[00:00:27] Jay: Hi everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. My name is Jay Aigner. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Whitney Stowell. He is the founder and CEO of Cribworks, sales and biz dev, firm. I'd like to know a little bit more about who you guys serve and what you do, but, Whitney, hello, buddy.
How are you?
[00:00:45] Whitney: good. How are you doing?
[00:00:46] Jay: Glad to have you. So you know, it's, it's Monday, it's fall time, you know, Eagles are doing well. so life is good, man. Life is good. You're a Patriots fan. We just talked a little bit about beforehand. So, you know, I think pre 2017, I wouldn't have wanted to talk to you, but like post 2017, now we can at least converse as two good football teams.
So,
[00:01:08] Whitney: Yes,
I would agree with that. I
[00:01:10] Jay: I think
[00:01:11] Whitney: yeah, it's a little bit of a dumpster fire up there right now. And then the rumors of Belichick and what might be going on and, the transition of what they can do with Mac Jones. So yeah, totally different. Totally different. Timeline,
[00:01:25] Jay: Totally different. Yes.
Well, you had your moment, you know, for quite a while. So,all right, well, let's get into it, brother. So where did you grow up and did that have any impact on you being an entrepreneur later in life?
[00:01:39] Whitney: I think it definitely had a bit of it. I was born and raised on a farm in Western Maine. You know, I went to a two room schoolhouse and afterwards, you know, we would cut and bale hay, you know, cut wood for the winter. that was a daily life of what I did. You know, and where I grew up, so, but, my dad and my grandfather started, we, they worked in the woods and they owned a lumber mill.
So there had to be a lot of entrepreneurial spirit, to really be able to work in the public. Pulp and paper industry. So when I was young, very interested in it, and I always thought to myself, you know, work in a structured environment, you know, get educated, learn how people work either from a large business or from a small business and a startup.
So understand that. But I think. Then I really want to be able to go out and do it on my own, but understanding how the different atmospheres and methods to their madness work in a large business, a small business. And then I want to be able to go out and do it on my own.
[00:02:41] Jay: Hmm.when you said cut and bail from school that I didn't think you were going to actually mean like, you know, bailing, Hey and stuff. I thought you meant like bail and get out of there. I grew up in the South.
[00:02:53] Whitney: That's what we did. It was,cutting and bailing hand. I was with friends the other weekend in Charleston. They had their kids,their kids, soccer game or football game. And he goes, Whitney, did you do this growing up? And I looked at him and I go, no, we did not have this. Like we were working, you know, we had wood to cut, we had, we were out cleaning lumber,or stacking bales of hay and the look on his face and the look of the people who heard us, We're like, Oh, I was like, yeah, it's like not everybody has a suburbian life, growing up.
Like there are people who work very hard all around the world. so different lifestyles, growing up.
[00:03:30] Jay: Yeah, I think it's easy to forget that still, exists, you know, especially since suburbs are so prevalent, but, so how did you go from that kind of rural setting and transition into a fast paced business world? I mean, that's a big, it's a big shift from living, you know, out in the sticks, piling sticks to dealing with, you know. Businesses that move fast.
[00:03:55] Whitney: Exactly. Well, I would have to say the short answer is I wanted to experience what civilization was all about. and I graduated, in 2008. So, at the height of the economic, turmoil and crash. So. I looked at where best position to get a job. And I moved down here to DC, you know, the stability of, working in the government and that was the best place.
And mainly the only place I could actually really find a job. So, moved down here, within a 48 hours of finding a job and started working on Capitol Hill for the Senator. for Maine and that's kind of where I think kicked off.
[00:04:35] Jay: Yeah, I guess, I
guess that it's a big sink or swim moment. And I guess politics is a good, you know, fast paced, but also weirdly slow paced, thing to kind of transition into from being out in the middle of nowhere. and I grew up in the South, like in a, you know, one stoplight town. so I can appreciate the leisurely pace and then having to kind of. Like you said, get into civilization and dealing with like actual pace of human beings that they live, which is much different when you know, the further out you go. so, tell me about Ribworks. how did you start it? Where did it spin off from and kind of who was your first customer?
[00:05:09] Whitney: sure. So, the way I built into, starting crib works was I worked on the Capitol Hill and I worked for several defense contractors here in the DC area, both large and small and, in a healthcare company that I helped grow, their whole, public sector business. And then, While I was working with it, I also played rugby, I play rugby here in the D.
C. area. And, a friend of mine had the opportunity, to start a professional, sports team here in the area. So, he and I, talked about how to actually build this. how can I build a professional rugby team actually here in the D. C. area. And I went in saying, Hey, this sounds like a great idea.
