Unlocking the Power of Female Athletes for Brands with Leela Srinivasan, CEO of Parity

DAVE ALMY

Leela, your resume doesn't read like the typical. sports business executive, right? Those tend to have a lot of team experiences, league agency backgrounds, dah, dah, dah, dah. Here are some of the companies that are in your resume, OpenTable, SurveyMonkey, LinkedIn, and others. There's a smattering of venture funds in there. This is not your typical sports business resume. So with that in mind, we've got to start by talking about your career trajectory a little bit and how it led to this moment with parody. How had you viewed sports before getting involved with it? And was it something that was always on your radar and just waiting for the right opportunity? How did this all come together? Who are you, Lila Sreenivasan?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Oh, goodness. That's a big question. Wow.

DAVE ALMY

big question. Wow.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

We're going straight for it. Well, so I'd love to pretend that this was a really deliberate and calculated move on my part, getting into sports. And I will say, I mean, I grew up watching every sport under the sun. My household was sport obsessed. And I played high school sports as well. Tennis, field hockey were my two big schools in Scotland.

DAVE ALMY

schools in Scotland. Never mess with a field hockey player. That's a rule for life.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

for life. I also learned never put a field hockey teenager on a golf course because I had a terrible hook. That's a story for another podcast. That's a golf podcast story right there.

DAVE ALMY

That's a story for another podcast. That's a golf podcast story right there.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

But anyway, so I loved sport growing up and I've always been a big watcher of sports, but I never actually considered working in it. When I arrived in the States straight out of college from Edinburgh University, I did various things career wise. I worked in sales for five and a half years. I went to business school. I worked in management consulting. And then I spent 13 years in tech marketing, including a number of the brands that you mentioned. When I left tech marketing and I had three successive CMO roles, so chief marketing officer of companies. ranging from series A through post -IPO, ranging from 40 employees to 2 ,000 plus. All I knew was I wasn't looking to be a four -time CMO, at least not immediately.

DAVE ALMY

You've been on that elliptical before. It was time for maybe something a little different.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

been on that

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah, it's more like a hamster wheel, actually. Especially public companies.

DAVE ALMY

Especially public

LEELA SRINIVASAN

companies. But the point being, I love marketing. I love the parts of my brain exercises, the overlay of quantitative and qualitative, the creativity. But I was just ready for a different role. And I just got very fortunate that Parity approached me at that time about this opportunity. And of course, as soon as I, we can talk about all the reasons that I decided this was something I wanted to do. But what I have found in crossing into this role is Parity sought me out because of that mashup of experiences in sales, consulting and marketing, as well as with marketplace businesses. All of those piece parts are relevant for the work I do at Parity. But of course, now I'm here, I'm like smacking my head and going, why didn't I find sports earlier? This is such a great. industry to be part of and it's you know it's super fun it's dynamic it's energetic there's just so much opportunity especially on the women's sports side where i sit you were a bit of a unicorn for parody then right they had been looking for a ceo for some time and finally got to you and said oh my gosh this this is it and that's how that came together or how did that evolve

DAVE ALMY

were a bit of a unicorn for parody then right they had been looking for a ceo for some time and finally got to you and said oh my gosh this this is it and that's how that came together or how did that evolve

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah. Again, I was not looking for this specific opportunity and I had not heard of parity. I was approached by a headhunter that was working parity to find that next CEO. And of course,

SPEAKER_02

I had not

LEELA SRINIVASAN

course, as soon as I am a curious person, I will say. So I leaned into the conversation because, you know, again, loving sports, it sounded interesting. And then as soon as I began to better understand the, you know, the long inequity that's existed and continues to persist in sport. And as I got to know the parity team and some of the athletes that we work with, I just became absolutely convinced that this is where I wanted to spend my time. But I am here by virtue of a headhunter. So, you know, bless the recruiting industry.

DAVE ALMY

So, you know, bless the recruiting industry. Every once in a while, sometimes those random sort of conversations you don't see coming are the ones that sometimes have the most interest and the most fun, right? It's like somebody said to me once a long time ago, and it's a credo I've lived by ever since. Have a conversation with anybody about anything, anytime, right? You just never know what's going to do that. But I'm interested in that transition. If you have so much technology and chief marketing experience background, and you've got a lot of dynamic other pieces to that experience as well. But what was the most useful parts of your marketing and technology background in helping you make the transition? What was definitely a different industry? in sports? Were there parts of it that you drew on heavily or was it just like, you know what, throw the balls up to the air and see what happens?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah. Well, I think what I find in practice, and maybe I should go back and give the 30 second on what Parity actually is so that our listeners know.

