The transferable skills from competitive athletics to business, particularly the ability to handle rejection, recover from failure, and maintain performance under pressure—traits that define successful salespeople and leaders.
6 episodes
Lisa Calhoun, managing partner of Valor Ventures, discusses her fourth-generation entrepreneurial background and leading seed-stage B2B AI and SaaS investments across the South. She explains venture capital's relational nature, the 2024 venture winter that shuttered 40% of smaller funds, and how AI is eliminating coding as a constrained resource while transforming software development economics.
Antonio Pagano, CTO and co-founder of Symbol Security and founder of Wano, discusses the evolution of cybersecurity threats—particularly AI-enhanced phishing attacks—and the human vulnerabilities that remain the weakest link in security. He shares insights from running two companies across continents, bootstrapping Symbol Security for six years, and building Wano's 45-person development team in Colombia while maintaining work-life balance and continuous learning.
Katherine O'Day, partner at Atlanta Ventures, discusses her journey from employee number nine at Pardot through two successful acquisitions (ExactTarget, then Salesforce) to becoming an early-stage investor and venture studio operator. She shares lessons on bootstrapping companies, building culture through core values, and why consistent execution over time—like training for an Ironman—matters more than short bursts of effort in entrepreneurship.
Rich Makover, a fractional Chief Revenue Officer and executive coach at TechCXO, discusses his journey from Penn State lacrosse player to CPA to sales leadership at Avon and beyond. He shares insights on hiring athletes for sales roles, the importance of resilience over winning, situational coaching methodologies, and his transition to fractional leadership and executive coaching, including his decade-long mentoring program for Penn State lacrosse.
Jay Kleinman, a 30-year healthcare sales and business development veteran, discusses how lessons from playing D1 football at Auburn under Pat Dye shaped his approach to building commercial teams for early-stage healthcare companies. He covers segmentation strategy, discovery-based selling, and the transformation of elder care through digital health and telemedicine adoption accelerated by COVID-19.
Mark Flickinger, partner at BIP Ventures, discusses his journey from mechanical engineering and competitive rowing to venture capital. He explains BIP's platform-heavy approach to supporting portfolio companies, the firm's focus on high-net-worth investors, and strategies for navigating the current venture market. Flickinger emphasizes the importance of board governance, team-based competitive experience, and building sustainable businesses during economic downturns.
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