Tap The Future Miami: What An Amazing Adventure

Last week Greg Hunter and I had the opportunity to pitch Bacon Sports in front of Miller Lite and Daymond John down in Miami as part of the Tap The Future business competition. There were five companies selected and $20k on the line to the winner. Like we always do we wanted to give you a behind the scenes look of the fun and awesomeness that went down over our three days on South Beach.

This is a video of our Tap The Future pitch. We had five minutes to pitch Bacon Sports and then ten minutes to answer questions. We were confident, excited, and ready to crush it.

One thing that did not work to our advantage was not having two microphones right away (since we’ve got two people). Our five minutes started the second we were given the mic so the 15 seconds or so that we lost was not accounted for (since we had our pitch timed out exactly to 4:55).

As always we came hard in the paint and crushed it with passion, enthusiasm, and fun. We live by a motto, “Live every day like a Girl Talk concert” and this pitch was no exception. Unfortunately we did not win but we have nothing but positives coming out of this. It was a phenomenal opportunity to showcase Bacon Sports and let the world know that we are building the awesomest sports media company ever.

If you liked what you saw in the video and want to work with us then drop us a line at boom@baconsports.com or check out Cress Media.

Now let’s go to the beginning. We were making the biggest pitch of our lives, up to this point, so we knew that we had to go hard in the paint and put in extra details that others wouldn’t be doing.

That means that we were swagging up to make our presence felt in Miami.

We wanted to give the judges something at the end of the pitch to remember us by, as well as show our creativity and marketing skills. We decided to have paint cans wrapped and then we’d use that as the container/packaging to put in some Bacon Sports awesomeness.

Inside the can we put one of our Bacon Sports Tecmo Bowl shirts, a Canadian Bacon Punts on 3rd Down koozie, a specially designed MVP ticket to the Bacon, Sports, & Beer Celebration, our business cards, and a customized baseball card.

The goal of the baseball card was two fold. One, baseball cards are awesome. It’s how we roll and very representative of our brand. Two, on the back of the card we included steps for what we wanted them to do with the card. Our hope was that one of the judges would take a pic with the card and then tweet it out. That would get the whole social engagement thing going. Plus, who wouldn’t want to take a pic with Mookie Wilson?

Our dancing cat mascot Cheeto is bout it bout it.

Since we live in Chicago we had to figure out a way to get the cans and promo materials to Miami. The best option was to have a promo suitcase.

The Championship belt was no doubt coming with us to the pitch. Those yellow things are custom penalty flags that we had made. We are working on creating a game or social interaction surrounding them (stay tuned).

It’s Monday and I’m off to the airport. The pitch is on Tuesday.

Straight Cash Homey! I captured this jersey in line at security at O’Hare.

I landed in Miami and one of the first things I saw was a giant red shoe. Naturally I wanted to take a pic with it.

Times be tough for Marlins fans.

It’s Miller Time!

We were lucky enough to have a friend that lives in Miami that we were able to stay with. Shout out to Hannah Gontard for being a gracious host as well as supporting us at the pitch. You are the best Hannah!

This is a view from her balcony (she lives at the 1800 Club). That is Marlins Park in the distance.

Greg is now in Miami (we were on different flights.) Dog in a Cadillac purse. That’s so Miami.

Night time view from Hannah’s balcony.

Greg and I were sharing a bed in the guest room and there was no TV in there. We decided to watch an old Ohio State vs Michigan State game on the Big Ten Network. Joe Germaine was the Buckeyes QB and he was throwing to David Boston. #randomathlete

It’s Tuesday, pitch day. There’s only so many times that you can go over a pitch so we decided to stay loose and enjoy the awesome Miami weather.

View from the pool deck of the 1800 Club.

The pitch was being held at the Pearl Champagne Lounge at Nikki Beach. There was no other way for us to transport the cans so we carried around the suitcase with us all day.

We were literally the first ones there. It’s not like we were an hour early, we were right on time. Guess that means it’s time for us to snap some pics.

Craig Sager approves of Greg’s jacket.

Making friends.

This is the view from downstairs at Nikki Beach. Very tempting.

The guys from Million Dollar Scholar who ended up winning. They are helping out a lot of people and doing some pretty amazing stuff so check them out.

Another one of the contestants. His company is e-Electricity.

This was his Dad. They were from Tuscaloosa. Roll Tide!

Sad Brazil fan face.

We were happy that the Brazil vs Germany World Cup match was on TV as it was something to help us kill the time (we were waiting for almost five hours for the pitch to start). Unfortunately it was a major blowout so it didn’t hold our interest like we hoped.

Kenny Burns (left), who was the VP of Rockafella Records and is now the VP of Marketing for Revolt TV (among other things). Dude was cool as hell and had impeccable style. Steve Canal (right) is with Miller Lite and was the guy who called to let us know that we had been selected for the Tap The Future competition. He was awesome too.

There was a coaching session with Kenny Burns to help give us tips for when we were pitching.

Elevator Party with our new friend Starr.

