Podcast Alert: Jeb Terry – Cosm

Transcript

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Jeb Terry: [00:00:00] When you’re in our venue, we don’t want fans looking at the technology, right? If they’re looking at it we missed the mark, right? We want them to be in it, to experience it, and I want the tech just to disappear.  

Umar Hussain: Welcome to Navigating Sports Media, a special edition of the Navigating Sports Business podcast. I’m your guest host, Umar Hussain. I recently joined Navigate as head of media after working for Disney ESPN, Comcast NBCU, and the NBA. It isn’t as simple as turning on your TV anymore, and I’m excited to share a new perspective as I interview some of the most influential leaders in sports media. 

Today I’m joined by Jeb Terry, President and CEO of Cosm, a global tech and entertainment company redefining live sports experiences through immersive venues and shared reality. I noticed there’s a TM next to shared reality. Can you talk about that first, Jeb? 

Jeb Terry: Yeah. [00:01:00] Early days we were trying to define what the experience was all about at Cosm, and we were able to come up with this naming convention called shared reality, which is really represents the convergence of all the immersive technology out there, right? 

So AR, VR, XR, MR, whatever the next one is gonna be, but with that shared experience, the fan experience, this connectivity of the crowd. Because at the end of the day, we leverage tech to give you, the fan, the absolute best experience possible, and we couldn’t think of a better way to really bring in that technology aspect with this naming convention of shared reality. So we offer shared reality. We’ve created the term, defined the proposition, and we’re trying to continue to build out that category and own it. 

Umar Hussain: I love it. And I think back over the last few years on things that have really wowed and surprised me. Obviously, we had a moment with the global pandemic that limited a lot of that for a while there. 

But even on the technology side, it seems like over the last few years it’s gotten a little bit stale. You look at, the iPhone [00:02:00] announcement used to be the most exciting thing year over year, and now it’s another camera is added to the back of the phone. And I hadn’t really experienced much of something new until I stepped into Cosm. 

So I’m a huge fan. I’m a big Arsenal fan. You can see it on the back here. I’ve got a Thierry Henry jersey. I went for an Arsenal-Aston Villa game, and it was at the Aston Villa Park. I don’t wanna steal your thunder in describing the experience d- by sharing mine, but I really felt like I was at the game. 

I was sitting with the Arsenal away support section, and I could go to the, a clean bathroom. I could order food, and I really felt like I was in England. Shared reality is like the perfect way to describe it. Can you describe like what Cosm means to you, and maybe your own aha moment when you experienced it for the first time? 

Jeb Terry: At the end of the day, we wanna really transport fans to their favorite places, the iconic destinations around the world. And our core proposition is focused [00:03:00] on live sports, but we program out a lot of different types of content as well. So entertainment offerings, experiential cinema, Cirque du Soleil, art entertainment, all those things. 

But at the core, the through line is the transportive nature of this experience, and that our guests, they’re not just guests, they’re fans. And that’s the proposition. We wanna give fans the best fan experience we can possibly deliver, and we use our best-of-breed technology to do that. And so the aha moment really came with really unpacking what the technology slate was, call it five, six years ago, and what was the world of possible. 

And when we were doing some proof of concepts and trying to really identify what this could be, there was a moment where I was looking at some LED tech, and I had some old content that I was testing, and it was one of these things where if this works, it’ll probably be pretty cool, but I doubt it’s gonna work, originally, when I was thinking through this. 

And I’ll never forget, it was in this really low-rent warehouse where this [00:04:00] technology was set up in just early, early days, and I walked in, and it was literally like just being punched in the mouth. The proverbial light bulb goes off, the holy beep moment. This will work. And look, I’m fortunate. I’ve been on the playing field. 

I’ve been on the sidelines of the biggest and best events in the world, and it was that feeling, the reaction that I had when I was looking and experiencing this thing that I was like, “This will work at scale.” It’s gonna be really hard. There’s a lot of hurdles in the way, but it was a, it was pretty transparent to me of what it would take to get this thing done, and the experience was good at the time, that visceral feeling was so strong that there was no doubt we had to pursue it. 

