Michael Katos: The Future of Social Networking in Sports (Full Transcript)

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Ronen Ainbinder 0:32

Today's episode features the founder & CEO of Playing the Field, which is one of the most exciting ideas I've heard of in a while.

Playing The Field is a social network exclusively for sports fans. This platform allows sports fans to connect with one another to create anything from friendships to teammates, or maybe even finding your MVP!

Their goal is literally to help sports fans connect with each other beyond the playing field.

Our guest today is also the Host of Fan Experience TV – the show where sports fans go behind the podium to share their favorite fan experiences.

I can't wait for today's Halftime Snack, so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Katos!

Michael Katos 1:17

Thank you very much, Ronen. It's an absolute pleasure to join you on the Halftime Snacks podcast!

Ronen Ainbinder 1:23

Mike, you're more than welcome. It's a pleasure to have you. Let's kick it off with a quick, fun icebreaker. And that is if you could have one dinner with a sports coach dead or alive? Who would you choose? And why?

Michael Katos 1:37

Oh, all right. Oh, throwing in the trick questions here. Honestly, Bobby V, because I just love Bobby Valentine. I mean, he's the reason I'm a sports fan.

Ronen Ainbinder 1:50

For those who don't know, who's Bobby v? Can you just give a quick intro?

Michael Katos 1:54

He was the manager of the New York Mets in the 90s, early 2000s. And he brought them to the playoffs and the World Series in 2000. And that was when I started paying attention to the Mets. And he's known notoriously for getting thrown out of a game and coming back, wearing a fake mustache, and sitting in the dugout. So he's always known for that. But he did a lot with a little, and yeah, he was just a great ager and made watching the New York Mets fun.

Ronen Ainbinder 2:37

That's great, Mike, welcome. Finally, to our episode, I've been expecting this for a while. Some of the ideas to bring you on the show are to learn more about the business model behind playing the field, the future of social networking, and meeting people through virtual to real life. , also want to learn how playing the field went through the pandemic? And, what does it take? How are you planning to scale the business to different verticals? So, how about we just start off by probably a story. I want to know how many sports fans he had to meet? To come up with playing the field? How many people you had to meet?

Michael Katos 3:25

Yes. So I would go on the side of how many non-sports fans I had to meet until I realized how important playing the field would be for me. And when I came up with this concept, I was sitting there judging by my age and the fact that I'm a lifelong sports fan. I use all the dating apps that are out there right now. And I just found myself constantly scrolling through profiles to find sports fans. I would just be scrolling and trying to find somebody wearing a jersey or bio mentioning their favorite teams. You end up scrolling through sometimes it's 10 profiles, it's 15, sometimes it's 25. And you finally come up with somebody that resembles what you're looking for, so to speak. And I felt like it was a very cumbersome, frustrating, and roundabout way to get to what you needed to do. You couldn't filter out and find sports fans all by themselves. And if you could, some apps would let you put in sports as an interest or keyword. And I thought that that was very insulting because I feel that being a sports fan is not an interest. It is a lifestyle. And there needed to be a product that was out there that resonated with the fact that it's a lifestyle and it's just a way of life for the people that cheer for and live and breathe sports,

Ronen Ainbinder 5:01

I wanted to ask you, like, when you realize that this platform or ideas that you had to solve that issue could be monetized and become a business.

Michael Katos 5:13

Yeah. So when I first thought of the idea, I was thinking about it. I just wanted to find an easier way to connect with sports fans in terms of my own selfish desires. And the fact that this didn't exist in the market, I just wanted to exist in the market, it did not, it wasn't about starting a business, it was about creating a product that was needed for people. And that was, that was first and foremost, if I don't believe in it, then no amount of money is going to change that it's a matter of just like, wanting it for myself, and being able to give it to other people that are out there, and help to help the sports fans with a big problem that exists in the world and the void that's in the market. And I was dabbling and learning how to code at that point. And I figured out the field's name; it took me about 20 seconds to figure out that name. And I'm, I went to a, like, coding seminars, and just tried networking with people to learn how to code and learn how to make this app, and brought up the idea to somebody that was talking to at this networking event. They're like, this is like, a business. I'm like, Well, I guess you're right, I didn't realize how big it was until I sat and took a step back and thought about it. And I ended up going out there and trademarking the name and, and going after it. So it wasn't until I took that step back and just forgot about the whole selfish desire part and realized that there was a viable business.