SPEAKER_03

so that our

LEELA SRINIVASAN

tes and we work now with over: 1100

DAVE ALMY

I suspect that brands must kind of lean back in their chairs a little bit when you sit down across them and you have all that marketing experience and you're able to bring that to the table just using sports and female athletes as the channel more or less with which to do so. That's a level of expertise and capability that I think a lot of brands are not necessarily always accustomed to. When they're dealing with agencies representing athletes and sports, I mean, that's probably led to some interesting conversations with brands and how these things come to life for them and opening their eyes into the sheer volume of different ways and variety of different ways that these things can be applied.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah, well, thank you for saying that. I mean, I like to think I bring a different sort of value and my team does as a whole. I mean, our team is just this glorious, again, mix of summer current and former athletes, for example. So they bring that athlete perspective to the table as well.

SPEAKER_01

table as

LEELA SRINIVASAN

So, yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot to explore. I will, you know, I'm very, very aware that marketing is continually evolving. I mean, there are, you know, different tools, technologies and so forth that are really important today that just weren't as much of a facet even two years ago when I was still working as a CMO. So I try and, you know, try and keep my feet firmly on the ground here. But I mean, I just, again, as somebody who's curious and who has this opportunity to.

SPEAKER_01

there are, you

LEELA SRINIVASAN

to interact with brands large and small and help them think through things. It's very rewarding and hopefully it leads to good results as well.

DAVE ALMY

I think that's also one of the interesting parts of marketing right now. When you're dealing with female athletes who are always in charge of curating their own brands and engaging with people who follow them and things like that, they're often the resource that you can turn to to keep pace with what's new and what people are paying attention to in marketing. I hadn't really considered them as... that kind of like almost your R &D wing by working with 1 ,100 athletes to bring them to the table and showcase what they can do for brands that are going to be new to even someone with the experience that you have.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah. I mean, again, we're just really fortunate. The caliber, the variety in this network, I mean, there's just a lot to explore there. So we always try and listen as much as we can to deliver value to them, but also help make sure that we convey their value back out to clients as well.

DAVE ALMY

Now, like I said, you've got 1 ,100 athletes that you work with and each has their own. interesting and unique and compelling stories. And I know you love them all equally. I'm not asking you to pick favorites, but I'm wondering if there are any stories that you have of athletes that you work with that stand out to you as being particularly representative of what you and parody are trying to do.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I mean, in a way, it is an unfair question.

DAVE ALMY

No one said this was going to be fair.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

but i will do because they're all amazing they literally i firmly believe there is a brand at least one brand for every athlete and there's an athlete for every brand you know it's there's just a lot of a lot of potential there um let me share let me share two two or three stories that that come to mind so i mean one unless you've been on even if you've been under a rock you know who alona maher is by this point right i mean

DAVE ALMY

Let's see if I can pull that one up. Obviously, this is a rugby player who's having quite a moment right now.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yes, more than it. She's having a year, a decade. I don't want to call it when all is said and done. Alona's wonderful. We don't work with Alona. Alona doesn't actually need our help, I would wager at this point, which is amazing. Says it all.

DAVE ALMY

don't want to call

DAVE ALMY

Says it all.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yes. I say this as someone who sat in the stadium at Stade de France. in late July and watched the Women's Rugby Sevens finals in Paris and saw the U .S. score bronze, which was such an epic moment, I think, for all U .S. sports fans, especially rugby fans. Ilona didn't do that by herself. She had an old team of athletes, and there were five or six of that squad of athletes that we're proud to say are members of the parity community. And one is Naya Tapper, who recently retired from the sport with her bronze medal. And she's been one of our more visible, I'd say, partners. And even talking about parity on different platforms, she's such a wonderful human being. She has stories of her own. And for brands, because not everybody, as wonderful as Alona is, not every brand has the budget to tap into an Alona. But there are other players who accomplished what Alona did in Paris who have incredible stories. And I'd say Naya is one of them. So I'll highlight her as just being an example of where you know, there are other options to help kind of tap into the popularity of a sport. Yeah. As long as you explore the niche more fully, there's definitely going to be opportunities for everybody.

DAVE ALMY

Yeah. As long as you explore the niche more fully, there's definitely going to be opportunities for everybody.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah. I'll give another, I'll give a shout out to Joanna Lohman, who is one of my favorites in our community, if I'm allowed to have such thing. They're not favorites.

