How This Sports Tech Founder Raised Money From Magic Johnson

0:00Davyeon Ross: Kate holds the key to every brand asset your business has ever made. She's the only person who knows the difference between teal, turquoise, and the correct company blue. But she's going on vacation. Luckily, before the company falls into design disarray, you realize you can put Kate into Canva. Save every color, font, and logo to a brand kit everyone can access. And Kate can vacation happily in the knowledge that no one will ever use Comic Sans. What will you Canva today? This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense.

0:39Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Get a$75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. You'll never score if you don't take the shot. It's a saying in sports, but it also applies to entrepreneurship. And in a minute, we'll introduce you to one founder from Trinidad who used the saying to start his own company. Talking business with Davion Ross. You're in the Enterprise Zone at the NASDAQ.

1:22Hello, everyone. It's Jabari Young, senior writer at Forbes, and you're in the Enterprise Zone at the NASDAQ market site. And I'm joined by a special guest. His name is Davion Ross. He is the co-founder and CEO of Shot Tracker. This is a sports tech company founded in 2013, based in Kansas. And it makes software and hardware devices that you see when you watch sports right on live broadcast. Investors include Magic Johnson, the late NBA commissioner David Stern, Reform Ventures, Thad Young, former NBA player, and MLB player Ryan Howard. Former MLB player Ryan Howard. Also Verizon Ventures. Davion, thank you so much for the time, man.

1:57First time at the NASDAQ? This is my first time. Wow. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it, man. I appreciate the time. All those investors, and they never got you to the NASDAQ. Magic Johnson, they never say, come on to the NASDAQ. Man, he's waiting for me to say, come on, let's go. Man, you want to come and go public, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, man, listen, I appreciate the time, man. Thank you so much. We've talked over the years of I've covered your company years ago when I was at CNBC, but it's good to see you face-to-face again, man. Man, it's truly a pleasure. You got me to New York, got me to the NASDAQ.

2:24Thank you so much. Got you out of Kansas City, man. Yes, sir. Got you out of Kansas. How's the family doing? Man, the family's great. You're blessed, man. You know, two kids, 12-year-old twins. They're tall, they're smart, they're doing all the right things, trying to give them as many options as possible. Are they, like, exact identical twins? Well, boy-girl. Boy-girl, okay. So not identical. And it seems like they switch personalities periodically. I think they're playing tricks on us. Yeah. You know, my wife's doing great, too. Yeah, yeah. Are you all done? No more kids? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

2:56I'm all done. I'm all done. We got the man-to-man going. We don't have to go to zone. So we're good to go. It's hard enough taking them to all of their activities, you know, because they're pretty busy kids. Yeah, listen, I'm coming into that phase. We were just talking off camera. Mine will be 13 soon. And it's like, okay, what am I going to do now? Because I can't take it to the things you used to go to. Playground, I don't want to go to the playground. Dad, you know, as a teenager, it's a little bit different. It's a different time. I mean, my kids will be 13 next month. Wow. But we're in the same building.

3:24Let's just take them somewhere and leave them there, man, Trying to go party or something like that, man. You follow the stock market at all? I do. I do. I follow it. You know, I don't necessarily have the time to dive in, but I do follow it because I do like seeing what's going on with all the AI and all the tech stocks. That's my thing. So I'm watching several of them closely, and I have a chat with my brothers who are, you know, they're really into it. So we're having a lot of discussion, discussing, oh, it's earnings calls day and listing stuff. So it's been fun. Yeah. So what type of investor is Davion Ross?

3:55conservative, aggressive, like how do you build your portfolio? I invest like I play basketball, aggressive. Oh wow. You know, it's one of those things that, you know, I had a conversation with my financial advisor and I said, hey, you could take the more conservative approach. So he does a lot of the stuff in the stock market. And for me, being an entrepreneur, I get the privilege of seeing a lot of startup deals. And as we all know, the numbers in startup deals. So what I do is I actually be more aggressive on the startup side of things when my financial advisor does a lot of the stock market.

4:26So that's our little yin and yang game, and it's working. Does he try to talk you out of being aggressive? Oh, absolutely. That's his job. If he didn't, we'd have a problem. But there's many times he's like, I don't know if you want to go that route. I'm like, I feel it. Have you had one that paid off because you were aggressive? I've had a few. I've had a few. Last year, I remember, I think it was probably 2014, I'm one of the pipeline entrepreneurs, and we used to pool all money together, invested in another pipeline entrepreneur, you know, came to us with an investment opportunity. And we all pooled together our money.

5:02We put a few dollars in and, you know, you forget about it. And then we got that surprise call December last year. Hey, this went very well. I'm sending you a check. So that's always a blessing. Did he sell the company? He sold the company. Wow. Sold the company. So that was like a real blessing. So now you're rich. Not quite. Not quite. Come on, man. You're rich now. You're rich. So it was a good return, though. It was a 10x return. Wow. And that's when I call my financial guy and say, hey, just got one. Yeah. Do you remember as a pool how much went in? I do. I think we put in, it was only like 100K between all of us.

