Anand Rajaraman is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist known for co-founding Junglee, which was acquired by Amazon, and Kosmix, acquired by Walmart. He was Senior Vice President at Walmart Global eCommerce and is a founding partner at Rocketship.vc.

Rajaraman is also the co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns, a Major League Cricket team. Anand has invested early in companies like Facebook and Lyft and focuses on backing high-growth startups globally, but in this episode we will limit our conversation to owning a cricket team and maybe do another episode later to talk about Anand's entrepreneurial & investing success.

⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.com

San Francisco Unicorns website - https://www.sfunicorns.com/

Major League Cricket (MLC) website - https://www.majorleaguecricket.com/

Anand Rajaraman on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandrajaraman/

In this episode, we talk about -

- Why did he decide to buy a cricket team

- The business angle of owning a sports team

- Key revenue streams for franchise cricket leagues & teams

- Leveraging data & technology in all aspects of team management

- The signing of 2 Australian legends: Pat Cummins as a player, & Shane Watson as the coach

- The emotional toll of owning a sports team

& lots more

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction to Anand Rajaraman and the podcast episode

(03:48) Why Anand decided to buy a cricket team in Major League Cricket (MLC)

(05:18) Choosing the San Francisco Unicorns and the reasoning behind the team name

(07:23) Parallels between business world and owning a sports team

(10:59) Applying data and analytics to team management

(13:35) Investment perspective on owning a sports team

(18:26) Revenue streams for cricket leagues and teams

(22:30) Player acquisition and salary cap details

(23:52) Player selection strategy for the team

(27:53) Discussion about Pat Cummins joining the team

(33:11) Hypothetical scenario of Indian players in MLC

(34:17) Emotional aspects of owning a sports team

(40:12) Reflections on the 2024 season and reaching the championship match

(42:43) Growth of cricket in the USA and impact of the 2023 World Cup

(45:23) Long-term vision for team ownership

(46:20) How to follow San Francisco Unicorns and Major League Cricket

For sponsorship or guest appearance requests, write to prashantchoubey3@gmail.com

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Sports10x - What It's Like To Own A Cricket Team - Anand Rajaraman, Co-owner, San Francisco Unicorns (MLC)

VC10X - Investing, Asset Management, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Office