June 11, 2024 • 18 mins
For seasoned beer and hot-dog hawker Jonah Fialkow, perfecting his game-day salesmanship has helped pave the way to launching a rapidly growing reality TV-centric start-up.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're headed
up to Chicago to speak with Jonah Fialco, a professional
hot dog vendor at the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field. Or no, wait,
we're talking with Jona Fialko, the CEO of a tech
and entertainment company. Or better yet, today on the Job,
We're going up to the Windy City to speak with
(00:26):
Jonah Fialka, who somehow manages to be both the CEO
of a startup and a successful and increasingly famous hawker
of food and drinks at Wrigley Field each game day,
a few hours before the Chicago Cubs trot onto the
baseball diamond, Jonah Fialco starts getting ready for work like
(00:51):
an athlete himself. He eats well, hydrates, then puts on
some sneakers before heading out on foot to the stadium
because it's on his way there exposed to the elements
that Jonah decides what he's going to sell that day.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, exactly. It's like while I'm walking over, and then
once I get into the room and see how many
vendors are there that day, and then when I get
to the table and see how many other vendors have
signed up for the same product in that section, but
it generally will happen on my walkover, and I do
live in Rigbyville, so it's like a ten minute walk
toon stadium and then it's off into the stadium to
get selling right after the pick.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Jonah is a food and beverage vendor at Wrigley Field,
one of those guys that goes up and down the aisles,
or as he describes a job.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I think the official term is hawker seat vendor is
another way to describe it. But generally I say, I
carry beer and hot dogs around the stadium and yell
very loudly and make a fool out of myself. That
comes James.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
And since I know you're curious to hear what that
sounds like, let's just get it out of the way. Actually,
hang on, let me find some free baseball sounds to
set the stage. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
But for hot dogs, it's something along the lines of
eat dogs, eat dogs. For beer, it'll be something like, hey,
beer man, but but light who's ready beer?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I scoll beer man?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Impressive right, Well, that's because Joan has been fine tuning
his calls ever since he took the job back in
his senior year of high school.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So generally we'll try to make a noise before I
tell someone what I'm selling to get their attention, so
that E will break the sound barrier, will make people
look at me, and then they're paying attention when I
say hot dogs. So it varies by products, but it's
been fun to watch the evolution of it as I
(02:51):
have continued to sell at the stadium over the past decade.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I've been to Wrigley Field. I feel like that's an
intimidating first day of work, facing all those people big time.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I still remember it. I was selling soda in the
upper deck. I was eighteen years old, and there were
thousands of fans up there, and I maybe said one
word the entire time. I kind of just walked around
holding a bottle of I think it was a bottle
of sprite through the catwalk between the three hundreds and
the four hundreds up there, hoping that someone would call
(03:25):
me over to them. And it took a little adjusting
for the first few homestands to start to yell out
your product. But ten years down the line, I have
no fear. I actually think that summer was really impactful
because it really eliminated any fear I had of public speaking.
And then I took a public speaking class my freshman
(03:46):
year at Illinois, and it was the easiest thing in
the world. I can give a speech in front of
a class of fifteen if I can sell bottles of
soda to ten thousand people in the stands.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Did you see an up to in sales once you
got a little more assertive?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
For sure? Yeah, most definitely. And then once you start
to your call is kind of like an art and
once you start to hone in on that and have
something repeatable that's successful, you for sure will see an
increase in sales. I just have no fear anymore trying
to sell products during the game.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
There's almost no aspect of the job the Jonah doesn't
analyze always trying to find some way that he can
improve as a hawker exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I do put a lot of thought, especially in the draft,
where you're picking your assignment each game. So we will
line up in seniority order every game about an hour
before the game starts, and there's a list of products
and sections, and people will start with the guys that
have been there for sixty years. They start at the
very front. They sell the same thing every game they
sell be here in the lower seating bowl. But I still,
(04:56):
even though I've been there for ten years, I'd say
I'm still like seventy percent back in the line. So
I need to come in. I don't know what's going
to be available for me on a game by game basis,
so I come in with a strategy. I have an
Excel spreadsheet where I track the weather, the game time,
what projected attendance is going to be, and then I
(05:17):
also look at every forecast, which way the wind is blowing,
and I kind of use all that to strategize my
choice for the day. And once I get up to
the table, I have like fifteen seconds to make my choice,
and most of the time I think I do a
good job picking the right product. But there's definitely days
where even last night, I probably should have sold hot
(05:37):
dogs because it was thirty five degrees and the wind
was blowing in I ended up selling beer. But there
are there are definitely some days when you kind of
hit yourself for picking the wrong thing. But that's the
nature of a season. When there's eighty one games, you're
not going to pick a perfect product every time, and.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Of course this being Chicago, wind plays a huge factor.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Wind direction is everything. If if you come to Wrigley
and you are not looking at the forecast and which
way the wind is blowing, you could have drastically different
comfortability levels. So when the wind is blowing in, it
gets really cold underneath the two hundred level and in
the upper deck, and if the wind is blowing out
it can feel ten degrees warmer. So I will generally
(06:20):
factor that in, especially in the early and late months
of the year, even if it's fifty five or sixty degrees,
if there's fifteen mile an hour winds blowing in, people
aren't going to come to the stadium dressed for that,
and they are going to be cold, And that's when
I will try to sell hot dogs or hot chocolate.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
If you can't already hear the passion and dedication Jonah
has for hawking in his voice, you could also take
a look at his social media presence because he's become
quite popular on numerous platforms for giving people an inside
look into the world of professional hot dog vending.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, I've been making videos about my job at Wrigley
for just over a year now. I can into last
season with the idea of highlighting some of my fellow
vendors and kind of providing a day in the life
of what a vendor does and a job that I'm
so passionate about. It's been really fun to share that
on social media, and people have been really receptive of it.
(07:18):
It's a unique job and everyone knows what a vendor is,
but it's been fun to provide a behind the scenes
look and there's just so much history behind it, and
creating content around my job and around the Cubs and
Rignyfield has been It made last season the most fun
year vending, and I'm looking forward to what twenty twenty
four has in store from a content perspective as well.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
But saying people have been receptive might be an understatement.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think I'm a micro influencer within a three block
radius in Chicago. It's been so much fun. I always
appreciate meeting the people behind the comments and the shares,
and it's always fun to take pictures with people. I
had someone last Mother's Day asked me for a cameo
style video of me doing my hot dog call that
(08:05):
they could send to their mom, who was a fan
of my content, and it's always crazy to me, like
I'll get recognized outside of the Wrigleyville area if I'm,
you know, at a bar or I got recognized at Lollapalooza.
I even I was at an Oakland A's game with
my dad in California and as we were walking out,
there were some people behind me doing my hot dog call.
(08:29):
So it's been it's been so much fun. I have
been a diehard Cubs fan my whole life, and I
worked with the Cubs marketing team on our national Hot
Dog Day promotion with Vienna Beef last summer. They invited
me as a content creator to their suite at the
end of the year. So it's just been an incredible
joy and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to
(08:53):
share my experience in the stories and have the support
from the Cubs and a concessionaire I'm employed with.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But as thrilled as Jonah is with the vending job,
it's by no means the only thing he's got going
on these days between games. Jonah went to college at
the University of Illinois and after graduating, held down a
full time job in sports market all the while hawking.
Yet as busy as he was in those years and
(09:21):
genuinely happy to be working both in the stadium and
in his chosen career field, Jonah still had more he
wanted to accomplish. So when we come back from the break,
we'll talk with Jonah Fialco, the CEO.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Looking for a job is lonely, endless, searching phone calls
that go nowhere, applications that vanish into thin air. Why
if you could link with dozens of local companies who
are hiring right now with just one connection. That's Express
Employment Professionals. Find us at expresspros dot com. One connection,
(09:58):
endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers Express
Employment Professionals Expresspros dot Com.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
We're back with Jonah Fialco, who, along with being a
veteran hot dog vendor at Wrigley Field for the past decade,
has for the last two years added CEO to his
list of job titles.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And I always told myself that if I had the
opportunity to start a company, that I would take that leap.
