Here\u2019s what he talks about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A career pivot from bobsleigh to business<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no nursery slope in bobsleigh, or business<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Re-adjusting athlete focus into business drive<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n From a salesman to the CEO<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Proof-of-concept can raise significant investment<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Support your industry by helping struggling customers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Invest in your industry\u2014 it doesn\u2019t have to be financial<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n How the event industry has adapted to overcome its obstacles<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t laugh, you\u2019ll cry\u2014 develop a thick skin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t dwell over knockbacks, instead remember the bigger picture<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Viva Las Vegas: Marathon dreams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding a healthy balance when juggling a love of sports and a business<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Adapt and overcome: You will thrive from it<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Will, I should point out for our listeners because usually we only have founders on the show and you mentioned that this business was founded by two other people, but you came on board really early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You were joining at quite a pivotal point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you want to tell us a bit about how you got involved with this business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. You\u2019re right, I didn\u2019t \u2018found it\u2019, but I was essentially the third in the door. There were two founders and then I came in to help them grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My background prior to RaceNation, I was a full-time athlete with GB Bobsleigh. I had eight years full time, competing all over the world, I had a fantastic life as an athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the run up to the Sochi 2014 Olympics, I broke my heel. I had a stress fracture on my heel, which put me out of the Games, I was 26 and I had to make a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, I grew up in Jersey, so I went back there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Classic athlete, retires and goes back home to mum and dad because you\u2019re not quite sure what you\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My education, if you like, was maths, computing and sports science as A Levels. My degree was in sports business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jersey is a small place, and again for listeners that don\u2019t know it, it\u2019s only nine by five as a small little island, and it\u2019s one of those things where everybody knows everybody, to a degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got talking to the founder of RaceNation, and he said, \u201cLook, I\u2019ve got this idea, but I need somebody to help me grow that\u2019s sporty, likes technology, knows technology and do you know anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I said, \u201cI do know some people that would be very good at doing that for you, but would you consider me applying for the role?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was essentially a case of, \u201cWe hoped you were going to say that. Yeah. The job\u2019s yours. This is what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So although I didn\u2019t \u2018found it\u2019, they were probably less than four or five months old and it had a proof of concept, it had a couple of clients using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once they had the ideas, and this is the beauty of a lot of founders, they have such amazing ideas, they then surround themselves with the right people to help them grow their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s exactly what we set about doing, and now since 2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve worked with over 3,000 events across the UK now, and we\u2019re just growing out this technology and scaling it across the UK and then looking internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just need to know, how did you get into bobsleigh? I mean, and where does one even pick that up in the United Kingdom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an interesting journey. I was a sprinter, classic Cool Runnings. I was a sprinter who wasn\u2019t quite going to make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got seen by GB Bobsleigh through some of their talent ID processes and I went to some trials, did quite well and that\u2019s where I started my journey into bobsleigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first conversation of bobsleigh for me started by the fact I was approached by a Lieutenant General from the army. So a massively senior ranking officer came up to me and said, \u201cI\u2019m in charge of army bobsleigh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He represented the Queen in Jersey, he was the Lieutenant Governor in Jersey, so he represented the Queen there. He said, \u201cI\u2019m trying to create a Jersey bobsleigh team to feed into the GB team if you\u2019re any good. Do you fancy a go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was at school at the time, and I was just one of those kids at school that I was quite fortunate, I was good at sport. I love my football, my rugby, my cricket, my golf, athletics. I loved everything, and I was relatively good at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said, \u201cLook, you\u2019re this sporty guy. The school has told me that you\u2019re sporty. Do you fancy a go at bobsleigh? You can sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I said, \u201cAbsolutely no way. I\u2019m very happy, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, long story short, he said, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a shame. I\u2019ve got a trip going to Calgary in Canada in eight weeks\u2019 time. I could\u2019ve got you on that trip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I said, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve never been to Canada before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I ended up going and booking a meeting, going to have a chat with him at his house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I walked into the room and as you would imagine someone that represents the Queen on the island, lives in a lovely house, he was a lovely guy but surrounded by staff and people that all look after them very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I walk into this room for this meeting I get announced as, \u201cHere\u2019s the new Jersey bobsleigh team.