⚾ "Burn the Boring" — REPLAY: Savannah Bananas Co-Founders Jesse & Emily Cole

August 25, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Savannah Bananas sell out NFL stadiums, have more TikTok followers than the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox combined, and sold over 2.2 million tickets last year. They did it by eliminating nearly every revenue stream a baseball team normally depends on: no in-park advertising, no ticket fees, no TV rights fees (games are free on YouTube), and food and drinks included in the ticket price. Co-founders Jesse and Emily Cole own 100% of the equity, have never taken outside investment, and say they leave "$20, $30, $40, $50 million on the table" annually by refusing to nickel-and-dime fans. Their operating principle is simple: eliminate friction, entertain constantly, and trust that fan loyalty will outrun any short-term profit you sacrificed.

Fans First as a North Star, Not a Slogan

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **The Savannah Bananas' Origin Story** - The hosts introduce the episode, framing the Savannah Bananas as a business that was laughed at for its unconventional model.
2 (01:00) **The Meet-Cute: How Jesse and Emily Met** - The co-founders share the story of how their professional relationship turned into a personal one.
3 (06:29) **The Anti-Business Model: Fans First, Profits Second** - Jesse and Emily explain their unconventional financial strategy, which prioritizes the fan experience over traditional revenue streams.
4 (10:51) **Why Leave Money on the Table?** - The founders detail the specific, counterintuitive choices that make their business model an "anti-business model."
5 (13:56) **The "Happiness Equation" and Over-Delivering** - The conversation explores how the Bananas create immense consumer surplus by exceeding expectations.
6 (15:17) **"Burn the Boring": Inventing Banana Ball** - Jesse walks through the process of creating a new sport by eliminating every boring element of traditional baseball.
7 (19:08) **The Origin of the Score Rule and a Proposal** - A personal story reveals the inspiration behind Banana Ball's most engaging rule.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Watch the interview on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/eyS-eokvP-U

Everyone laughed when Jesse and Emily Cole said they were going to save baseball by turning it into a circus. The traditionalists said it was a mockery. The investors said it wouldn't scale. Babe Ruth woulda blushed.

But today, while the Red Sox and Yankees yawn in the dugout, the Savannah Bananas are selling out those very same stadiums… while on stilts.

In this episode, we sit down with the husband-and-wife co-founders to uncover how they turned a struggling startup - with so much debt they had to sell their house - into a viral phenomenon with a waitlist of over 1 million people.

We dive deep into their "Fans First" business model, why they refuse to take VCmoney, and how "burning the boring" let them create a new sport and disrupt a 100-year-old industry.

They even got engaged in the middle of a (rainy) baseball game.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

The "Anti-Business" Model: Why they refuse to take investors, sell advertising, charge for hot dogs, or collect sales taxes.
Burn The Boring: How they audited every second of a baseball game to eliminate friction (goodbye, bunts and walks).
The "Do The Opposite" Strategy: How a philosophy inspired by P.T. Barnum & Walt Disney helped them win in the attention economy.
Metrics vs. Magic: Why Jesse and Emily ignore traditional ROI data to focus on "Return on Fan".
(And why you should check the weather before proposing)

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Intro: The "Cirque du Soleil" of Baseball
2:05 - The Meet Cute: How Jesse & Emily Met
5:20 - Why They Refused VC Money (Owning 100% Equity)
6:48 - The Walt Disney Lesson on Control
8:45 - Leaving $50 Million on the Table
12:55 - Burning the Boring: Inventing Banana Ball
19:00 - Failures: The "Human Pinata" Disaster
24:00 - The Strategy: "Whatever is Normal, Do The Opposite"
31:00 - Making Decisions on Intuition vs. Spreadsheets
42:00 - The Story That Defines "Fans First"
51:40 - Rapid Fire Questions

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