Yves Batoba & Parker Graham: Co-Founders of Vestible - Sports Business Conversations

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Yves Batoba & Parker Graham: Co-Founders of Vestible

Episode 61 • 3rd December 2024 • Sports Business Conversations • ADC Partners

02:11

Dave A

Parker. Let's begin at the beginning. How. How did you guys first connect? And I'm interested in what your first impression of Yves was.

02:30

Parker G

That's a great question. That's the first time we've been asked that specific question.

02:34

Dave A

That's like, the most basic question. I feel like, come on, if we're going to do a podcast, you got to start there, right?

02:38

Yves B

It's.

02:39

Parker G

It's funny, you know? I mean, we. We get asked all the time, you know? Oh, how'd you guys meet? You were former teammates. You played college football together. But. But even I've told the story before. You know, when you play college football, you. You get to campus as a fresh 18 year old, you know, fresh faced, and you immediately find your clique, like, you find your group, and typically, that's your position group, right? So I was an opposite lineman and Yves was a defensive back. And in all honesty, like, that's really where the, like, loyalties lie. There's, like, a huge offense versus defense thing that goes on as well mentality there, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, you're beating up on each other every single week I'm in practice, so it's, it's interesting.

03:15

Parker G

And you very rarely see, you know, linemen and DBS, you know, link up and build lasting relationships. What's interesting, though, is I think what happens, I think this happened with even I, you know, after you're done playing ball, right, you really, you kind of see who kind of rises to the top as far as, like, that next phase of their life, right? And Yves was always one of those guys that I just knew very early on that, you know, he was a high achiever, he had a high motor, and was doing some really awesome things in the business world and coming, you know, I went from college to them playing professional football, so kind of went that route. He went from playing college football to working in professional football with the Dolphins.

03:57

Parker G

And so when I got done and hung on my cleats after my very brief stint with the Ravens and gotten to the real world, I actually saw Yves with the Dolphins. I was working in wealth management at the time, and I saw him sitting in my office on CNBC, which is a wealth advisor. You have CNBC on all day long, and I'm sitting there and you guys.

04:16

Dave A

Get to watch the best tv.

04:18

Parker G

Yeah, we really do. And I literally, I think I texted him or called him and was like, hey, like, are you, why are you on CNBC? Like, what are you doing with the Dolphins? And, and from there, our friendship really was rekindled and built up, built a fun relationship from there.

04:31

Dave A

Yves, do you remember the appearance at that point? Do you remember being on CNBC and then getting the text from Parker saying, hey, what are you doing?

04:38

Yves B

Yeah, no, we, so I was working at the Miami Dolphins, and we had just created this program, essentially, where the team owner, Steven Ross, had about 24 guys go up to New York City to really get a behind the scenes look at all the different businesses and endeavors that players could get into after their careers are over. So as we're doing, this cool part is NFL Network covered it and CNBC covered it as well. So it was cool to be able to kind of, you know, be on tv in that way. But whenever Parker gave me that text we ended up getting on the phone, you know, shortly afterwards and Parker and I were just catching up on, you know, just seeing how life had been going.

05:12

Yves B

And just through that conversation I was like, man, that's somebody that you just want to keep in touch with. You know, he's doing a lot of cool stuff. At the time he was already telling me about how he had this entrepreneur itch and he wanted to start his own thing. At one point he came down to Miami and we attended church together. Whenever I would go to Tulsa where he was living at the time, I would go over to his house and we would grill some hot dogs and burgers together. Right. So really I would say that was the evolution of our friendship right there.

05:36

Dave A

But it sounds like it was something that maybe you really didn't get to dive into the friendship while you're at school. Just different clicks. Offense, defense, DBS, lineman. Clearly a lineman spends most of his time eating. DB spending most of their time running. It sounds like it wasn't until after the fact that it really started to gel for the both of you. Parker, is that kind of right? Like that's where the friendship really started to blossom?