Ronen Ainbinder 7:06

Yeah, it sounds like you, first of all, understood that there's, this was something you could use. And this was something you would use; it's like a gap in your own experience, as you call it, as a single male, or just as a sports fan that wants to connect with other people. You kind of felt this gap, and you were like, okay, so I'm gonna do it for me. And then I'm gonna see how y people join, and then it kind of like, took off from there? Or was there a specific moment where and when you were like, this could be something like huge, these would like, was there a point in time that you seriously thought you were brilliant for just having this idea on the back of your mind for a while,

Michael Katos 7:57

I'm not gonna go, and I declare myself Tesla, or Edison, or anything or Elon Musk, or whatever the case is. But the fact of the matter is, there was a void, there was a void in the market. I did think of something that, yes, I do. I think it's a simple concept that just wasn't, wasn't capitalized on. Yes. But at the end of the day, it's a matter of how I can help the people that I resonate with 100%. And, and it's these sports fans, and I understand the pain points. And, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about; it's not about the amount of money that it can bring in. After building this, going out and marketing it, and talking to people, I already know I understand what it could bring in. And, and it's, and it's amazing, but mostly, it's just about doing what I love and having a blast doing so.

Ronen Ainbinder 9:05

I wouldn't talk about the notion of sports being something where people can connect so easily. And this I've realized at any point in time where you meet when you meet someone new, I feel like sports is just the one thing that you can always talk about, what I'm saying? So, it's like this, this area, in culture, where I don't know if it applies to other specific areas, like music or art or movies, or I don't know. Still, I think that there's something about sports. I want to know if there's any tag you have around that. Is there anything specific about sports that make it such an appealing and compelling topic to just discuss anywhere and with anyone?

Michael Katos 9:56

I one 100% because, As I said before, I don't think sports have an interest. It is a lifestyle. You mentioned music. Yeah, you could like pop music, you could like r&b music, and Hard rock, but there are no other similarities. Yeah, just because you and another person like hard rock don't mean like, You're from the same circles, and you're going to get along like you would if you were a baseball fan or the fan of the same team. I don't. I don't think team. I don't think teams are as important as, as some people may think, a sports fan versus a non-sports fan is a bigger gap than a Mets fan versus a Yankees fan, that's in my opinion. That's what I feel to my, to my core. And I had, as far as the lifestyle, if you're walking through the street. You see somebody wearing your jersey, and it's the same jersey of the team that you're that you love you, you feel like half of that person's life story because you've lived exactly those painful moments and those joyful moments. Along with them, you don't know their name, but you what they feel inside because of all the memories and bad experiences, which also brings me to another point: I have that fan experience TV. We talk sports, and we talk to people in the industry, just like you do. And Rick and I met at a Mets game and have drummed up a friendship for over a decade now. And now we're co-hosting a sports talk TV show together, so. So do I think that sports can just naturally bring people together? 125%? Yes.

Ronen Ainbinder 12:04

That's awesome. I didn't know that you were a co-host with someone you met. And in a baseball game. That's amazing. And he's also now your partner in playing the field. So when you never know where life is going to take you and where sports are going to take you eventually. So it's awesome for you to share with us, Mike; what ways have you? Or do you think playing the field has challenged the traditional social network ecosystem?

Michael Katos 12:36

Yeah, I just think that the social networking apps out there, whether it be the Facebook's of the world, or the dating apps of the world, some offer the friendship angle that they're, they're great for the general broadness that they can offer. But we want to hone in on the sports fan. And playing the field does just that, because when the second that you sign up, you're selecting a fav favorite team, in part of the initial signup process, not constructing your profile later. This is one of the core, the core information that we take a right off the bat. So sorry for the fun, no pun intended there. But yeah, you're just gonna have them put in their team; let's say it's the New York Yankees, and then we're going to generate a digital card for them. And they are going to have the colors navy and the Navy and white Navy in off white for their card, and it's going to say, New York, New York baseball club and Al until we can get licensing. Then we can put in some logos hopefully, hopefully not, and then sometime shortly. Still, for now, it's going to be the Navy and white. It's for the Mets. It's going to be that blue and orange and so on and so forth for whatever team they're going to choose. We have all the major team sports, professional baseball, football, even soccer, whether it's domestic or international, so we have all those college teams that they're all baked into our app as well. So we have we're going to add in like minor league games and stuff like that, but all the major markets are covered for.

Ronen Ainbinder 14:37

Here's where I think I'd see most of the value, at least for me, in a platform like yours, and just tell me where your mind takes you with my example. But so I'm a basketball, NBA nuggets fan. Since I played with Carmelo back in, I think it was 2004 2005. I don't remember well, but I'm a nuggets fan, whatever. I'm from Mexico City. And so I haven't been able to travel to a game because none of my friends are nuggets fans. And it's not like Denver is like this very popular place like LA or Miami or New York to just come and hang out and watch a game, right? So this is one of the reasons why I haven't been able to come and see a game because I haven't found anyone amongst my circle of friends that could join me through a game there. So what I'm thinking is that, okay, if this platform can just give me ways of meeting people, even from Denver even from there, I can start talking while I'm in Mexico and be like, Hey, listen, so I'm a nuggets fan. And when I come, I see the game, but I don't want to watch it alone. Like what I'm saying, where I'm going, I'm connecting with like-minded people, that would give me just the reason or the final tech to come and watch a nuggets game. So this is where I see, like, tons of value in the platform. Is this something that you kind of like knew, Was this something kind of like, also the idea why of why you made it to, like, have people find like-minded people that would join them in activities, say it's just a game or just also the sport as itself, like practice, basketball pickup games, or, or soccer or whatever? Was this, like, an idea from the beginning, or was this more developed as you guys went? What do you think about its development enabling experiences, creating new and different experiences that wouldn't be there otherwise?

