Name: Former Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan says company isn't 'replicable'
Uploaded: 2024-01-30
Duration: 5 min 54 s
Description: Fresh off her exit from Barstool Sports, former CEO Erika Ayers Badan sits down with Ruth Umoh, host of Executive Exchange, to discuss her nearly decade-long run as one of the most powerful woman in sports media.

Fresh off her exit from Barstool Sports, former CEO Erika Ayers Badan sits down with Ruth Umoh, host of Executive Exchange, to discuss her nearly decade-long run as one of the most powerful woman in sports media.

Former Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan says company isn't 'replicable'

Sports

Fresh off her exit from Barstool Sports, former CEO Erika Ayers Badan sits down with Ruth Umoh to discuss her nearly decade-long run as one of the most powerful woman in sports media.

Let's start with the flashiest news first. You've officially left Barstool Sports. I have. Why? Oh, it was like a crazy run. Um I was up at like three in the morning last night and I was like, God, like, how does it feel not being there? And I'm like, I don't have to worry about them as much. So, you know, it was, it was a wild run. I was there almost a decade which in media for a CEO to be around a decade is fairly rare. We built the company from, you know, $5 million in revenue, probably 15 people, one office to nearly $300 million in revenue, massive audience, massive expansion of the brand and the business. And I really honestly felt like any, everything I had wanted to accomplish there, we did and then some and everything I hope to learn, you know, I learned and then some and I still am very hungry and I want to do a lot of things and I felt like, gosh, now is the time to do that? Why now in particular, now in particular is a great question. So we sold the company to Penn Entertainment in February for 550 million. And that there was a huge lead up to that multiyear lead up to that. That happened in February in August. We I bought the company back for Dave Portnoy, the founder. And that really, when I looked at the summation of my career and job, I was like that, I'm never gonna talk this. Like this is as weird and as wild as it gets and I felt very strongly that the company needed to get back to profitability. Barstool had always been profitable prior to the acquisition. Um After the acquisition, it was kind of loaded, we loaded it up with a bunch of costs per pen and for what we were trying to do together and all this kind of stuff. So I got the company like back up, right? And then I really looked at it and I, I was like one for me personally, I came here to grow it and build it. I'm not going to top that year ever. Um And two, I couldn't um I started to really only see short term things for myself if that makes sense. Like I was like, what do I want to accomplish? And I was like, all right, I want to get it back to profitability. And then after that, I didn't have a good answer. Like I didn't have the like, oh, I'm gonna go take on this or take on that and I feel like for in general, you know, for anyone in their career, when you get to that point where you're like, what else scares me. Where's my vision taking me? What else can I accomplish? And the answer is like, I'm pretty happy with what we've gotten to. It's a good time to move on. What is next for you? I think that's the main question. Um You say you hit a number of words, are you looking to join another media company? Maybe a sports company? Don't tell me you haven't thought about it. I have thought about it. Um, the short answer is, I don't know exactly. I, I will tell you what I want or what I'm hopeful for, I guess. Um, I, I would like to stay in a company that is consumer. I, I really, really, really love being in a consumer business. Um, I'm interested in working with, I've worked with predominantly men and loved every second of it, but I would like to work with, uh, women. I'm eager to do that. I, I've really enjoyed that at bars and I would like the chance to do more of that. I'm interested in not working in sports. Um, I think I'll always be around sports. I love sports and that's, you know, we probably, you know, in the hindsight of my career, that will be where my greatest impact was or hopefully not. But now, certainly, yes, but I'm interested in other categories Um I like physical products. I like, I would like to be in a, in a sector that makes something physical. I think digital people like physical things. Like I like physical things. Um I don't think I will go to a big company. I was reading the comments on X when you announced your departure, several of the commentators said you should go to Disney and lend it how you can. Would you ever come out of that? Like six seconds at Disney? Can you imagine me at Disney? I would not laugh at Disney. I think there's real genius at Disney. I think Bob Iger seems like really legendary. I think there seems like there's like thousands of people who just suck up to executives and like push paper at Disney is kind of my like, I would not make it at the mouse house. I, I can't imagine. I would not make it no interesting. I don't want that. I think that's where like, I'd rather make no money ever again and build something than be like, you know, I'm a cog in a massive machine that's quite solid. Do you want another project? A turnaround story? And do you think you could replicate what you did at Barstool yet again? No, I don't think Barstools replicable. I think Barstool is a unicorn. I think there will be a lot of like I see it now just even since I resigned as people are like, oh, you know, obviously you can make barstool for us and it's like you can't like that was a once in a lifetime, once in a moment alchemy of things. Now there will be another barstool of the future, but no one will be able to recreate what we created mostly I think because of the fans. Two because of Dave Portnoy and then three is at the time, like I was saying to someone this morning like to break through with a media brand in 2024 is so hard compared to what it was in 2016. Like there's just no comparison. Um but I do think that I'm like harder, sharper, stronger from this experience and I will be able to take the machine of what we built for this experience and bring that somewhere else.