FAQ
Q. How did I get here?
A. You were probably told to come or you stumbled upon us through word of mouth. We work only with select clients and we keep our marketing to a bare minimum.
Q. Is working in Sport fun?
A. Hell yes.
Q. Did the company really start in a bar?
A. Many good things start in a bar. Have you heard of the United States Marine Corps? Google “Tun Tavern.”
Q. Can you give me an analog for Gains Group? like uber, are you the uber of sport?
A. We are not the Uber of sport. If you must compare us to somebody then we’re a niche IDEO for sport and entertainment.
Q. what technologies do you focus on?
A. We are technology and data agnostic. Sport is a complex environment and our clients want to know about everything from wearables to augmented reality to blockchain - so that means we need to see the whole field.
Q. are you hiring?
A. We have a tryout policy at Gains, but yes, we are looking for talented people who can own their day, and create new value for our clients. Send us a bio via the Let’s Go page.
Q. Why sport and not a big industry like healthcare or media?
A. Sport is the most important of the least important things in life. It touches every other industry in some way, and is a common language of connectivity between humans. Plus, we know it cold and love sport.
Q. how big is your team?
A. We are engineered for innovation. We have resisted hiring a large staff with skills we won’t need in three years. Our core team is amplified by a network of freelancers, designers, programmers, data scientists, sport scientists, and general collaborators who we pull into our work.
Q. Will you work with us?
A. Depends on who you are, but we love meeting people!
Q. are you successful?
A. Mom, is that you?
Q. No, we are interested in investing in you.
A. Oh, okay. Well, we’re not currently looking for investment for Gains, but we always have things that could use capital. Send us money.
Q. can you get me tickets to an nfl game?
A. Dad, is that you?
Q. who do you guys compete with?
A. It’s sport, so we compete with everyone. But we like collaborations. Our world is too small to tolerate hand to hand combat. Can’t we all just get along?
Q. where are your offices?
A. Los Angeles. We love it.
Q. will you work outside of sport?
A. We have worked outside of sport quite a bit and we’re happy to do it.
Q. What is your competitive advantage, your value proposition, your secret sauce?
A. People like working with us. We’re fun to have a beer with.
Q. what’s your favorite sport to watch?
A. Depends on the season! But we really do love football.
Q. American or association?
A. Impressive question. You must really know sport. Want a job?
Q. what’s your favorite sport to play?
A. Basketball, except Steve - he sucks at activities requiring anything but straight line speed.
Q. will you work in cricket?
A. Yes, we love it.
Q. will you work in f1 racing?
A. Vroom, vroom.
Q. will you work in….?
A. Any sport. We have worked across cultures and sport leagues.
Q. are you changing the game?
A. Nobody in our firm is allowed to use that term. Don’t you dare use it. None of us are changing the game. (Okay, maybe Messi is….) Last time we checked football would be just fine if played in an empty field with nobody watching.
Q. What type of football?
A. Wow. You. Are. Good.
Q. is it true that dave is #2 in most receiving records at colorado state?
A. Holy smokes, you are good at Google! “We’re number 2! We’re number 2!”
Q. will you invest in my company?
A. We are not actively investing in things that we don’t build, but we know a lot of investors, so go ahead and email us.
Q. will you run our accelerator program for us?
A. No, accelerators are about investing, not hard core innovation. We have helped run accelerators before, and we mentor companies in them, but we’d rather direct you to a firm that runs accelerators for that.
Q. Are these questions that people ask you regularly?
A. Yes.
Q. do you work in music?
A. We have and we’d like to do more.
Q. I’m a brand and I’m looking for a creative partnership in sport, can you help?
A. You’ve come to the right place!
Q. i’m a team and I’m looking for help in finding a brand for a marketing deal, can you help?
A. No, but we know people who can. We only do innovation partnerships or data projects, no marketing.
Q. can i buy your startup database?
A. If you’re a client of ours you get access to it for free. And, truth be told, it doesn’t take much to be considered a client.
Q. how many companies are in your database?
A. About a thousand last time we checked. Let me ask Tug, he’ll know.
Q. who is tug?
A. Our startup database manager.
Q. will you speak or attend our conference?
A. We are certainly open to it. Both Dave and Steve frequently speak or moderate at conferences, but we only attend a few per year. We spend a lot of our time with our clients.
Q. my conference is in south africa?
A. Yes, let’s book the ticket.
Q. is it true that steve went on a sabbatical and visited over 100 clubs?
A. Yep, that’s true. He visited over 100 high performance environments, though, not just clubs. He visited everything from Manchester City, to CAR, to The Juilliard, to Google, to McLaren, to DARPA, and beyond. He even spent time with a jazz trio in New York City. He was lucky and learned a lot over those 14 months.
Q. do you guys allow dogs in your office?
A. Ask Tug.
Q. you should have a testimonials page, or put one in a banner somewhere on the website.
A. That’s not really a question. People say nice things about us all the time, but we don’t like bragging about ourselves. But if you insist here is the best testimonial we have ever gotten, and it’s from one of our best clients - WWE: “Good shit tends to happen when you are around.”
Q. is los angeles nice?
A. We love it.
Q. do you guys like the term innovation?
A. Meh, yes and no. It’s pretty darn descriptive, but we say and hear it a lot so we’re always concerned about it becoming cliche. But hey, everything good becomes cliche eventually right?