And at the time I was twenty five, could still
be on my parents' health insurance, so it was kind
of a no brainer.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
But don't go imagining that Jonahs traded in as sneakers
and athletic wear for wingtips in a business suit.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I'm a big pajama worker unless I have important meetings,
but yeah, I generally just be comfortable. I'll rock a
backwards hat usually like I'm wearing right now, sweater, nice sweatpants.
I'm sitting at the desk a lot, especially on non
game days, so just making sure that we're staying comfy.
(11:06):
Not a huge dress code person. Fun fact, actually, I'm
twenty seven and I still don't know how to tie
a tie. So that's another goal that I could work on.
I used to have a tie in college that I
would just loosen and retighten that my dad tied for
me when I was a freshman. So maybe someday I
will I'll learned to tie a tie as well, but
for now, I'm going to stick in my comfy clothes.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And what's the business that the sweatpants wearing CEO is running.
It's called bracketology, and it's I'll just let Jonah explain it.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Of course. So we provide fantasy football style games and
your college basketball bracket style games, but for reality television shows.
So we do four different game types that we offer
across ten different reality television shows. Now you can play
fantasy games for the Bachelor franchise shows, Survivor, Big Brother,
(12:00):
their recalls Drag Race, and it works very similar lead
to fantasy football. You create a league with your friends,
your family, your coworkers, and then you make your picks
each week. We have four different game types as I mentioned,
We've got a bracket style game where you watch the
first episode, make your first impressions of all the contestants,
and then pick who you think is going to get
eliminated at each elimination ceremony all the way down to
(12:22):
the finals your bracket locks at the beginning of episode two.
Then we have a couple weekly pick them style games
where you're choosing who you think will get eliminated that week.
And then our most fun and engaging and popular game
type is the one that's similar to fantasy football, where
you draft a team of contestants each week, and then
depending on what they do and say during the episode,
(12:45):
based on a list of rules that we set at
the beginning of the season, that's how your team gains
or loses points. So, for example, for The Bachelor, if
a contestant is seen eating on camera, or kisses the
lead or says the word connection. Those are all ways
that your contestant can earn points. If they get accused
(13:05):
of being there for the wrong reasons, that could be
some way that they would lose points. And that's how
you play during the season. It's totally free to play.
We don't there's no gambling on the platform. But it's
been really fun to provide a medium for reality TV
fans to be able to connect more deeply with their
friends and other fans of the show.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But if you're anything like me, you might be wondering
who does the scoring for each episode.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I literally sit in front of the TV with an
Excel spreadsheet and our list of rules, and I'm tracking
every action that happens from each contestant during the episode,
and I post the scores a couple hours after the
episode is done airing, and then you can come back
in and we've got some scoring recaps that you can
look over. And that's how you play during the season.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So it's pretty labor intensive for you. You've got to
sit there for every episode.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
But yet it is definitely labor intensive. Eventually we'll start
to continue to scale. There's only so much reality TV
I can watch each week, but for now it's me
and my trust the Excel spreadsheet on a regular basis.
Right now, we just had The Bachelor end, but it
was Monday, Bachelor, Wednesday, Survivor, Amazing Race, Friday RuPaul's Drag Race,
(14:24):
so there's definitely some seasonality to it as well.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Do you ever make a wrong call? Oh?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, I've gotten much better at it, though we used
to back in the day. Get a lot of support emails,
being like, at minute seventeen of The Bachelor, just said
the word connection, but I don't see that reflected in
the scoring recap. Can you please review the episode and
make sure the points are accurate. People are playing for
money on the side with their friends, so they care
(14:52):
about it a lot. People also care about it just
from a bragging right standpoint. But since I've been the
one that has been doing all the scoring for the
past year and a half or so, I've gotten really
good at scoring and have been pretty accurate so far,
so those emails are few and far between. Now I
also play myself, so it is important that I am
(15:12):
accurate with the scoring, and we're very anti spoiler as well.