5:39Right. So we were small investors, 10K, 10 to 15K per person. So that was great. Man, that's not bad. Any return that's good. Especially a 10x return. Yeah, yeah. It pays off all the ones where you don't get, you know, that return. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Soundtrack to 2026, man. What's keeping Deviant Entrepreneur motivated, you know, excited, man? What are you listening to that's pumping you up? I had one guest say they didn't listen to music. That was weird. I'm like, wait, you don't listen to music? This is the deal, right? When you're a dad, you listen to what your kids listen to, right?

6:11And there's a lot of my kids like the Drake album. You know, I was struggling with trying to find a clean version of it. And also they like D1, who is, you know, a gospel artist and a close friend. And I just like his mission, his vision. And he's just such an inspirational, you know, artist in the market. And it's great that you don't have to be, take that off when you hear what he's saying. Because it's pure, it's clean, it's inspiring. So I listen to a lot of D1. And then I have to listen, you know, my daughter is going to bring you some Sabrina and some of that other stuff. So when you're driving the kids along, you don't have a choice.

6:47because you got to keep the peace. Yeah, I had no idea who Melanie Martinez was until my daughter told me about it. You're right. But I push back on you a little bit because when my daughter's in my car, she got to listen to my music, right? She don't listen to the old school stuff, right? Like the stuff back in the day. So this is a deal. My kids love the old school stuff. That's good. You know, they love Bobby Brown. They love, you know, just what's going on with Michael Jackson. There's been a lot of Michael Jackson. We were at the house playing Bones, Dominoes, and, you know, they flipped on to iTunes and they were listening.

7:18You know, they had on Michael Jackson. They had, you know, so they do have a little bit of respect for all the folks in the room. They try to give us a little something. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, they're across the board and I love it. I mean, my son and daughter were in, you know, musicals. My son, Ella Lee, you know, they sing. We try to make sure they do a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah. It's so funny, the musical. We put my daughter in an acting class when she was younger. I feel like that helps them break out of the ice of being shy. You know, we got to be on stage and memorized lines. And so I've watched her progress since that, and I really loved it.

7:48I think it's true. I mean, you know, I tell my kids, I was in my high school's musical. Mm. I played in my high school's band. I did the band thing. Half time in a basketball game, you know? You gotta come out. I actually played the Steel Pan, which is, you know, made and created in Trinidad and Tobago. So, yeah, I told my kids, my son was like, what? But they love the musicals. They love music. They love singing. They love dancing. They love sports. and that's one of the really incredible things about them. Yeah, absolutely, man. Fun being a dad. It really is. You won't get a lot of credit, but it is fun being a dad.

8:21Best job ever. It is. Hardest as well, man, hardest. Listen, you walk into a third grade class, right? We're just talking about kids and they ask you, well, what do you do, Davion? I'm like, what do you tell these group of third graders? Third graders are so inspired and inclined by what's going on with professional sports. If I have to talk to third graders, I'd say, hey, we make basketball players better. We make teams better. Because, you know, you've got to break it down in a way they can understand, you know? So keep it very simple. We make basketball players and teams better. And then when they start asking questions, I can go into the how, and you'd be surprised with social media, with their iPads, with Roblox, everything that they're doing.

9:02They're so tech-inclined that you could probably have a little more of a technical conversation with them. But that's the simplest. We make players and teams better. So someone was asking me about it. Hey, who do you got coming up to Jabari? I said, you know, I got a young brother named Davion. Well, what does he do? And I'm like, you know the graphics that you see on TV and they're telling you maybe LeBron is like 10 or 20 from the field or something like that, and you see the nice graphics that come today, the animation. Well, this is the guy that kind of helps build that tech behind the scenes.

9:30Like, you might see the image, but how do they track all of that stuff to find out it's the data, it's the analytics, and this guy is behind it. You know, his company, one of the many that does this and operates in the space, and perfect segue, man. Give me an update on Shot Tracker and what's working. Again, I covered this company back in the day, right, 2021 when I was at CNBC. And at that point, y 'all had$11 million fundraising round going on by Verizon Ventures. And it looks like you guys have raised more than$80 million. Again, Magic Johnson is one of the investors. Accurate there? Still that amount?

10:03Not as high as$80. We're a little over$50. Okay. You only raised about$50 million so far? Yeah, a little over$50. Okay. What's the valuation looking like? So, you know, being a private company, I'm not at liberty to say, but I would say that so we've raised more than 50. We've had a couple inside rounds with our investors, which has been really good. You know, one of those, we kept the valuation flat mainly because it was an inside round. Yeah. And they continue to support us. We got a lot of support coming out of a pandemic from these investors, which led to, you know, mainly inside round. So take me inside the business, man.

10:34What's going on with it? I know me and you were talking, you know, pre-interview about, you know, you have Amazon as a partner now. You know, they have a big NBA contract. And you guys won an Emmy with them. Won an Emmy with them as well. Yeah, yeah. Which is real incredible. And, you know, helping colleges and helping pro teams get better by tracking, you know, basketball shots. You know, update me on the company. Absolutely. So, you know, when we first talked, we were really focused on our sensor-based system. And it's been, you know, thanks to the pandemic, everybody had to really understand.

