to
build the business and stay true to the mission of
(18:03):
standing for diversity and bringing more voices through sports.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
But Jasmine had spent most of twenty twenty two investing
in NFTs and this Web3 strategy.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And we in twenty two had over invested in it,
meaning I had a Web3 agency helping us build tech.
I had a person completely focused on loyalty and membership.
And I get into twenty twenty three and I am
completely personally questioning all of this.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
At this time, We've got a gut that's screaming no,
We've got an agency burn rate that's significant.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I got advice from a family member of mine who
just is extremely savvy on business, like just understands business.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
It is not personal.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
He is not a personal decision maker when it comes
to business.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
And he was like, if it's not working, kill it.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Jasmine's a great strategist and knew there was truth to
what her cousin was saying, but it was still really
hard to walk away.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And I was really, really clear, and I knew all
the money and I knew all of the brand reputation
in Web3 and NFTs was valuable, but it just meant like, psychologically,
I could not see the data or the trend that
this is where the future was really going, and I
was convincing myself that it was.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
After a lot of back and forth, Jasmine quietly sunsetted
the digital piece.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Of Round21.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
And how much would you say you spent an aggregate
on the Web3 metaverse strategy?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Probably 350K to a half a million dollars.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
WHOA does that still hurt?
Speaker 4 (19:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Okay, my parents have really taught me, like what are
you going to do with the information you have or
look back to learn? What did you learn and apply?
I think there's something about the culture of Round21 as
well that we're builders. We don't necessarily focus on what's
behind us. I still don't regret I would probably do
the exact same thing because of all of the lessons
it taught us and that diversification. Who knows if that
(20:15):
is the future, and so we still have that tech
stack if it comes back.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I'd love you to talk about that, because I think
a lot of people within our listening base are just
sitting on things that they don't know whether they should
whack them all it or keep it going, and the
deliberation is overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I think the distinction is is it an asset or
is it a liability? And as a founder, if you
create anything, I think you think of it as an asset.
There is a shelf life to that. My cousin definitely
cuts bait. There is no emotional connection he has to
anything in his business. He's like, we tried that, it
didn't work, we moved on, and to me it feels
like what if it.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Was just the wrong time.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Or he's like the time you're taking to try and
resuscitate and give CPR to something. All of this is
market research and you know when you hit it. And
I think that's what I had not felt for a
long time because that one time was the one time
with the drop in twenty one, and so once I
started to have some of these hits, I mean the
WNBA changed the trajectory of the business. We got the WNBA license in Caitlin Clark's first year, and Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese, and we were ready. We had apparel infrastructure, we had great brand partners. I spent 20 years in the space. We had retailers and distribution partners ready to work with us, and we've been at the forefront. That really changed the trajectory of the brand. I was like, "Oh, this is what product market fit feels like." And when it doesn't feel that way, it is a liability. And as a founder, understanding the difference between those two took me a very long time, but I'm finally there.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I want to start with the scale of adjustment and adaptation and pivot that she had to do, because she jumped on that NFT bandwagon. I'm going to be really honest with people. I didn't get NFTs when they came out. I still don't get it. I don't know what people are talking about. I understand crypto, I understand stablecoins, I understand blockchain, but I didn't get it.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
It doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense.
