Podium Life is over ten years in the making. It started as a conversation with Brian Simpson when we were colleagues at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar Series. When I left to start my journey in software, the idea collected dust.
Last year, this idea kept resurfacing in my head, so I started working on it. I found pockets of time to do spurts in the early morning, at night or on the weekends. Eventually, I had a decent outline for a business. I told my friend and former colleague, Stephanie Capouch about it. With a strong background in content, PR, social and marketing (and a race fan), she was a perfect collaborator (and now co-founder). We started meeting off-hours to begin the real work.
In August, I attended the IndyCar race in St. Louis to connect with Brian and talk Podium Life with him. I also had other meetings at the event to see if this idea had any legs. It did. There was a decent amount of initial interest to realize this could happen.
More work continued. And through Brian (who owns a motorsports agency), I found myself pitching Podium Life to him and IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden. My goal was to launch with a driver involved and in my previous encounters with Josef, I had always found him to be incredibly friendly, humble and supportive. Podium Life now had four engaged and enthusiastic co-founders. Foreshadowing-ly, Josef won that St. Louis race.
Although I had a brief career in motorsports, my dad had a longer and more prestigious one. You can read a post I wrote about him called Winning Races was Lovely, if you are intrigued. Podium Life allows me to honor him in my own way - a business that combines my passion and experience in content and digital strategy, marketing and motorsports. And I get to do it with quality human beings.
With help from the Netflix F1 show, Drive to Survive, racing all over the world is experiencing a real moment - more brands entering as sponsors, younger, more diverse fans, and all racing series experiencing a spike in popularity. This seemed like the ideal time for an idea like this.
What is Podium Life?
Simply put, it’s a site that curates and aggregates all of the incredible products out there for race fans. It is also supplemented with original content that focuses on the culture and lifestyle of global motorsports. We capture the cool in motorsports.
Podium Life launches this Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at the 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24. Incidentally, the 50th running of the Rolex 24 in 2012, was the last official event Brian and I worked together. Talk about full circle
The work up to this launch has been a blast. We’ve had a team of developers, designers, writers, SEO-experts and vendors all supporting this effort. Along the way, I’ve had to figure out LLC stuff, legal things, partner relationships, selling, fund raising, merchandise and lots more. This process has made me a better professional and marketer.
If you are interested in racing or this project, I would be honored if you signed up here.
In the meantime, see you online on Wednesday.
Much love, Daniel
Issue #15 | Podium Life
couple* sorry can t type. decentralized sports betting platform for crypto folks - https://tinyurl.com/3fbhv4ts