WHAT RUNS A RUN · JULY 3, 2024
A conversation with Troy Busot, Founder & CEO of Athlinks (a LifeTime Company)
In this next episode of Tech in 26.2 podcast - I sat down with Troy Busot, Founder of CEO of Athlinks (a LifeTime Company) : the premier platform for race results and athlete data that holds ~400 million race results and counting. As a triathlete and serial entrepreneur, Troy recently launched iLoomi, an expert biographer for writing a life story. Some of the key focus areas of our conversations were: 🎯 Founding journey of Athlinks and pivots to find product market fit 🎯 Figuring out generating revenue (through advertising) and retrospectives on mistakes 🎯 How to build a company with exit in mind from day one? 🎯 Power of networking and finding a suitor to sell Athlinks 🎯 Selling Athlinks to LifeTime Fitness and figuring out how to get things done at LifeTime 🎯 Events leading to launch of iLoomi - celebrating magical moments of life Podcast Outline 0:05 Introduction 3:21 Founding Story and finding product market for Athlinks 12:36 Getting first paying customer through advertising 16:00 Endurance industry trends that helped survive 2008 recession 20:30 Transitioning into being an endurance athlete and building fail fast muscle 25:45 Building Athlinks as cog in a bigger machine and finding potential buyer for exit 31:48 Selling Athlinks to LifeTime Fitness 33:21 Learnings from building Athlinks - Make the experience magical for end users, celebrate their experience, deeply connect with community; half ur assumptions will be wrong, 37:09 How you build a company with exit in mind from day one? 40:07 Figuring out getting s**t done - life at LifeTime Fitness 56:54 Transitioning out of LifeTime Fitness 1:02:02 Launching iLoomi - celebrating magical moments of life References Athlinks - https://www.athlinks.com/ iloomi - https://www.iloomi.com/ USA Triathlon - Splash & Dash - https://www.usatriathlon.org/get-racing/youth-splash-and-dash-series Mapmyrun - https://www.mapmyrun.com/ Lifetime Fitness - https://www.lifetime.life/ Chronotrack - https://chronotrack.com/ Product Market Fit - https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-market-fit/ Faster Forward Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faster-forward-with-troy-busot/id1538652099 Podcast production tool credit: Planning - Notion Research and show notes - Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot Recording - Zoom Transcription - Restream.io Media editing and mixing - Canva MagicAI Episode info: Youtube - https://youtu.be/GQRWbMY_jWs Apple Podcast link - Spotify podcast link - Transcript and Show notes: Enjoy the episode!
CHAPTERS
SHOW NOTES
In this next episode of Tech in 26.2 podcast - I sat down with Troy Busot, Founder of CEO of Athlinks (a LifeTime Company) : the premier platform for race results and athlete data that holds ~400 million race results and counting. As a triathlete and serial entrepreneur, Troy recently launched iLoomi, an expert biographer for writing a life story. Some of the key focus areas of our conversations were:
🎯 Founding journey of Athlinks and pivots to find product market fit 🎯 Figuring out generating revenue (through advertising) and retrospectives on mistakes 🎯 How to build a company with exit in mind from day one? 🎯 Power of networking and finding a suitor to sell Athlinks
🎯 Selling Athlinks to LifeTime Fitness and figuring out how to get things done at LifeTime
🎯 Events leading to launch of iLoomi - celebrating magical moments of life
Podcast Outline
0:05 Introduction
3:21 Founding Story and finding product market for Athlinks
12:36 Getting first paying customer through advertising
16:00 Endurance industry trends that helped survive 2008 recession
20:30 Transitioning into being an endurance athlete and building fail fast muscle
25:45 Building Athlinks as cog in a bigger machine and finding potential buyer for exit
31:48 Selling Athlinks to LifeTime Fitness
33:21 Learnings from building Athlinks - Make the experience magical for end users, celebrate their experience, deeply connect with community; half ur assumptions will be wrong,
37:09 How you build a company with exit in mind from day one?
40:07 Figuring out getting s**t done - life at LifeTime Fitness
56:54 Transitioning out of LifeTime Fitness
1:02:02 Launching iLoomi - celebrating magical moments of life
References
- Athlinks - https://www.athlinks.com/
- iloomi - https://www.iloomi.com/
- USA Triathlon - Splash & Dash - https://www.usatriathlon.org/get-racing/youth-splash-and-dash-series
- Mapmyrun - https://www.mapmyrun.com/
- Lifetime Fitness - https://www.lifetime.life/
- Chronotrack - https://chronotrack.com/
- Product Market Fit - https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-market-fit/
- Faster Forward Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faster-forward-with-troy-busot/id1538652099
Podcast production tool credit: Planning - Notion Research and show notes - Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot Recording - Zoom Transcription - Restream.io Media editing and mixing - Canva MagicAI
Episode info:
- Youtube - https://youtu.be/GQRWbMY_jWs
- Apple Podcast link -
- Spotify podcast link -
Transcript and Show notes:
Enjoy the episode!