But yeah, she was like out of the gate, had
listened to a few conversations on clubhouse and then she
just decided to go hit this area hard and had
such crazy meteoric success with selling the NFT. Within a
few days, she was making six figures. So all of
a sudden, you're thinking, Wow, there's it there there, and.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
It was the NFT moment. I remember, Yeah, it didn't
last long.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, she threaded that needle for sure, and then the crash.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
So the concept that I wanted to pull out of that story, though, it's something that anybody who has an MBA has learned, and that's the idea of sunk cost. I think most of our listeners know, but sunk cost is when you've spent something, you've already spent it, and then it doesn't go your way, but it's already gone. You can't get it back. And I remember you asked her, "Does that still bother you that you spent all that money?" And she said, no. She had moved on. She learned from it.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
It still bothers me she lost all of that money.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And her view was, "I can't unspend it. I've spent it. So as long as I learn from it, I'm going to make the best decision I can." And the idea behind sunk cost is you can only make decisions going forward. You can't make decisions going backwards.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Yeah, and I'm so glad you brought that up, because
so many folks just keep spending good money after bad
after bad after bad, because there's that emotional attachment, right,
And she was good, She just pulled the plug on it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
And she talked about her cousin who advised her, who
never made an emotional decision about business in his life,
which I think is an extreme point of view. Yeah,
sometimes it is emotional.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
I think we all need a cousin or we need someone in our life like this. I think right now there's been this sprawl where you're doing a lot, and you really don't know what the core line of business is that is profitable and driving for you. And so I think there's now this retraction where people are trying to take a more sober look at everything it is they're doing and saying, "Am I just emotionally attached to this or do I really actually need to shut this down? This is more of a passion point" or "This is a facet of my business where I'm breakeven but not making money." You need to do an honest appraisal of that every now and then.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, And I think there's such a stigma in American
culture in general, but in entrepreneurial circles in particular, around
giving up. And there's a difference between throwing in the
towel and giving up, giving up and saying, I'm doing
four things and these two are working really well, and
these other two aren't working, and I'm going to give
up on the two that aren't working and double down
on the two that are. That's not giving up. You
(24:38):
have to have some grit and some tenacity to be
an entrepreneur, but that doesn't mean that you don't ever
recognize when something's not worth further investment.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
And that failed, that experiment or pilot failed. You didn't fail, right,
you didn't fail. Like that's the distinction. Let's get back
to Jasmine, who is in the next era of her company.So era one was Web3, era two has been women's sports, and now we're onto era three, harnessing the creative side of sports. So September 2021 was a big month for Round21. It was when we were filming Shark Tank, and I had just closed my first and only, so far, round of funding, and that gave me capital to make our first hires. So that was important. Sure, you can curate artists and teams, leagues and athletes, but one person can't do it all. And when we've taken that funding in '21,
(26:45):
I've actually completely reinvested it into people and process as we've grown. I've not taken more funding, and we're still growing. I'm really proud of that. There's 11 of us now, curating freelancers and contractors, but who are all dedicated to Round21.We have publicly on the team said women's sports is our number one priority. At the top of that list is the WNBA. So everything we do first starts with, how is this serving our WNBA fan and community, or how is this building on the foundation of our WNBA business? And we just continued to focus where the community was telling us they wanted to be, which has not ever failed us. From there, I think we have to build process. I am increasingly and intentionally focused on, if Jasmine was taken out of this meeting or this process, could it continue? And we're putting resources towards that, whether it is some hunters and farmers within the sales pipeline, because what Round21 has become is a sports fashion house, articulating the art on forms and formats that people want to wear. And we have a very high bar of how our community wants to see themselves through products, and that supply chain needs to be robust and it needs to work at the
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Speed of culture.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So those are the two places that we are investing
along with the team.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
So you're innovating in terms of fandoms and engaging with
sports fans, working with pro teams. How are you thinking
about innovation and how do you stay ahead of trends?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
We stay with the times, or with trends, or a
head of trends, or create trends through the art community.
Define artists however you want to, but there is something
about somebody defining themselves as an artist that is a
position of power around I create my own world, and
artists in our community typically have a lived experience and
(27:29):
their own community that is highly creative and experimental, and
we love that when artists are experimenting, they're experimenting in
all forms and formats, nail art, tattoo, art style, clothes,
cut and so DIY. They are creating things, and I
think we do have a good curation. We certainly see
(27:49):
something in the wild with one of our artists partners.
Just happened with ties, Heather Salvador was making WNBA ties.
I hit Heather, I'm like, do you want to do
this for real? Girlier bootlegging over here? And we worked
with the WNBA and now Heather is going to be
able to do her thing and we're going to be
the license partner. So that's really what keeps us I
(28:09):
think fresh. It also keeps us in a place where
a fan can come and just kind of peek in
and see what's new and next, and maybe at that
point nothing's for them, or maybe at that point they're like,
oh my gosh, I can't believe what Round twenty one
just did, but they'll certainly see something that feels new.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
We talked about individuality within the context of belonging. How
do you scale individuality, because again, it's one of those
things that you think is antithetical to scaling.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So we think of ourselves in the way that you're
asking a little bit like an art gallery. So if
you think of an art gallery, let's just choose the
louver or the moment some of the most respected. There
is a spirit of curation and the responsibility that the
gallery has, So that's what we feel with the curation
of the artists and the team's leagues and athletes that
we work with. We try to a way to balance
(29:01):
this gallery of offerings for people that is the personal
piece that there's this spirit of exploration and discovery and
choice that you have. But from the perspective of art
and sport and creative expression, we want the artists to
have a bit of a story designed for you and
(29:22):
you get to choose if that's right for you. That's
really the approach that we're taking.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
So we always wrap by asking for your best piece
of advice for fellow entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, What would it
be for you?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
The advice I would give is that you understand your
immovable core. What are the characteristics that taking the product
out you would never change, but potentially productizing that in
a few ways before you strike that product market fit,
and that allows you to stay diversified in case one
(29:57):
of them doesn't work, but it teaches you so much
where that fifth way actually might be the way. So
I would definitely consider defining your core, but how you
bring it to market being as open as your imagination,
because you just never know what might hit.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your
wisdom and hopefully inspiring a whole new wave of women
and men and everyone to get into sport.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was a blast.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Unshakeables.
If you liked this episode, please rate and review it.
We'll be back with new episodes soon, so keep an
eye on the feed. I'm Ben Walter and this is
The Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
We'll see you back here soon.
Jasmine Maietta is a former pro basketball player and a veteran of giant athletic companies like Reebok, Under Armor, and Peloton. She also has another distinction.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I actually pitched the first Web3 brand on Shark Tank
with digital physical.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Products. Thanks to early success, with $250,000 of sales in just seven days in partnership with NFT company Bored Ape Yacht Club, Jasmine spent six figures building out.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
This website that looked like a metaverse where you could
pull and drag and drop the rotating 3D objects.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And how much would you say you spent on aggregate
on the Web3 metaverse strategy.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Probably half a million dollars and then it all came
crashing down.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Welcome to the Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
On the Unshakeables, we're sharing the daring moments of small
business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
of how they got through it. And Kathleen is here today. Now,
I had a personal conflict, so Kathleen stepped in to
(01:21):
interview our guest. This time, and Kathleen, you're going to
share Jasmines story with us, so thanks for stepping in.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I'm no Ben, but I had a good time with her.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah. I thought you guys would hit it off. And
I listened to the episode. I thought it was terrific.
So let's get going on today's episode, Round21 from Washington, DC.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
As we mentioned at the top, Jasmine is an athlete.
She played professional basketball in Spain coach Stateside and stepped
into pickup games in the gym later.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It really was my identity as a basketball player that
led everything that was me, including my wardrobe my friend set, etc.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And basketball defined her career path. When she was ready
for a corporate job, she wanted to stay close to sports.
She joined Reebok when she was twenty six.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I knew I was a fish out of water, but for some reason felt like I just had to be corporate. So I tried to be corporate, but within a couple of weeks, I had shifted back to, "Hey, I'm going to work out in the morning and make friends that way." And it worked. I was truly bonding with the senior leaders at Reebok playing pickup basketball.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
That realization changed her trajectory. Later she moved to Under
Armour and there was no hesitation.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I was like day two in the gym at 6:00AM,
recognizing that that is my identity and that's my ability
to connect with people.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Jasmine was on brand marketing teams throughout her career. During
her time at under Armour, she saw a change in
how younger generation looked at sportswear. No longer satisfied by
mere functionality, they wanted more.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Under Armour was, at the time, a head to ankle brand. They were trying to break into footwear, and we were disproportionately talking to people around the relationship they had with their feet and how sneakers speak. And when sneakers speak, it is a reflection of one's identity. They wanted to know increasingly not about the technology that Under Armour had become famous for, helping you stay light, dry, and fast, through an apparel lens. They wanted to know what's the story, what's the colorway? Who else is wearing this?
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Will it be sold?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Those are indicators of image, and image through fashion is
identity and identity is brand and.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
If you think of a brand that exemplifies this, you
might think of Peloton, where Jasmine was Global VP of brand.
Peloton sells bikes and treads, but the bike wasn't the brand.
