When Nigel Eccles met his technical co-founders at a networking event in Scotland, he didn't know they'd be running a $400 million business together a few years later. The team started building a political prediction app in 2007, but eventually pivoted into a fantasy sports betting business when they saw a much bigger opportunity in the space after attending SXSW and getting some inspiration from their early customers. Now Nigel and his team are disrupting another industry - podcasting.
In part one of our interview with Nigel we talk about the early days of his career as a management consultant and how he landed a product management gig at a tech startup that inspired him to become an entrepreneur. Nigel discusses how he was able to quickly put together a founding team for his first startup idea after helping two engineers work on their business concept for six months.
We also talk about some of the mistakes that Nigel made with his first startup, Hubdub, and why he decided that the business needed a drastic change if it was going to survive.
In Part II, Nigel describes how focusing on the team's strength and learning to listen to the market helped them pivot into a billion dollar opportunity with FanDuel, and the new opportunity he's identified in building communities of podcast listeners with his company Flick.
