SportTechie’s new succession pieces the views and opinions of the athletes who use and are powered by technology. As part of this series, SportTechie chatted with 2008 World Series champion and 2006 NL MVP Ryan Howard at the Ascent Conference in New York City on Oct. 4, and again later on the phone. Howard retired from playing in September and is now business partners at SeventySix Capital and chairman of the VC firm’s Athlete Venture Group.

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MLB all-star Ryan Howard toy first base for the Philadelphia Phillies for 13 seasons, before ratifying short-lived minor league contracts with the Gallants and Rockies. In 2008, he cured accompanied the Phillies their first World Series title in 28 times, and really the second largest in franchise record. That championship was also the first for Philadelphia boasts since the 76 ers won the NBA Finals in 1983.

In September, Howard announced his retirement with a moving tribute to his supporters designation “Thank you, Philly” on The Players’ Tribune. He crossed everything from his first at-bat and his first home run to that World Series win and the proposed establishment of his son, Darian.( Howard adjourned one of our scolds so he could be present for one of his son’s recreations .) “My career, soldier, it had some interesting bookends. But in between? During the heart of everything there is? I’ll tell you what–it was a fantasy is true, ” he wrote.

Long before his retirement, Howard was building a post-baseball occupation for himself. He had told his agent about his ambitions in business, and was connected to long-time venture capitalist Wayne Kimmel and investor Jon Powell. The three eventually participated armies in the risk capital conglomerate SeventySix Capital. Now Howard performs as a partner in the Philly located VC. He’s the chairman of SeventySix Capital’s brand-new Athlete Venture Group, connecting managerial jocks with developing startups.

Planning for Life After Baseball

“I was always exceedingly forward thoughts and that came from my mothers. I knew that one day my vocation was going to be just done. A batch of contestants at that time would wait until they got to that place of where they were finished and then to continue efforts to person it out. So I was always very proactive in that smell. I had those discussions with my agent at the time, saying’ Hey, that is something that I’m interested in and trying to do post-career .’ Ogling to have that seamless modulation so that when I’m done I previously know the direction I want to go.”

“It’s hard to find good, genuine beings to work with. That’s what I was looking for and that’s what I observed with the chaps at SeventySix.”

Adversity in Sports and Business

“Coming from the athletic life, there’s a great deal of parallels to the business world-wide. My personal tale starts back when I was a sophomore in high school. Speculate it or not, I was on the varsity team, then came trimmed and referred down to the sophomore team. My sophomore coach came up to me and he said’ Look, I know it suctions, I know you’re disappointed, but you can do one of two things. You can either sitting here and exclaim about it, saying your shoulda-woulda-couldas, or center all your vigour on doing what you need to do at this height to get back to the varsity rank. So I set all my vigor into doing what I needed to do on that degree so that when I get called up to the varsity rank, my first play on varsity I vanished four-for-four with two home runs and seven RBIs and there continues to lost eight to seven.”

“For me, it was being faced with that little bit of adversity, and that’s for any company or inventor that’s out there: you’re going to be faced with catastrophe. All people see is the end product of the major leagues. What people don’t see is the work that goes into it, the behind-the-scenes. What people don’t see is the forest right in front of you because all you see is the mountaintops that are the major leagues. What beings don’t understand is the jungle is what you have to go through to get to the mountaintop. The similarities in the business world mirror each other.”

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The Keys to Success

“To win, you have to have a good crew. You have to have people that are aligned with the anticipates that you want to have, that are going to push you, that are going to stimulate you better, that are going to compile your business better and establish everybody around you better. That’s how you triumph championships and that’s how you have a successful business.”

“It’s doing the stuff behind the scenes, it’s meeting the relinquishes and trying to completely better your business. You don’t want to have any assholes on your squad. That’s point blank No. 1: No assholes on your unit. You’ve got to have parties that are wanting to sacrifice, wanting to work, wanting to build this firm or improve this enterprise up to where it is a championship[ competitor ]. ”

“The mindset for me, candidly, is cut and dry. I’m not going to let anybody prescribe what my usefulnes is, degree blank. You’re going to run into people that say no, you’re going to have doorways shut in your face. The first thing is you have to believe in your concoction, you have to believe in what you’re putting out there. And if anyone else doesn’t believe it? Oh well. There’s somebody out there that does and you continue to work until you find that person that does and can help you. In the meantime, it’s continuing to throw in, and lay in, and put in all the work that you need to give. It’s not being deterred by any means.”

The Part Athletes Can Toy

“It appointments back to the older daylights of commerce where they would paw you a make.’ Now it is! Smile, cheese, and say Hey, buy this product.’ A mas of that has changed. Before, the player would get their paychecks, their endorsement check and whatnot, but you didn’t certainly know what your ethic was. Now, because of all the social media pulpits, you know what your evaluate is. Now you have the Lebrons and the KD, that are able to physically accompany what their significance is that they can bring to a company to assistant originate that busines with their multi-millions of adherents on different social platforms.”

“The goal of what we’re doing with the Athlete Venture Group is mostly take the player and help them improve ventures. Having a chap like a Ralph Sampson, or having a chap like DeMarco Murray, being able to utilize their social asset, or my social asset, is something that can be very beneficial to all of these various businesses and startups.”

Ryan Howard.( Photo credit: Hunter Martin/ Getty Images) Entrepreneur Role Models

“I’d have to look at Jay-Z. Ten, 15 years ago Jay-Z was just a rapper , now Jay-Z’s one of the biggest mogul in countries around the world. You have to look at Lebron, you have to look at Steph, you have to look at KD and Andre Iguodala. You have to look at what those guys are doing.”

“And before those chaps, you’re looking at the Michael Jordans of countries around the world, the Magic Johnsons of countries around the world. And it’s appreciation, again, that everybody has those trials and tribulations. Even Michael Jordan, the great Michael Jordan, got trimmed his sophomore year from his basketball unit, but was still able to make that, originate from it, use it, and he is where he is today.”

The Potential of Wearable Devices

“I would have desired to have wearables. As an athlete, you want to be able to to be as efficient with your time as you maybe can. Even if you’re willing to put in the run, you want to work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Wearables tell you’ this is how much you’re doing, you’re putting out more than you need to put under because this order of muscles isn’t firing so you’re overworking which is thus going to lead to tirednes which is thus going to lead to a potential injury.’ When you have a device that helps you understand your torso and where you’re trying to go, you belittle the health risks of injury which is going to keep you on the field.”

“When wearables were first coming in, there was this fear about potentially use the relevant data against you in contract trade negotiations and whatnot. But if you understand that the organization is a business, and thus is looking at potentially investing in you, so they need to know what they’re going to get into, which will help them protect their financing, which will help us all triumph championships. Thus you have success and they have success … it’s a win-win situation. You’re in this informational senility and you’re able to use that data is striving to procreate your squad more efficient.”

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