The people who bought the bike or downloaded the app,
the teacher they loved, they were the brand and through
that brand a community formed. Jasmine saw that firsthand.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I recognized the power of community.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I recognize that, yes, everybody has their own experience, but
they do still want to come together. And I had
never left that idea and that inside around the people
or the brand and really wanting to create a platform
that respects diversity.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
It was at this point that something was coalescing in
Jasmine's mind, an idea that would combine all the threads
from her professional life, her individuality and love of sports, sports,
whereas fashion and the power of community. The thing had
a name, Round21 and had a clear brand. It just
had to come together, and crucially, this would not just
(04:51):
happen through sports, but through art.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I had always been a fan of art, whether it's small galleries and boutiques or even the idea of fashion being representing ideas. And art was going to be a part of Round21 because art has always captured history as it's happening.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty. Round21 grew on paper,
but she didn't make her move.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think I waited a while because I didn't have
to start it then, it was me benefiting from the
idea being a side hustle in my forties where I
could earn a living and still feel like, Okay, I
don't have to take on all that risk. But when
COVID hit, risk went out the window because the world
and our life was at risk.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
This yolo urgency and the privacy COVID demanded allowed Jasmine
the safest creative conditions to test her vision for Round21.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
There was no way to go lower.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It was only upside to try because if it failed,
everybody was working from home. Anyway, it would be like, hey,
I took time for COVID.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
I would go back to I guess real life.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
The conditions were set, but Jasmine had no cash.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
A startup without any money, without any i'd say momentum
would need to start and capitalize within an authentic place
within sports.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And she'd spent her career cultivating that authenticity.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Because I had spent so much time in locker rooms,
I knew very few people do that there's a ping
pong table in almost every locker room. It's like the
world of sports, other favorite sport, and it's completely unbranded.
And I thought, what if we transition this place where
the players are coming together to the ping pong table,
but reimagine it as a canvas for art, and that
(06:42):
would be where Round21 would start without any competition.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
To be honest, if you'll remember sports in twenty twenty,
the NBA had a bubble season where all the teams
were living in a bubble in Florida. It was the
chance she'd been looking for to start Round21, but Jasmine
had no idea who to contact. She cold DMed everyone
she could find, and finally Scott O'Neill, former CEO of 76'ers,
(07:08):
connected her directly to the NBA.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
The order was seventy two paddles. I made them my hand.
We used Hinokie wood from Japan, like we went all
in on R and D.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
I felt like I'm betting on myself. Am I doing
this or not?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
So why not bet big? And you may be thinking,
why put so much work into ping pong paddles that
are going into a locker room when no one will
see them.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
When I launched Round21, I knew I wanted to try
and create a category of one, and I think with
Pingpong nothing felt off the table, because how do you
create a category of one? You go somewhere people haven't gone.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
While all of this was going down, something else was
happening online. A series of audio apps were leading live
streams in digital rooms every day.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
One of those apps was Clubhouse. I was listening to
Clubhouse and basically the whole world of art was tuning
in and commenting on the power of digital art and
tokens and NFTs. I recognized that the art world was
paying attention to this decentralized value and ownership. And then
(08:18):
NBA and this company called Top Shot, Dapper Labs was
disproportionately investing in what are these now digital collectibles.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
If you remember Pokemon cards, these were kind of like that,
but online, NBA fans or sports collectors buy a pack
or a moment from a player in the form of
a video clip, and then they'd own that clip.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And I was very sure that no one would compare
us to Nike or Wilson or Spaulding if we were
a digital first company, So I was like, why don't
we try this? So the thesis was, how does the
art become a digital membership if you will, for a
collector to use to access the physical version.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
For example, if Jasmine sold a digital limited edition basketball
designed by an artist, purchase of that digital asset would
give you access to get that basketball in real life.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And feeling like you're a part of something is sports,
you know, Membership to being a Knicks fan is loving
the Knicks. Maybe you go to a gay maybe buy
a T shirt, but there is a sense of membership
and people still want physical things. So the digital to
physical felt like it would be a scalable model.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
So Jasmine set out to find digital artists.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
To work with.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We were essentially on a listening tour trying to develop
what that could mean for our business. In twenty twenty,
at the holiday time, we did launch a Kickstarter that
was supposed to help fund holiday gifts around ping pong
paddles for families to come together. So we were still
playing that physical card, but we certainly were thinking about
(09:56):
how technology would be a key part of what we built.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
This Ion Tech.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
During the building phase, led her to another round of
cold emails, but this time with the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
If you remember the Ape NFTs that were all the
rage in twenty twenty, she had an idea to take
her hypothetical digital basketball into a real world digital and
physical basketball. It's not as confusing as it sounds, I promise.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I emailed the founders and I was like, Yo, do
you want to do this?
