"I'm not a billionaire, but I am in the position to compete against billionaires," says CEO of Geekletes, Danny Martin, who started his ESports company from the basement of his home.
Geekletes is an ESports organization that focuses on the development of players whose goal is to help amateur players turn pro. So far, five Geekletes players went from the basement to the big leagues. With that being said, Geekletes is looking for younger individuals in the world of ESports not only from a professional perspective, but from a videography, photographic, development, coding, and all other dynamics in which helps the industry grow.
"As a professional gamer you need support, and we are looking to help these professional gamers with skill sets of other individuals who would love to jump into the ESports industry. We now have the space that helps that process move much more smoothly," says Martin.
How can you join? It starts from a kid's perspective because it's important to understand the dexterity, posture, and how to overall carry yourself from a leadership and communication point of view which correlates with being groomed to get into the league. Martin is looking at the Geekletes tournament age range to start anywhere from seven to 15, and when players are between 16 and 18, they become professionally qualified. The purpose is to produce good technical and personal skills with a player that comes through Geekletes.
"We have a full curriculum that we model from a high school ESports league. It's a stem accredited platform, and in this space, we do Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from five to seven o'clock in the evening to talk about the components of ESports," Martin assures.
There are three ESports arenas in Texas. ESports Stadium Arlington owned by Neil Liebman, compLexity Gaming in Frisco owned by Jerry Jones and Jason Lake, and Mark Cuban who invested in the Mavs gaming 2K League in Downtown Dallas.
"For us, we were there before any of them," Martin continues. "We were in the basement. So to see the development is a sense of inspiration, but also a sense of 'alright we got to compete now.' Now my biggest dynamic is having that thought process ahead of time and knowing you don't have the resources yet to do it."
Martin isn't looking at it as competition though. He sees they have a good opportunity to be a pipeline for those spaces. When you have an ESports arena, your business model is to rent that space out for individuals to do large tournaments. Geekletes compacted its arena to where it is much smaller so individuals can hold their tournaments. As they fulfill their tournaments and pack out Geekletes, they eventually get to use a bigger space like ESports Stadium Arlington which is 100,000 square feet.
Martin informs, "In this instance, we can say we helped groom players not only from a professional gaming perspective, but from a tournament hosting perspective as well."
One of the other reasons Martin favored the space is because it's compartmentalized. Geekletes does many tournaments in one space and allows individuals to grow their brand and business so they can fill huge arenas.
"We have a community and they recognize what we are doing here. It's easily identified what is produced out of this space, and they look at us as either the Godfather or maybe the new kids on the block that they can help groom," Martin follows. "I'm looking to be in that position one day which is my huge overall goal."
From a business model perspective, Geekletes wants to adhere to all different genres of ESports; from the fight gaming community, to the sport gaming community, all the way to the shooting gaming community, but the focus is on the NBA 2K League. The goal is to build a community around that area then start to build an organic community from there.
"If you are genuine to your community, identify what their needs are, and fulfill those needs, you're going to have a successful track record."
Inside Geekletes, there will be four to five tournaments every week on Fridays called NBA 2K Fridays from seven in the evening to midnight. There are also tryouts going on created within Geekletes. Mavs gaming and several other teams have been able to solidify a massive tournament, and whichever entity wins the actual tournament gets placed in the draft pool. So far, Geekletes have five players who have already made the NBA 2K League the first two years of the NBA 2K League exception. So, there's an even better opportunity to construct a Geekletes team and enter those teams into all the teams the NBA 2K League is hosting for the first time.
"We are looking at allowing players to come here, practice, compete against our teams to show their skill sets, and get some really good scouting reports from there." Martin continues to say, "Then those players can go to NBA 2K Leagues like the Mavericks in Dallas or the Pacers in Indiana and say 'hey, look what I've done.' We know we've competed against the best because in this space, some of the most talented individuals come here to compete and show their skill."
Danny Martin's goal for Geekletes is to create an NBA 2K G-League.
"Now that there's an NBA 2K League, there's a pipeline for a G-League. We are going to see if we can tackle that because now, we have traction. We're going to try to solidify ourselves as that G-League and I'm looking for support from the NBA. We do have the support from NBA 2K League's Brendon Donohue. I have long threads with individuals in the NBA, and the NBA 2K League. They see what we're doing here, so we are looking at being able to open up more spaces to provide a recruit pipeline to that of the other teams."
Martin plans to be a developmental process for the actual teams in the NBA so they can find talent without having to scout the earth to find dope people. They will be able to go into their local Geekletes, be there with their players, and see them develop their skills, personality, and leadership abilities. These teams will have the value of interacting with Geekletes and the spaces they have to offer.
To Danny Martin, entrepreneurship is simple. For one, be resourceful.
"Like I said before, I don't have a billion dollars, but I still feel as if I can compete with a billionaire."
Also, be humble enough to know that you can develop people. Once you learn how to develop individuals, you will have a team. Once those team members realize they're just as successful or just as knowledgeable, they will teach other individuals. Then, you build an empire from that perspective. Be able to teach while being resourceful at the same time.
"One day you might not have anything. You may just have one dollar and you have to make the most that dollar. If you keep that mindset you can turn that dollar into ten dollars, and ten dollars into 100, but still working as if you only have a dollar."
Being able to give someone insight on what you can provide helps you establish a relationship with that person much quicker. Show value in the fastest term. Capture that person within the first minute you have because life moves very quickly, and you don't often have a minute. There are three keys to a successful business: be resourceful, network, and be consistent.
Contact:
geekletes.gg
Instagram: Geekletes
Twitter: Geekletes
email: d.martin@geekletes.gg