06:05

Parker G

Yeah, I think so. And you know, it's interesting. So even I are both christians and really run our business as you know, Christ led leaders. And I remember vividly sitting there and honestly, just like you follow each other on Instagram, right? Like you see what other everybody's kind of doing and the things that are going on. And Yves was just heavily involved in his faith and kind of intertwining his faith with business and that was something that I appreciated. Absolutely. Absolutely. I had started my first company at the time and actually ended up trying to figure out how to sell software to churches.

06:37

Parker G

That was actually the first thing that I tried to build after I was dumbing a wealth manager and just really felt this calling to just kind of reshape the way that I was being a leader in my business at the time. And he was a huge like reason for that, which is really cool. And now that we're together building a business together that's just blossomed even more. Right. Building a relationship. They say when you build a business with somebody you get married to them and we're like year three into this marriage I think. Right, year three like that and still have just the, that foundation at our core which I think is a superpower for us and allows us to do things that most people would probably not be able to survive through, if that makes sense.

07:17

Dave A

Yves, can you talk a little bit about. So you rekindle this friendship. You're very aligned, probably both in business practice and philosophy and approach to faith and things like that. I just alluded to. But can you talk a little bit about how did the idea behind Vestible start to find its way into your conversations with one another? How did that start?

07:42

Yves B

ight, so you're talking about: 2021

08:22

Yves B

And the way that athletes are going towards nfts and web three and the blockchain, we remember just thinking to ourselves, there's so much confusion, right? Like, if you ask five athletes what an NFT is, they're gonna give you five different answers, or they're all gonna say, hey, you gotta go and do your own research. So we're like, you know, there's something there, though, because we see so many people running towards it, and they're running that direction. And we know that fans want to be connected to their athletes, you know, just in unique ways. And as we're having this conversation on the phone, we said, you know, athletes are responsible for stimulating so much of the economy in the world of sports, but they don't even really get to see their true value. Right? Like a true market value and what they generate.

09:07

Yves B

h that combo in the summer of: 2021

09:23

Dave A

All right, so, Parker, there's the germ of the idea. So what's the elevator pitch, then? Like, if somebody's just hearing about Vestible for the first time right now, and you gave a great sort of prelude to it, like, how do we really set what the value is and how do people. I. Can. We talk about engagement all the time. Right. It's almost become a throwaway word because it can mean so many things. But I think where you are, you're talking about the ultimate form of engagement between fan and players. So, Parker, what's the elevator pitch? We're going up to the 35th floor. I know you're in a coffee shop right now. It's a very big coffee shop. A lot of levels. Let's head up to the 35th floor.

10:08

Parker G

Yeah, I mean, simply put, what we've built is we built a stock exchange to invest in the careers of players and be paid a dividend for doing so. I mean, that's the, you know, 35,000 foot view. But what's really interesting is that not only is this impacting, you know, athletes and their ability to connect with their fans, but we are also dealing with one of the most sophisticated fan bases that we've ever seen, folks that are breaking down stuff on Twitter and TikTok and, you know, the Monday morning quarterback is no longer just the Monday morning. It's every single day. These fans know everything about every player they know at the moment. They join their college roster at 18 years old. Right. I.

10:47

Parker G

And really, what we're doing is we're giving people the ability to basically say something that they've always said, which is this players stocks going up. This players stocks going down. Well, as opposed to just saying that out loud, why don't we actually have a place where you can actually go see that and visualize it and attain it, and not only do that, but have it be federally regulated and have it have investor protections and have it have an actual secondary market where you're able to buy and sell shares as if these athletes are companies in a real way. And that's. That's really where, you know, we feel like we've really carved this interesting niche that we're hopefully going to build on.

11:21

Dave A

It's fascinating to hear you talk about the concept, but also the idea of, and I'm sorry, this is, I don't often say this, but it's fascinating to hear you talk about federal protections and making sure that it's done that way. Was that something you both started off with, that idea of making sure that there was the regulation and support behind it? And is that a differentiator from other people who are maybe tossing this idea back and forth?