DAVE ALMY

They're not favorites. They're just people who bubble to the top of your mind at this particular moment.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

who bubble to the top of your mind at this particular moment. Yes. Joe's often in my inbox, which, you know, helps her percolate to the top of my mind. So Joe is a former US Women's National Team player. And you think about the journey that we've been on for equity in sports, I think the US Women's National Team is pretty prominent in terms of having campaigned for equal pay. So Joe was part of, you know, sort of like prior generations, if you will, of players who, you know, didn't ever make it at a time when... the money was flowing. And we've still got a long way to go across, you know, all sports, including soccer. But this is a bit similar to the Diana Tarassi story. I don't know if you saw she, you know, when she retired, somebody calculated that her earnings in 20 years in the WNB probably peaked, you know, in aggregate amassed to about 2 million over 20 years for the goat of, you know, some would argue the goat of basketball. So, you know, chosen that camp of athletes who were prominent before.

SPEAKER_01

So, you know,

LEELA SRINIVASAN

you know, the money started to be more available. And she is a hustler. She is such an entrepreneur. She's an amazing speaker. We actually just placed her to speak at a National Association of Corporate Directors conference, of all things, because she's now an advisor at Yale. And, you know, she just brings a lot of her, the perspective of being a winner, of being a leader in her sport, of the stories of resilience, everything else that you see. But she's not necessarily a household name. So she's another good example of just the...

SPEAKER_01

an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01

another good

LEELA SRINIVASAN

example of just the... The caliber of person we have, the caliber of leader, the types of story that these athletes can tell. I'll share one last one. We're very proud to work with a number of Paralympians as part of the Parity Network. Lizzie Smith is actually on stage, I think, the day that we're recording this in South by Southwest.

SPEAKER_03

day that we're recording this in South

LEELA SRINIVASAN

But I had the fortune to meet a Paralympian by the name of Kate Brim when we spoke together on a panel. in Colorado Springs in June of last year. At the time, she was a Paralympic hopeful. She's a cyclist. And her story is, you know, she was adopted from the Ukraine, from Ukraine at the age of five, I think. She was a college athlete. She had a freak accident and surgery that left her paralyzed. She was a roar before that. She transitioned into wheelchair rugby, then cycling. She was very, very good at it. She then found out she was diabetic. So she's had to just overcome obstacle after obstacle. She's one of the sunniest personalities I've met. And then she went off to Paris and she was in hospital six weeks before Paris. She won gold and I think bronze in Paris.

SPEAKER_01

was very, very

LEELA SRINIVASAN

You know, and she's just unbelievable. She's so inspirational. That's just it,

DAVE ALMY

just it, right? I mean, even just the high level. brushstrokes that you're painting right now. It is that inspiration that when brands partner with athletes, that's the coin of the realm, isn't it? That ability to inspire, to think about the best versions of ourselves, to face adversity after adversity. And not only come out, you know, with the golds and the bronzes and things like that, but to have a disposition that allows you to just draw people to you. I don't know if there's a better story of an athlete and what they could do for a company or brand that's looking to engage a marketplace. It's a pretty remarkable story.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

we've got, you know, another: 1150

SPEAKER_01

you know, not everybody's

DAVE ALMY

So talk about some of the success stories that you've had to this point. When you think about the matching athletes with brands and the outcomes that, you know, you as a CMO were looking for at times, what are the ones that really speak to you about making those kinds of connections and like identifying where part parity is going to be successful? Yeah.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Well, when we are talking with brands and the reason that we're kind of ushering in the direction of working with individual and collectives of professional women athletes is we think the storytelling potential is huge. And that hinges on finding the right matches we've talked about. Now, sometimes that's a surface match. So I'll give you a fun example from last year, from the Olympics and Paralympics. We work with the synchronized diving duo whose names are Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook. And the hashtag that they had circulating before the Olympics was from Raul, cooking bacon. Cooking bacon.

SPEAKER_03

cooking bacon. Cooking bacon. Yeah.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

So as you can imagine, that attracted a lot of interest from certain brands. So they became ambassadors of the Minnesota Pork Board. For a six -month period.

DAVE ALMY

six -month period. A dream come true. You know, that's a fantastic partnership.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

know, that's a fantastic partnership. And in part because those athletes were training in Minneapolis as part of this. Oh, okay, for sure. So there was a local connection. But they did everything from, you know, appearing on Twin Cities television to cook, you know, for cooking demonstrations to the Minnesota State Fair, lots of content and social. I mean, there were just so many opportunities for them to come out and talk about just, you know, pork being a healthy protein.

