We take another look at some of our recent podcasts summarized by Noah Zaret. This weekend are two disruptors who also happened to have found blue ocean and are exploiting it on the engagement and content side, Dylan Sadiq, a first generation Rutgers grad who turned an engineering degree in to a literal artform, and Saurav Banerjee, a serial entrepreneur from India with a background in tech who saw an opportunity to capture an Indian sports community that continues to grow. Take a listen to both, with highlight below. You can hear all our podcasts here as well.
Dylan Sadiq On Making Professional Athletes’ Portraits Using Rubik’s Cubes
Dylan Sadiq, also known as The College Cuber. Dylan is an incredibly talented artist who creates mosaics of professional athletes using Rubik’s Cubes. Through a combination of his exceptional creative talent and entrepreneurial ability, Dylan has collaborated with professional sports leagues and teams such as the NBA, MLB, Premier League, NHL, USTA, FC Barcelona, Tennessee Titans, New York Red Bulls, and many more. An engineering student at Rutgers University, Dylan shares his fascinating story about how his desire to take on a more hands-on project during Covid led him to discover his craft and launch The College Cuber, creating his first mosaic of his favorite player Luka Don?i?. He explains the process of putting together his artwork using more than 500 Rubik’s Cubes in under three hours. Dylan talks about how he has been able to close deals with some of the biggest sports brands and properties and continues to innovate and grow his business. Dylan also describes how he is engaging fans live at sporting events through his incredibly unique artwork by sharing his experience working with the US Open.
– Dylan started this interesting hobby during the peak of Covid: He combined his engineering and artistic skills with his passion for sports
– He says that the process of creating these mosaics is extremely complex, as he starts off researching hundreds, sometimes thousands of headshots of these athletes to find the perfect image
– His mosaics are made up of 560 cubes
– His mosaics are 5.5 ft tall, 4 ft wide, around 150 pounds
– Dylan enhanced his business by creating mosaics during sporting events and engaging the fan experience as a whole
– The unique part of Dylan’s art is that unlike other regular artwork, his is not permanent. He can take his art apart/change it to another athlete at any point in time
– He markets himself as a Rubics Cube artist but in reality, he is a pixel artist and has the ability to create images with almost any medium.
– Dylan has noted that his business has opened the door for him to meet and develop relationships with other entrepreneurs and professionals within the sports industry
– Although Dylan is interested about entering the NFT space with his mosaics, he says he remains focused on creating physical products and how he can be a part of live entertainment
– On a small scale, Dylan says he has one of his friends that helps him out with the outreach aspect of his business to find clients
– He also has a wood craftsman that creates his commission frames
– Dylan says LinkedIn is the platform that consists of most of his target audience
Listen to the entire podcast here.
Saurav Banerjee On Building India’s Largest User-Generated Content Platform
Saurav Banerjee, Managing Director & Founder of MyySports, is a veteran in the media industry and a former venture capitalist, Saurav shares the massive opportunity he saw in the Indian sports ecosystem that could empower youth by offering creator tools that can enable them to capture and broadcast their sporting journeys. He discusses how their user-generated sports content platform can give exposure to millions of athletes to showcase their talent, building a robust community for the sports-hungry audience. Saurav further expands on their platform’s “medium” effect, which can enable International Sports Leagues to gain viewership in India and, conversely, provide media exposure to some of the less popular Indian sports to the global audience. As an entrepreneur, Saurav points out the key difference between the value and valuation of a business, explaining his “ESPD” mantra in building businesses
– Saurav Banerjee: Managing Director & Founder of MyySports
– MyySports: Inclusion of sports for the youth in India
– A user-generated platform that allows one to capture their sporting journey
– Can play your own matches, while being broadcasted live (specifically Soccer and Cricket)
– Stats and moments will be archived for players, as well as for leagues and teams
– MyySports essentially provides the non-major sports on television
– Other non-Indian sports leagues are in the process of being shown on MyySports
– The “medium” effect will have a larger play than the actual media effect
– MyySports is a platform for every athlete to showcase their journey
– The app is free
– Advice from Saurav for people starting/changing careers: “the only limiting factor for the progress of humankind is imagination”
– Never dilute your imagination
– Do not doubt yourself
– The biggest challenge for MyySports: talent acquisition, hiring the right team members, and improving every day from the day prior
– MyySports app is available on the apple store and Android store
You can hear the entire podcast here.
Enjoy listening and being curious!