There's a lot of integrity that goes into the reality
TV fantasy games.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
And while Bracketology is still a scrappy startup, as Jonah
calls it, the company is finding an audience in a
crowded industry.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
We brought Caitlin on full time, so now there's two
of us working on at full time, and we just
launched a mobile application a couple months ago and have
seen fifty thousand plus downloads in the first two months.
And it's been really exciting to watch Bracketology grow and
start to legitimize itself over the past few years.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So while Jonah might not look like the traditional CEO,
he is certainly dedicated to his business, working tirelessly and
for the first few years not even making a penny.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Correct. Yeah, I actually didn't pay myself from the startup
for two years. I just started paying myself a small
salary and did.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
The hot dog vending act as sort of a stop
gap at that time to bring in some money where
you weren't getting it in those first couple of years.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, exactly. So I had never before relied on vending
as my primary income. It was always a good side hustle,
but the beauty of running your own company is that
you have the flexibility from an hour's perspective to shift
your work schedule around. So for the Wednesday one to
twenty pm games, I was able to get to Wrigley
(16:38):
to make a little money and work later Wednesday night
on the startup. So it became my primary source of income.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
But more than just provide him with money to exist
on while he gets his company up and running. Jonah
credits his vending career with helping him develop into the
businessman he's become.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
For sure, it has. I think there are so many
transferable skills that I've learned vending at Wrigley over the
past decade that have translated to running my own company.
I have no fear of rejection, no fear of making
a fool out of myself than asking people for things.
It's helped sales, it's helped networking, it's helped content creation,
(17:20):
it's helped public speaking, and ultimately, like when I'm in
the stands selling beer, I'm doing a ten second elevator
pitch for someone to buy my product. Translated into fundraising
meetings as well with potential investors. So I think there
have been so many things that have been helpful from
a professional standpoint that I've gotten from my job at
(17:42):
Wrigley that I use on a day to day basis
as a CEO.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
But even as Bracketology continues to grow and they continue
to add more reality shows to their roster, requiring even
more of Jonah's time, Bracketology CEO says he has no
intention of quitting his hot Dog bending gig anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's really been a blessing. I've been super appreciative to
have the opportunity to work there, and like I said,
I really think that as long as I am living
in Chicago and physically able, I will do this as
long as I can.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
For on the job, I'm Avery Thompson.
Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're headed
up to Chicago to speak with Jonah Fialco, a professional
hot dog vendor at the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field. Or no, wait,
we're talking with Jona Fialko, the CEO of a tech
and entertainment company. Or better yet, today on the Job,
We're going up to the Windy City to speak with
(00:26):
Jonah Fialka, who somehow manages to be both the CEO
of a startup and a successful and increasingly famous hawker
of food and drinks at Wrigley Field each game day,
a few hours before the Chicago Cubs trot onto the
baseball diamond, Jonah Fialco starts getting ready for work like
(00:51):
an athlete himself. He eats well, hydrates, then puts on
some sneakers before heading out on foot to the stadium
because it's on his way there exposed to the elements
that Jonah decides what he's going to sell that day.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, exactly. It's like while I'm walking over, and then
once I get into the room and see how many
vendors are there that day, and then when I get
to the table and see how many other vendors have
signed up for the same product in that section, but
it generally will happen on my walkover, and I do
live in Rigbyville, so it's like a ten minute walk
toon stadium and then it's off into the stadium to
get selling right after the pick.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Jonah is a food and beverage vendor at Wrigley Field,
one of those guys that goes up and down the aisles,
or as he describes a job.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I think the official term is hawker seat vendor is
another way to describe it. But generally I say, I
carry beer and hot dogs around the stadium and yell
very loudly and make a fool out of myself. That
comes James.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
And since I know you're curious to hear what that
sounds like, let's just get it out of the way. Actually,
hang on, let me find some free baseball sounds to
set the stage. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
But for hot dogs, it's something along the lines of
eat dogs, eat dogs. For beer, it'll be something like, hey,
beer man, but but light who's ready beer?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I scoll beer man?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Impressive right, Well, that's because Joan has been fine tuning
his calls ever since he took the job back in
his senior year of high school.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So generally we'll try to make a noise before I
tell someone what I'm selling to get their attention, so
that E will break the sound barrier, will make people
look at me, and then they're paying attention when I
say hot dogs. So it varies by products, but it's
been fun to watch the evolution of it as I
(02:51):
have continued to sell at the stadium over the past decade.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I've been to Wrigley Field. I feel like that's an
intimidating first day of work, facing all those people big time.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I still remember it. I was selling soda in the
upper deck. I was eighteen years old, and there were
thousands of fans up there, and I maybe said one
word the entire time. I kind of just walked around
holding a bottle of I think it was a bottle
of sprite through the catwalk between the three hundreds and
the four hundreds up there, hoping that someone would call
(03:25):
me over to them. And it took a little adjusting
for the first few homestands to start to yell out
your product. But ten years down the line, I have
no fear. I actually think that summer was really impactful
because it really eliminated any fear I had of public speaking.