Let's explore it. And, but that comes down to business development, sales, understanding your market, understanding your customer all the way down to the players where you're going to play. And. my friend Chris also said this is a great opportunity to be able to own. You know, he's done very well for himself over the past.
I think his business has been around about 30 years. So he's done very well for himself, but he wanted to say, diversify and actually own a sports team. Sports team. It's been something, a lifelong dream. And this is something that he's wanted to do. So I. Started to actually develop a plan for him. Like, Hey, here's what we're going to accomplish over the next six to 12 to 18 months, how to put in a bid.
Like here are our customers. Here are our core customers. Here are customers we need to convince to actually come out. So building it really like you're going to do a go to market plan. How is our, what's our go to market strategy to actually go out and find customers and be able to build the excitement, build sales, sell tickets, sell sponsorships.
Really start to build the momentum. so that's where I was starting. I want to come back to that in a second while still with my, my other job and, that was actually paying the bills at the moment.we were at the time kind of expand our current business development selling into the public sector.
across all federal agencies, state and local, but also growing enterprise sales. And we hired a very well known, consulting firm that a global consulting firm that, and, was not up to me. It was up to the powers that be in our, Company to, they just wanted to see where there are new opportunities, but the problem was that this consulting firm and the team that we were given had never done sales before they'd never done business development before yet.
They were trying to educate. A sales team and a business development team on where the opportunities were, what opportunities we should be going after and the problems where we were getting a lot of pushback, because the sales team with 30, a sales manager with 30 years experience knows what the customer wants, knows where it is.
And with a consulting firm, trying to tell them something, there became a lot of, I wouldn't say animosity, but it was definitely a lot of tension between the And so therefore. The language that the consulting firm really didn't talk about or show them where the opportunity to where, how we can actually position ourselves became a huge problem.
So I saw that as an opportunity of, I actually understand the business. I understand what companies go through and where to help position them, but also not going to give them such generic conversations to talk about. I can have a very authentic. communication and a structured plan to actually help people invest properly as they move forward.
So that's where I took a lot what I learnedfrom my job that paid the bills to be able to actually execute that on building this professional sports team. So that's where my first customer actually came about.
[00:09:05] Jay: Got it. and who was that first customer?
[00:09:10] Whitney: So the customer was a team called Old Glory. they're a professional rugby team based out of D. C. And they're, they've been around now, I think for about four and a half, five years, five years, I think will be February 1st. So we literally did everything from, we started on a whiteboard and from the whiteboard, it's, this is how we're actually gonna start to put a field of full professional sports franchise out in a market.
So that's how we started and help connect the investors together, the owners, and then being able to build out from there.
[00:09:49] Jay: So that was, so that was crib works first customer. Is that the same rugby team that you were going to build for your friend?
[00:09:56] Whitney: Yes, that is the same customer. Yes.
[00:09:59] Jay: Okay. Okay. Got it. Okay. so how, I mean, it's an interesting case study in, starting, I mean, it's a hell of a leap to make, right? Like you had to part of what I find challenging sometimes,Is really understanding how much education you have to do about your products, right? Like they're like, if you're just, if you're selling, you know, Amazon web services to a bunch of tech people, there's not really much of that.
You have to do, they know who you are, they know what you're buying. You know, they want to buy, they know all this stuff about you. you picked a space where education and interest. In the product, like it all had to be figured out and like, you know, how the hell did you guys start to educate the masses about what rugby is as a sport and like why people should want to go.
And like, well, I mean, what was that process and did you just start local and then grow? Like, tell me just how did you tackle that problem? That's a big problem to even go after the education pace piece is massive.
[00:10:58] Whitney: Yes. So it's we broke it off into several areas. So I don't think we tried to swallow everything at once. And, what we really had to do market intelligence is definitely the number one thing that we focused on. Where is our ideal customer going to be in this area? And so we really broke it into several areas and in the Washington, DC area, there's a, about 7, 500 active plane, participants in the area.
And then you have some of the best, college teams, high school teams, in the area. So those become key points of contact. For us to be able to reach out to let them know what we're doing. So we identified our T we basically tiered them tier ones, tier twos and tier threes. So tier ones are, you know, the existing, rugby, teams, the aficionados, the ones that will always come out.
Like we know we can always rely on them to help grow the sport. so I know they're going to become our primary points of contact. And then secondary markets are, the military. Right. So any military base that you go to anywhere in the world, they're going to be active playing rugby teams because it is an international sport.
so you can be playing with the French, with the Kiwis from New Zealand, the Aussies. you know, it's an international sport that you can play just like soccer. But, a lot of players that I played here with here in DC, they learn playing on a base. In Afghanistan or based in Iraq. And that's where they learned it.