Michael Katos 16:55

I completely understand where you're coming from. So the initial concept, like I explained, was from the dating aspect. But as I'm creating this, and as I am going out there and taking in market research and talking to people, I saw that there were many people in committed relationships. Still, they lacked friendships in all different aspects of that social realm. And one of the things that even judging by my own experiences, as you mentioned, I used to want to if I had like Wednesday nights off of work, I wanted to join a softball league for a Wednesday night. Still, you need 13 players; you need 13 players. And in your adult life, you have friends that have responsibilities, friends that have different work schedules, people with kids, and whatever it is, you name it. So it's hard to get 1314 people together and to commit to a Wednesday night, every single week, in between your group of friends. So then I would just give up right before I even started trying to create this team because I knew I didn't, I didn't have the resources, I didn't have the reach that I wanted to. So just having an app and a centralized platform where I can go and recruit people to play softball, or to play kickball, or to be able to get a pickup basketball game going, as you mentioned, you can't just ride your bike over to your friend's house like you could when you were kids and say, hey, let's go play basketball. It doesn't work like that when you're an adult. And we want to do sports as a kids game. At heart, you feel like you're your kid when you're at the ballpark, and you're at the stadium, and you're watching your favorite teams play. And some of you want to play as well. And we want to make it easy and not a chore to go and do that. And I feel that that one centralized platform will help people put together those teams, and it's also going to help those like yourself who want to travel. We're not available in Mexico yet. We will be soon. However,

Ronen Ainbinder 19:21

yeah, now you have a good reason to open the app in Mexico!

Michael Katos 19:24

I didn't; I didn't need another one. But I'm glad that I have one. But yeah, we're trying to push the domestic United States market first. But we will definitely be venturing off to Mexico, Canada would be the next, and then definitely overseas as we move, continue moving outwards. But yeah, I mean, there's people that especially during COVID. Now, a lot of people are being displaced, and they're moving all over the place. Because maybe they lost their job, and then there are jobs available somewhere else. Or maybe the cost of living in a certain place like even New York.

I'm in New York, I'm on Long Island. Still, many people from Manhattan in the city moved elsewhere because they just couldn't afford their houses and their apartments that were in New York. And now everyone's going remote, for the most part, in a lot of places. And it's becoming kind of a new norm. But you're gonna move some people; New Yorkers typically moved to Florida. And there's, there's a, there's a, there's a healthy serving of Yankee fans and Mets fans and jets, fans and giants fans in Florida already. But what if they don't want to move to Florida? What if they want to move to Texas? You're gonna be hard-pressed to find a Giants fan in the middle of Texas, but they're there. They are there. And something like that's going to help them a fresh going away to college and leaving their hometown for the first time ever is going to know nobody. Still, they can go and connect with somebody, that's, that's a sports fan, a fan of this do certain now the same theme, possibly. They could drum up a quick friendship to make that freshmen transition a lot less awkward than it needs to be, and recent graduates will have to move out to different cities to find jobs. And I feel that playing the field is going to help them tremendously with that as well.

Ronen Ainbinder 21:28

That's amazing for the client and customers side. Now let's talk about what COVID meant for your business, how it affected it, and how you are working your way through those obstacles coming up with solutions.

Michael Katos 21:45

Honestly, COVID and, in a way, helped our business because I was sitting there trying to figure out how to create this app. And I was going out, and I was taking investor meetings and trying to pitch my idea. And at that point, it was just an idea. There was nothing like I didn't have an app. And I couldn't figure out how to build it by myself; I was trying to find it and raise capital to hire a couple of developers. And I went to a pitch event, and somebody told me about this. This program is called a bubble; it's a no-code software builder. And then, a week later, COVID shut everything down. I had investor meetings lined up, I had pitch events lined up. And those were no longer, and I got let go well laid off from my day job because, as did most of the world then, and I utilized the extra 50-60 hours a week that I was given. And I just went, I went to town, and I used this software that one person recommended. And I've built the app from the ground up. And we are available right now. It is still in open beta. It is on the web right now. And we are looking to get those mobile apps out very shortly on the apple and play stores. We are available, and people are signing up in droves at this point because of all of our marketing efforts over the last year or so.