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Seven days later we launched. It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
They got access to buy the board Ape basketball and
having the token gave you access to buy it, and
in seven days a quarter of a million dollars worth
of physical goods sold to an NFT community. But it
was physical goods. I'm like, let's just do this fifty
times a year.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Kathleen, how was your first interview? It's scary, fun, intimidating,
none of the above.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Jasmine was just so dynamic. I saw so much of
myself in her story because she was a corporate soldier.
She had had really senior positions at huge companies.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Was she super tall?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
She read super tall, and she did the whole interview standing,
so she was alluring presence.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yeah, I felt like I needed a stand up.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I was just listening, going, I bet she's really tall.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Yeah, you know, and she represents what a lot of
people do, where you do all the right things and
then you're looking to make the leap start your own business.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
My first reaction was, this woman is brave. She's not
afraid to try stuff, She's not afraid to bet on herself.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
One of the things I wanted to talk to you about is, which I think is a unique dynamic when you've worked in the corporate world or you've worked with big brands, so you're not as intimidated, that she did particularly well is she went out and started pitching big brands- to partner with.
She did like out of the gate. And I have
a tool that I like to use. They're called outrageous asks,
(11:50):
which I want to come back to, but essentially the
idea is you think of something that you could ask
someone to partner with you that makes you seem certifiably
crazy because they're like, you are so punching above your
weight right now. But she did a few of those
with sending cold emails and the.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Woman has moxie, yeah, Chutzpah, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
It, and got these responses, and then there were kind
of these exponential outsize returns with this. I did one
of these with Warren Buffett. I had seen his documentary
Becoming Warren Buffett on the plane and I was like,
I need to see this guy. And so my outrageous
asked to him was can I fly from New York
City to Omaha, Nebraska for five minutes of your time?
(12:29):
But the kicker was I found out that he went
to McDonald's drive through every single morning for six decades.
So I said, I'll get in at the beginning of
the drive through and out at the end of the
drive through, so there's no added time to your day.
I got it, not now, But it wasn't a no,
It wasn't an ever. And I say that to say
some of the things that helped propel my small business
forward early days were reaching out to really big brands
(12:53):
or very well known people to mentor etc. Who ultimately
said yes, I'll.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Tell you what it reminds me of it. It's a
good know thyself thing as well. I remember someone who
worked in the fundraising business told me there's basically two
ways you can ask for money, which asking for money
is a not for profit is the same as asking
for a piece of business as a for profit business.
And he said, you either go with the foot in
the door technique or the door in the face technique.
And I said, say more yeah, he said, well, the
(13:20):
foot in the door technique is you meet someone and
you say, I have this great cause I'm saving, you know,
kittens with one leg. Would you give me five dollars? Sure,
I could give you five dollars. Well, if you'd give
me five, could you give me ten? You can save
two cats? Sure I could give you ten. Listen to
my final ask, could we make it one hundred? You
ramp it up over time. I got my foot in
the door and then I slowly pushed it. Okay. And
(13:41):
then there's the door in the face technique where you
give the same pitch about how you should save these
cats with one leg, and then you say my only ask,
could you donate five thousand dollars? Five thousand dollars And
someone starts to slam the door in your face, and
you say, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. How about just
one hundred dollars? Okay, I could do a hundred. I
ended up at the same hundred dollars. And one is
the foot in the door and the other's the door
(14:01):
in the face. I can think of examples in my
professional life or with my clients where both of those
techniques have worked, where your ask starts small and builds
over time, or where your ask is outrageous and then
ratchets back. It's a good opportunity to think about what
you're asking for and also what your personality is and
what you think you can deliver, because I can think
of situations where both of those might be appropriate. If
(14:23):
I go back to the conversation you had with Jasmine,
I think she really was more foot in the door.