\u201d I\u2019m thinking, \u201cWow, okay. This has escalated quite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, there\u2019s the local paper, radio, ITV, they\u2019re saying, \u201cThis is the new Jersey bobsleigh team that\u2019s going to Calgary in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So unbeknown to me, my commitment to going for a meeting to find out a bit more, actually turned into me being put on that plane up to Calgary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I\u2019m so glad I did because it was an opportunity I very, very nearly turned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, I did turn down until I had a chat with my parents and friends around me who said, \u201cLook, this is such a good opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, I went up to Canada, learned how to drive a bobsleigh. It was with the British Army, actually, funnily enough with Sir Andrew being the Lieutenant General. I learned how to drive a bobsleigh, fell in love with the sport and then just worked and worked and worked so hard, because at the time I was small, I was skinny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wasn\u2019t a bobsleigh shape, but I loved the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could run quickly, and I could drive a sled, so the coaching team got hold of me, the strength and conditioning coaches got hold of me and made me into a bobsleigher and that sent me on my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could knock me down with a feather, there\u2019s an army bobsleigh team. Things that I suppose you just don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know, do you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But was it kind of like being dropped in the deep end because you just said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019ll think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then suddenly you were in the fast lane to sort of represent your country. That must\u2019ve been enormous pressure to be amazing at this sport, that you probably hadn\u2019t even heard of a few weeks prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. I genuinely was a fan of Cool Runnings. That was it, but at no point did I ever say, \u201cI\u2019m going to be a bobsleigher. I\u2019m going to be a sprinter.\u201d I never even thought I\u2019d be a professional athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was just Will Golder from Jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Went to school, loved my sport, worked hard. But yeah, I got dropped in at the deep end, and I think that has just set me up so well for the career that I\u2019ve gone on to have within sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then, post sports as well, because, my God, do things get thrown at you thick and fast in the corporate world, in the business world, and you have to learn fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And even learning to drive a bobsleigh, there\u2019s no nursery slope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You get put in a bobsleigh, told how it goes left, told how it goes right, and you sit in a court of four, and they give you a push off, and they say, \u201cI hope you remember where you\u2019re going,\u201d but I thrive off that, to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I enjoy that, and actually solving those problems and actually being in that deep end, certainly for me, it\u2019s good for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the name of your autobiography, by the way: There Is No Nursery Slope. That\u2019s definitely the title right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then, how long had you been competing before you had that injury that basically killed that career for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I joined the squad in 2010, but I was already bobsleighing before that, but for the Jersey part of this team, so essentially, I joined the GB squad in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I did four years of full-time sport funded by UK sport in the lottery. I did eight years of bobsleighing. I\u2019d essentially gone through the whole Olympic cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2010 was the Vancouver Games, so I didn\u2019t compete there. I\u2019d only just joined the squad and I had a lot to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I then worked hard and got myself a place in the squad, became a driver of a two and a four-man sled, and then, like I said, went through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bobsleigh works just a bit like the Formula 1 does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it has a season every year and you go country to country, track to track, around the world to compete, and then obviously that culminates in an Olympic Games every four years, and it has a World Championships every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did that certainly for GB for four years full time, and then, two weeks before the Games, stress fractured my heel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was out of the Olympics, and it was a tough decision, because at that point, like I said, I was 26. What do I do? Do I retire, or\u2026 I was only 26. It\u2019s still young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Too young to retire. 26, it sounds crazy when coming out your mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do I look at doing another four years, going towards what was Pyeongchang 2018 to then compete there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in all honesty, that was going to be my plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My sponsors were on board. The team were on board. Coaches were all on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then on Boxing Day, I tore my hamstring training. After coming back, after breaking my heel just before the Olympics, missing out on the Games, I was absolutely gutted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then obviously I went through a whole healing process, recovery process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I actually came back fitter and stronger post that injury than I was pre-Olympics, and I was in good shape pre-Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So again, the future was looking good. And then I tore my hamstring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And at that point, I just thought, do you know what? It looks like my body isn\u2019t on the same page as my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s where, by sheer coincidence, I started having a chat with Andrew, who founded RaceNation, who said, \u201cLook, we\u2019ve got this idea, but it\u2019s nothing more than an idea and a proof of concept, bit of technology, what do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I instantly got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I instantly went home to start researching events and charities that all needed it, because for a charity that puts on their own event, it\u2019s an absolute no-brainer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They can get everything on one platform rather than requiring everything all over the place. So instantly, I went away and started to just research, is this actually viable? Is this good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And very quickly came to conclusion that it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I retired in January, and within four weeks, I had a job in a new world, and I set about learning everything that I know, and we do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you feel like you were able to just refocus that energy and drive that you\u2019d put in over the eight years into bobsleigh just into business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Were you just able to switch lane and be ploughing all of that enthusiasm into something new?