11:46

Yves B

Yeah, no, we. We absolutely had to start it that way. Right. So, you know, Parker and I we've been in locker rooms since were, what, single, six single digit ages. Right. So I started playing sports, and at twelve years old, yeah, we're talking about, you know, over two decades of being inside of locker rooms. And you hear how the conversation shift from, you know, before college, in college, and once you're in the NFL, and once you're in the bell, so much of the conversation is around finances and it's about money. And before that, it's, hey, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys? Who's trying to take advantage of me, who's trying to exploit me, and who's actually looking out for my best interest? And athletes are really, they have this great intuition because they've been doing it for so long.

12:27

Yves B

So with that, it's important that they are protected, that they're not getting taken advantage of. So that's a reason why from the very beginning of this thing, we knew that we had to go and make sure that, you know, both sides were protected.

12:38

Dave A

It's probably a fairly decent way that you fuse together the two parts of the business. Operationally, you've got that support, but you're relatively both approaching this from having been athletes, but also bringing a significant faith based component to it as well. And I suppose if you take all three of those, Parker, that produces a fairly substantial basis with which to have this conversation, which is brand new to a lot of people. So I'm assuming there's a lot of helping them understand and doing that from a place where that foundation is in place. That sound right?

13:12

Parker G

Yeah, I mean, it honestly, it intertwines itself, really, with everything in our business. We not only have to have conversations with agents and wealth managers and the athletes themselves and their parents and their uncles, and really anyone who is in that nucleus, in that insider's room with these athletes. Right, we have to have not only the, hey, I'm a former athlete conversation, but, yeah, oh, by the way, I also was a former wealth manager. I also founded this company with this other guy. And oh, yeah, eve, by the way, was a player engagement person for the Miami Dolphins. He did this professionally for seven years. We understand what you're going through at the deepest level.

13:49

Parker G

And when you have that and you have the faith based part of it and you have the regulatory part of it is just such a strong and compelling opportunity to partner with these athletes. We really, truly feel like we're partnering with them and their entire nucleus. And at the end of the day, what it's done is it's created a huge moat for us. You actually alluded to this a second ago, David. You know, it's the fact that we're regulated. Like the fact that it's not just the donation that fans are giving an athlete and gets to go do whatever they want. It's no, it's a true investment that you're making money off of, and the athlete and you are going on this journey together. It's the most beautiful story that we get to tell every day.

14:24

Parker G

And we really, truly think that when you fast forward ten years from now, it's going to be the thing that separates us from the rest of the pack, because there are people trying to do this.

14:32

Dave A

Well, let's talk about them. Let's take the concept and make it practical, eve, because you generate a lot of attention this last, the start of this football season, because you had your first athlete IPO with Denver Broncos linebacker Baron Browning, right. And you generated $650,000 in reverse investments in return for a percentage of Barron's future earnings. And that's. That's the template that we're looking at here is my understanding. So, Yves, can you talk a little bit about that process of working with Baron to roll this out and what makes him the right guy to be basically your first IPO?

15:15

Yves B

What's great is athletes understand this immediately. Right? So a guy like Baron, you know, he's always heard, hey, you're a business. Hey, whenever you have a chance to go, bro, act like a business. Conduct yourself as a business. So whenever we actually brought the idea to him, it's like, oh, okay. Like everybody's been saying, I'm a business. Well, now here is my opportunity to actually be able to kind of monetize the same way that a business can. So with a guy like Baron, he said, hey, I'm excited to do this. And is it okay if I'm the first athlete that does this? So, you know, the fact that he stated it to us, we're like, oh, yeah, that would be amazing. Right? Incredible.

15:47

Yves B

So, you know, here he is, you know, the first athlete that essentially goes through an entire filing process where we turn his, you know, just future earnings. Right. Yvesry single contract or, sorry, every single paycheck that he gets as a part of his contract with his team, a percentage of that gets paid back to the actual investor. Right? So whether it's a retail investor or an institutional investor. So that's a great part about our company. You could be accredited or non accredited, whether you're worth $100 million or if you have a $100 you can invest in his actual offering and receive some of those distributions as a part of that. And with that raise, right, 656 plus thousand that were able to get for Baron specifically, about 80% of those proceeds will go to Baron directly.

16:30

Yves B

And for him, that's just a unique opportunity to say, like, oh, wow, here's something that I never would have been able to done before without this company called vegetable.