She didn't ask for anything unreasonable, but she was brave enough.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
To ask to ask.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Yeah, And I think that's something anyone who's listening can
think about, Like what are you sitting on? That is
an ask you want to make, but you think you're
not ready, You know you're not big enough, Like go
make it, Go make that ass.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And also if you're shy, get over it right Because
she said she DMed everyone she could think of on
LinkedIn and just like sprayed and prayed and she eventually
got through to some guy from one of the NBA teams,
and she just was relentless that's right.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Okay, she's got her foot in the door, and now
she's going even bigger. She had a date with some sharks,
so shark tank. Okay, so we're in the tank. I
know what a rigorous process it is to get in there.
Know those guys, Well.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
There was a sense from the sharks that there's something here.
I was definitely validated that self expression and creativity and
fashion through sports had never been articulated this way.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
And the business was balanced, very very lucky.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
We had essentially come into twenty twenty with physical goods,
and then I had been listening and learning the digital side,
so I knew that we're not a digital company. How
did the digital and the physical work together? And by
the time the taping was happening, we.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Had just had a major win the Bored Ape drop
we talked about earlier.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
My narrative was true, and so I guess that diversification
within our business has paid off. Even though sometimes we
were working essentially on two different companies at the same time.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
During the rest of the year, they continued operating these
two companies, one physical, one digital.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
We've got the.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
NFT explosion happening in the background. You're riding that wave.
You're seeing tremendous results. You've just come off Shark tank
pitching that this is at least part of the business
and an investible proposition. When are you saying, oh, no,
white knuckle, we have gone too far.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Definitely, by the end of twenty twenty two the beginning
of twenty three, we were playing digital to physical and
the entire i'd say ecosystem or industry around NFTs was
really leaning into membership, and I was witnessing how many
of those communities that had leaned all the way into that.
We're struggling to manage the voices in a way that
(17:02):
felt constructive. And we launched our membership holiday twenty twenty one,
and by being a member, you received a mini hoop,
but we didn't make anybody pay to be a member,
Thank goodness.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
What are you seeing with your community? Are they turning
away from it too? And are you seeing the trend
shift in that way?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Not really, because FT owners and web three kind of
people are very committed to that lifestyle and considering a
decentralized worlds like the future.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
But the present for Round21 was all about the physical goods.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
All of our physical goods were working. We had the
WNBA Players Association deal with Brittney Griner working. We had
a US women's national team World Cup program working with
Dick's Sporting goods. There were all of these indicators that
the physical world and the business was there, and that
the NFT the membership he didn't need to serve to
build the business and stay true to the mission of
(18:03):
standing for diversity and bringing more voices through sports.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
But Jasmine had spent most of twenty twenty two investing
in NFTs and this Web3 strategy.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And we in twenty two had over invested in it,
meaning I had a Web3 agency helping us build tech.
I had a person completely focused on loyalty and membership.
And I get into twenty twenty three and I am
completely personally questioning all of this.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
At this time, We've got a gut that's screaming no,
We've got an agency burn rate that's significant.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I got advice from a family member of mine who
just is extremely savvy on business, like just understands business.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
It is not personal.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
He is not a personal decision maker when it comes
to business.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
And he was like, if it's not working, kill it.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Jasmine's a great strategist and knew there was truth to
what her cousin was saying, but it was still really
hard to walk away.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And I was really, really clear, and I knew all
the money and I knew all of the brand reputation
in Web3 and NFTs was valuable, but it just meant like, psychologically,
I could not see the data or the trend that
this is where the future was really going, and I
was convincing myself that it was.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
After a lot of back and forth, Jasmine quietly sunsetted
the digital piece.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Of Round21.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
And how much would you say you spent an aggregate
on the Web3 metaverse strategy?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Probably 350K to a half a million dollars.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
WHOA does that still hurt?
Speaker 4 (19:52):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Okay, my parents have really taught me, like what are
you going to do with the information you have or
look back to learn? What did you learn and apply?