Umar Hussain: Can I ask, what was that first piece of content that you saw in that warehouse? I’ve seen it for soccer, I’ve seen it for basketball and football, but what did you watch first? 

Jeb Terry: I tested a lot of different things, which is also gave me the conviction around, hey, this could be multi-genre. But it was old soccer match. And I’m a football guy, and, I should probably say football now given our global scale. . It’s tough [00:05:00] for me to get that out. I can’t say American football and football. But look, it was a soccer match, and it wasn’t the content on the display. 

It was the feeling I had like I was there, right? And that’s the big thing because when you’re in our venue, we don’t want fans looking at the technology, right? If they’re looking at it we missed the mark. We want them to be in it, to experience it. And I want the tech just to disappear because I want you cheering on Arsenal, high-fiving your buddies, drinking your beer, having great food, and just having a blast, right? 

Being entertained and getting value for that time and that commitment you had to spend with us. And I want you on your phone filming it, right? Showing your fans “Look, I’m at the game.” All those things. And and so yeah we’re seeing fans react that way, and it’s that fan experience that continues to drive us and give us the conviction, and it’s a undema- deniable product market fit. 

Umar Hussain: You started as an NFL football player. You played for San Francisco 49ers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and then landed unconventionally into career in [00:06:00] entrepreneurship and tech. Can you speak a little bit to, how that experience set you up to do what you’re doing today? 

Jeb Terry: Yeah, happy to and look, playing in the NFL, just an incredible privilege. Playing in college is an incredible privilege. I look back at those days fondly. Really formative years, not only because of the teamwork dynamics that it takes, but the competitive nature of what it takes to win working with coaches, different walks of life, all those things. 

I’ll never forget draft night Gruden calls and is like, “Do you wanna be a Buc?” And you’re just like, “Let’s roll,” right? So again I love that’s core to how I think about it. It’s this competitive spirit and the will to win. Eventually, though, that ran out, right? The NFL said, “Hey, thanks, but no thanks. Time to move on.” 

So I went back to business school and got my full-time MBA. Went back to UNC. Go Heels for those listening. Always huge Tar Heel here. And it was in that time I started really looking at what it takes to start a business and then trying to figure out what my experiences could lead to, but on the business function. 

That led us to build a company called [00:07:00] Straight Cast Media, which was a mobile video platform. It was early days. iPhone was coming out. Twitter was getting really started. And we saw an opportunity to try to find and create a platform where authenticated athletes could share unfiltered content. 

That was the core of the proposition. So it is trying to give fans, and this is the through line, something, some unique insights, some access they might not have, and using technology to do that, right? Very similar to what Cosm is, thinking about fan access and insights, et cetera. And so we started with audio and then converted those audio into video. 

And so eventually we had professional athletes, mainly NFL players, creating real-time video on our platform, on the mobile phone, and we were taking that straight to fans via an app. We were also taking that to media outlets and eventually broadcast partners. And so for those that were watching NFL back in, call it ’13, ’14, ’15 there were programs like On the Bus, On the Plane, all these things, which was actually our platform bringing content [00:08:00] through the player’s phone directly to TV broadcast workflows. 

So that was a really formidable learning experience for me. I didn’t know how to raise money, didn’t know about customer acquisition, nothing about the startup game. But we knew how to compete we knew how to create something of value and figure out what was great, and it was that access to our former player partners, et cetera, understanding the business side of that ecosystem, the motivating things to, to get people to act, and the value proposition that we could deliver to fans. 

And so we built a business around that. We were eventually able to sell that business to Fox Sports. That’s what brought me to Fox, brought me to the West Coast. And I was running our group that was called Fox Sports ProCast there, which was the version of Stray Cast, and then really started exploring cross-platform innovation. 

So thinking about how do you take that linear portfolio and expand it across all these other distribution channels. So I was working hand-in-hand and in, in our digital team, looking at our OTT apps, looking at social, web, digital but also immersive. So I [00:09:00] started to understand what the immersive landscape was all about and what the workflows behind that to, to execute that vision. 

And so I was able to do things like the Super Bowl, work on the World Cup team, work on the World Series doing all the nonlinear stuff, right? All the tech stuff that we were exploring and going further and that was the basis of my understanding of this immersive tech space, which was always very cool, always very innovative, but couldn’t get over that next leap of being a really accessible consumer proposition. 