And then I took a public speaking class my freshman
(03:46):
year at Illinois, and it was the easiest thing in
the world. I can give a speech in front of
a class of fifteen if I can sell bottles of
soda to ten thousand people in the stands.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Did you see an up to in sales once you
got a little more assertive?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
For sure? Yeah, most definitely. And then once you start
to your call is kind of like an art and
once you start to hone in on that and have
something repeatable that's successful, you for sure will see an
increase in sales. I just have no fear anymore trying
to sell products during the game.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
There's almost no aspect of the job the Jonah doesn't
analyze always trying to find some way that he can
improve as a hawker exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I do put a lot of thought, especially in the draft,
where you're picking your assignment each game. So we will
line up in seniority order every game about an hour
before the game starts, and there's a list of products
and sections, and people will start with the guys that
have been there for sixty years. They start at the
very front. They sell the same thing every game they
sell be here in the lower seating bowl. But I still,
(04:56):
even though I've been there for ten years, I'd say
I'm still like seventy percent back in the line. So
I need to come in. I don't know what's going
to be available for me on a game by game basis,
so I come in with a strategy. I have an
Excel spreadsheet where I track the weather, the game time,
what projected attendance is going to be, and then I
(05:17):
also look at every forecast, which way the wind is blowing,
and I kind of use all that to strategize my
choice for the day. And once I get up to
the table, I have like fifteen seconds to make my choice,
and most of the time I think I do a
good job picking the right product. But there's definitely days
where even last night, I probably should have sold hot
(05:37):
dogs because it was thirty five degrees and the wind
was blowing in I ended up selling beer. But there
are there are definitely some days when you kind of
hit yourself for picking the wrong thing. But that's the
nature of a season. When there's eighty one games, you're
not going to pick a perfect product every time, and.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Of course this being Chicago, wind plays a huge factor.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Wind direction is everything. If if you come to Wrigley
and you are not looking at the forecast and which
way the wind is blowing, you could have drastically different
comfortability levels. So when the wind is blowing in, it
gets really cold underneath the two hundred level and in
the upper deck, and if the wind is blowing out
it can feel ten degrees warmer. So I will generally
(06:20):
factor that in, especially in the early and late months
of the year, even if it's fifty five or sixty degrees,
if there's fifteen mile an hour winds blowing in, people
aren't going to come to the stadium dressed for that,
and they are going to be cold, And that's when
I will try to sell hot dogs or hot chocolate.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
If you can't already hear the passion and dedication Jonah
has for hawking in his voice, you could also take
a look at his social media presence because he's become
quite popular on numerous platforms for giving people an inside
look into the world of professional hot dog vending.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, I've been making videos about my job at Wrigley
for just over a year now. I can into last
season with the idea of highlighting some of my fellow
vendors and kind of providing a day in the life
of what a vendor does and a job that I'm
so passionate about. It's been really fun to share that
on social media, and people have been really receptive of it.