I think there's something about the culture of Round21 as
well that we're builders. We don't necessarily focus on what's
behind us. I still don't regret I would probably do
the exact same thing because of all of the lessons
it taught us and that diversification. Who knows if that
(20:15):
is the future, and so we still have that tech
stack if it comes back.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I'd love you to talk about that, because I think
a lot of people within our listening base are just
sitting on things that they don't know whether they should
whack them all it or keep it going, and the
deliberation is overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I think the distinction is is it an asset or
is it a liability? And as a founder, if you
create anything, I think you think of it as an asset.
There is a shelf life to that. My cousin definitely
cuts bait. There is no emotional connection he has to
anything in his business. He's like, we tried that, it
didn't work, we moved on, and to me it feels
like what if it.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Was just the wrong time.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Or he's like the time you're taking to try and
resuscitate and give CPR to something. All of this is
market research and you know when you hit it. And
I think that's what I had not felt for a
long time because that one time was the one time
with the drop in twenty one, and so once I
started to have some of these hits, I mean the
WNBA changed the trajectory of the business. We got the WNBA license in Caitlin Clark's first year, and Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese, and we were ready. We had apparel infrastructure, we had great brand partners. I spent 20 years in the space. We had retailers and distribution partners ready to work with us, and we've been at the forefront. That really changed the trajectory of the brand. I was like, "Oh, this is what product market fit feels like." And when it doesn't feel that way, it is a liability. And as a founder, understanding the difference between those two took me a very long time, but I'm finally there.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I want to start with the scale of adjustment and adaptation and pivot that she had to do, because she jumped on that NFT bandwagon. I'm going to be really honest with people. I didn't get NFTs when they came out. I still don't get it. I don't know what people are talking about. I understand crypto, I understand stablecoins, I understand blockchain, but I didn't get it.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
It doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense.
But yeah, she was like out of the gate, had
listened to a few conversations on clubhouse and then she
just decided to go hit this area hard and had
such crazy meteoric success with selling the NFT. Within a
few days, she was making six figures. So all of
a sudden, you're thinking, Wow, there's it there there, and.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
It was the NFT moment. I remember, Yeah, it didn't
last long.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, she threaded that needle for sure, and then the crash.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
So the concept that I wanted to pull out of that story, though, it's something that anybody who has an MBA has learned, and that's the idea of sunk cost. I think most of our listeners know, but sunk cost is when you've spent something, you've already spent it, and then it doesn't go your way, but it's already gone. You can't get it back. And I remember you asked her, "Does that still bother you that you spent all that money?" And she said, no. She had moved on. She learned from it.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
It still bothers me she lost all of that money.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And her view was, "I can't unspend it. I've spent it. So as long as I learn from it, I'm going to make the best decision I can." And the idea behind sunk cost is you can only make decisions going forward. You can't make decisions going backwards.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Yeah, and I'm so glad you brought that up, because
so many folks just keep spending good money after bad
after bad after bad, because there's that emotional attachment, right,
And she was good, She just pulled the plug on it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
And she talked about her cousin who advised her, who
never made an emotional decision about business in his life,
which I think is an extreme point of view. Yeah,
sometimes it is emotional.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
I think we all need a cousin or we need someone in our life like this. I think right now there's been this sprawl where you're doing a lot, and you really don't know what the core line of business is that is profitable and driving for you. And so I think there's now this retraction where people are trying to take a more sober look at everything it is they're doing and saying, "Am I just emotionally attached to this or do I really actually need to shut this down? This is more of a passion point" or "This is a facet of my business where I'm breakeven but not making money." You need to do an honest appraisal of that every now and then.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, And I think there's such a stigma in American
culture in general, but in entrepreneurial circles in particular, around
giving up. And there's a difference between throwing in the
towel and giving up, giving up and saying, I'm doing
four things and these two are working really well, and
these other two aren't working, and I'm going to give
up on the two that aren't working and double down
on the two that are. That's not giving up. You
(24:38):
have to have some grit and some tenacity to be
an entrepreneur, but that doesn't mean that you don't ever
recognize when something's not worth further investment.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
And that failed, that experiment or pilot failed. You didn't fail, right,
