Cambridge-based startup StarStreet.com merges the concepts of stock trading and fantasy sports into a multi-pronged fan site with daily head-to-head games and market-style trading. This two-part interview with founder Jeremy Levine talks about turning childhood passions into a real money business, what you don’t learn in school, and how to pitch your business to the pros. (Part one is my in-person interview and part two shows his award-winning pitch at the 2012 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.)
[Video: Interview with Jeremy Levine of StarStreet, 10min]
This outline summarizes the interview segment of our conversation.
1. How did StarStreet get its start? (0:00)
I loved collecting and trading baseball cards as a kid, especially the exciting stars, and always had the desire to start my own business; this site’s a combination of those ideas. I also studied entrepreneurship in college, and while that didn’t help much with the daily realities of being a founder, it did impress on me the need to iterate quickly.
2. What kind of games do you host on the site? (1:30)
Users either invest in fantasy performance or do head-to-head for each day’s (real world) games. We started with “play money” market trading for the World Cup in 2010 and switched to real money for the NFL in 2011 and connected fantasy performance to player value. You can play today in free games or using actual money, with various prizes. Gaming every day eliminates the “dead weight” players can feel during long-term fantasy seasons.
3. Are there any financial limitations to playing your games? (3:30)
Anyone in the USA or Canada can play, other than residents of six states and one province that have murky language about skill-based games using real money.
4. Have you picked up new ideas from your weekend at the analytics conference? (4:00)
We built our daily game in just four weeks, so yes, there’s plenty of new stuff to add and develop. Fifty different people came back today (Saturday) to tell me how much they enjoyed the game after signing up on Friday and they each had ideas to share.
5. What kind of things would do differently if you started over again? (4:30)
There’s a billion things I would’ve done differently. StarStreet has a four-person team now, which helps me handle all those things I didn’t learn at school.
[StarStreet's award-winning business pitch to MIT Sloan's reviewers starts at 5:20.]
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