16:37

Dave A

How do you think now that Barron's and led the charge and you're continuing to have conversations with other athletes about the opportunity now that you have basically a test case in the books and Baron, I'm assuming, is enthusiastic with the way his IPO went, what's it been like talking about the concept with other athletes? Parker has, there are most people thinking, oh, this is a no brainer, of course I'm going to do this. Where do they lean back a little bit that you have to draw them forward?

17:11

Parker G

That's a great question. I think for us, the legitimacy factor is fully stamped now. Like we are fully legitimized. We have all of our approvals in place to get the first one done. So when we have conversations now with athletes and their agents, it's not a matter of, oh, they haven't heard of us. Yvesryone's heard of us at this point. And it helps us really kind of short, I shouldn't say short circuit, but it shortens the sales cycle. Right. For us. Not only that, it gives a lot of comfort to the player because they know that, okay, an athlete's done this, they wouldn't have done this had these guys not been good guys. And the regulatory stuff ended up working and the fans are happy. Right. All those things had to really happen for us.

17:54

Parker G

And now we're playing the game of finding the right investors and finding the right athletes to go to market with, because this doesn't work for every athlete, right. Very, very selective on who we work with, what part of their career that they're in, what sport they play. And so all those things being equal, it's been a huge blessing for us. And now we're in that neighborhood where we're about to reveal who the next athletes are.

18:16

Dave A

Are we going to break that on this podcast?

18:18

Parker G

We can't break it today.

18:19

Dave A

God, you guys are killing me.

18:21

Parker G

But it's, it's going to be a lot of fun, let's put it that way.

18:25

Dave A

Okay, well, all right, so standing by.

18:27

Yves B

All right.

18:28

Dave A

Obviously, when this posts will know that I got evaded right there trying to break the news for everybody. But we would keep an eye on Vestible. They're going to be getting around to announce who that is. I'm interested in your own playing experience as former college athletes. How did that inform the development of what you're doing right now, eve? I mean, what are some of the takeaways from when you were playing that guide the development of Vestible today?

18:55

Yves B

Well, let me just first and foremost say I was not as good at football as Parker was. Right? Parker was an all conference player. He actually had a chance in the NFL. I had no chance. All right? So that's first and foremost. But what I do know is that there is only a limited lifetime right within your actual athletic career because your body deteriorates, and you have all these fans that believe in you, right? And they. And they. And they know that they can be a part of what you are doing.

19:19

Yves B

So I think that from my career, I would always look around and just say, man, there are so many people that get to benefit from what we're doing down here on the field, whether it's the corporate partners, the media sponsorships, the media rights, the coaches, even all these people get to benefit. And mind you, this was before nil was a thing. This is before we could get any type of compensation. I don't think we could even get full cost of attendance whenever were playing college sports, Barker. But, you know, you got to see all this. And I just always remember thinking to myself, if we. If I were to build a company and, you know, partner with somebody else that built a company, we would always want to make sure that it's not just one side that gets the benefit off of this.

20:00

Yves B

But how is it that we can make sure that the athlete, as well as the fan can actually bridge the gap? And that's a big part of what we're doing here. We're saying, like, hey, we get to bridge the gap between the fan and the athlete. And I think right now, in this day and age, you're actually seeing a lot of contention right now, David. Like, there's, you know, between the gambling companies and the fantasy sports company. If an athlete goes out there and he doesn't perform, he gets online and he's hearing it from everybody, you're like, you lost me my parlay. Oh, you lost me my fantasy team. Like, he's hearing it from everywhere.

20:29

Yves B

So we're actually the company that gets to come and say, hey, we're actually trying to bring these two groups together because we know these two groups care about one another. So we don't like all the strike that's out there.

20:38

Dave A

Parker, he brings up a really interesting point that I want touch on, because clearly this is a business and it's a money making endeavor, right. And so that's clearly important. But it feels like you're both approaching this with a larger mission in mind. So I'm wondering, Parker, if you can touch on that a little bit. Yes, of course. You're going to have investors. You're going to be making money and all that kind of stuff, too. But it's tied to what feels like something bigger.

21:14

Parker G

I think the ultimate goal for us, David, is right now there's deals that are happening behind closed doors, and they've been happening for a long time. This type of methodology. I shouldn't say methodology, this type of transaction where someone who is gifted in something gets preyed upon has been around since the dawn of time. Think about all the old ANR deals that have been going on in the music industry forever. And what was happening to actors and actresses in the thirties, 40, sixties, seventies. Right? This has always existed. The issue, though, is that it's never existed. Where both parties can win, the investors can win, the folks who are putting up the capital and the athlete can win. Or the. Or the, you know, again. Or the actress or the name that name. The artist.

21:54

Yves B

Right.

21:55

Parker G

And the art that they're actually performing. What we really believe is that if we can perfect this in the NFL with NFL athletes, in the NBA with NBA athletes, there really is no top to the market in that respect. We could literally build a New York stock exchange to invest in anyone who has social capital and can create enough value for shareholders to warrant an investment and warrant becoming an actual security. I think that's really where we're trying to row the ship, if that makes sense. And that's a much broader goal and a much bigger dream than just NFL, just NDA. But what we do know is that this problem is really big in sports.

22:32

Dave A

It's huge.

22:33

Parker G

And so if we can attack that and really nail it, the company will be able to eventually build off of that as one that could provide value for centuries, not just, you know, decades.

22:44

Dave A

Well, let's build on that, eve, because I want to find out what you both think of. Of what growth looks like for Vestible. Right? Because clearly sports. Parker, to your point, sports is the low hanging fruit here. It's got a huge opportunity for you both. It's where your backgrounds are. It's where your experience lies. But it feels like you're looking at this much more broadly. So, Yves, what do you prioritize this? More athletes, more investors starting to branch out? What, have you guys started to take that apart and reassemble it?

23:24

Yves B

Well, I will say, like, one of the things about sports, it's. It's already. There's already such a built in fan base, right? There's already so much built in support. And nowadays you're starting to see, just like, the world of sports as an asset class is just getting bigger and bigger, right? In fact, it's huge, but it's not easily accessible, and everybody wants to be involved. Right? So whenever you can match your favorite I team or your favorite athlete and their fan base, right, the people that already support them can actually say, hey, let's come along and, you know, get alongside them and invest in their careers. I think that's one thing that's really unique. But, you know, kind of to go back to your question. Yeah, I mean, the immediate stage of growth is, you know, exactly what. What park was saying.

24:07

Yves B

It's, you know, you're getting additional athletes on the platform with that, the additional fans, the additional investors, additional users, they automatically come as a result of that. Of course, we have a lot of work to do behind the scenes, right? We have to hire a staff, we have to fundraise, we have to raise money and do all the fun stuff from growing a business.

24:25

Dave A

No wonder Parker's in a coffee shop.

24:27

Yves B

That's right. But no, honestly, we really believe that because of the uniqueness of this type of platform and this app that's not a private equity fund where everybody can actually just go into the Google Play Store or they can go into the app store and really just download it. The amount of accessibility that there is and match that with, you know what I just talked about your favorite athletes, favorite teams, your favorite supporters. To be able to come to one platform, I think that just propels growth in a much faster way.

24:55

Dave A

It is kind of interesting, too. I hadn't really thought about that, though, because each of the athletes that you bring to the table is going to, just by their social capital, is going to bring users to the platform. It kind of saves you an entire marketing spend that you would have to do to reach. Like, you know, you see the millions and millions of dollars that the online gaming companies are spending trying to attract fans, but by attaching yourselves to athletes, you kind of have that a little bit baked in because they already come with built in followings. Parker, is that happenstance strategy or lucky coincidence?

25:30

Parker G

I will tell you that nothing that happens, in my opinion, is by happenstance, David, whether you call it serendipity, you call it divine intervention, whatever it is, this is a very unique market that sits in a very unique position. And Yves and I are the folks that kind of see, I shouldn't say the value, but just see the opportunity there. And what you're alluding to is exactly right. Social capital is the most powerful form of capital right now, some would say. And we really believe that in this new world order that we're seeing where influencers drive really everything when it comes to business, this is a way for that social capital would be monetized in a very important way.