11:04and there's been an evolution in the company. And we had that one product, and now we have five products. A lot of products, when we think about the sensor-based system, we think about it being a player development tool. And our goal is less hands-on keyboards, more hands-on players. So we try to automate that process from a practice perspective, and that's the sensor-based. That's our Helix product. We have another product that we actually worked back in, I want to say 2018-19 as part of helping the NCAA as they tested tech on the bench. We were the first ones to do it in the Hall of Fame Classic, partnered with ESPN Apple as part of that.

11:42So we spent that into a product, which is a tech on the bench type of solution that actually takes in data feeds, uses our computer vision, and synchronizes with video, democratizing access to the data and video in real time. So within seconds. So think about the use case. if a player comes out the game, they keep going under the screen, they can easily filter, favorite those, show the player. I don't know about you, but with these kids today, if you don't show them, you can't just tell them. Show the player, send them back in the game, this is what we're expecting, et cetera. And then we have our Scout product, which is an AI, Gen AI-based solution.

12:20So again, our ultimate goal is today the NCAA with NIL, with everything that's going on, it's just a lot on coaches. So what we're trying to do is deliver on this one ecosystem with one login and take away some of the friction. So this allows them to, at anybody, can even voice activate it, talk to the system, and it's going to bring back video. Hey, show me every time Jabari had a three-pointer, but it was out of a pick and roll and it was from the left side. And it utilizes our AI solution and go and grabs that and brings that video back within, you know, less than 45 seconds to 60 seconds. And then we have our Hype product.

12:57What has happened is that, you know, as we were generating this data, and as I said before, we generate the data via sensor data, but now we use computer vision, we use data feeds, we use all these other solutions. Well, it's how do we help folks monetize that data and bring to surface? So some of the things that you were talking about, how do you push it to the broadcasters, how do you push it to the in-stadium for that experience? How do you actually integrate with their mobile apps? So now we're taking it and really building products on top of the data that people can actually integrate and plug and play.

13:27Yeah. And so, like, you take the, build these sensors, right, and you put them inside of basketballs, and also you have equipment around the arena that's tracking it, right, and all the sensors. And I remember listening to a previous podcast and all the issues that you had to go through when you were putting the sensors in, right? And so if you put a sensor in a basketball and it stopped working, you guys had to go and find out what the reason was. And so you're a software as well as a hardware company because you sell that particular data, but you also have to install the hardware. Am I correct?

13:53That is 100 % correct. So specifically for our Helix product, and I think it's important to differentiate, specifically for our Helix product, that is the sensor-based product. And that requires an install in the arena, and then we actually put sensors on players. And whether a player, the sweet thing about it is that they don't have to have any specific basketball. They could grab any of the basketballs. And because if you think about it in the practice environment, you've got 20 players, six different hoops, you know, maybe 15, 20 basketballs. You know, somebody shoots a ball, you grab that basketball.

14:28So it's dynamic in nature. But it gives us the opportunity to track it, whether it's one person or whether it's 15 to 20 people all in real time and provide that data. We have a lot of our teams. You know, Tom Hizzo has a Michigan State. He has a big 160 foot screen on the wall that shows that data. So it's been, that's specifically for the Helix. On the other systems we use, we're not required to utilize the sensors, which is probably one of the biggest perceptions about our company is that we only have this sensor solution. Those other systems, they use AI, they use computer vision, they use data feeds, and they're still providing very similar data, you know, also in real time.

15:10Yeah. And which teams are you working with? I heard you say Michigan State. Yeah, so we've been very fortunate, man. It's been a fun year. You know, you've got Michigan State. Of course, you've got KU out in Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma State, Creighton. Any pro teams? We are this summer league. We actually started. Yeah, NBA summer league. We tested with several pro teams in those discussions. I can't. They're not closed yet, but there are a few pro teams that we're working with. This is the first time since, I don't know if you remember this, But a while ago when the Summer League was using Spalding before they transitioned to Wilson, we're in the midst of testing in the Summer League our sensor-enabled ball.

15:52That's come full circle with, you know, the NBA transition from Spalding to Wilson. And I think that's come full circle. They're doing some other stuff directly with Wilson now. So you guys work with Wilson to put your sensors inside of the ball? Yeah, so we actually, Wilson, I mean, we work with almost every ball manufacturer. So today in collegiate basketball, we have our sensors in Wilson, Spalding, Nike, Under Armour. Under Armour don't have many teams from a ball perspective anymore. Adidas. We also work with Bodden. So pretty much every basketball manufacturer. Yeah. Yeah. I love that, man.

16:24Well, how many employees do you have at the company? So we're up to about 45. Wow. A couple of contractors. PitchBook said 49, so I guess you might can trust them on a little bit of data. I don't know. I don't know. They have 49, right? So close 45. Are you guys hiring at all? So we're not hiring today, but I know we're going to make some additional hires here at the end of the year. We're looking for a couple additional salespeople. Now that we've got these multiple products, which the beautiful thing about having these multiple products is, you know, you can actually go to the low mid majors.