(07:18):
It's a unique job and everyone knows what a vendor is,
but it's been fun to provide a behind the scenes
look and there's just so much history behind it, and
creating content around my job and around the Cubs and
Rignyfield has been It made last season the most fun
year vending, and I'm looking forward to what twenty twenty
four has in store from a content perspective as well.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
But saying people have been receptive might be an understatement.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think I'm a micro influencer within a three block
radius in Chicago. It's been so much fun. I always
appreciate meeting the people behind the comments and the shares,
and it's always fun to take pictures with people. I
had someone last Mother's Day asked me for a cameo
style video of me doing my hot dog call that
(08:05):
they could send to their mom, who was a fan
of my content, and it's always crazy to me, like
I'll get recognized outside of the Wrigleyville area if I'm,
you know, at a bar or I got recognized at Lollapalooza.
I even I was at an Oakland A's game with
my dad in California and as we were walking out,
there were some people behind me doing my hot dog call.
(08:29):
So it's been it's been so much fun. I have
been a diehard Cubs fan my whole life, and I
worked with the Cubs marketing team on our national Hot
Dog Day promotion with Vienna Beef last summer. They invited
me as a content creator to their suite at the
end of the year. So it's just been an incredible
joy and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to
(08:53):
share my experience in the stories and have the support
from the Cubs and a concessionaire I'm employed with.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But as thrilled as Jonah is with the vending job,
it's by no means the only thing he's got going
on these days between games. Jonah went to college at
the University of Illinois and after graduating, held down a
full time job in sports market all the while hawking.
Yet as busy as he was in those years and
(09:21):
genuinely happy to be working both in the stadium and
in his chosen career field, Jonah still had more he
wanted to accomplish. So when we come back from the break,
we'll talk with Jonah Fialco, the CEO.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Looking for a job is lonely, endless, searching phone calls
that go nowhere, applications that vanish into thin air. Why
if you could link with dozens of local companies who
are hiring right now with just one connection. That's Express
Employment Professionals. Find us at expresspros dot com. One connection,
(09:58):
endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers Express
Employment Professionals Expresspros dot Com.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
We're back with Jonah Fialco, who, along with being a
veteran hot dog vendor at Wrigley Field for the past decade,
has for the last two years added CEO to his
list of job titles.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And I always told myself that if I had the
opportunity to start a company, that I would take that leap.
And at the time I was twenty five, could still
be on my parents' health insurance, so it was kind
of a no brainer.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
But don't go imagining that Jonahs traded in as sneakers
and athletic wear for wingtips in a business suit.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I'm a big pajama worker unless I have important meetings,
but yeah, I generally just be comfortable. I'll rock a
backwards hat usually like I'm wearing right now, sweater, nice sweatpants.
I'm sitting at the desk a lot, especially on non
game days, so just making sure that we're staying comfy.
(11:06):
Not a huge dress code person. Fun fact, actually, I'm
twenty seven and I still don't know how to tie
a tie. So that's another goal that I could work on.
I used to have a tie in college that I
would just loosen and retighten that my dad tied for
me when I was a freshman. So maybe someday I
will I'll learned to tie a tie as well, but
for now, I'm going to stick in my comfy clothes.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And what's the business that the sweatpants wearing CEO is running.
It's called bracketology, and it's I'll just let Jonah explain it.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Of course. So we provide fantasy football style games and
your college basketball bracket style games, but for reality television shows.
So we do four different game types that we offer
across ten different reality television shows. Now you can play
fantasy games for the Bachelor franchise shows, Survivor, Big Brother,
(12:00):
their recalls Drag Race, and it works very similar lead
to fantasy football. You create a league with your friends,
your family, your coworkers, and then you make your picks
each week. We have four different game types as I mentioned,
We've got a bracket style game where you watch the
first episode, make your first impressions of all the contestants,
and then pick who you think is going to get
eliminated at each elimination ceremony all the way down to
(12:22):
the finals your bracket locks at the beginning of episode two.
Then we have a couple weekly pick them style games
where you're choosing who you think will get eliminated that week.
And then our most fun and engaging and popular game
type is the one that's similar to fantasy football, where
you draft a team of contestants each week, and then
depending on what they do and say during the episode,
(12:45):
based on a list of rules that we set at
the beginning of the season, that's how your team gains
or loses points. So, for example, for The Bachelor, if
a contestant is seen eating on camera, or kisses the
lead or says the word connection. Those are all ways
that your contestant can earn points. If they get accused
(13:05):
of being there for the wrong reasons, that could be
some way that they would lose points. And that's how
you play during the season. It's totally free to play.