26:09

Dave A

Yeah. Like podcast hosts, for instance, our social capitals.

26:12

Parker G

You go, hey, David, tell us.

26:14

Dave A

Through the roof, man. Yeah, yeah. What are your, yeah, what is the market for aging podcast host, former lacrosse players? It's gotta be enormous.

26:23

Parker G

I mean, if Joe Rogan's doing 120 million, right, like it's somewhere in that bandwidth is 120 million somewhere between.

26:31

Dave A

I'm interested in both of your impression. Evil. Start with you. Parker alluded to having an entrepreneurial streak. Did you have that same entrepreneurial streak?

26:41

Yves B

A lot of my background has just been in the sports industry. So even whenever I date back to college, I was very fortunate to have been elected as the national representative of the big twelve conference student athlete reps. So there were three different organizations, or I should say committees within the NCAA where I got to be the voice of the big twelve conference student athlete. So having that opportunity while I was a junior and a senior in college and getting to fly around the country and speak at these different conferences was incredible for me. But what was really cool was my senior year, these power five conferences had the opportunity to have legislative autonomy, essentially meaning they could govern themselves differently than the remaining, the remainder of division one. And I got to have a vote in that. Right?

27:34

Yves B

I got to have a vote in that. I got to kind of bring all the different issues and proposals to the student athletes. Took that opportunity over to the University of Notre Dame where I worked, and it was always about athlete empowerment, and that means a lot of different things. It can mean from mental health to financial literacy, all the way to, hey, leveraging your brand and making sure that you can become a great bro.

27:55

Yves B

And then whenever you go over to the Dolphins and you're doing a lot of the same work, and then there's all this exposure to, oh, wow, this is what big business looks like with the team owner and really just being an advocate and a voice for you know, athletes and switching over them to athlete representation, allowing them to see just like, hey, this is what it looks like with your fans. I believe that we have just an extremely unique background with my experience in that world. And then Parker being able to come in and say, okay, well, here's what it looks like from a regulator standpoint, then here's also what it looks like just from a wealth and management standpoint. And that uniqueness of, hey, we've really brought those two superpowers to the table.

28:33

Yves B

I really don't think is something that you can find many other places. Oh, by the way, were both former, you know, I level athletes, right. So I think that's just really, like, our unfair advantage as, you know, to the rest of the marketplace.

28:44

Parker G

Yeah. So I wanted to add one thing. So talk about himself. One thing that. That I've definitely recognized and I joke about is that Yves was just an entrepreneur in disguise. Yvesry stop that he's gone to, he's been leading some form of innovation. Now, he might not have been leading it for, you know, a startup until now, but, I mean, every stop, notre dame doing stuff for player engagement, making the lives of players better in the big twelve, making the lives of players better in the dolphins. Right. Like, just doing these different initiatives that might not be entrepreneurship for himself, but we're definitely entrepreneurship in the spirit of creating new things and creating change. I always say that in entrepreneurship, you know, the tip of the spear is usually the bloodiest.

29:26

Parker G

When you're really innovating, you're going through all of the difficult stuff, which we've been doing for the last couple years. Yvesn I. If you put up a picture of Carrie, the Stephen King movie. Right. Like, that's even I. On a daily basis.

29:38

Yves B

Right.

29:39

Parker G

Like, whether or not you're doing it internal to a startup or internal to a corp, he's been doing it on whether he realizes it or not.

29:45

Dave A

Maybe we won't put that on the marketing materials.

29:49

Parker G

I mean, listen, it's all. We're in the attention economy, David. Like, the more attention we can get, the better it is for us. So I would put that in the instagram reel if I were you.

29:59

Dave A

What are some of the unexpected twists and turns for you both that had come up with trying to create your own company? And how did those moments create more strength?

