In this week’s member interview we meet Peter Tomlinson, founder of Endurancesports.tv
It’s not every day we get to meet the founder of a fully fledged TV channel so i was excited to find out more about Peter’s journey and Endurance Sports TV. As somebody who’s watched sport disappear from all but the most expensive subscription channels the team at Endurance Sports have an exciting mission to create a home for endurance sports fans where they can engage with the content they love. I must admit to being a sports fan so I’ll leave the details of our football conversation for another blog!
How did endurancesports.tv start?
in 2004 Peter’s passion for endurance sports kicked off as he started running marathons and he’s never looked back. Triathlon, cycling you name it he’s done it. It was this passion as a user in the sector and a chance meeting that identified a gap in the market for endurance sports content. The business launched in July 2019. Early activity was based around developing the product and content and beginning to build the team. Initial focus was to launch into their 2020 season in March with a number of key contracts in place. This included live streaming from spring events and a steadily building subscriber base.
A positive tale of covid enforced restructuring
Going into covid the team was four full-time, it’s now seven working part-time. The situation has pushed the company to really focus on outcomes rather than time spent “in the office” and it’s worked well. This is a really salient tale, a forced change having a major impact on the fortunes of a business. Peter used this period to also spend time re-evaluating the business and path forward.
Covid forced us to really assess the business, we asked the question should this business really exist?
It’s made the company really focus on the relationships between team members. The whole team are pulling in the right direction within common goals and a support network that empowers them to trust in their abilities.
Everyone in the business is empowered with their job.
It’s something that Peter has advocated through his life, whether getting kids into sport or encouraging adults to take up endurance sports and through his wide ranging career. He’s seen first hand the positive impact this can have and he’s strived to develop that culture in the business.
I think this is a really important lesson for any start-up, if you’re going to surround yourself with great people give them the bandwidth and trust to do great things.
The funding journey
Undeterred by the covid crisis, Peter and the endurance team have really lived up to their name. They have created a channel with great video content, covering all endurance sports. With racing restarting, the autumn will bring new content, live coverage and documentaries to over 84 million endurance sports participants and fans worldwide. The company is also off to a great start with their crowd funding round which, has kicked off on Crowdcube, due to be opened up to the public on 15th September. The investment boost will enable them to expand more rapidly and develop more great content for their subscribers.
The details
As you’d expect endurancesports.tv are very active on social media you can find them here:
And grab a look at their crowdfunding page, here.