We don't there's no gambling on the platform. But it's
been really fun to provide a medium for reality TV
fans to be able to connect more deeply with their
friends and other fans of the show.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But if you're anything like me, you might be wondering
who does the scoring for each episode.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I literally sit in front of the TV with an
Excel spreadsheet and our list of rules, and I'm tracking
every action that happens from each contestant during the episode,
and I post the scores a couple hours after the
episode is done airing, and then you can come back
in and we've got some scoring recaps that you can
look over. And that's how you play during the season.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So it's pretty labor intensive for you. You've got to
sit there for every episode.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
But yet it is definitely labor intensive. Eventually we'll start
to continue to scale. There's only so much reality TV
I can watch each week, but for now it's me
and my trust the Excel spreadsheet on a regular basis.
Right now, we just had The Bachelor end, but it
was Monday, Bachelor, Wednesday, Survivor, Amazing Race, Friday RuPaul's Drag Race,
(14:24):
so there's definitely some seasonality to it as well.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Do you ever make a wrong call? Oh?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, I've gotten much better at it, though we used
to back in the day. Get a lot of support emails,
being like, at minute seventeen of The Bachelor, just said
the word connection, but I don't see that reflected in
the scoring recap. Can you please review the episode and
make sure the points are accurate. People are playing for
money on the side with their friends, so they care
(14:52):
about it a lot. People also care about it just
from a bragging right standpoint. But since I've been the
one that has been doing all the scoring for the
past year and a half or so, I've gotten really
good at scoring and have been pretty accurate so far,
so those emails are few and far between. Now I
also play myself, so it is important that I am
(15:12):
accurate with the scoring, and we're very anti spoiler as well.
There's a lot of integrity that goes into the reality
TV fantasy games.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
And while Bracketology is still a scrappy startup, as Jonah
calls it, the company is finding an audience in a
crowded industry.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
We brought Caitlin on full time, so now there's two
of us working on at full time, and we just
launched a mobile application a couple months ago and have
seen fifty thousand plus downloads in the first two months.
And it's been really exciting to watch Bracketology grow and
start to legitimize itself over the past few years.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So while Jonah might not look like the traditional CEO,
he is certainly dedicated to his business, working tirelessly and
for the first few years not even making a penny.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Correct. Yeah, I actually didn't pay myself from the startup
for two years. I just started paying myself a small
salary and did.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
The hot dog vending act as sort of a stop
gap at that time to bring in some money where
you weren't getting it in those first couple of years.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, exactly. So I had never before relied on vending
as my primary income. It was always a good side hustle,
but the beauty of running your own company is that
you have the flexibility from an hour's perspective to shift
your work schedule around. So for the Wednesday one to
twenty pm games, I was able to get to Wrigley
(16:38):
to make a little money and work later Wednesday night
on the startup. So it became my primary source of income.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
But more than just provide him with money to exist
on while he gets his company up and running. Jonah
credits his vending career with helping him develop into the
businessman he's become.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
For sure, it has. I think there are so many
transferable skills that I've learned vending at Wrigley over the
past decade that have translated to running my own company.
I have no fear of rejection, no fear of making
a fool out of myself than asking people for things.
It's helped sales, it's helped networking, it's helped content creation,
(17:20):
it's helped public speaking, and ultimately, like when I'm in
the stands selling beer, I'm doing a ten second elevator
pitch for someone to buy my product. Translated into fundraising
meetings as well with potential investors. So I think there
have been so many things that have been helpful from
a professional standpoint that I've gotten from my job at
(17:42):
Wrigley that I use on a day to day basis
as a CEO.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
But even as Bracketology continues to grow and they continue
to add more reality shows to their roster, requiring even
more of Jonah's time, Bracketology CEO says he has no
intention of quitting his hot Dog bending gig anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's really been a blessing. I've been super appreciative to
have the opportunity to work there, and like I said,
I really think that as long as I am living
in Chicago and physically able, I will do this as
long as I can.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
For on the job, I'm Avery Thompson.
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