Living in a garage to building the $1B+ 'Savannah Bananas'
My First Million episode, sponsored by HubSpot, in which the hosts talk with Jesse Cole, founder of the Savannah Bananas, about going from a garage to a billion-dollar entertainment company. Cole traces the path: a torn shoulder ends his playing dream, boredom in the best seat in the Cape Cod League convinces him baseball fails its spectators, and at 23 he becomes general manager of a team with 268 dollars in the bank. He describes years of PT Barnum experiments - grandma beauty pageants, garbage can nachos, a dig to China night - then Savannah: two tickets sold in three months, seven figures of debt, shops telling his wife to get out, and a January 2016 call that the money was gone, so they sold their house and moved into a garage. His principles: create attention first, do the opposite of normal, and show people the experience because no one knows what they want until you show them. PARTIAL COVERAGE: the captions cover most of the conversation, but this summary highlights the founding story and philosophy only, so the later business segments are not covered. These are the guest's own account, not independently verified, and nothing here is business advice.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
My First Million episode, sponsored by HubSpot, in which the hosts talk with Jesse Cole, founder of the Savannah Bananas, about going from a garage to a billion-dollar entertainment company. Cole traces the path: a torn shoulder ends his playing dream, boredom in the best seat in the Cape Cod League convinces him baseball fails its spectators, and at 23 he becomes general manager of a team with 268 dollars in the bank. He describes years of PT Barnum experiments - grandma beauty pageants, garbage can nachos, a dig to China night - then Savannah: two tickets sold in three months, seven figures of debt, shops telling his wife to get out, and a January 2016 call that the money was gone, so they sold their house and moved into a garage. His principles: create attention first, do the opposite of normal, and show people the experience because no one knows what they want until you show them. PARTIAL COVERAGE: the captions cover most of the conversation, but this summary highlights the founding story and philosophy only, so the later business segments are not covered. These are the guest's own account, not independently verified, and nothing here is business advice.