DAVE ALMY

And in

DAVE ALMY

this. Oh, okay, for sure. So there was

LEELA SRINIVASAN

So that was one example. Another fun one that they got to do was with Hormel. I never thought in my career, even as a marketer, I would get to provide input on a synchronized bacon flip. Well,

DAVE ALMY

you know, the job takes you to the places it needs to take you, Leila. And bacon flipping just might as well have been it.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

And bacon flipping

LEELA SRINIVASAN

But guess what, Dave? The synchronized bacon flip content had a 25 % engagement rate on Instagram. 25%. I mean, that is ludicrous.

DAVE ALMY

25%. I mean, that is ludicrous. Isn't it?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

it? But it's just how fun it is when you can find that.

DAVE ALMY

But it's

SPEAKER_02

when you can find that.

DAVE ALMY

That's just it, right? I mean, it's also understanding that working with athletes sometimes, it's not necessarily like, I like bacon. That's not the answer that you're coming up with here. It's how do you find the fun in it, particularly in a social media environment where people's intention spans are, as we've all acknowledged, a little bit shorter than they used to. When you can find things like that or kind of just give people that little bit of ray of sun in their day, synchronized bacon flipping, obviously I'm still smiling about it.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I mean,

DAVE ALMY

mean, that's just genius.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah. So sometimes it's that fun, you know, that hook that you just can't resist and who can resist bacon. Another completely different example. So we just wrapped a project with AdventHealth and they had a very different sort of perspective on this. So AdventHealth is a faith -based. hospital and healthcare system. They're prominent in multiple states and they wanted to experiment with telling stories in partnership with athletes. And AdventHealth's mantra as a faith -based hospital system is they're all about helping their patients feel whole. And so their directive or the kind of the remit that we had was go out and find athletes for whom faith is a really important part of their lives to talk about that. And if they have some experience with our healthcare hospital system, great if they're in our footprint that's fantastic and so we did we went out we found a slew of athletes that were a great match for the storytelling they worked with a range of athletes you know softball player paralympic medalist pwhl player and we just actually heard last week from them that the content from the series which again was an experiment like a first time out for them it outperformed everything else they did in sports including you know they're very invested in nascar in certain areas and so It was just really, it was very exciting to hear that that content really resonated with our audience. Now that's obviously a different, a different way to engage your audience through emotional storytelling, but I think they really aced that one.

DAVE ALMY

But that's actually the thing that I found most fascinating about parody is that ability that you have to reach out to your athletes with questions about what gets them excited, right? Where, where they, so you can go out and say, is, you know, this is a faith based client. Is faith important to you? Because it goes to the underlying idea of authenticity, right? It's not someone getting up in front of like, ah, I like, you know, bacon. It's, you know, like, no, this is why this is important to me. This is a, they, that, that truth. And I, you know, sometimes bear away from using authenticity because it's so common. Everybody's going to be more authentic. But this is a real application of what that means. And that comes out through the content that's produced associated with it. So that ability to filter across. your athlete pool has, is that a differentiator for you all to be able to draw those stories out and make sure that they apply to the different brands?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah, I believe our differentiation is quantity plus story coverage plus quality of story, right? So it's sort of like we have - That sounds like math.

SPEAKER_03

That sounds like math. I got to write that one down.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I don't know of anyone else who has this focus on professional women athletes that looks across every sport. We don't care whether the athlete has 5 ,000 followers or 5 million followers. It's their story that can often be the thing that will really set them apart for that sponsor or a brand that they're working with. So yeah, I mean, we do pride ourselves on getting to know the athletes really well. When they're on board with us, we ask them several dozen questions to get started. But periodically, we're reaching back out to them because we're talking to a new brand that's interested in a specific aspect of how they live their lives. who's a fan of a specific product or, you know, as I said, it can be many different things that cause that common connection. And, you know, I know the word authenticity does get thrown around a lot, but if you put yourself in the shoes of the athlete, they also want to be working, you know, repping products that they believe in. And I think what's nice for us is, you know, we ran some research last year among fans of women's sports, as well as just the general population in seven countries. And we found that women athletes tend to be more credible, more believable when they're repping. So 57 % of people surveyed in these seven countries believe that women athletes really actually have a belief in the products they're representing compared to 50 % who would say the same about male athletes. So a seven percentage point swing is actually pretty significant.

SPEAKER_01

repping.

DAVE ALMY

Pretty consequential. Yes.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yes. Yeah, exactly.

DAVE ALMY

Can you talk about, I mean, we've talked about some of the successes and some of the things that you're excited about. Where have the challenges been? for you? Where, I mean, obviously every job and organization brings its own unique set of those. I'm wondering what you've experienced there that you've gotten like, that's harder than I thought that was going to be. How do you see the challenges unfolding and how do you address them?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah. Well, when I came into this job, you know, I'd sat on the other side of the table. I'd been the CMO who was being just, you know, pitch scene, pitch after pitch in sports, not often women's sports, quite honestly. So I know the price points, I have a sense of what's available. To me, there's just incredible value. The assets are undervalued in women's sports by and large and continue to be. So to me, it's a little bit of a no -brainer. I think the challenge sometimes is that brands are in all different places on that journey of leaning into women's sports. Some haven't started, some are quite fully invested. A lot just don't even know where to start. And I think sometimes that leads to conservatism in their path forward. So, you know, they might invest in the same 10 to 20 athletes that we've all heard of. You know, I joked about Elena Meyer not being part of our network. You know, neither is Caitlin Clark, but several of Caitlin Clark's teammates are. It would be easier, though, if we did have Caitlin Clark, you know, in all honesty, right? I mean, because there's a draw that comes from having recognizable athletes. So I believe in the power of the story as a, you know, a marketer of a decade plus. But sometimes you have to work a little bit harder to get brands to really open up to this notion that, you know, the story is the thing, not necessarily whether they have 5 ,000 or 5 million followers. And then likewise, on the sports front, you tend to see brands invest in the same sports over and over again, right? You see a lot of investment in basketball and soccer and tennis and golf, maybe a couple of other sports on the margins, but that's where a lot of the money and the interest is. For us, again, there's this... glorious universe of sport that extends in all directions. 85 different sports represented on the Parity platform. And there's so much for brands to explore if they're willing to think a little bit outside the box. But we have to help them get there.

DAVE ALMY

ven when i when i left in mid: 2014

LEELA SRINIVASAN

first as you said i worked at linkedin for four and a half years back in the day pre -ipo through a post post period you

SPEAKER_02

were like employee number 500 500 500 like 20 000 employees now or something like that i don't know yeah

LEELA SRINIVASAN

ven when i when i left in mid: 2014

DAVE ALMY

little social media thing right

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Yeah, one of my claims to fame, I was part of the team that beta tested sponsored content before that became a thing. And now, of course, it's all over LinkedIn.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Anyway, back to the story of the partnership. So, you know, I continue to love what LinkedIn stands for, you know, creating economic opportunity for the workforce. My team had been speaking with them generally, and I want to give a shout out to Megan Sheffield, whom I know has been on your podcast before. A couple times,

DAVE ALMY

couple times, Sheffield, man. She's like a penny that keeps turning up.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

man. She's like a penny that keeps turning up. She was kind of the spark, the conduit, I would say. She had the vision around this and how it fitted into things that LinkedIn was doing. But part of the conversation did come back to some research that we published in December. having a front row view into all these different sports, all these women athletes. So we ran a piece of research. We surveyed 500 professional women athletes across 55 sports to understand, okay, what are the true economics of being a professional women athlete? And I can... Imagine you know that the punchline is, it ain't pretty. It ain't pretty.

DAVE ALMY

It ain't pretty. I'm not laughing because it's funny.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I'm not laughing because it's funny. No, no, it's not funny. In fact, well, I'll just share a couple of stats. But this was, I think, part of what caught Megan and LinkedIn's attention. Of the 500 athletes, what we find is once you subtract the costs of competing, training, and traveling for your sport, 50 % of the athletes said that they don't make a penny from actually playing professional sport. And this is Olympians, Paralympians. This is NWSL players, it's W players, you name it. People performing at the highest level of their chosen discipline and coming out even financially. Yeah,

DAVE ALMY

People performing at the highest level of their chosen discipline and coming out even financially.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

isn't that the point? Yeah.

DAVE ALMY

isn't that the point?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

We also found 88 % of them, as a result of that, 88 % of them said that having access to a $20 ,000 annual sponsorship would be either very meaningful or life -changing.