16:57I mean, we just closed some really interesting low and mid major teams right now this year, which has been really exciting for us. So with that, we want to make sure we have as much reach as possible. And now that we're having some of these NBA discussions with products that, you know, the NBA is not necessarily going towards a sensor-based system. So now that we have other solutions that we can sell to them, it's opened up an opportunity and we're going to be aggressive. So we're looking, I would say, in the next couple of months, you know, we're trying to close out the season. And what we like to do is get people in so that they're ready to go march.

17:31because as you know, when the season starts, you know, you can't be tone deaf. You can't necessarily be trying to sell. People have their system, their processes. So we try to gear people up so that we can hit the ground running. And we try to tell our team does a really exceptional job of going out and seeing partners, making sure they have what they need, answering the questions, listening, because that really helps to drive our product roadmap. Yeah. Well, as I checked again, 2021, when I was reporting on the company, it was about$45 ,000 to install one of these systems. The price went up. Inflation's up now.

18:02Yeah, inflation's going up. I think the thing about it is that pricing is still about the same, but what I think we're doing now, what I know we're doing now, is that we're actually integrating additional products. And as you add more products, it gives us some flexibility, and then we'll look to do longer-term deals. What we try to do is not necessarily an in-store fee. We just try to make it a SaaS platform so that people don't have to come up with that large capex. As I said, it's really important to us to be able to serve the whole collegiate. We just, you know, I think we just added three or four high school teams and those were inbound.

18:37So we're really trying to find ways that we could, you know, proliferate and continue to grow. And then of course for us, the growing is like as you mentioned, the AWS. That and several other opportunities similar to that with corporate who can leverage our data and technology. Is that how the company mainly makes revenue through service fees, subscription fees? Like you go and you install your system and colleges and some pro teams come in, hopefully, will pay you for that data every month? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So we're SaaS. We don't necessarily do monthly. Mostly these are yearly ARR contracts.

19:10Annual recurring revenue. Yes. Yes, sir. ARR contracts. And traditionally, we do multi-year. I mean, most of our deals are three to five years. What's the atmosphere like being a founder in 2026? Like what are you experiencing? Because you're still on your entrepreneurial journey, right? You've been at it for a long time. But here in 2026, a lot has changed. A lot of ideology has changed. Like, what are you experiencing now? Yeah, it's very different. I think that I think AI plays a role as a leader. And one of the things that I've tried to do, so I actually just implemented an ambassador program.

19:43We have a group of people within the organization who love AI, mostly the engineers, the data science group. And then you have business people. Some embrace it, some not as much. So what I wanted to do, I wanted everybody to embrace it because as a young company right now, it's about speed. And you've got to help people understand speed. And additionally, I think for us, our sensor-based system is a real big differentiator because I can tell you what, with Claude Code, people could build stuff fast, right? So you have to figure out what is a differentiator, right? Or are you nervous about that?

20:14Because again, if people could build this tech fast, what makes someone not say, you know what, I could build something to go against Shot Tracker and David, I'll offer it to you at a different price point. Well, this is what I would say. I am on the offensive also, right? So just like, oh, you can build, I can build fast, right? But I know what it takes to build a hardware solution. A hardware solution is not, you know, you have to go through FCC approvals. Like, there's a lot. This is not one of those things that you throw point, claw at it, and it rebuilds for you. So for me, that is a differentiator for us, and it's going to be a powerful solution for us.

20:50And it's why we package up everything, you know, with our solution. Yeah. And we're just going to continue growing, continue pushing, and continue hoping to continue to excel in that manner. Well, what's it like being a CEO? I mean, you know, they used to co-founder of this company, but you also serve as a CEO. And a lot of times in some companies, you know, very rarely do you see the founders transition to CEO and stay there for the long haul, right? There's a lot of them don't, but you have been able to maintain that role. What's it like for you being a CEO? So truth be told, you know, when I first started the company, my co-founder was a CEO and I was president and COO.

21:25I remember. I was more outward facing just because of my comp sci degree so I could talk to tech. And then, you know, I played basketball, right? So I had, this was really my wheelhouse, had a lot of the relationships. Over time, you know, when my co-founder transitioned, you know, the board brought in a different CEO. and he lasted for a couple years and that was rough just to be you know briefly honest. Why was it rough? It was rough just because you know when you're a co-founder there I had my theories of what I really I felt like I really knew the market where it was going and I felt like you know anybody who coming in who's been successful is gonna have their own theories.

22:07Just difference in opinion and you have to respect it because he was a CEO so although I would give my two cents if, and that's sometimes challenging, you know, especially for a founder, right? But, you know, later on, I transitioned into the CEO role and built a strong relationship with our investors. And, you know, I had to deal with how do we change the dynamic of the culture of the company? And I would say that now, and again, this is not just Davion, right? Because it takes an executive team and a team to make this happen. Now, I feel like we have the right culture, we have the right energy, we're celebrating wins, we have great partners.

22:44So we're not done yet. We're nowhere where we want to be. But I think that we're, the trajectory is very exciting for us and we just need to continue executing. Is that key for a CEO when you are taking a role to identify what the culture is? And I guess if it's not matching, what you feel it should be having to fix that? I think it's very important. I think like most times the company takes the DNA of the CEO and there are things that you do it could be little things that you're gonna impact the organization you know if if you're early CEO if you're if you don't open the doors and say you know the best idea wins I mean it just trickles down so I think you have to set the tone and that was one of the things that was really important to me now you have to have good executive team and leaders and we have an incredible team of individuals that help to execute on that.