They built a huge bond and they came back and played it here. So, so that was our secondary one. And then our third one, which was the toughest was the, discretionary income, individuals who just had extra money, but what do they do on the weekend? So how do we start to capitalize off on them?
So that was going to working with business improvement districts, working with chamber of commerce. educating, this is really just educating them on who we are, the sport we're playing, what comes with the sport, how to actually get people out, where we are being very Metro accessible, to the team so they can come out, Hey, you know, for 20, you'd be able to really get two hours of action, packed, excitement, and then you'll be on your way.
Unlike in a, You know, NFL game, you're there for the whole day or baseball. You don't know when you're going to actually going to leave. So you can really be very quick and really just to the point of what you're actually selling. So that's kind of how we broke our markets down and then had action plans on each, like how we're actually going to go capitalize on each one.
Yeah, I think, I mean, that's the only way to go after something kind of that audacious. I mean, there's a lot of problems to solve for any, I mean, it's a hell of a, you know, bite to take, for your first kind of real rodeo. Oh,
it was absolutely, I was,
[00:13:53] Jay: Yeah.
[00:13:54] Whitney: yeah, I was like, I was losing my damn mind. I was like, what was I thinking? But you know, the excitement of what it could be and being able to help shape it and working with some of the. people who've been doing this their whole lives, on in the professional sport. So learning from them as well as a great opportunity to be able to, stretch my legs as well.
[00:14:14] Jay: Yeah. And was there like a realistic. Kind of, you know, expectation that it was going to be a slow burn. And that like, did you have some kind of ceilings of like where you expected things to cap out? Right. Cause it's, you're competing against, the world of sports, right. And there's like everything else that somebody could do on the weekend.
Like you said, Eagles, Phillies, like coming to Philadelphia, for example, would be. I assume pretty daunting of a task. Is there like a cap where you're like, we expect at the best case, we're going to steal, you know, 1 percent of the market, which is, you know, a million people or what, you know, is that how you guys broke it down?
Like how you were going to actually like what your top level goals were.
[00:14:57] Whitney: Yeah. So there are, there are goals that the league sets, every year. Then of course, the individual teams that the ownership groups, what would also set their goals. And, but also what we had as our own goals, here are the sales goals that we want to hit here. The sponsorship goals that we want to hit.
but we're also sitting at realistic expectations. The big goal, when I was the first customer is like, Hey, we want to actually get our name out and start building anticipation so then the following year we can start selling out, you know, selling out the stadiums. And, you know, the stadiums, it's not like we're trying to sell out a 60, 000 foot, football stadium.
seat stadium. but we know, Hey, we're gonna hit 5, 000, people at our game. They're going to sell out, tailgating and we're going to build momentum, after each game. So it's like, what are the, where are our, goal achievable goals? And where are our stretch goals? How can we start to do that?
And then the league as a whole, obviously had, metrics that they wanted to hit at. And so one of the goals that I know that they, they're Wanted to hit was, be able to host, the rugby world cup, for the men's and the women's, because that helps bring a lot more eyeballs on the overall sport and they're going to be hosting it in 2031 and 2033.
So I think they're getting, it's really getting eyeball the growing sports. You need eyeballs. You need the media rights.and with media rights, we know the big names, ESPN, Fox sports, all of those. It really starts to drive a lot of, more excitement, and more people coming to the game, butts in seats.
It really helps to drive that, excitement moving forward, but it takes time, but you got to, it's a slow, it is a slow burn. It is a slow burn.
[00:16:38] Jay: yeah, no, I can imagine,sorry, we have a little bit of a delay here today. We're doing great with it so far, but there's a tiny bit of a delay. So we're, I promise we're not talking over each other on purpose. so, it was Cribworks, you were. You know, as you, you kind of built that out, how much of the business and how much of the time and the effort is pointed at the rugby team?
Like, are there a bunch of other clients you're bringing on from the lessons you've learned there? Like what is crib works kind of today and going forward?
[00:17:05] Whitney: Sure. So, Quibroaks is really a sales growth agency. So we go in, we can help clients. grow their sales pipelines, account management plans, help them position for strategic partnerships. So, the customers can ultimately win more business. So it's not just focusing on, Hey, I got a product today. I need to sell it.
You know, positioning you to be a trusted advisor. So what are your short term goals and what are your longterm goals? You know, how do you actually position yourself to actually sell? And actually having a structured, sales pipeline to support that. So that's what I primarily focus on. And, right now I'm really focused in the infrastructure, world right now.