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all honesty, I struggled initially. I came out of this world-class performance environment that really looked after me, but also, I had a very clear focus journey, and that\u2019s one thing that I think we\u2019ll come onto in a bit, is focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for all founders and pieces of technology, focus is so key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I had that focus as an athlete, and I came into the corporate commercial world, and all of a sudden, I realised that I had all this drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But actually, there were some people that were very happy to come to work, do their job, get paid and go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I struggled initially to understand that because I was all day and all night. I was fully in, but I actually quickly realised, you can\u2019t do that forever as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So initially, the transition was okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I struggled to leave and finish sport. Whereas I would normally be training throughout the day as an athlete, I actually still continued to train, weirdly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would actually start my training at six in the morning, finish my training before work, go to work, and then probably do a session in the evening as well, just because I didn\u2019t know what to do. I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They teach you a lot of things in sport, and they look after you quite well in that sense of how to perform, obviously all physical, mental preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what they don\u2019t really teach you to do, or didn\u2019t at the time, and I think they\u2019re a lot better at it now, is teaching you how to stop, or not even how to fail, but how to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the transition for me was actually okay, because I was given a lot of freedom by the founders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, being such a small business concept, they needed to grow. It was a case of, I had so much energy and ideas, they just said, \u201cDo you know what? Let\u2019s just let this guy go. Let\u2019s let him go and see what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we started having conversations with clients quite quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certainly we took over all the events in Jersey, and then we also started getting contact from the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so we opened up an office in the UK, in Brighton, and we just started to grow the business out as where we\u2019ve got it today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, tell me more about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you came in and the business was at proof-of-concept stage, but very small, and today you have some incredible events under your belt. You\u2019ve expanded enormously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you just take us through some of the milestones that you\u2019ve hit and just tell us about how you executed and strategised to get there, as CEO of this business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So in my early capacity, I actually started as the business development guy. I was head of sales, head of business development, primed amongst the board to grow this business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we started on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But wait, wait, wait. Are you a natural salesman then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you done sales roles before, or were you just like, \u201cI\u2019ll give it a go\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was just like, \u201cI\u2019ll give it a go,\u201d because I knew and believed in the products. I think sales has such a bad name, even to the point of titles, where you look at it, you say, \u201cHead of sales? Oh, does he sell cars? Does he do this?\u201d No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is sales is actually just introducing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, through sport, I had to get a lot of sponsorship and be able to speak to sponsors and look after sponsors of many different sizes. And so I knew I could talk to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think we all probably worked that out quite quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So from there, I just had to introduce the concept, to organise, to say, \u201cLook, this is your problem. This is the solution. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we can solve problems, that\u2019s the genius of being able to introduce and grow your business. And investment has been a massive stage in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when you say significant investment, can you tell us how much it\u2019s taken to get you where you are today as a business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, yeah. I think some high-level figures, we\u2019ve received probably just within and around \u00a33m of investment over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it is taken a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I think you can do it, and a lot of technology companies do it differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a fascinating world, the investment world, especially in the technology sector, and that\u2019s what we are. Although we work in the event space and charity space, we\u2019re a technology business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s a fascinating world in there, whereas a proof-of-concept, you\u2019ll see a lot of technology companies with an idea, maybe a little piece of technology that has that proof, they can raise significant investment, significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Way more than we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think probably our early round was \u00a3100,000 or \u00a3150,000 from friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then you go into this\u2026 I almost refer to it as a black hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you go past the proof of concept, but you don\u2019t raise significant investment, you go into this world of graft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge comes if you need to raise more investment in that stage, that black-hole stage. Investors look at you quite differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors look at you as if to say, \u201cAh, this is a good business. What\u2019s your revenues? What\u2019s your multiples. Where\u2019s your journey? What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whereas at the proof-of-concept phase, they say, \u201cWow, that\u2019s a good idea. I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet me throw money at you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet me throw money and let you go for it.\u201d Whereas once you step over that line of actually earning \u00a31, it almost becomes slightly more difficult to raise investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then you get to the tipping point of the stage towards the end of the black hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are earning significant revenue or turning over significant revenue, processing lots of data and money. And again, investors come back, and they\u2019re looking to be really interested in it and involved again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it definitely can\u2019t hurt to have loads of amazing headlines about how you\u2019ve basically saved the Ealing Marathon and all these other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why don\u2019t you tell me a bit about being in the depth of a pandemic and seeing your customers struggling, and rather than being like, \u201cOh, well, there\u2019s nothing we can do,\u201d thinking, \u201cActually, we\u2019re going to step up to the plate and help these guys out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tell me about that strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So yeah, you\u2019re absolutely right on the headlines, and as much as we don\u2019t do this for headlines, they do help in a story of a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Internally, when you see things like that, they do help, because again, it almost validates your decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we did, in the midst of the pandemic, there were a lot of event organisers. The events were the first to go and the last to come back, and what happens is their livelihoods get impacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Event organisers and event directors that are organising all these events, as a commercial venture for them had no events. Separately, all the charities involved in all those events didn\u2019t get any charity fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suppliers, the coffee shops, the hotels, the transport system, everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long story short, we created a separate company called RaceNation Events<\/a>, which essentially allowed us to go to these events organisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take Ealing Half as one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s another company called Immortal Sport, who had 15 events within them. And we went to them and said, \u201cLook, we understand you guys are at risk of not coming back next year. Our industry is very important to us. What can we do to look to support that industry?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had some initial conversations, and then RaceNation Events existed, where we bought in those events to a much bigger picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we arranged some cash flow financing for them. We actually gave the race directors a wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, rather than them being self-employed and having to pay suppliers and see what\u2019s left at the end of it, we gave them a wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We could look at, based on our expertise from looking at businesses and looking at the spreadsheets, we could see that the events were viable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They just had horrific cash flow issues based on sometimes you have to order your toilets and your T-shirts and your medals early, before you\u2019ve sold many tickets, and so it was always just a cash flow issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if we, as part of a bigger group, could provide some central management, central finance, central control, it allowed the organisers to continue doing exactly what they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, as a central business, it allowed us to really support events and save those events from not coming back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did these teams see you as like the white knight riding in to save the day, or was it quite difficult for them to lose autonomy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did you manage that? Because that must be quite complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was one of those things where it was a very open and honest conversation, where I just came to them and said, \u201cLook, this is my idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll be honest, we\u2019ve got two directors that run RaceNation Events, a guy called Jody and his business partner, Lucy. They ran Immortal Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went to them and said, \u201cLook, I know you guys have said to me you might not come back. Here\u2019s my idea. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They said, \u201cYou\u2019re mad. Hang on. So, what are you saying here, Will? You\u2019re saying that you\u2019re going to create an events business that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I explained that what we do is, we ring-fence all of the bubbles, if you like, that we bring in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Immortal Sport, for example, is a bubble. Ealing Half is a bubble. So they\u2019re completely independent, but they work under one big brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He then said, \u201cSo you want to give me and Lucy a wage to do what we currently do, but also you\u2019re going to arrange some cash flow financing, so that I never have a sleepless night again about being able to pay my suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s the idea. And, at the end of it, we all share in the success of the profits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it\u2019s their own business, of course it makes a profit, they get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We actually have full journeys through. So the event directors still get a share of that profit. We just split it all 50\/50 down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The transition for them wasn\u2019t difficult. It\u2019s been so well-received by all the events that we\u2019ve brought in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do we translate your approach to rescuing the Ealing Half, and other events for other business owners, who might be struggling to come out of the quagmire that\u2019s been this pandemic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it to then look at your customers and work out how you can be an agent in their own success?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How would you create a template that you could give to another business owner and say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you try this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think, from our side, it was investing in our industry was the key. We know that as a piece of technology, as an online entry and fundraising platform, we have all the features organisers need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an awesome platform and it can scale and grow and really help make a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we also know that without that, without an industry to deploy this technology, our technology is worthless. So, actually we very quickly realised that if we invest in our industry, in supporting it, then we can make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, to other listeners that might be struggling to come through a lockdown, thinking, \u201cWhere do we go? What do we do?