Ronen Ainbinder 23:33

That's awesome. And I can't wait to sign up. Can't wait for you guys to have it in Mexico. Where do you see playing the field scaling? In terms of verticals, I know that. Now you're thinking probably mostly around baseball, football, soccer, NBA, basketball, and of course, from the type of connections that you want to make, you also thought about dating you thought about friendships, maybe also teammates. And what else are you thinking? Where else can this platform expand to or scale? And were like, what do you think in terms of that growth to different verticals? In the upcoming years?

Michael Katos 24:24

Yeah, so we're focused mostly on team sports right now, and the fans have said team sports. There are dating apps, networking apps for the athletes themselves like you got your mat my runs, and apps such as some of those natures. So there are many networking apps for athletes gym-based and find a gym buddy and workout buddy, but we want to have something that resonates with the fan. The arm shares quarterbacks of the world. Unfortunately, people say they can't get up and go to the gym because they have a disability. However, they still love, love the game, and they love to watch it, they love it, they love to live and breathe it. And we want to, we want to make sure that they're not left out of the market. And athletes can still use our app because they're sports fans that are hard to use. So it brings everyone together. And that's where we're going with that. But we definitely want to branch out a little bit into it's just some of the solo sports like, like the tennis is of the world, the golf, even some eSports because that's, that's a huge market as well. So anything sports-related? Right now, the UI is catered towards team sports because of the trading card aspect and the fact that your favorite team is showcased front and center. Still, we will definitely work on some new UI and have it catered to be sports-specific as we go forward. And we don't want to just stop there, we want to be a whole sports company, we want to, we want to help make the new generation of sports fans, and that starts when you're young we want to make sure that kids are sitting there. They're, they're playing sports, and if it's hard for them to play, we definitely want to play our part and get kids on the field. And keeping them engaged. And, and just out of trouble off their phones, those yes, we're building an app and social, social networking app we still don't want kids to, to sit there on their phones. We want to help the youth initiative. And right down the line, the aspirations of having our own beer line, or having our own stadium or team is, is kind of my fifth 10th 15-year goal there.

Ronen Ainbinder 27:14

I wish this existed a couple of years ago; when I was a kid, I would have just seen myself using it so much. But also, it doesn't make sense. Because for a few years, when I was a kid, there were barely any iPhones. So I guess we're running the time where technology allows it; you have everyone using a mobile phone, a smartphone in their pocket. And that makes them able to connect with each other. So I guess that the timing couldn't, couldn't be anything better for you guys. And that's why I think that you are going to have so much success in that area. I also see it expanding to grassroots sports, right, parents meeting parents of other kids that are under the same team, or under the same area, or municipality or area code, whatever you want to call it, I see it everywhere, as long as like sport is the motive between just making new connections with other people. And that's why I think it's super exciting. And it is here to disrupt what we know about meeting others through virtual and creating new and different experiences through that, Michael, so I made tons of respect for what you guys are developing if there's anything that I can do for you guys. Let me know, and I can't. I can't wrap this super fun and delicious Halftime Snack with you, my that asking you and more probably personal questions. And that is, what's the thing you're most grateful for.

Michael Katos 28:53

I'm most grateful for his just great friends and family to support me in not only this but just like everything and certainly my health and the fact that I get to wake up every single day. You have a beautiful, beautiful daughter that motivates me to sit there and want to push harder and push this thing out there into the world and help a lot of people.

Ronen Ainbinder 29:27

That's amazing. Mike, thank you for sharing where people can find you? Where can people find playing the field sign up?

Michael Katos 29:34

Yes. So on the web, we are at playing the field.io, and you can find us on all social media platforms at play the field now. We also have a sports talk TV show called fan experience TV, were and my co-host, Rick, talks boards weekly every right now. We're going off-ball every Tuesday at eight at 8pm Eastern, and you're talking sports. We also have guests similar to Ronan, and we have people in and around the sports industry. We had some do Kajal, some guests overlap between me and Austin, the Halftime Snacks podcast. So definitely go check out. Yeah, Andrew Naugher, Max Monterey, and Matt Wolf, so definitely go check those out if you haven't already. But thank you very much for listening to my episode of Halftime Snacks. It was an absolute pleasure to come to Ronen, and thank you for the honor.

Ronen Ainbinder 30:46

There's tons of competition on Tuesdays. The Halftime Snacks are also coming out on Tuesdays. But that's great. That's awesome. At least people are going to be entertained on Tuesdays. Anyways, Mike, I want to thank you so much for coming to the Halftime Snacks. It was an honor and a pleasure to host you and listen to you and your story and your background and your inspiring trajectory towards playing the field and building it and scaling it and trying to bring new and different solutions and tools for us sports fans; I appreciate you. I appreciate your platform. And I appreciate you coming to the Halftime Snacks.