DAVE ALMY

Yeah. And I don't want to minimize this because $20 ,000, depending on your circumstances, can be a considerable amount of money. But in the world of athlete partnerships, it's just not that much money.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Right. That's exactly right. And also, I'd say I would argue as well in the world of marketing, right? It's actually not that much money. It's just not that much money.

SPEAKER_03

money. It's just not that much money.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

not that much money. to do a job of storytelling and really kind of making those connections. To be the source of content that draws thousands and thousands of people.

DAVE ALMY

connections. To be the source of content that draws thousands and thousands of people. Yeah, and gets people to think differently and have a different relationship with your brand.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

gets people to think differently and have a different relationship with your brand. Exactly. I think these were the points. Also, the research showed that 74 % of these athletes have a second job as a result of the financial situation. One in four works full -time year -round in addition to training 25 to 30 hours a week. So they might be professional athletes, but they're also often members of the workforce. Yeah. So, you know, the partnership kind of began rooted in those numbers and, you know, very excited to be working with LinkedIn on a couple of different fronts. So one is, you may have noticed, LinkedIn is becoming more and more of a platform for conversations for content and video is surging across the platform. So the partnership involves... Yeah, I know, I know. We're all at it, right?

SPEAKER_01

I know. We're all at it, right?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Varying degrees of success, but we're all at it. So the partnership involves mobilizing 20 athletes this month and next. We did a push around International Women's Day to do some storytelling around some prompts that LinkedIn provided that tied into their International Women's Day push. It's also about LinkedIn providing resources to the athletes to help them grow in their careers, know how to network and use the platform more effectively. Because another thing that we've seen is athletes, because they're having to... make money on the side of their sport, they've become quite proficient often in Instagram and TikTok sometimes. LinkedIn is more of a mystery to some of them. I mean, if you're like a Joe Lohman who's retired and has like a speaking career, yes, you've figured out how to use it, but many haven't. And so there's a journey for them to take that will really help them off the court, off the field and in life after sport. So we're really excited to have these two prongs, you know, getting more athletes out there, telling their story on LinkedIn's platform, getting more known. but also just creating dialogue around their talk tracks and then also helping the athletes behind the scenes to think about their careers more holistically.

DAVE ALMY

So the hope is then that that's going to expand not only the familiarity that folks can see these athletes on LinkedIn, sharing their stories on LinkedIn, but also help the athletes themselves understand how this new, new, I'm using air quotes there. A social media platform can benefit them ultimately. And ideally that spools down to other women athletes who are in that sort of same world that you're talking about here, working professionally while training and doing things like that. So it's almost like the benefit works both ways for both your network and women athletes, but also for the company as a whole and parity athletes. Yeah, I think that's right.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I think that's right. And, you know, my take is that LinkedIn. As a platform, we're at the very early stages of sports content and conversations on LinkedIn. There's so much opportunity. It is so far from saturated. And I would not say the same about necessarily every other platform. And you think about the business of sports and how much conversation there is around that.

SPEAKER_01

There's so

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I do think there's an opportunity for there just to be more of that happening on the world's largest professional network. And these athletes hopefully will be part of that.

DAVE ALMY

Now, in the last couple of years, we've also seen a launch of several other. relatively well -funded agencies that are focusing on women's sports and athletes. Some of them are divisions of much larger traditional sports marketing agencies. Some of these others are startups. Different agencies are planting their flag in the rapidly growing economy that is women's sports. How does Parity want to stand out from this pack of competitors? As a chief marketing officer, I know differentiation and you know is is a key aspect of what you do so so how does that look like for you as you think about yourself in comparison to the some of the other brands that are out there doing this kind of work yeah it's a great question i would argue our model's not exactly agency although we do yep you know in full counter we struggle to put exactly the right word on it so we we talk about a platform and we are we have actually just launched the beta version of an app that allows the athletes to connect to one another because that's another

LEELA SRINIVASAN

it's a great question i would argue our model's not exactly agency although we do yep

SPEAKER_03

do yep you

LEELA SRINIVASAN

know in full counter we struggle to put exactly the right word on it so we we talk about a platform and we are we have actually just launched the beta version of an app that allows the athletes to connect to one another because that's another piece of value that we think we can add to the parity community is that ability to chat with other athletes from across sports, compare stories,

SPEAKER_01

from across sports,

LEELA SRINIVASAN

share best practices, that sort of thing. So I think that piece is somewhat unique to us. Also, I mean, just going back to what I said earlier, just about the quantity of athletes, the number of different story angles that we can cover because of that just breadth of athlete and the quality of those stories. Last time we looked at the numbers, roughly 80 % of our athletes do not have an agent. They're small, quote unquote, to be commercially interesting to the agencies and entities that have historically focused on repping athletes and helping athletes.