And so again, as things evolved and I was able to lean on that and bring some of those experiences to life, and now take those learnings and apply it, and that really informed some of my things around building Cosm and knowing what was capable. 

Umar Hussain: Incredible. That’s awesome. It’s amazing to hear from your playing career to developing a tech understanding, to developing a startup mentality, to then work under a big corporate arm at a big network That is very influential in pro sports. 

I’m sure those relationships [00:10:00] you’ve built along the way have served you so well. Now, can you speak a little bit to Cosm and the partnerships you’ve built and the content you show? And I think perhaps before that, I should probably also say, can you guys have two locations. 

Jeb Terry: Yep. 

Umar Hussain: Los Angeles and you’re in Dallas. Two more coming, is that correct? In Atlanta and Detroit. 

Jeb Terry: Yep. 

Umar Hussain: There are people who have never probably seen it. They may have seen social clips or haven’t stepped in the facility. How do you describe it to someone who hasn’t been there? 

Jeb Terry: Great question. So we had a few questions in there, Umar, so I’ll try to unpack a few of them and see- yeah. 

Umar Hussain: I’m sorry. This is podcast 101, don’t ask two-part, three-part questions. 

Jeb Terry: It’s all it’s all good. It’s all good. So I’ll start with the partnerships first and foremost. So it all starts with the fact that with our fan experience, I view that as a partnership with the fan, right? 

They’re gonna come spend time and money with us, it’s our obligation to give them world-class experience and hospitality, right? So and that’s the core of the partnership. But even beyond that, I have a responsibility to all of our network and league partners around their trusted [00:11:00] IP, so massive responsibility there, and that’s where we start with. 

And so we’ve been able to build relationships and rights deals with the biggest and best leagues in the world, from the NFL, the NBA, UFC, WWE, to the broadcast partners including Fox, ESPN, NBC, Warner, Turner, Amazon, et cetera. And so we’ve been able to create a really robust rights portfolio, and now that’s extending into entertainment with the launch of the experiential cinema category and studio deals. 

We’ve launched with The Matrix, which has been fantastic, and then we’ve announced Willy Wonka. We’re gonna take you into the chocolate factory just like we took you into the Matrix with Neo, and we have so many more coming down the pipeline there as well. Relationship with Cirque du Soleil for performance, putting you on stage in the water for the best performance of O ever. 

And again, so partnerships matter. Th- it’s core to how we operate. And then that extends to partnerships with our development partners. So our landlord, our real estate partners, as we tend to scale this business, we’ve got two open, two more coming. [00:12:00] We’ve also announced we’re going to Cleveland, so we have three more in the pipeline, and I’ve got many more behind it, but no big reveals today, Umar. Apologies, I can’t reveal the next location. 

Umar Hussain: Another time. Another time. 

Jeb Terry: But we’ve got more to come with big international ambition. And the way we describe this to fans, it’s really the world’s best sports experience at the end of the day. We’re never gonna be better than going to the actual game, I wanna make that clear. 

There’s nothing like going to the stadium, going to the arena, and just the electricity of that crowd. But we’re gonna do everything we can to be that next best option. And that’s the beauty of what we’ve built. So when you can’t get over to watch an Arsenal match, come to COSM and watch it. We like to say, “If you can’t be there, be at COSM.” 

That’s our tagline that we’ve been developing. 

Umar Hussain: I love it. 

Jeb Terry: And that’s the core of the proposition. And fans, no matter how hard you sell it, still come in and that look of awe and wonder. They’re just like, “I thought I knew what this was. I had high expectations, but holy cow, this is insane.” And it gets back to our [00:13:00] namesake, which is co- COSM is the coliseum meets the cosmos, right? 

So think sport, competition with the awe and wonder of space, and just the enormity of it. Because at our core, we built this through an M&A strategy, and we are also the largest planetarium company in the world, right? So now when you think about that, we power nearly 800 planetariums globally, and so we have a big science and education mandate. 

We take the core of that experience, do some different things to it, right? Do all the things necessary to deliver COSM, but really optimize for sport and entertainment in our consumer-facing venues. So we describe it that way. So you come in and it is like you are there at the best seat in the house. Now, couple that with our production arm. 

We produce all the content, all the live feeds that come on, and so fans have really one of the best seats in the house. Whether it’s behind the goalpost, or it’s on the Chapman cart, or it’s the high wide, or it’s in the slash in soccer. We have multiple cameras at every event, [00:14:00] and we’re switching it so that fans always are in that action, coupled with the hospitality experience that we define as COSM-worthy. 

Great food, cold beers, great drinks, and a fan-friendly experience. And that’s what COSM’s all about. Incredible. 

Umar Hussain: And from the viewing experience, you, like you said, you come in, you get a courtside seat, you get a seat behind the glass, and there’s a producer on site who is controlling the cameras that are at the facility where the live event is happening, but you’re also, like you said, partnered with the networks on the official broadcast, so you catch replays, you’ll catch the angles that they’re getting there as well. I always imagine being that producer’s gotta be a somewhat of a difficult job because you’re in a half dome. I don’t know if that’s how you’d describe it. But watching a play from a certain angle and then being ch- turned to another angle, what are some of the learnings you guys have learned as you’ve built this experience out? Because it’s not predictable. Sports, the beauty of sports is it’s not predictable. 

Jeb Terry: It’s live, right? There’s conflict. And so the way we think about this is we wanna offer the [00:15:00] fan that best seat in the house, but with the context that you’re gonna get at home. And so our broadcast partners they’ve got great color commentary, great replays, great looks, all the marks, all the score bugs, so we bring that in as well, so fans have that replay component along with the live color commentary. 

So we really want it to be the best of the at-home and in-stadium experience, right? That’s really the core of that proposition. 

Umar Hussain: You mentioned scale, and you’ve mentioned the interest you guys have had globally on your expansion strategy. I’m not asking you to reveal where you’re gonna go next or announce next, but could you give us a little look in the hood on the criteria for selecting where are the places you want to be next besides obviously big market location? Are there anything else you guys look towards? 

Jeb Terry: Yeah. So we’re very active in, in looking at all of our next sites, as you might imagine. Here in the US, every major market, we’re looking at those opportunities. We really look at the demographic profile and the numbers and data [00:16:00] behind each market first and foremost, wherever they are in the world. 

Then we look at who is the development partner, who is our real estate partner in that. I talked about partnership early in this podcast. I think partnership matters so much to us, and that also extends to who is the real estate partner there in the location. That matters anywhere in the world. 

We also look at what’s the placemaking that’s going on. There’s a big trend in sports entertainment of these stadium and arena-anchored entertainment districts. We believe we are a perfect complement to that, not only on pre, post, on game day, but also non-match day. How are we driving traffic and energy to that real estate? 

So we look at what- People are doing from a placemaking perspective. And are there other draws, and how do we complement that as a, as this always on active space within these districts? And then when we look internationally, we really think about the programming slate, and what are those fan graphics of that location, and how can we make sure that we can have an always on mentality and have a [00:17:00] diversity of content that they’re looking for? 

And that drives a lot of it. And sport is inherently global right now, right? We kn- we bring Premier League here to the States. We’re looking to bring cricket. We’re looking to bring international sport here as well. Also, exporting US sports internationally is a big thing, so we look at where those fandoms are. 

Big initiative by the leagues, big initiative by the teams, et cetera. So we look to support that effort. And that’s really the mental math that we go through. And we’re opportunistic at the end of the day. I’m not gonna turn someone down just because if it’s a, on a wing and a prayer, right? I’m gonna do the necessary work it takes to validate the opportunity, and then we’ll make strategic decisions based on timing and rollout, bandwidth, et cetera, along the way. 

Umar Hussain: Love it. What then when you guys are working with- or if you had an opportunity to be on the ground floor with either a mixed-use real estate or even for just your content experience and your production experience, if you were got a seat at the table at the Intuit Dome when it was getting built, how would you [00:18:00] ask, or what would you ask for them to do to help build the Cosm experience? 

Granted that’s a little, that’s not self-serving for them, right? That’s for them doing something for you in that instance. But what are your dream asks for venue makers on how to help make the Cosm experience even more interesting? 

Jeb Terry: So look, it’s really interesting you ask that question. We take that partner-minded approach everywhere we go, especially with local teams, right? So as we talk with teams, I want all these people to run their race and build their most incredible destination possible. If our technology can support their ambition, we’re all ears, and we have quite a robust business of selling our technology through to partners, right? 

But when we think about it, we think about more of a site plan perspective and the adjacencies. And how does a Cosm venue fit within a broader district? And how should we all be collectively thinking about the common area space or the central core, the ingress, egress of the fans? Where do they park? 

Because look, at the end of the day, when you decide to come to [00:19:00] Cosm, I want that from the first time you interact with our brand, whether it’s in the app, it’s online, on an ad, to when you are sitting in your seat, we want that to be a Cosm worthy experience. It’s very difficult to do ’cause there’s things outside of our control. 

But for the things that we can control, whether it’s well-lit lighting, whether it’s four hours of validation like we have in LA we wanna make sure all that stuff is in your fan journey, and it really behooves us to work with the partners there to do that. By way of example, here at Hollywood Park, we work with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, right? 

And that was part of the mental math we went through in terms of where do they park, is it well-lit, what’s the security profile look, how does it look on game day when there’s 80,000 fans on site? How do they get into Cosm? How can we be an amenity to that district? So all that stuff comes into play. 

And look, as these districts are all coming up, the sooner we’re involved, the better. And I actually like to think that given our experience now, I don’t know if there’s others out there that are as active [00:20:00] cross-districts as we are. Whether it’s, being here in Hollywood Park, or it’s going to Atlanta and Centennial Yards, or whether it’s in Detroit as part of downtown, or in North Dallas as part of this entertainment district there that’s not stadium-anchored, we’ve been able to learn a lot in understanding kinda what makes a great district, what a tenant mix could be, and, we’re happy to always offer our insights to our partners there. 

Umar Hussain: You talked about the amazing food. You talked about obviously it’s a ticketed event to get a seat. It’s there’s some probably standing room tickets. But can you speak to the business model as a whole and what you guys do today and hope to do? 

Jeb Terry: Yeah. Look, the core of the venue proposition is much like any four-wall business, right? Look at any stadium and arena. The stadium or arena, they’ve got ticket sales, they’ve got F&B sales, they’ve got merch sales, they’ve got sponsorships, they’ve got season tickets, they’ve got membership models, suite sales, all those things, right? So we employ a similar thinking, right? We’re gonna eventually be adding in [00:21:00] membership and season passes, all those things you alluded to as well. 

But there’s a lot of things that that are similar to those models. We think about sponsorship opportunities. That’s something that we think about from a monetization perspective. We’re looking at premium inventory offerings. And you mentioned it, there’s different product types within the venue, from standing room to reserved hall to dome seats to better dome seats. 

And so we productize the venue that way as well. But the core of the monetization in our venue is very similar to those stadiums and arenas you see. So really you look at ticketing and F&B, you look at private events, and layering in other opportunities along the way. 

Umar Hussain: What for you, you obviously from playing field to tech to network to now you’ve been very knee-deep on the immersive side. Looking at the whole business, what would you say was, some of the biggest surprise or biggest learning you had in launching Cosm? 

Jeb Terry: God, great question. There’s so many learnings, Umar. We’re inundated with learnings. They can be as small as in the venue- looking at the far end [00:22:00] of the venue and said, “Why didn’t I put a stairwell here?” 

It’s so obvious once you’re in it. Or, “Why didn’t I put more seats in this section?” Tho- those learnings we see every day. Why does a door open one way or the other for the server, right? All these things, you go in with a lot of assumptions, and you have to make a lot of decisions. 

We made a lot right, we made some wrong. And, but the beauty of our model is the next venue we get to improve, the next one we improve some more. I’ve also been really pleasantly surprised at, on how good all the sport looks, we didn’t know how good tennis was gonna look, but you come in and you watch the US Open at Cosm, we’re gonna serve you a Honey Deuce, right? 