30:14

Yves B

Yeah, there was. You know, whenever you're building a company, you don't realize how emotional it is. Yeah. And I love saying that because it's like you're building this thing that's your baby. And then whenever you start pitching it and you're presenting it to other people and you're talking to this vc, and they say, no, or, hey, not yet, or, hey, talk to me. You know, a year from now, after you have XYZ, you're like, how can you say my baby is ugly? You know? Like, why would you reject my baby?

30:41

Dave A

It's my baby you're talking about, really.

30:43

Yves B

Just fighting through those emotions, right? Through emotions, through the rejections and finding those people that have come by and say yes. I always like to say, it's like, if you're driving down the highway and you see somebody who has a car broken down, your immediate thought is to say, I want to help. But, you know, that person could be deranged. It could be crazy. Like, I don't know what's going on with that. Unfortunately, I just have to keep on going. But if you're driving down a highway and you see somebody that's actually pushing their car, you might stop and say, oh, man, that's a good guy. His car's just broken down. Let me go and help him push. And the way that I tie this back to this, it's, hey.

31:18

Yves B

Yvesn whenever it seemed like there were times when were broken down because we just kept pushing, because there was always motion, I was surprised by how many people came alongside us and they said, hey, we want to help. We see the motion. We see that you guys are always showing up like you're still here. We still read the articles. Our athletes are bringing it up to us, right? If we're an agency, we see you guys at the NFL combine. Like, you guys are still here. There's still progress, there's still motion. And so many people were able to gather around us, whether it was from a fundraising standpoint or from a marketing standpoint and just wanting to help us out, because we just didn't stop.

31:52

Dave A

I think the biggest lie ever told is it's not personal. It's just business. And if you're an entrepreneur, and if you're an entrepreneur there, you, like eve, to your point, you vest so much of yourself into what you're creating that the personal and the business are completely intertwined. It's just difficult to take them apart.

32:19

Yves B

And I think it's important to take it personal. Like, you really do have to take it personal. I don't think you'll meet a single entrepreneur who wouldn't say, like, hey, I put my everything into this thing, and taking it personal makes you care about it more and it makes it worth it whenever you spend a really long night. Right? A twelve hour day and night. Oh, by the way, parker and I's wives both got pregnant within a month of each other when we started this company. So, you know, here you are, you're dealing with infants and sleepless nights, and.

32:46

Dave A

We'Re texting each other, just listening to it.

32:50

Yves B

Right? So all this stuff is happening is, how can you not take it personal? 100% agree.

32:54

Dave A

David Parker, looking at the crystal ball for a second, as you think about where you are right now, and you think about your ideal state in a few years, call it three years, what does it, what does Vestible look like to you then? And what do you. What's like the thing you want to concentrate the most on in order to get to that point?

33:17

Parker G

Yeah, I mean, world domination comes to mind, David.

33:19

Dave A

Yeah, of course. Well, that's where everything has to start.

33:22

Parker G

what's going to look like for: 2024

33:52

Yves B

Right.

33:52

Parker G

And so you fast forward three years. I mean, hopefully, we're doing hundreds and hundreds of ipos a year. The typical stock market they do. I believe it's a couple of hundred a year as well. Some years are better than others. I think the last couple years have come in down with everything going on, but there's more and more athletes every single year. I think there's. How many? 400 in the NBA that are in the league, 100 more coming every year. In the NFL, we got a ton. And there's 300 new NFL people every year.

34:20

Yves B

Right.

34:20

Parker G

So there's just so many opportunities to create value that I'm hoping that we're dominating the NFL and the NBA ranks at that point. And basically any athlete that comes into the league, we're talking to them. That'd be our ultimate goal.

34:32

Dave A

I'm with Yves Batoba and Parker Graham. They are the founders of Vestible gents. Fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for spending the time. But before I let you go, I'm going to put you into the lightning room.

34:46

Yves B

Let's go.

34:47

Dave A

Oh, okay. Well, somebody's leaning in. Someone's a little anxious. You don't know what the questions are, though, so before you get super excited, Yves, you better brace yourself, because this is intense stuff. Are you guys ready?

34:59

Yves B

Ready.

35:00

Parker G

Let's do it.

35:00

Yves B

All right.