SPEAKER_01

to be

LEELA SRINIVASAN

the agencies and entities that have historically focused on repping athletes and helping athletes. I think what the breadth of our community allows us to do is go into a conversation with a very open mind with a brand. Because as I said, I firmly believe for every brand, there's at least one athlete. And for every athlete, there's at least one brand. And our job is really to find the right one. It's not to push one athlete over another. So I do like to think it gives us a more objective seat at the table, if you will, because we really want to try and find that perfect pairing and help the brand achieve its objectives.

DAVE ALMY

Yeah, it puts you out of the business of trying to shoehorn the brand into the solution versus trying to find the best solution to fit what the brand is trying to do, more or less.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

less. Well said, Dave. I might steal that.

DAVE ALMY

I think I just had that moment like Will Ferrell did in old school. I got to go lay down in the corner.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Your work is done. My work here is done.

DAVE ALMY

work here is done. Now you've been in the C -suite with a number of different companies like we've talked about, right? You know, chief marketing officer for several, but I think this is your first as CEO. Is that correct?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

That's right. Yeah.

DAVE ALMY

So what surprised you the most about being in the big chair?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

First of all, I'd say, I don't know if this is a surprise, but more of like a validation of how much I learned as a CMO is directly relevant for being a CEO. You know, when you were, you know, sitting around the table as a CMO, marketing is such a fun endeavor because you have legitimate reason to have a deeper relationship with literally every other member.

SPEAKER_03

member. Yeah.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Product, finance, you know, the technology side, the sales team, HR and all the, you know, culture and employer brand, you know, you name it, you could go on and on in terms of the points of commonality. So I feel really... surprisingly well prepared, I guess, for thinking through different challenges that inevitably end up in your lap as a CEO. So no moments where you've been like,

DAVE ALMY

So no moments where you've been like, what the?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Well, I mean, I'm definitely doing things I've never had to think about, which maybe leads me into the second learning, which is that, especially as the CEO of a startup, I mean, you are the stopgap for literally everything. So I came in expecting I would need to be selling a lot and evangelizing that part I enjoy. expect to be quite as deeply involved in things like migrating our 401k program for employees.

DAVE ALMY

That's why everybody gets involved in a startup, isn't it? I mean,

LEELA SRINIVASAN

mean, it's very important. It's important to our employees. It's important to me. 100%. But in transitioning services,

DAVE ALMY

100%. But

LEELA SRINIVASAN

in transitioning services, I mean, that's a multi -month project. And I have an HR business partner of sorts who works for us on a part -time basis, but I don't have anybody who's full -time in that seat. That sort of very specific thing I could find myself pulled into. And then in general, if there isn't somebody to do it, then either you have to find someone to do it or you end up doing it yourself. So it's a very varied, sometimes frenetic, but ultimately very rewarding. No boring days.

DAVE ALMY

No boring days.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

No boring days.

DAVE ALMY

Let's wrap up this part of the conversation with just sort of looking a little bit down the road, right? I think we've established that women's sports is clearly in a growth mode, but I'm wondering what your mind, in your mind, what's needed to keep that trajectory going? I asked this question the other day of Jess Smith of the Golden State Valkyries because I was using a Billie Jean King quote where she said, yeah,

LEELA SRINIVASAN

using a

DAVE ALMY

what she did in that mind was, and it was, it's billionaires, not millionaires. investing in the sport and then jess added on to that she said you know it's it's you know broadcast it's facilities availability she went through a very very clearly well thought out not the first time she'd been asked that question a list of the things that will be needed to keep doing i'm wondering what you would add to the list in your own mind like the things that you see are needed to keep the momentum rolling

SPEAKER_03

in the

DAVE ALMY

well thought out not the first time she'd been asked that question a list of the things that will be needed to keep doing i'm wondering what you would add to the list in your own mind like the things that you see are needed to keep the momentum rolling

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Well, first, I'm already a Valkyries fan because I'm a Golden State Warriors fan because I lived out in the Bay Area for many years. So I'm super excited about their season. Super excited,