You’re gonna be courtside in the slash on the baseline. It looks incredible, right? Baseball. I didn’t know how baseball was gonna look. You come in and we can put you behind home home plate at Dodger Stadium, and it is just epic. I will say, one of my all-time favorite ex- sport experiences of ever, whether it was playing college football, NFL, you name it, was actually being in Cosm for Freddie Freeman’s walk-off last year in game one in the 10th inning. 

I’m talking [00:23:00] pandemonium. Of course, I was so emotionally tied to it already cause we had just opened our venue, there was so much at stake, but that experience of watching fans just go nuts, standing on the couches, just hugging each other, high-fiving, crying, in their Dodgers gear. That one will stick with me forever. 

Umar Hussain: I’ll interject. I was at Dodger Stadium witnessing that, and how you just described it was exactly how it was at the stadium, so there are a few times in life when you will stand up and hug a complete stranger. And you’re both feeling the exact same emotion. 

So the fact that that can be replicable away from the stadium is super exciting. And you gave me chills just describing that, cause obviously I have an emotional tie to that as well. But that’s awesome. 

Jeb Terry: Yeah. 

Umar Hussain: We’re gonna transition to our rapid fire questions. These are designed to be- 

Jeb Terry: Here we go 

Umar Hussain: quick answered, and more fun, and and feel free to answer how you want, but we’ll try to not bore the listeners with any long-winded answers if that’s cool. 

Jeb Terry: Fair. 

Umar Hussain: A stadium or [00:24:00] arena that you think is the most future ready. 

Jeb Terry: I’m between SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome, right? Those two are probably the most recent and employ most of the tech, so I’ll say between those two, SoFi and Intuit. 

Umar Hussain: And they’re right in your backyard, so that’s pretty cool to learn from. I love it. A sports moment you wish you could relive in shared reality. 

Jeb Terry: When we beat Florida State in 2001 as a Tar Heel. Florida State was number five in the country. We had, we were 0 and 3. That one was one of my all-time favorite football games. I would love to relive that in shared reality. 

Umar Hussain: Amazing. A book, podcast, or resource you recommend for leaders thinking about the future of fan engagement? 

Jeb Terry: So I love Business Wars as a podcast in general, and I just love the storytelling nature of it as it talks about companies competing in spaces. 

There’s competition. There’s a lot of unique things there that I like to listen to quite a lot. And then from a fan [00:25:00] engagement perspective, my daily readings are pretty similar probably to yours, right? You go to your standard sites. I go to SBJ all the time, learning what’s going on from there. 

But understanding fan engagement is just getting out and getting to the conferences. I think tho- that’s one of the most important things and just talking to the various stakeholders. You said not long-winded apologies, but, 

Umar Hussain: No, hey, this is great. We’re not setting you up. You’re doing great. You’re doing great. Yeah. I love it. What’s one city you’d love to visit that you haven’t been to yet? 

Jeb Terry: I would love to visit Rio. Any specific reason? I wanna go experience Carnival. 

Umar Hussain: Love it. Love it. What’s a, if you were meeting someone who had just woken up from a 20-year coma, and you were telling them to go to Cosm, which event would you tell them to go to first? 

Jeb Terry: Oh, that’s the hardest hitter of them all. That’s a tough question. All right. Do I get any idea of what they’re fans of? 

Umar Hussain: No. You know nothing. Oh. You’re just like what’s gonna, what’s gonna make them the Cosm believer that you think is the best one to go just to just step in and [00:26:00] experience? 

Jeb Terry: It’s like saying which kid’s my favorite, Umar. It’s like not, that’s not a fair question. But I would say come out for Sunday Night Football. Sunday Night Football at Cosm, whoever’s playing, whatever it is, wherever you are, it’s a great representation of what we’re doing. 

Umar Hussain: Amazing. Jeb, thank you so much for joining us today. I think the audience will really appreciate everything you’re doing. If you haven’t been to Cosm, I encourage you to at least check it out on social if you’re not near one. Any last words? 

Jeb Terry: If you can’t be there, Umar, be a Cosm. 

Umar Hussain: Love it. I love it. 

Jeb Terry: How about that? 

Umar Hussain: That’s perfect. Awesome.