\u201d, it\u2019s all about, I\u2019d say, investing in the industry, or looking at customers and supporting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t have to be financial. A lot of what we might do within RaceNation Events could be just from a consultation point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even during Covid, during lockdown, I said to all organisers, whether they\u2019re clients of ours or not, we put out a big public statement to say, \u201cLook, we\u2019re not furloughing any staff. We\u2019re not making anybody redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur investors are completely behind us, and we\u2019ve got years ahead of us for growth and plan. We absolutely haven\u2019t planned for this, but we can adjust our plan to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I put out a statement that said, \u201cAny organiser that wants a chat, come and speak to me. I\u2019m here. I\u2019m not going anywhere. We\u2019re not going anywhere. So, if you want to discuss a problem, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did have a few organisers reach out to me that said, \u201cLook, this is what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m in contact with this. I know I don\u2019t use RaceNation because I\u2019m in a long contract, but what would you do here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That very quickly is where, from a technology business, we developed all our virtual features during lockdown as well, where we realised our organiser\u2019s physical events had gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The number of registrations dropped from tens and hundreds of thousands, down to literally hundreds per day and obviously that has a big impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we had to realise and pivot ourselves in what do we do, to support our industry, and that was to create full virtual event features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We integrated with Strava and, all of a sudden, within weeks, we managed to launch all of this technology, and it\u2019s all credit to our development team, working day and night to really power through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But wait, how do you do a virtual marathon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it just people on their own just running on their own but still feeling like they\u2019re contributing to an event?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. The whole event industry had to adjust and had to change. It was exactly that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A virtual marathon, a virtual half-marathon. We were restricted at times of how much we could go outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that time of going outside, we had an integration with Strava, and we built a full results service, so that people could go off and just run their marathon, and they would run it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of our integrations, because of our app, our event day app, it allowed them to submit their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then all of a sudden they weren\u2019t just competing against, I don\u2019t know, a local marathon, they\u2019re actually competing against people all over the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That then extended on. We\u2019ve had a race to the moon. We\u2019ve had races round the world. We\u2019ve had all sorts of amazing virtual events that, again, organisers have been able to actually survive a little bit by saying, \u201cI can\u2019t put my event on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A virtual event, what do you get for a virtual event?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well you get the kudos of completing a marathon, you get the community aspect of being involved in this, being able to complete it and you get your T-shirt and medal in the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We facilitate, as organisers, being able to have some element of revenue coming in between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t the massive event that they would have, but it was actually a pretty cost-effective way of them putting on an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But also engaging their community and their entrants that they have, so that now they\u2019re coming back, they can say, \u201cWe put on this virtual event. Now the actual event\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wow. In so many ways, this pandemic really has been the mother of invention, just the ways that people have had to innovate to stay alive and keep giving their customers something that they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s just incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d like to talk to you a bit about resilience because we\u2019ve spoken about it a bit on the show before, but you do need an awful lot of resilience to survive as a business builder, as an entrepreneur, and it\u2019s clear from your story that you\u2019ve had to build a lot of resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though you play it down when you said, \u201cOh, I was gutted when I had my injuries,\u201d but in that word I felt a whole wealth of just pain, basically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, can you tell me about how you\u2019ve learned to be resilient, how you\u2019ve taken that from your journey as an athlete into that of a CEO?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure. Yeah. You\u2019re right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resilience is something that we all work out at some point how we feel, where that sits within us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From sport, you\u2019ve got to have a thick skin and you\u2019ve got to grow up fast, and you\u2019ve got to be prepared to take some knocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe it or not, I always believed as a youngster in sport, the higher up the chain you got, the more into professional sport you got, the easier it would get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, it was the complete opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sport\u2019s brutal and it\u2019s political, and you\u2019re competing against people that are and were your friends, but actually you\u2019re competing for a spot in the Olympic Games. So you have to have a thick skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For us, certainly, we did our racing on the track, we did our training in the gym, and then we all had a pretty good balance as a squad to be able to separate that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s important in business because you can\u2019t go at this alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to surround yourself with teams and you have to build teams around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At times, members of that team move on. Similarly, people within your sector and your industry, you have to get to know them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As much as we like to think that we\u2019ve found this amazing piece, this amazing idea in something that no one\u2019s ever done, there is other competitors out there, and there will be, and you do get to know them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, resilience when you hear of people looking at your clients and that side of things, or when you get knockbacks, where you go for a bit of business and you don\u2019t win it, it\u2019s important to think of the bigger picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that\u2019s one thing I always like to remind myself of and our board of, because our board is made up of some significant directors, successful business people and shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s very easy to think, \u201cRight. Now let\u2019s focus on this small aspect,\u201d but when we actually think of the bigger picture, actually it\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t fail, we just have to move on from something that we didn\u2019t win, or we didn\u2019t quite do. That\u2019s important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But resilience is one of those things that you have to deal with and sometimes, if you don\u2019t laugh, you\u2019ll cry. So, being able to develop that thick skin is very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is that what you do? Because you make it sound almost easy to just try and remember the bigger picture when you have a knockback, if you don\u2019t win a contract or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just take me through your process then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you not take it personally? How do you make sure that the next day you wake up and you attack whatever problem you\u2019ve got afresh, basically?