A look at the room all set up. The congregation to the right is because Daymond John is now in the house.

Smile if you like Bacon Sports.

There’s a lot of awesomeness there (and I’m not just talking about Kenny Burns red pants.)

Once the judges arrived we were sent back down to wait. This is a view of where we kicked it.

The five hour wait was brutal. Not because we were nervous but because we were anxious and excited to get this party going. There just wasn’t much for us to do other than our usual clowning around.

Daymond John came down and greeted us all and gave us some words of wisdom. Like Kenny Burns and Steve Canal, he was a cool ass dude. I highly recommend Daymond’s book “The Brand Within”.

Fresh MJ’s for the pitch.

This is Orlando Gunn, he played football for LSU and has a giant ring to show for it.

Minutes before our pitch. This is how we are rolling in.

Big shout out to Bacon Sports writer and Jersey Czar Ryan Mackman for coming to support us. He lives in South Florida and this was the first time we’d ever met Ryan in person.

Naturally he was rocking a koozie.

The lovely Hannah showing her support.

Shout out to my friends Maggie and Mike for also being in the house for the pitch. With us coming down from Chicago it was great to have people cheering us on and helping get the crowd rowdy.

Doing the Money Manziel pose. Dude on the right played football for the Florida Gators when Tebow was there (thus the big ring.)

The blue lighting didn’t help with photos at all. We were all on stage for the announcement of the winner when this went down.

After the pitch we decided to get some grub at a burger joint. On the menu was a $125 The Mother Burger! Finish it within 2 hours and it’s free. You’ll also be going straight to the hospital because you’ll likely be damn near dead. Humans aren’t supposed to eat burgers the size of a manhole cover.

Digging the logo.

The night is over and despite not winning we’ve got nothing but positivity coming out of it. We know that we crushed it and that everything is a learning experience. We are going to continue to get smarter, meet more people, have more fun, and continue to bring awesomeness to the world.

It’s Wednesday July 9, which coincidently is my birthday. I turn Bo Jackson (32.) We head to South Beach to get some sun and relax. I bring the College Football Bible with me.

We got to soak up about two hours of sun before it started to torrential downpour. We find a good spot with five beers for $15 to ring in my birthday the right way.

It’s gonna rain.

At the table behind us was a crew in Miami shooting a music video. Mother Nature was not doing them any favors either. Shout out to Tim Koda.

She hooked us up with warm tequila shots.

We were looking for a spot to watch the Argentina vs Netherlands World Cup match when we came across a bar that was bumpin like it was Spring Break. We dig the flavor.

We finally land at Yard House to watch the first half.

Making friends.

We have to catch a 7:30 pm flight so we head back to Hannah’s crib. While waiting for the elevator we meet Paulo. He was singing out loud (really) and had a great voice. One thing led to another and we ended up kicking it in his spot and shooting this pic that looks like it could dub as our next rap album cover.

The view from Paulo’s balcony. Ball so hard.

Greg can freestyle rap and Paulo was studying to be an audio engineer. With my phone virtually out of memory an impromptu jam session goes down. “It’s a Bacon Sports Day” is born.

We have fun in everything that we do and this trip to Miami was no exception. Shout out to all the people we met and to all of you who sent us words of encouragement.

Since it was my birthday Greg wanted to get us hooked up on the flight back. We made friends with the people behind the counter and got free upgrades to exit row aisle seats.

Someone looks smitten.

She bout it bout it.

While waiting for our flight we met a girl and her drunk boyfriend. They missed their flight because he was boozing it up at the bar. Kudos to her for keeping her cool while at the same time having fun and trying to get her man to listen. He was an absolute trip.

We kept the fun birthday train rolling by sitting in First Class. We were in Group 2 boarding (after first class boards) and when we got on the plane we noticed that the first two seats weren’t taken. We decided to sit down.

The plane takes off and we are money.

The first course was shrimp cocktail and a ginger mandarin salad.

Then it was vanilla ice cream with heath bar.

What made all of this possible is that we had three of the coolest flight attendants ever. Not only did no one say anything about us about sitting in first class but they became our friends.

They even gave us gifts (no joke). Since it was my birthday they went and filled a barf bag up with those little liquor bottles (there probably were 10 in each), wrote a personal note, cut up sticky notes and taped together “Happy Birthday Rob”, and then sealed it with a kiss on the top (the red lipstick). They then gave one to me and one to Greg. Like I said, awesomest flight crew ever!

What’s up Chicago.

On our flight back from Miami was Ekpe Udoh, an NBA baller that was the 6th overall pick in the 2010 draft. He was selected one pick ahead of Greg Monroe and four picks ahead of Paul George. He was super cool and we ended up walking to baggage claim and kicking it with him. We picked his brain on what it’s like to play in the NBA, who he models his game after (Joakim Noah), his memorable moments (a tip dunk against Golden State), and what makes Tim Duncan a legend. No doubt he gained two fans this night.

Officially licensed NBA socks.

Wrapping up our Tap The Future journey in style with Ekpe Udoh.