How we tech nerds beat Jason Kidd at Pop-A-Shot
The greatest of all time sometimes loses.
The court
Do you know who that is?” Sohail said as if I should.
I gave my cofounder a blank look then googled the name, Jason Kidd. Two million hits, 10X NBA all-star, national championship, head coach of the Mavericks. Not bad. I peered over my monitor to watch.
Jason was tossing underhanded, beating everyone as the office crowd chatted him up.
The layup
Forge Global regularly entertains its investors in conference rooms, golf courses, and cocktail bars. As startups do.
Lacking proper VC funding at the time, in lieu of an office gym we had a barebones home arcade basketball game in reception across from the elevator: two side-by-side hoops, a cloth ramp, some balls. You have thirty seconds to make as many points as you can.
Office days were the whump whump whump of ball against backboard. With sunsets came wine hour, hoots and cheers from our operations staff, management, the licensed stockbrokers.
Justin, a founding engineer, was the most focused. If someone ever beat his top score Justin only practiced harder, then reclaimed it.
Score!
Justin beat Jason at office basketball through skill, practice, determination, and now his own new startup, Caplight, just got major funding from one of Forge’s biggest investors.
Take-aways
New upstarts like Forge and Caplight must beat the Jason Kidds of the world to succeed. In fintech they have names like JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs.
- You can’t beat the best at their own game, but you can win your own
- Games big and small all require practice, technique, and focus
- Underhanded is a respectable shot in basketball and life
Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog
