The Savannah Bananas' co-founder states the first step to building a fan base is identifying and removing every pain point a customer experiences. Before entertaining or experimenting, they tackled the core complaints of baseball: it's too long, slow, boring, and expensive. Eliminating friction is the prerequisite for innovation.
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Founder Jesse Cole's creative engine is a simple rule: identify the standard way of doing things and then do the opposite. This ensures every idea is inherently remarkable and share-worthy, as people don't get excited about normalcy. Itâs a core principle for breaking out of industry conventions.
Founder Jesse Cole largely ignores financial meetings, focusing instead on metrics that directly impact fan experience. He obsessively tracks merchandise line wait times, game speed, and trick plays, believing that optimizing these customer-facing KPIs is the true driver of long-term financial success.
The Savannah Bananas create deep fan loyalty by "world building," not just branding. They've developed an internal mythology with its own rules and language (e.g., the significance of the number 11). This makes fans feel like they're part of an exclusive, immersive universe, similar to Disney or Marvel.
Figma learned that removing issues preventing users from adopting the product was as important as adding new features. They systematically tackled these blockersâoften table stakes featuresâand saw a direct, measurable improvement in retention and activation after fixing each one.
The sports disruptors test 10-15 new promotions at every single game. While most teams repeat a few proven successes, the Bananas embrace constant, small-scale failure as a deliberate strategy. This allows them to out-learn their competition and innovate entertainment experiences for fans at a much faster rate.