So architect engineering and consulting, I'm sorry, construction is really where I, I have some of my clients, really where they're building in whether it's state and local or government contracting. And then I have a few clients that are over in the commercial space. So from digital marketing, and then I have one that's in AI.
And then I have, and then I have worked. My first customer was old glory. And then, as a right, I'm not working with them, anymore at the moment. But so that was my first customer. That was, like three years ago. So, yeah, two years ago. Sorry.
[00:18:18] Jay: Okay.
Got it. No, very cool. so how are you bringing in new business today for yourself? I mean, it's an interesting question for somebody, you know, Who advises others on how to do that? I always wonder how the sayers do, you know when they're So, how are you doing it today?
[00:18:33] Whitney: So, I, I tell people nobody wants to talk with, nobody wants to deal with a nobody. So it's several different areas that I focus on. The one that I work on the most is being present at professional associations. So I think lead generation is great, but I'm all about the quality of the leads that, that I,that I work on.
So professional associations, building out a very strong referral network is what I work on. Secondly, putting out constant content on LinkedIn, I think is good. So people can actually see like, Hey, here's something you should be thinking about, give them one actionable or two actionable items to be working on.
Because it's always a way for somebody who's probably on LinkedIn to search or where your ideal customer is. Maybe it's not LinkedIn, maybe you're more on Instagram or you're more on Facebook. All depends on where your customer ultimately is. and then social selling, doing your research and then finding customers, whether it's on LinkedIn, I'm just a big advocate for LinkedIn and then actually growing and then doing some cold email outreach.
So that's, that's kind of the different areas that I break down to go out and find. new customers, excuse me. Now, when I'm talking with my current clients, I always advocate is, absolutely crush it in your backyard. Yeah. Especially if you're a business, that focuses on a certain area. Don't be reaching out to, I don't recommend reaching out to customers that are halfway across the country, you know, really be able to design and do a lot of strong work right in your backyard and then build, ask for referrals, talk with your client.
And see where you can really go deep in those accounts before you start, you know, trying to go all over the country. So that's what I always recommend. And that's how I actually, I built.
[00:20:20] Jay: That's such great advice. I'm sorry, I'm just getting a
[00:20:23] Whitney: Well, I appreciate that.
Now you're making my money.
[00:20:26] Jay: No, but my, but Balbert marketing, this guy that I had on, he had a, he made a business group in Rochester and he was like, I just wanted to be the marketing guy of Rochester. And he said, you know, I know it's not a big market and whatever he's like, but like, that's how I started.
And I like, like really stuck with me. And it's so much that like, I want to be the QA guy of Philly. Right. Like I want to be like, I want to own my own backyard, which I think is a great way to put it. And I think that's great advice to anybody. It's like, it's so easy to think that there's like some silver bullet solution of just like cold email and LinkedIn, which are all great tools, but when I do the same thing, man, nothing beats like.
Identifying who your customer is and then going to the place where they're at and then like meeting them or knowing somebody that knows them and getting a warm introduction to them is, I think is the closest second to that. But I totally love the, you know, own your backyard thing. I think that's great.
all right, well, I got one more question for you. we're gonna, it's gonna be non business related, so, you know, nothing to do with your agency or anything, but, if you could do anything in the world and you knew you couldn't fail, what would it be?
[00:21:37] Whitney: Oh, that's a good one. if I could do anything in the world and not fail, what would it be?
I would probably have to say it's either. it would probably be, oh, damn, this is good. wow. I would say I would love to be, if I could, I'd love to be able to go to the moon. I'd love to be actually be one to actually fly the, the rocket ships up to the moon. Yeah. So like, a rock, pure rocket scientist,be able to do that. Yeah,
[00:22:16] Jay: I, yeah, I get, I've heard get to space a lot. but go to the moon. You may be the first person. So I had somebody say go to Mars, but I think the moon would be pretty cool too. I'm a astrophotography nerd. So, you hit home for me, brother. All right. if people want to find you Whitney, if they want to find more about crib works, where do they do that?
[00:22:34] Whitney: sure. They can find out about the crib works, go to cribworks. co. and then we can follow me on LinkedIn as well. I post every day on LinkedIn, so you can follow me, at LinkedIn as well. So that's where the two places you can find me.
[00:22:51] Jay: Beautiful. All right. Well, we've got through our connection issues. I think we'll have you on again sometime. I want to hear more about, kind of some of your day to day stuff. I really enjoyed the conversation. Whitney, enjoy the rest of your week, brother. I'll talk to you soon. All right.
[00:23:03] Whitney: All right. Hey, I really appreciate it. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks.