281: Spartan Race’s Joe De Sena on Being in the Industry of Barbed Wire, Blood, and Bruises

281: Spartan Race’s Joe De Sena on Being in the Industry of Barbed Wire, Blood, and Bruises

Joe De Sena, like many of us, is a fitness fanatic. But his approach to fitness is a bit more...intense than most. De Sena used to participate in countless obstacle course races, Ironman events, and marathons around the world. But even those weren’t challenging enough for this hardcore athlete. That’s why, after wrapping up a decade-long career on Wall Street, De Sena decided to start his own adventure racing company. The first race De Sena hosted was on the British Virgin Islands, and it didn’t go very smoothly. That race cost De Sena half a million dollars and resulted in a participant getting lost at sea for several days. Thankfully, the races have evolved a bit since then—although are no less challenging—and are known today as the Death Race and Spartan Race, which are collectively a $60 million business that has revolutionized the world of obstacle racing. Check out this interview to learn more about De Sena’s financial, mental, and physical journey to popularizing this global franchise. Key Takeaways De Sena’s decade-long stint on Wall Street, and how it helped fund his next venture Why De Sena decided to start his own adventure racing company How the very first race De Sena hosted on the British Virgin Islands went terribly wrong for one participant The birth of Death Race and Spartan Race Why De Sena never gave up on his company, despite losing $8 million in the process over a span of 15 years How the network effect eventually helped the obstacle course races gain traction The expansion of Death Race and Spartan Race to 45 countries De Sena’s honest thoughts on work-life balance and what it takes to be an entrepreneur A sneak peek into his latest book, The Spartan Way

Avsnitt(587)

254: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at How Foundr CEO Nathan Chan Built A Global Brand

254: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at How Foundr CEO Nathan Chan Built A Global Brand

Success doesn’t happen overnight. This is something Foundr CEO Nathan Chan knows all too well. Before he started his business, Nathan was in a common predicament: he hated his job and he had no idea w...

12 Juni 20191h 12min

253: How Refinery29 Defied Critics and Became a Digital Media Pioneer, With Co-Founders Christene Barberich and Piera Gelardi

253: How Refinery29 Defied Critics and Became a Digital Media Pioneer, With Co-Founders Christene Barberich and Piera Gelardi

“I think about how little we knew, but how—I believe—how courageous we were,” says Christene Barberich, reflecting on the early days of Refinery29. Before she and co-founder Piera Gelardi were the wom...

4 Juni 201949min

243: The 5 Traits That Help Founders Go From Dreamer to Doer, With Kim Perell of Amobee

243: The 5 Traits That Help Founders Go From Dreamer to Doer, With Kim Perell of Amobee

When Kim Perell landed a job at a hot new internet startup in 1998, she thought she had hit the jackpot. She loved her job and learned a lot, but when the dot-com bubble burst, the startup went bankru...

26 Mars 201946min

240: How to Use Excellent Customer Support to Stand Out in a Crowded Market, With Ross Paquette of Maropost

240: How to Use Excellent Customer Support to Stand Out in a Crowded Market, With Ross Paquette of Maropost

When Ross Andrew Paquette founded email service provider Maropost in 2011, he never expected it to take off. “The plan was to have 10 customers and maybe sit by the pool a little more often than not,”...

5 Mars 201953min

239: The Importance of Being Bold in Business, With Real Estate Mogul Dottie Herman

239: The Importance of Being Bold in Business, With Real Estate Mogul Dottie Herman

You don’t become the richest self-made woman in American real estate by playing it safe. Dottie Herman has proved time and time again that bold moves pay off. In the 1980s, in a maneuver that solidifi...

25 Feb 201943min

237: Find Your ‘Talk Trigger’ to Spark Powerful Word-of-Mouth, With Jay Baer of Convince & Convert

237: Find Your ‘Talk Trigger’ to Spark Powerful Word-of-Mouth, With Jay Baer of Convince & Convert

Jay Baer was born to be in business. As a seventh-generation entrepreneur, he always knew he’d start his own company one day. Over the years, his ventures have run the gamut—from an early internet com...

12 Feb 201954min

236: Bootstrapping a $300M Cinema Company, With Grant Petty of Blackmagic Design

236: Bootstrapping a $300M Cinema Company, With Grant Petty of Blackmagic Design

“I don’t think CEOs should be able to be CEOs if they can’t code,” says Grant Petty, founder and CEO of Blackmagic Design. That’s a bold statement, but Petty is a bold guy. Working as an engineer in t...

5 Feb 201958min

235: Sell Like Crazy: Psychology, Sales Funnels, and Paid Ads, With Sabri Suby of King Kong

235: Sell Like Crazy: Psychology, Sales Funnels, and Paid Ads, With Sabri Suby of King Kong

These days, Sabri Suby reigns supreme as the founder of King Kong, Australia’s fastest-growing digital marketing agency. But he’s come a long way since his first job, selling ink cartridges over the p...

30 Jan 201943min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

badfluence
framgangspodden
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
rss-borsens-finest
uppgang-och-fall
avanzapodden
fill-or-kill
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
bathina-en-podcast
lastbilspodden
rss-dagen-med-di
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
24fragor
montrosepodden
rss-den-nya-ekonomin
borsmorgon
dynastin
market-makers
svd-tech-brief