you didn't fail. Like that's the distinction. Let's get back
to Jasmine, who is in the next era of her company.So era one was Web3, era two has been women's sports, and now we're onto era three, harnessing the creative side of sports. So September 2021 was a big month for Round21. It was when we were filming Shark Tank, and I had just closed my first and only, so far, round of funding, and that gave me capital to make our first hires. So that was important. Sure, you can curate artists and teams, leagues and athletes, but one person can't do it all. And when we've taken that funding in '21,
(26:45):
I've actually completely reinvested it into people and process as we've grown. I've not taken more funding, and we're still growing. I'm really proud of that. There's 11 of us now, curating freelancers and contractors, but who are all dedicated to Round21.We have publicly on the team said women's sports is our number one priority. At the top of that list is the WNBA. So everything we do first starts with, how is this serving our WNBA fan and community, or how is this building on the foundation of our WNBA business? And we just continued to focus where the community was telling us they wanted to be, which has not ever failed us. From there, I think we have to build process. I am increasingly and intentionally focused on, if Jasmine was taken out of this meeting or this process, could it continue? And we're putting resources towards that, whether it is some hunters and farmers within the sales pipeline, because what Round21 has become is a sports fashion house, articulating the art on forms and formats that people want to wear. And we have a very high bar of how our community wants to see themselves through products, and that supply chain needs to be robust and it needs to work at the
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Speed of culture.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So those are the two places that we are investing
along with the team.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
So you're innovating in terms of fandoms and engaging with
sports fans, working with pro teams. How are you thinking
about innovation and how do you stay ahead of trends?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
We stay with the times, or with trends, or a
head of trends, or create trends through the art community.
Define artists however you want to, but there is something
about somebody defining themselves as an artist that is a
position of power around I create my own world, and
artists in our community typically have a lived experience and
(27:29):
their own community that is highly creative and experimental, and
we love that when artists are experimenting, they're experimenting in
all forms and formats, nail art, tattoo, art style, clothes,
cut and so DIY. They are creating things, and I
think we do have a good curation. We certainly see
(27:49):
something in the wild with one of our artists partners.
Just happened with ties, Heather Salvador was making WNBA ties.
I hit Heather, I'm like, do you want to do
this for real? Girlier bootlegging over here? And we worked
with the WNBA and now Heather is going to be
able to do her thing and we're going to be
the license partner. So that's really what keeps us I
(28:09):
think fresh. It also keeps us in a place where
a fan can come and just kind of peek in
and see what's new and next, and maybe at that
point nothing's for them, or maybe at that point they're like,
oh my gosh, I can't believe what Round twenty one
just did, but they'll certainly see something that feels new.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
We talked about individuality within the context of belonging. How
do you scale individuality, because again, it's one of those
things that you think is antithetical to scaling.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So we think of ourselves in the way that you're
asking a little bit like an art gallery. So if
you think of an art gallery, let's just choose the
louver or the moment some of the most respected. There
is a spirit of curation and the responsibility that the
gallery has, So that's what we feel with the curation
of the artists and the team's leagues and athletes that
we work with. We try to a way to balance
(29:01):
this gallery of offerings for people that is the personal
piece that there's this spirit of exploration and discovery and
choice that you have. But from the perspective of art
and sport and creative expression, we want the artists to
have a bit of a story designed for you and
(29:22):
you get to choose if that's right for you. That's
really the approach that we're taking.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
So we always wrap by asking for your best piece
of advice for fellow entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, What would it
be for you?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
The advice I would give is that you understand your
immovable core. What are the characteristics that taking the product
out you would never change, but potentially productizing that in
a few ways before you strike that product market fit,
and that allows you to stay diversified in case one
(29:57):
of them doesn't work, but it teaches you so much
where that fifth way actually might be the way. So
I would definitely consider defining your core, but how you
bring it to market being as open as your imagination,
because you just never know what might hit.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your
wisdom and hopefully inspiring a whole new wave of women
and men and everyone to get into sport.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was a blast.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Unshakeables.
If you liked this episode, please rate and review it.
We'll be back with new episodes soon, so keep an
eye on the feed. I'm Ben Walter and this is
The Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
We'll see you back here soon.
Hosts And Creators
Ben Walter
Kathleen Griffith
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