Today, I’m talking with Nigel Eccles, the Co-Founder and CEO of FanDuel and now Flick, an app that helps podcasters build a community of loyal, invested listeners.
Two weeks ago, I had Albert Chen, author of Billion Dollar Fantasy: The high-stakes game between FanDuel and DraftKings, on the show to walk us through the crazy story of the daily fantasy sports market.
That interview lays out the backstory in much more detail, but here are some key points:
- Hubdub launched in 2007 as a news prediction game
- In 2009, the team pivoted to the daily fantasy sports space and rebranded as FanDuel
- DraftKings entered the market in 2012
- In total, DraftKings raised $776 million while FanDuel raised $363 million
- In 2015, the two companies spent a combined $750 million on marketing
- DraftKings was the largest advertiser in the country one month, beating Johnson and Johnson as well as Geico
- The next month, FanDuel was the largest advertiser
- FanDuel eventually sold to Paddy Power Betfair in a deal worth $465 million
- The founders and early employees got nothing in the deal
Last week, I had Lesley Eccles, another co-founder of FanDuel, on the show to go behind the scenes on this journey. She was in charge of marketing and scaled their spend from $0 to over $300 million dollars a year.
This week, Nigel rounds out the story with his perspective as the CEO and the impact his journey is having on his new company, Flick.
In our chat, we talk about Nigel’s customer-focused approach to business, how he navigated pivots at both FanDuel and Flick, how he’s approaching fundraising the second time around, and much, much more.
As I said in the other interviews, even if you have no interest in sports, gambling, or venture backed startups, there are a ton of lessons in these talks that will apply to any founder. And it’s just a great story 🙂
Topics covered:
- Company background
- What exactly is Flick and what does the business look like today?
- What’s the vision of the company?
- What exactly is Flick and what does the business look like today?
- Founder’s lessons
- How did you pivot from esports to where you are now?
- What are you looking for as you test different directions for a product?
- What unique advantages do you personally bring as a founder?
- Behind-the-scenes
- How did you keep your sanity through the ups and downs of FanDuel?
- How did your experience with FanDuel shape how you approached funding for Flick?
- What does success look like to you?
- “Rapid Fire” questions
- Where can listeners go to learn more?
Where to learn more:
To hear more from Nigel, you can follow him on LinkedIn. To learn more about Flick, head to FlickApp.com