marketing, business-plan, business-model, productEverybody has heard about eating contests (such as the hotdog eating contest). What I want to do with my life is to create a brand new industry of competitive eating: marathon eating!
Traditional contests sees how much food (like hot dogs) people can eat in 10 minutes, but marathon eating sees how much food people can eat in longer time spans (such as 6 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, etc.). While this is similar to traditional contests, it is a much different skill (just like marathon running is much different than sprinting!)
I have spent the last 3 years working on this art. I have a long way to go, but here are some of my proudest accomplishments:
So my question…
I have an idea and I have a talent, but how do I get started turning this into a thing?
My ultimate goal is for this to be a multi-billion dollar industry, with corporate sponsors, competitive teams, ridiculous signing bonuses, college teams and drafts, and ubiquitous fantasy leagues that everybody follows. But I recognize that I need to start small and work my way up. I have a $300k (from my 401k) that I’m willing to put into funding this dream. Where do I start?
At first I thought this whole idea was ridiculous, but the more I think about it, the more I am convinced there would absolutely be a market for competitive marathon eating, but only if you could put together a foundation organization that can draw enough attention to make the whole idea sustainable.
There aren’t many people in this world who can answer a question about starting a completely new thing like this (myself included), so it’s hard to give you any well-informed advice; however, I think you could find parallels in different competitive areas and adopt best practices from successful competitive activities.
The first thing I would do is start a formal competitive league. Some organization needs to set the rules, verify everything, promote the “sport,” set up conferences, organize industry-wide media deals, bring together investors/sponsors, adjudicate disputes, humor the social justice warriors, provide controversy to the propagandists, and organize anything else that comes up. Competitive eating has leagues, as does competitive gaming, pro sports, etc. Setting up the authoritative organization seems like a perfect first step.
You’d have to study what others do, but it’s possible the league organization might be a non-profit. Around that organization, other companies may form that will be for-profit. Some of these for-profit organizations might elect a delegate to represent them in the non-profit’s decision making arm. Making the league for-profit is an invitation for competition should you become popular but not dominant. (It’s harder to compete against a non-profit than a for-profit, all else equal.) However, you’d have to have an interest in some for-profit entity in the sport to make money if the league is non-profit.
Once you have the basic league in place, it needs to immediately being to fulfill its mission by putting on events, promoting them as much as possible, distributing media and commentary on as many platforms as possible, and inviting new people to become stakeholders, fans, or observers of marathon eating. If you can add some drama to the events, that might help. You don’t have to get too fancy to start – it’s more important you have many events and competitions rather than one or two grand productions. Over time, you can improve the quality of the events.
The primary reason I think this could do well is because of how controversial it could be. You will face enormous criticism (mostly manufactured, of course) which can draw enormous attention. “All publicity is good publicity” could absolutely apply here if you can harness it the right way.
PS. Make sure you understand the tax implications of withdrawing money from your 401(K) if you are not yet of retirement age.
The way I would approach this would be to look at running a competition, but try and spend as little of your 300k as possible. You need a few ingredients…
Contestants Do you know other eathletes? If not then you will need to advertise in places that prospective eathletes go.
Place Find a location where people can compete. I would suggest somewhere that has 24/7 people walking by. That way you can get them to help feed social media (make sure you put # and @ on banners). You will need to look into permits and permissions for holding events.
Food You mention a number of brands - KFC, McDonalds etc. Call them up and ask them to be a sponsor and supply the food.
Rules & safety What safety do you need? Do you need a paramedic on standby? How will you know who is the winner? How will it be judged? How will you show time-keeping?
Invitations I would invite local and national press to the event, Guinness World records (find/ create a record - try to relate this to a brand and they will get excited), and also celebrities.
Staff You will need people to help set out tables, chairs etc. You will need a Graphic Designer to create banners, logos, brochures etc. I would get a professional events manager to help with all of these aspects. Ensure that there is plenty of footage that can go on YouTube and Instagram etc.
Running an event will create interest and will let you develop the framework/concept to run leagues, competitions in different areas and sponsorship etc.
I would spend a lot of time and make a competitive eating league with different ELOs. This will allow anyone to enter in and have a ranking associated with them. I’d suggest starting everyone at aluminum or something similar. Charge a fee for each entrance and then collect!
The first thing that you should is the find the market - in your cases is the contestant , if its only you that has this kind of mind , it will be hard to create , i would be to spedn
I have a few thoughts. First i really think this is a good idea. Our economy is all.about niche apps right now. Bit you have to focus on advertising. Id recommend spending most money on big, extravagant ads. Competitive Eating does something similar.
Start by getting involved in the current competitive eating market. Regardless of the idea, with limited experience in the market, there are many components that you don’t seem to have a grasp on; Sponsorship, marketing, recruitment, business structure, etc. This is not a criticism, it is very difficult to know these things in any industry you haven’t participated in. Even with “disruptive” ideas, exposure to similar successful business models and an intimate knowledge of the industry are critical if you want to launch your own agenda. One resource you can start with is the organization, Major League Eating LINK.
Major League Eating is the world body that oversees all professional eating contests. The organization, which developed competitive eating and includes the sport’s governing body, the International Federation of Competitive Eating, helps sponsors to develop, publicize and execute world-class eating events in all varieties of food disciplines.
If you want to just get into it as is then I would suggest approaching it in this order. Once you have achieved one goal, you should be in a better position to achieve the next one.
Goal 1: Decide on a format. Make rules and have a clear understanding of how you will engage an audience. From your post it is unclear that you’ve considered the audience. I am not sure who wants to watch someone eat for 6 hours. My first inclination is to go with a Facebook Live event or some other similar format.
Goal 1: Find other contestants.
Goal 2: Demonstrate a market for this by generating a following.
Goal 3: Solicit affiliates and sponsorships. With a proven following, you will need to figure out how to generate revenue. I would assume that the most significant revenue source would be advertising as opposed to ticket sales.
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