Greg Bettinelli, Partner at Upfront, on ‘Walking Tall’, Large Secondary Markets, and Innovation

Greg Bettinelli, a partner at Upfront, dropped in to discuss how he came to tech, the GOAT pivot into the StubHub for sneakers, and why fractionalized assets require regulatory oversight. Prior to joining Upfront, Greg was the CMO for HauteLook (acquired by Nordstrom), an EVP at Live Nation, and held multiple leadership positions at eBay, where he led their acquisition of StubHub in 2007. Greg is a good friend, an awesome golfer, and we’re both investors in Rally Rd. Enjoy!

You can listen to the podcast here on Spotify or Apple and now all the episodes are on my YouTube channel as well.

For more details on today’s conversation read on below…

Guest: Greg Bettinelli

Profile: Partner at Upfront

Where to Find Him: Twitter

What’s Greg Panicked About?: Being on fire. Literally and figuratively.

The Takeaway:

Greg explains why Richard Dreyfuss should’ve gotten an Oscar for Let it Ride – the original speculation meme – long before Wall Street Bets was cool. We talk about why he’s panicked about fires: he was evacuated from his home at 3:20 in the morning, lived in a hotel for a week, and ended up moving so he wouldn’t have to worry about catching on fire every time the wind blew. And of course, we talk markets – finding those markets where the secondary market can be bigger than the primary market. How it’s all leading to the fractionalizing of shares; buying five bucks worth of something versus buying the whole thing. As you begin to fractionalize and it tends to spread, we discuss the need for less friction and the eventual need for a regulatory framework. We end the discussion with the figurative fires of how much is happening around consumer and business behavior, particularly post COVID, and Greg’s search for great teams in what he calls the “founder-market fit”.

Favorite Quotes:

“Golf was the first thing I was better at than all my friends and that’s why I played.”

“The only thing that hasn’t changed post-COVID is there’s still only 24 hours in a day, and that is the only thing we know is going to be consistent in the future.”