 Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're at Oracle Park on the shores of McCovey Cove. We're excited to be here. It's a pretty interesting event. Sports Tech Tokyo World Demo Day. It's kind of like an accelerator, but not really. It's kind of like Y Combinator, but not really. It's a little bit different, but it's a community of tech startups focusing on sports with a real angle on getting beyond sports. We're excited to have our next guest who's an investor and also a mentor, really part of the program to learn more about it. And she is Gayatri Sarkar, the managing partner from Hype Capital. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Pretty nice, huh? Oh, I just love the view. So you said before we turn on the cameras, well, first off, Hype Capital. What do you guys invest in? What's kind of your focus? So Hype Capital is part of the one of the biggest ecosystem in sports, which is Hype Sports Innovation. We have 13 accelerators all around the world. We are just launching the world's first eSports Accelerator with FCcon and SK Gaming, one of the biggest gaming company. So we are part of the ecosystem for a pretty long time, and now we have Hype Capital, our VC fund investing in Europe, Israel, and now in the US. So you mentioned that being a mentor as part of this organization is something special. Thank you, the first person we've had on who's been a mentor, what does that mean? What does it mean for you, but also what does it mean for all the portfolio companies? Sure, I think I'm a mentor at multiple accelerators, but being a part of Sports Tech Tokyo, I saw the very inclusive community that has created by them, and the opportunity to look at various portfolio companies, and also including our portfolio companies as part of it, one of our portfolio company where we are the lead investors, Fund With Balls, they are part of this. What's it called, Fund With Balls? So Fund With Balls, very interesting name. Good name. Yeah, they're from Germany, and they came all the way from Germany to here. So yeah, I'm very excited because as I said, it's an inclusive community and sports is big. So we are looking at opportunities where, deep techs can be translated into various other verticals, but sports can also be one of the use cases, and that's our focus as investors. You said your focus is really on AI, machine learning, you have a big data background, a tech background. So when you look at the application of AI in sports, what are some of the things that you get excited about? So for me, when I'm looking at investments, definitely the diversification of sports portfolio. How can I build my portfolio from eSports, gaming, behavioral science in sports to AI, ML, AR opportunities in material science and various other cases. Coming back to your question is like, how can I look into the market and see the opportunities that, okay, can I invest in this sector? As I said, what's the next big trend? And that's where I wanna invest. Obviously, founder market fit, product market fit, promise market fit because there's a fan engagement experience that you get in sports, not in any other market. The network effect is huge, and I think that's what VVCs are very excited in sports. And I think this is right now the best time to invest in sports. So promise market fit, I've never heard that before. What does that mean when you say promise market fit? Interesting question. So promise market fit was coined by Union Square Venture VC fund, and they think that there's the network effect or your engagement with your consumers, with your clients, with your partners can create a very loyal fan base. And I think that's very important. You may see that in other technology sector, but it is completely unparalleled when it comes to sports. So I request all the technologies that are actually trying to build their use cases. They should focus on sports because the fan engagement, the loyal experience, the opportunities, you'll not get anywhere else. And I think this is the market that I and other investors are looking forward that if deep tech investors and deep tech technologies are coming into this market, we see the sports ecosystem not to be a trillion dollar, but a multi trillion dollar market. But it's such a unique experience though, right? I mean, some people will joke that fans don't necessarily root for the team, they root for the Jersey, right? The players come and go. We're here at Oracle Park, which was AT&T Park, which was SBC Park, which was, I can't even remember, Pac-Bell, I think as well. So is it reasonable for a regular company that doesn't have this innate kind of a connection to a fan base that a lot of sports organizations do that's historical and family-based and has such deep roots that can survive maybe down years? Can survive a crappy product? Can survive kind of the dark days and generally they'll be there when things turn back around. Is that reasonable for a regular company to try to get that relationship with a customer? So you asked me one of the most important questions in the investor's relationship or investor's life, which is the cyclicality of the university, of the industry. And I feel like sports is one industry that has survived the cyclicality of that industry. Because as you said, a crappy product will not survive. You have to focus on customer service. You have to focus that, okay, even if you have the best product in the world, how can I make my product sticky? I think these are the qualities that we're looking into when we are investing in entrepreneurs. But the idea is that if we are targeting startups and opportunities, our focus is that, okay, you may have the world's best product, but the founders should have the ability to understand the market. Okay, there are opportunities. If you look at Facebook, if you look at various other companies, they started with a product which may be like, okay, friend side, dating side, and they pivoted. So you need to understand the economy. You need to understand the market. And I think that's what we are looking into the entrepreneurs. And as to answering your question, the family offices, they're actually part of the sports startup ecosystems. They're seeing if there's an opportunity, because they're big, they're giant, and they're working with legacy techs, like Microsoft, Amazon. It's very difficult for the legacy techs to be agile and move fast. So it's very important for them if they can place themselves at a 45 degree angle with the startup ecosystem and they can move faster. So that's the opportunity for them in the sports startup ecosystem. All right. Well, Gayatri, thanks for taking a few minutes and hopefully you can find some new investments here over the course of the day. Thank you so much for your time. Absolutely. She's Gayatri. I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We are at Oracle Park on the shores of historic McCovey Cove. I got to get together with Big John and practice this line. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.