35:01

Dave A

All right. Mike, Parker, Yves, you both played football. This is kind of the Oklahoma State version of the lightning round, so just.

35:08

Parker G

As such a base.

35:10

Dave A

All right, so you both played football at Oklahoma State. On the count of three, please sing the first two lines of the fight song. Ready? Three, two, one.

35:21

Yves B

Go. Ride, ride.

35:25

Parker G

That's the one.

35:25

Yves B

You're going.

35:26

Parker G

There it is. I was thinking our alma mater. I was like, what is the first crowd? Any mortal bright shines your name.

35:34

Dave A

That is an incredibly disappointing start to lightning from you. Yves jumped right in because you could tell he was leaning forward already.

35:41

Parker G

All right, here's what I will say. Here's what I'll say real quick about. About the fight song. I think I've only been to, like, three games, maybe four games since I got done playing at Oklahoma State. So I've not heard it very often, let's put it that way.

35:54

Dave A

I just did the excuse making. I just. I can't have it.

35:58

Yves B

I will say we have the alma mater down. We used to play it after every victory, and we won a lot of games. All right.

36:04

Parker G

All right.

36:04

Dave A

Noted. So, okay, fight song on next time. Next, volume two. We'll do the. We'll do the alma mater. Cowboys are kind of having a tough season.

36:13

Parker G

Yeah.

36:13

Yves B

Right.

36:13

Dave A

At this recording, they are three and three, but they're owing three in conference. What words of encouragement do you both have for the team? Parker, let's start with you. Words of encouragement for a scuffling team.

36:26

Parker G

I guess words, right? So I'm trying to think of, like, as concise as I can control your own destiny. There you go. If you went out. If you went out, you're still in the hunt for something. Now, you might not win the conference championship, but you might. You'll probably go to. You go to a nice bowl game. And I know this is not the mentality that I wish, you know, I I could say a lot here, David. I know the lightning around.

36:47

Dave A

The lightning round.

36:48

Yves B

Parker.

36:48

Parker G

Yes. So I will. I will stop with that. Yeah. It's just like. Just keep fighting. Control your own desk.

36:54

Dave A

Okay, Yves?

36:55

Yves B

Yeah. We've been here before. We have a lot of seniors on the team. We've gone through seasons where we started off rough, and then we ended the season being in the conference championship. So this is nothing new.

37:04

Dave A

Okay. Love it. Very good. Stillwater, Oklahoma, is the home of Oklahoma State. From both of you, true or false? Stillwater is the 10th largest city in Oklahoma. Parker?

37:19

Parker G

I'd say false.

37:20

Dave A

Yves.

37:21

Yves B

I would say false.

37:22

Dave A

That is true. Oklahoma. Dale. Still waters the 10th largest city in Oklahoma, so. Okay. All right, last one.

37:32

Yves B

Here we go. All right.

37:33

Dave A

The nickname for OSU teams is the Cowboys. If you could each be one famous cowboy for the day, which famous cowboy would you be? Yves?

37:46

Parker G

Can I take. Can I. Can I say Yves before he says it?

37:49

Dave A

Yes.

37:50

Yves B

I'd actually love that. Yeah.

37:51

Parker G

It's gonna be Barry Sanders.

37:56

Yves B

Okay, hold on. You're talking about, like, I was going.

37:59

Dave A

With the actual ride on the horse. Cowboys, but not former players.

38:05

Parker G

Whoa.

38:05

Dave A

Okay.

38:06

Yves B

Like an actual.

38:07

Dave A

Yeah, because, Parker, you are failing lightning round.

38:11

Parker G

I feel like I'm doing a great job because I would love to be Barry Sanders.

38:15

Dave A

All right, well, all right. So Barry Sanders will give that a legitimate bersion. Yves, who would Parker be as a cowboy?

38:24

Yves B

John Wayne.

38:25

Dave A

John Wayne. There you go. Enough said.

38:26

Parker G

Love that.

38:27

Dave A

Gentlemen, thanks so much for the time today. A lot of fun having the conversation. Appreciate it.

38:31

Parker G

Thanks, David.

38:32

Yves B

Thank you, David.