SPEAKER_01

excited, yeah.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

You had a chance to talk to Jess, agree with everything she said, the infrastructure, all of that needs to catch up. Two things from my vantage point. One would be more creative thinking from brands to tap into storytelling. So, you know, as I said, don't be constrained by the five to 10 athletes and the, you know, the small number of sports. There's just a whole ocean of opportunity there. The second thing I would say, I mean, every person, whether they have a budget or not, can be a fan. Every person can buy merch. Every person can tune in. So I think just fans continuing to put their eyeballs and their money where their mouth is. You know, we've run the research. We know that a high percentage of the population watches women's sports at least a few times a year. And we know that women athletes are respected as societal role models. People want to see brands investing more. We know that consumers have spoken, basically, through our research, through other research. We need people to continue to almost not quite lobby, but be looking out for and tuning into women's sports. I mean, if you haven't been following what's going on at Unrivaled this season, the three -on -three basketball league, that's coming up on its finals in the next week. That is must -see TV, in my opinion. So tune into that if you haven't seen it before. Be eyeballs supporting that sport. And by the way, the action is fantastic. When you're supporting a team, like go watch your local team if you can. Buy merch if you can. You know, all of these things put more money into the system. So more, you know, continue that demand coming from the fan side. And then brands again, just really kind of, you know, tapping into that storytelling opportunity.

DAVE ALMY

Brands will find the fans. That's no doubt about that. I'm with Lila Sridharvasan. She's the CEO of Parody. Lila, thanks so much for the time today. But lest that you think that your work is done, I have to now put you in the lightning round.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Oh, goodness. What is this? That is the appropriate reaction I've got.

DAVE ALMY

What is this? That is the appropriate reaction I've got. Now, these are not difficult. These are just quick questions that I'm going to ask you to respond to with the first thing that comes to mind. Are you ready?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

If I said no, it wouldn't make a difference. It really wouldn't make a hell of a difference.

DAVE ALMY

make a hell of a difference. So, you know, buckle up, buttercup, because here we go. All right. First one. You were co -chair of the Wine Society at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. What wine would pair well with this podcast?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Oh, goodness. Well, it depends on the time of day and also the time of year.

DAVE ALMY

Okay, well, it's 11 o 'clock in the morning. It's 10 .45 in the morning, so what should I be drinking?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

it's 11

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I be drinking? It's 5 .30 somewhere. I mean, I'm a sucker for bubbles, so I would say, you know, I would pair us with a nice sparkler. Yeah. Actually, I will vote for Une Femme. Someone who worked for me at Open Table, Jen Pelka, is the founder of that wine brand. They make women -owned and operated company that makes wine produced by female winemakers. They have delicious sparkling wines called Infam. Infam is something celebratory for the podcast,

DAVE ALMY

Infam is something celebratory for the podcast, basically, is what we're talking about. Perfect. Perfect. Next one. You attended the University of Edinburgh, as we discovered, but you were also a featured player in the Footlights Theatre Company. What was your favorite role and what line from that role can you remember?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

So I played in, so this is in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the 90s. I was in the world premiere of a play called 110 Days. Okay. And I played the part of Kathy, who was a psychotic goth, who had a knife under her bed. And I had this really dramatic monologue, which I don't remember all of, but the beginning. said something like he comes and when he comes he brings the darkness with him and i said it differently but that was the this was a this is kathy the knife wielding goth sounds scary i mean for the people who are just listening in audio i you know leela's a smiley personality like she's coming through it's hard to clearly you were very good at the acting all right well i don't know well unfortunately it wasn't recorded so we'll never know

DAVE ALMY

that was the this was a this is kathy the knife wielding goth sounds scary i mean for the people who are just listening in audio i you know leela's a smiley personality like she's coming through it's hard to clearly you were very good at the acting all right well

LEELA SRINIVASAN

i don't know well unfortunately it wasn't recorded so we'll never know

DAVE ALMY

Well, that you know of. I'm sure there are people searching right now going to YouTube. All right. Last one. Last one. You've been using some management consulting time, including some time at Bain, where you apparently looked into the international vacuum cleaning market. What should we know?

LEELA SRINIVASAN

cleaner market, which back in: 2007

DAVE ALMY

Still? In: 2007

DAVE ALMY

I tell you, things you never thought you were going to learn on this podcast.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

I never thought you'd have to utter again, certainly. So thanks for that, Dave.

SPEAKER_01

So thanks for

DAVE ALMY

that,

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Real one.

DAVE ALMY

Lila Srinivasan, CEO of Parody, thanks so much for the time today.

LEELA SRINIVASAN

Thanks, Dave. It's been a blast.