Tracy Benson gives us an insight look into her amazing career with great stories, from her struggles as a Pro Volleyball player, to having a very successful Corporate career, learning all the tools and tactics of consumer marketing and digital to becoming an Entrepreneur and launching Obsesh, a new digital sports platform, just before Covid hit the world.
Key Highlights
- From student athletes to Pro Volleyball player and the changes since then (NIL) (30 years ago) – dream come true and the struggles
- Trying to make a living being a Pro Volleyball player, winning tournaments and prize was a case of Pepsi
- Moving into the corporate world, first stop Home Depot and the learning coming in as an athlete, being a leader/captain every day
- Olympic Work program, great way to bring fellow athletes into Home Depot and giving them a chance to make a living (full benefits, part time work)
- Next stops, Jack Morton & Razorfish, learning advertising and experiential marketing (early days of Web 1 and moving into Web 2)
- Head of Digital/Marketing at Best Buy – building a consumer digital platform, story telling was key
- Best Buy buying Napster, everything shifting online, meeting with Facebook when it was a few guys around Mark
- Monster and Beats by Dre story, how Best Buy helped create the brand and drive sales (Black Headphones) – learning from lots of mistakes
- Joining Monster as Global Chief Marketing & Product officer, coming out to California, being around digital innovators
- OBSESH – peer to peer sports marketplace for 1:1 remote access to the best athletes as coaches (go.obsesh.com)
- Focused on the 99% of athletes who are struggling to make a living with their sport
- Coming through Stadia Ventures Accelerator – investors include YouTube founder Chad Hurley, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels. Ranked top 5 sports tech company to watch in 2021
- Helping athletes building their brand, huge opportunity after NIL ruling with College athlete now
- Covid impact on the business was positive being born a “digital technology” company, also the off/on of sports during Covid, speed up space of adoption, more reasons for athletes to join the platform and seek new income streams, accelerated business across many aspects (timing is crucial starting a business)
- Company working truly online around the country, no physical office space, opportunity and challenges
- Business model – focus on athletes first, athletes set their own price points and keep 100% - percentage fee on top of athletes fee (mark up)
- Top five things every athlete wants, great details shared by Tracy
- Obsesh Athlete Academy – free support for athletes to learn about digital, social media, contracts, trademarks, etc – including access to standardized contracts from appearances to social media deals, learning rules of NIL, etc
- NFT Marketplace – in partnership with Beasy Unite, peer to peer NFT marketplace for athletes, tokenizing memberships, digital merchandise
- Web3 discussion - our “Before they were Pros” NFT project and how fans are also a very important part of the ecosystem
- “Chief” – founding member of private network designed to empower women in leadership roles (https://chief.com)
- Being a voice for women, gay community and spreading the message of inclusiveness – global ambitions in the future
- How to connect with Tracy - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbdigital/, email: athletes@obsesh.com
About
Tracy Benson is the CEO and co-founder of Obsesh, the sports marketplace platform connecting consumers to top athletes, and empowering athlete entrepreneurs to manage, merchandise, market, and monetize their fans online. Previously she was Global Chief Marketing Officer at Seek Thermal, Global Chief Marketing & Product Officer at Monster Inc. (maker of Beats by Dre and Monster headphones), Head of Marketing at Best Buy, Hyper-Growth Market leader at The Home Depot (where she developed the first athlete-work program for Olympians) and Sales & Marketing Manager at AT&T. Tracy was an All-Conference NCAA volleyball athlete at Western Illinois University before becoming a professional beach volleyball player. She earned an MBA in Marketing & Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
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