Standing vs sitting: a startup lesson from Atlanta United

Highwire Group started a new live event series yesterday called Disruptor Studio. And it was FANTASTIC, and I cannot wait until the next one. Oh, and Dragon Army is a sponsor ;)

The premise of the series is to produce live events “featuring in-depth discussions with business leaders who are bringing transformational thinking to their company, industry and community.”

The first event was a discussion between Highwire CEO, Alex Gonzalez, and Darren Eales, President of Atlanta United. If you weren’t aware, Atlanta United has been a city-wide phenomenon in Atlanta for quite some time, and the team racked up numerous records for Major League Soccer (MLS). Just drive down Peachtree Street and you’ll see flags and banners everywhere.

As Darren told his story, and the journey of Atlanta United, it was very apparent that this was a true startup story. One bit in particular really resonated with me.

Initially, Atlanta United was meant to play its first game at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Only, it wasn’t ready in time, so Darren and team had to improvise. They ended up playing games at Bobby Dodd Stadium on GA Tech’s campus. As Darren put it, “the seats at Bobby Dodd aren’t the most comfortable seats, so our fans at those early games stood up for the entire 90 minutes.”

This created an electric atmosphere and helped galvanize both the fans AND the team.

By the time Mercedez-Benz was open, “standing” was just how Atlanta United games were. Now, in this giant stadium, you have 70,000 fans standing and cheering on the team, something that is unheard of in MLS.

With a startup, you have to take a seemingly bad situation and make the best of it. Often times, those situations end up being blessings in disguise. It’s one of the reasons I struggle to believe in luck when it comes to entrepreneurship (Part 1 and Part 2 of my thinking on this.)

Darren said that they had a term for this kind of moment: Project Lemonade. I love that :)