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of it comes down to having a plan, and your plan, our plan, any plan, can never be centred around one thing because if it is, then when that one thing doesn\u2019t happen, it\u2019s very, very difficult to think outside of \u201cWhat do we do next?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we do is, we have a very clear plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know our market size, and we know the route that we need to go in, which is a percentage of market share in order to achieve success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, therefore, if we don\u2019t win a contract, it\u2019s okay because our market size is X, and we need Y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breaking it down into really quite simplistic facts is very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, of course you do take it personally. Of course, you do get a bit grumpy, and you do get a bit annoyed, but actually just being able to go back to the plan and saying, right, what is this big picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And certainly for us as RaceNation, as SportsGiving, there\u2019re hundreds of millions of pounds raised for charitable giving over the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019re millions and millions and millions of pounds of tickets sold for events all over the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, if we don\u2019t win one contract, that might be \u00a3500,000 of ticket sales or \u00a310,000 of ticket sales. It does matter because we have to understand why we didn\u2019t win it because then we can look to evaluate that, see what they needed differently, either build it, or explain it better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, the complexity of business, it\u2019s so easy to explain what RaceNation SportsGiving does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re an online entry platform that sells all the entries for events, and we integrate the charitable fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind the scenes, the technology is a massive complex beast where, for some organisers, we have to explain, well, you can do this, this, and this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For others, they need to be described how to do this, this, and this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And actually, sometimes we just haven\u2019t explained the right bit of the technology and an organiser might go to someone else that does what we do, but not even as good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, we just have to just evaluate why we lost it and then move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a very clear play plan that you\u2019re all comfortable with, that is achievable and measurable, is a very, very important aspect of that plan. Because when we are all comfortable with an achievable plan, it allows you to wake up in the morning and say, \u201cYou know what? Let\u2019s look at deploying that plan again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I love that approach to look at why we didn\u2019t win it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That, to me, was like something that you probably honed in your sporting days. Because there\u2019s all these, I don\u2019t know, you watch films about athletes, and they\u2019re constantly watching videos of their performance to see where they went wrong and basically kind of looking back and thinking, \u201cHow can I improve? How can I improve?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s something that you are doing in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think the crossover from sport to business is actually massive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s bigger than even I expected it to be. I knew that I\u2019d be dedicated. I knew that I\u2019d be driven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But actually, the crossover of some of the intricate details is massive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming from sports, you\u2019re right, we do. After every session, be it in the gym, sprint track, or on the bobsled track, and particularly in the bobsled track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re going down a track at 140km, 150km an hour. You have cameras and feedback the whole way down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, you review and you work out what you did well, what you did differently, and what you want to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can bring that into business, it does help, because like I said, we don\u2019t kick, scream, and shout. We don\u2019t do any of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We just look at why we didn\u2019t win it and what we might need to do differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We polish what needs polishing. We build what needs building, and we move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the one massive international event that you would love to have on your books?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we were speaking in a few years\u2019 time when you were like, \u201cI\u2019ve got that\u201d? I don\u2019t know what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Vegas Marathon. What is the one? The one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You mentioned the Vegas Marathon. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s just through pure chance. The Vegas Marathon is fascinating because they have the world\u2019s biggest or, I can\u2019t remember what they said, but it\u2019s essentially the world\u2019s biggest wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where they actually have a lane on the Vegas Marathon where you\u2019re running the Vegas Marathon, you\u2019ve just got lots of regular runners, but then they have this lane where you do a run-through-wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You actually get married whilst running through, because obviously Vegas being Vegas, you can do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That would be quite cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in all honesty, our goals sit on scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where we sit as a company, is there are big city marathons that come with their own complex onboarding, legal data issues, where RaceNation has a sweet spot, is we can work from entries from 10 people up to 10, 20, 50,000 people. It doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, I think, rather than one event, it would actually be having a successful global business, because it doesn\u2019t matter whether organisers have got 10 people or 10,000. They still get the same technology with us. They still get the same service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so by actually having those, the business deployed in Europe, America, Australia. Australia\u2019s an interesting one because it allows us to potentially flip to being almost 24\/7, or 24 hours certainly with time zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vegas would be cool, though, I think. Just being able to put a business trip out there to see the world\u2019s biggest mass wedding with them, would be quite cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can\u2019t believe I just pulled that out of thin air. I must be a mind reader. I\u2019m tuning into your little grey cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you mentioned, when you first made the transition to go to RaceNation, you were still training, you were getting up at six in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you still training? Do you still have one foot in that world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, you have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think if you live as an athlete and you eat like an athlete, if you stop, you\u2019re going to struggle, I think. Certainly for me, I did continue to eat like an athlete, and so I absolutely have to keep myself fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the beauty of it now is, I don\u2019t have to worry. If I don\u2019t want to go, I don\u2019t go. And on the transition there, you\u2019re right. I was training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, I went through this, not a revelation, but I sat there, and I said, \u201cWhy am I here? No, one is paying me to be here at six in the morning. I\u2019m tired, I\u2019m hungry. It\u2019s miserable. I\u2019ve got a day of work to come. What do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, actually I then stopped. I\u2019ve now found a really nice balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve got myself a bike. I enjoy the gym. I play a bit of sport and I just enjoy what I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I try and keep myself fit and active. Probably not as much as I should. Life and business and corporate entertainment, all takes over a little bit of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But yeah, I do try and just keep myself at least fit, or in the gym a couple of times a week, because otherwise it wouldn\u2019t be so great for my health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that slightly obsessive training morning and evening was almost like part of your grieving process, for saying goodbye to eight years of hard graft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because you have to go through that, don\u2019t you, and it\u2019s important that the listeners know as well. If you\u2019re going to do a massive career change, you\u2019re going to have to say goodbye to what came before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in business, sometimes not even career changes, but even changes within your business and your strategy and your plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, based on the idea, the concept, or even the early stage business, laws change. Sometimes things happen where it\u2019s just not possible anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, you have to adapt to your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And adapt and overcome is a big phrase in my world that I live by as well. Because if you can adapt and overcome, you will thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve just got to be able to do that with a clear and level head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adapt and overcome. I love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that\u2019s probably a good place to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it\u2019s been a joy to chat to you and hear about all your experiences and your amazing life. Thank you so much for coming and talking to me today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re very kind. You\u2019re very welcome. It\u2019s been great talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think we can all channel Will\u2019s advice on thinking more like an athlete in business and in life. What an interesting and wise guest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Will is on Twitter @willgolder1<\/a> and on LinkedIn<\/a> too. And why not sign up for a marathon or half-marathon if you\u2019re feeling inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you enjoyed the show, tell us on Twitter @SageIreland<\/a> or Instagram @SageOfficial<\/a>. And please use the #soundadvicepodcast<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See you real soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get your free guide, business plan template and cash flow forecast template to help you manage your business and achieve your goals.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Join 1.5 million subscribers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The CEO of RaceNation talks about how he went from having a bobsleigh career to running a company that’s helped to save the events industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":8594,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[132,332,153],"business_type":[5],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[232],"imagine_tag":[230,234],"coauthors":[439],"class_list":["post-7888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-customers","tag-start-business","tag-sound-advice-podcast","tag-startup-stories","post_format-post-format-audio","business_type-small-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ie","author_name":"Bex Burn-Callander","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2022\/04\/Blog_Header_Image_28.jpg","imagine_tags":{"230":"Small business","234":"Start-up business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Ireland","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/8594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A career pivot from bobsleigh to business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s no nursery slope in bobsleigh, or business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Re-adjusting athlete focus into business drive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
From a salesman to the CEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Proof-of-concept can raise significant investment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Support your industry by helping struggling customers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Invest in your industry\u2014 it doesn\u2019t have to be financial<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How the event industry has adapted to overcome its obstacles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If you don\u2019t laugh, you\u2019ll cry\u2014develop a thick skin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t dwell over knockbacks, instead remember the bigger picture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Viva Las Vegas: Marathon dreams<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Finding a healthy balance when juggling a love of sports and a business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Adapt and overcome: You will thrive from it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Will Golder:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Small business toolkit<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2021\/08\/YBCA_FY19_Intacct_V3_0338-1-1215x810.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\nSubscribe to the Sage Advice newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2021\/04\/z.5E3A0481_All-Uses.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"