23:32And I also ask them to push back on me. I try now to create a yes environment. Now there are situations where I may have a little bit more information than they do and I have to make a decision. But we try to create an environment that just fosters that type of innovation, you know, fosters that. I always tell the team, nothing innovative happens in your comfort zone. So you got to push and people will say, hey, Davion, you're pushing too hard. So that's the type of relationship and culture that I'm looking for, where people feel comfortable to speak up and make things happen. Yeah, well, what are you like as a leader?

24:07I remember, you know, talking to the great junior Bridgman. You know, God bless his life, and he passed away. But we were walking through his office, and, you know, he was telling me how, you know, he has a personal chef. He had a personal chef come in and cook for his employees every day because he didn't want them to go out and have to. At that point, it was COVID, but he kept that going after COVID. and it felt like, you know, they felt cared about because here they have a personal chef coming to cook lunch just for them, right? What type of leader are you? What type of things you do to make sure your culture is sustaining?

24:37Yeah, so we do not have a personal chef. You might want to get one, man, you know? But we do take Taco Tuesday very serious in our offices, right? So one of the things that I've seen, so multiple things on this front. One, coming back from the pandemic, I think what it did is it opened the door for people to be anywhere in the world and get jobs anywhere. Right. And so from our perspective, we know and we have incredible employees. Right. So we know that they could probably get a job from the confines of their home in California, especially on the engineering side. So we try to have a flexible environment.

25:16Right. And it's funny because everybody comes on Taco Tuesday. You know what I mean? And so we try to mandate that people come in a couple times a week. Because I don't care what anybody says. Remote work is great, but just being with people and solving problems and being in a war room and just picking up and building that camaraderie, all of that stuff helps when you're remote. Yes. So we really try to foster that. We have a people and culture person, and she's, you know, she was office manager. She helps with some of the AP stuff, AR stuff. But her goal and one of the things that she was excited of is how does she create experiences for us?

25:52So we try to do, you know, we do monthly team meetings, remote. We do MVP. We got a parking space that has MVP, and you get that. You get a little WWE wrestling belt. I mean, and we try, and we want people to really promote others. So that's the kind of environment that we're creating. And then we want to work hard. We want to have fun. We want to push hard. I mean, in sports, you know, we have people who are in the office all night making sure the data is coming in from games. So people work pretty hard. So you can't be like, hey, I need you here Monday at 8 a.m. after you worked all weekend.

26:25So we have to be flexible. And those are the things that we try to do within this environment. So people love it. People excited. We reward it. If people bring up tough topics, we don't penalize that. that we want it and we want to have a conversation if people disagree. So we try to have a really open door type of policy and create that environment, which I think has helped. Yeah. So when the employee of the month, when that changes hands, they got to change the belt. They got to get the belt away. Absolutely. They get to say, hey, congratulations. And now you get the parking spot. You don't want me there.

26:58I might stun somebody. Stone cold stun them and take the belt back. But listen, man, that culture, right, that love of having a good culture, I'm sure that comes from somewhere. Again, you take a step back. You were born in Trinidad to big on, raised there. What was that like for you growing up in Trinidad? You know, I have a different perspective of it. Like hindsight is 20-20. I didn't realize how, like materially we didn't have much, but like from a value system, from just, we didn't even know that we weren't rich, you know? I mean, my parents did. I mean, shout out to my mom and my dad. I mean, they raised four kids, all with, you know, MBAs, all have successful careers.

27:38And they're just incredible people. And so growing up in Trinidad with them, you know, we never wanted. They encouraged our goals. They encouraged us to dreams. I remember when I decided. So I was, I graduated high school early. And at 12, I had, I was, I grew like 13. I grew like six inches. And so I had, I was playing soccer. I was a soccer player. I fell down, left hip bone, came out, went to the doctor. They're like, you can't play sports for two years. And I came back from that. I'm like, Dad, I got to play sports. I can't not play sports. But now I want to transition from soccer to basketball.

28:14And, you know, I don't know if many parents have this, but we had like encyclopedias, Britannica in our house. So I went into encyclopedia, looked up basketball, took it to my dad. Next thing you know, two weeks later, I see a truck coming up with a basketball goal that my dad installed in our yard. And so that's the type of, you know, my parents are this type of people. Like they helped us pursue our dreams. They encouraged us. They told us we could be whatever we want to be. And I can't imagine what they went through, their oldest kids saying, hey, I got a basketball scholarship and I'm going to leave at 17 and go somewhere you've never been.

28:46And the most important thing about my parents, though, they're praying. They're praying people. So I think we're just the fruit of their prayers. And so we try to do the same with our kids. But it's it's it taught me to be resourceful. If I were to use one word that Trinidad taught me, it taught me to be resourceful because in Trinidad, you got to be creative. You got to be resourceful. And I do that now. I don't think that there's any problem that I can't solve. I may not be able to solve it personally, but I could be resourceful and figure it out. And with the team I have, I got some superheroes on my team.

29:19Yeah. A lot of them. Yeah. What did your parents do? So my dad was an inspector of police, and my mom was a director in the adoption agency. That must have been really cool when you have a dad who's part of the police, you know, inspector. You get to walk around kind of like with a fake badge, right? I don't know about that. Well, you got to behave yourself, too, right? But at the same time, you're a cop's kid. Ain't nobody going to really mess with you, right? I don't know, man. This is Trinidad. It's a little bit different. So I got, you know, the cop's kid, you know. I mean, yeah, it was tough.

29:48I mean, I think the hardest part was him and how strict he was because he saw things on the streets. Yeah. That so like we didn't get to do anything. I remember at 10, 11, negotiating that I would like to go to a barber shop. They're not in good areas.

30:03Davyeon Ross: You know, I'm cutting you here. You know, so I think that. But as I look back today, I feel so blessed. Yeah. I feel so like appreciative. And that's why if it's one thing I'd say about my brothers and my sister, We try to make sure our parents don't want for anything because the investment they made and more spiritually, I would say, than financially, physically, mentally. You know, those investments are just priceless. Yeah. Yeah. One thing you were able to do again, you watched Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson on television, right? Yes. When it was starting to come in, you call David Stern, God bless his life, the godfather, because at that point he was still kind of pulling the league out of tape delays and into the live action.

30:43But what was that like for you watching Magic and Michael? Because I know when I was a kid, you know, when I would watch my Sunday family dinners and the Bulls would be playing and my family would be gathering around the TV watching Michael. And so I know what type of draw he had and the type of attraction. But again, you were way in Trinidad. What was it like for you watching those? I was in Trinidad. And, you know, the thing about it is, as I said, we had three stations. It was grainy. I was the only one because, like, Trinidad, it was probably a soccer-first country. Definitely a soccer-first country.

31:13Like, my sister has been to two or three World Cups from Trinidad. I mean, she lives and dies by Brazil if Trinidad is not playing. So it's a soccer first country. So I was one of the ones who was, you know, I was just there sitting. It was much later, you know, just because of the time zone, a couple hours ahead. So, but it was great. Like, it really fueled my passion. You know, I remember I used to do a lot of art, so I remember drawing the Lakers logo. When my dad put the basketball goal, I had a big logo on the backboard. So it was inspiring, and it helped me to dream. Like, man, if they could do it.

31:47At that point in time, I didn't know that I was a kid from Trinidad. All I knew, he was a kid at one point in time. And I want to be on this stage. And so that led to getting up at 6 a.m. and shooting in the morning and putting in the work that was necessary, and it's something that I just try to instill in my kids. You were shooting 500 to 1 ,000 jump shots a day? Well, not in college, absolutely. Wow. In college, yeah. Yeah. I had a little J. Yeah, that's like a thousand shots a day. That's like Steph Curry territory. Yeah, well, the thing about it is this, man. It used to take us hours, right, because our school didn't have a gun, and it was me and my – I mean, we'd be in there for a few hours.

32:23You'd go want to get the ball. Yeah, exactly. Hopefully you start making something so your rebounds aren't too long. Yeah. But, you know, my boy Sean Kelly, he actually just came and stayed at the house. He comes to Kansas City every August so we could spend some time together. And I was with him all summers, and we were putting it up, shooting. Wow. The cool thing is I like to shoot. He liked to lift. I hated to lift. He hated to shoot. So we were like the perfect team. Perfect match. Perfect match. Well, again, in college, you went to Benedictine College, Kansas basketball scholarship, bachelor's degree in computer science and a minor in business and mathematics.

32:54Yes, sir. But then you stayed in Kansas after you graduated. What made you want to stay in Kansas of all places? Yeah. So I don't know if I really wanted to stay, but I think like the opportunity presented itself. So for me, when I got out of college, you know, it was 2000. And I, again, I had a computer science degree. So as you think about that point in time, it was, you know, that was pretty exciting for folks. So I remember getting a job offer back in October to go be an engineer at Sprint. Wow. And this is, you know, school doesn't close until May. So, like, people don't get offers. So, you know, I went and I got an offer.

33:31But I had a really good, I think I averaged like 16 my senior year. So I had a really good career and started getting all these letters to go overseas and I started going to pro camps and you know being from Trinidad as you know from a legal perspective you get like a F1 visa to come in then you get OPT. So I was able to get my OPT, which gave me a year. So that gave me the opportunity to go to pro camps. And when I started working with my employer and they started talking about getting me a green card, I decided that, okay, this whole going to play overseas thing, I need to get this green card.

34:03Because that would allow me to stay here legally, go through the process, and maybe even help. My brother had just, he played in the Ute World Cup at 15. He's a soccer incredible player. and my other brother also were coming up to college. And my brother had a full scholarship to Columbia and decided to come to Kansas because I was there. So I didn't want to leave them hanging. I needed to be close to them. Our family, my parents helped me get up here. We didn't have much. I helped Darnell. Darnell and I helped Denzel. You know, and Denise is just a rock star. So she stayed in Trinidad and didn't really need our help.

34:37But so those are the reasons I really stayed here. My brother, the opportunity to, it was a great job. and they offered to pay for my green card. Yeah, and here you are one day, you know, again, your friend of yours calls you up because, you know, he's practicing shooting with his son, and it's like, man, how do I track this stuff instead of writing it down on a pencil? And then you guys sit down and you're able to, you know, come up with a shot tracker, right? Develop that particular system. And I believe you raised about$400 ,000, you know, some of your first seed rounds. Yeah, the first seed round I think was like$650 ,000.

35:06Wow. And, you know, him and I played a portion in that. He had a little bit more than I did, And then we had some angel investors who really believed. Yeah. So about$650 ,000 you started with. Yeah, that was the first. What was it like getting that first, you know, that seed money? Because a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs, right? And I was talking to one recently, and he says, you know, you don't have any idea how hard it is to get a seed round. Just people, family, friends. Like, what was that process like for you? How did you go and get money? Yeah. So we, so first and foremost, you know, my co-founder had sold his company.

35:39So he had an exit. I mean, I had an exit not as great as his before my previous company. Yeah, because you were working at a startup, too. Yeah, I was running a startup, too. I'd started another company in sports space also. But I sold that to DBG, Digital Broadcast Group, here. And he had sold his company. And so we were able to fund some of it individually ourselves. As I said, he had majority in there. But it was great, man. But it was hard because you got to pitch. We had pitch sessions. We had people coming in. We had, you know, we'd actually bring groups in and hosted at the office and do demos.

36:16And I mean, we did a lot of demos. There's a lot we didn't know. Because although I did hardware in school, I just had a couple of hardware classes because I was mainly under computer science. You touch almost everything, but you're really programming, right? And we just didn't know how hard this hardware thing is. They call it hardware for a reason. And so 650 was enough to get us out the gate. But, I mean, it was not enough when you think about going through FCC certification. You know, hardware just doesn't compile like software. You know, software, you have a bug. You try this. You know, it's two seconds.

36:49You miss a cycle on the hardware side. It's four to six months. It's gotten faster now. So back then it was even longer. But it was great to get that few dollars in and to people to get to have faith in what we're doing. And, I mean, it's been an evolution since then. Yeah. Yeah. And again, Magic Johnson one day, I mean, you hear that he's going to be hopping on his jet and come into your office to watch and check out your company. Right. Yeah. How in the world did you pitch Magic? Like what was that problem? When he walked in your office, did you have like Lakers gears? Like how did you get Magic to say yes?

37:22Well, I will tell you this. We we had help. You know, a gentleman who is I don't know if you know Marlon Nichols. Yeah. Yeah. Mac Ventures. Mac Ventures. So Marlon is a really close friend. I saw him at our fraternity event a couple weeks ago. So Marlon Nichols introduced me to Ryan Smith, who is Magic's Director of Investments. And I'm still extremely close to Ryan. I talk to Ryan literally weekly. He was in Kansas City a couple weeks. And Ryan put it in front of Irvin. And we had a couple conversations. I went out and pitched him. And I was fortunate that he had something to do in Chicago. And Ryan said, hey, I think we could stop by on the way.

38:01Because, you know, you've got to fly over Kansas. That's one of the benefits of the flyover states, right? So that was truly a blessing. He came in, and we brought players, and it's crazy because we had just gotten this warehouse. We didn't even have a court. They were playing on concrete back then. And so, yeah, and we pitched him, and he said he's in. If you had to give advice to an entrepreneur who might be on the verge of pitching Magic, like if they say, wait, man, how do you get them to say yes? What would be your response to an advice on how to get a guy like Magic Johnson to invest in a startup company at that point?

38:33Yeah, I mean, I think that you've got to be authentic, one. Try to connect on multiple levels and really understand his passions. You know, Magic has a passion for sports, of course. He's got a passion for the community, significant passion. Just a huge inspiration from that perspective. And, you know, be yourself. And, man, he's a seasoned investor, so he's, you know, you've got to have your ducks in a row. Yeah. Because he's going to ask a lot of tough questions and he's got great people around him. You think about your entrepreneurial journey, right? And it started back before you started Shot Tracker, right?

39:09And you had to own a startup company before was involved in one. But, you know, you'd also talk to your mom into buying you hats, which you flipped that in school, right? You were selling hats at a young age, around 13 years old, right? And so you had a whole bunch of hats. So your entrepreneurial journey was back in your early teens, right? And you think about that young Davion that was selling hats. It was hats, right? It was baseball hats. Baseball hats, right? And you think about that young Deviant selling baseball hats to God pitching Magic Johnson, right? In Kansas, right? Where you decided to stay to today.

39:40If you had to describe your entrepreneurial journey in one word, what word would you use? Destiny. Destiny. Why destiny? Because I think that, like, this was my path, right? Like, when you're in the midst of it, you don't really look back. But when you think about everything that you, like, this was my destiny. This is what God had planned for me, right? And no matter how many toss and turns or different detours, I always came back to where I'm supposed to be. And I think if you have that approach in life, it allows you to deal with problems and challenges differently. You know what I mean? You don't necessarily go into panic mode, but you say, okay, I don't know why this is happening, but there's a higher source.

40:21And I need to, this is going to come to fruition and show me why this happened. So a lot of things that I look at, I mean, the pandemic was hard for us. We almost lost the company. The pandemic was really, really, really hard. Yeah. I mean, you have to think that they shut down. They didn't have an NCAA tournament. Yeah. No stats, no data. Nothing. Yeah. Right. Like, you know, we had just signed a pretty significant deal that was going to distribute us across probably like 60 different schools, the top schools, and all that falls short, But it's what we had to go through to get to where we are today.

40:57And so that's why I said, I'm living my ordained life. I'm living what I'm supposed to be. I'm being who I am, where I'm supposed to be for my kids to see, to impact them, for people around me. So that's what I would use. Destiny. Destiny. I love it. Well, again, you say you can score if you don't take the shot. Is that your biggest advice to entrepreneurs? Just start? Yeah, you've got to start. You got to start. Because I will tell you this, like, you meet with an investor, right? If you come back two weeks later and you got the same story, they're like, he or she's not the right one. So I think you got to start and you got to find a way to move the needle.

41:35I don't care what that is. I don't care. You got to be resourceful. You got to be creative. You got to find a way to move the needle. You got to keep pushing the ball. Even if you go one millimeter, one centimeter, you know, an inch, you got to keep moving it. And that's what we always do. We always keep moving the ball. And sometimes we may be moving it in the wrong direction, but it's going to come back full circle. So you've got to start and you've got to keep moving it by hook or crook. Whatever you need to do, you've got to move it. Yeah, and don't stop. Yeah, you can't stop. I mean, look, Shot Tracker's been, you know, a great story.

42:11You know, I mean, there's many opportunities I had that I could have probably, but I think about our team, I think about our investors, and I think about the work that we've put in. And so we're destined. We're going to keep pushing. And, you know, we had a good year. It's been a blessing. You know, our sales team did a good job. We added a bunch of new partners. You know, we're excited about that. Yeah. Love it. Get y 'all done some fun stuff, man. If I gave you$10 ,000 right now, to be alone, but if I gave you$10 ,000 right now, how would you invest it? Oh, if I get$10 ,000, I'm probably looking at some entrepreneurship.

42:48opportunities based on historical evidence. I'm trying to find, you know, the next AI company, the next maybe one or two, because you've got to try to diversify and give yourself some shots. Five here, five there. Yeah, some shots at go. But I'm definitely, I'm not necessarily putting it in the stock market. Ten grand, I'm swinging for the fence. I'm going to somebody. Who's going to be the next Facebook? Who's going to be next Google? And using my technology to try and figure out who that is and where I make my bets. Davion Ross's superpower, what is it? I want to say resourcefulness. Resourcefulness.

43:19Yeah. I would say that I feel like I can solve any problem. Okay. I don't think that there's a problem that I can't find a way to solve it. Maybe it's with people. It may not be my knowledge, but I feel like I could always get to the right person, the right thing to solve the problem. whether that's putting a sensor in a basketball, trying to find a charging solution. I mean, you name it, you know. So I think I'm resourceful. Davion, thank you so much for the time, man. Get you out of here on this, and it's something that you might like. It's good to great. Jim Collins, my favorite business book, is good to great, and I'll ask you.

44:01It's funny I'm going to ask this question. I came up with it. I switched it, obviously, because I was thinking of my days covering the Spurs back in San Antonio, and Pop always says, Greg Popovich, about the good to great shot. And I'll ask you, what's the difference between a good shot and a great one? I would say the difference is that great shots, you could definitely get a higher percentage and many people could make it. And what I mean by that is when you think about good shots, there are good shots that people take, but they got three people on them. And I think great shots become great shots because people make the extra pass.

44:38And so I think they're higher percentage shots for, you know, we're not talking about Kobe Bryant. One on three, Kobe Bryant is going to hit that. Jordan's going to hit it, right? But I think great shots are shots that come from the extra pass. And people, you know, knowing who the contacts, who the person is, and making that extra pass. I think that's where great shots come. And therefore, you'll see a larger number of people are going to be able to hit that shot at a higher percentage. That's a great shot. Yeah. Because there's a lot of great people who take good shots, But, you know. Yeah, 100%.

45:10Ball movement. That's what it is. And when I covered that Spurs, when they beat the Miami Heat after losing on that Ray Allen shot, right? That was a good one. It turned into a great one. But that second time they played them, you can notice, like, San Antonio, that ball movement was flawless. Absolutely. And they were hitting a whole bunch of good shots. Yes. And, you know, great shots to turn into. But, yeah, you make me miss covering sports talking to you, man. Davion Ross, man, I appreciate the time. Good luck. and I'm sure I will be seeing your graphics on the upcoming fall season. Sports is back.

45:41Football. And once you see the NFL start ramping up, you know it's back. And the NBA is right behind it, man. So definitely appreciate the time. Got to get you back when you're doing that exclusive race. Come back to the NASDAQ and bring magic with you. I will. Absolutely. Davion Ross, CEO, co-founder of Shot Tracker here at the NASDAQ. You're in the Enterprise Zone and you're leaving the Enterprise Zone. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening.

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