ExpertsFMBuilding the Savannah Bananas (with Jesse Cole, Founder and Owner)
ACQ2 by Acquired · June 16, 2025
5 Selected Lessons:
case · 3 heuristic · 1 framework · 1
Daily idea-muscle training + 'do the opposite of normal'
Source
ACQ2 by Acquired — Building the Savannah Bananas (with Jesse Cole, Founder and Owner) (June 16, 2025) · at 31:48 ▸ · at 35:05 ▸ · at 37:47 ▸
When this applies
when you need a sustained pipeline of creative solutions to a chronic problem, not a single brainstorm
The takeaway
Treat creative output as a muscle requiring daily low-stakes repetition, and systematically invert every 'normal'/accepted convention in your domain to find the opportunities.
Why it works
Idea generation is a trainable skill: consistent daily reps (even mostly bad ideas) build the capacity to surface the rare good one, much like physical training builds capacity through repeated difficulty.
One level up
Sustainable innovation is a practiced daily discipline, not an occasional flash of inspiration.
Where it stops holding
This stops working when conventions exist for genuine safety/regulatory reasons rather than mere habit, so inverting them creates harm rather than delight.
Detail
procedure:
- Write down 10 ideas every day, accept that 70-80% will be bad.
- List out every boring/unexciting element of the existing product (mound visits, batters stepping out, walks, blowouts, long games).
- For each boring element, invent its literal opposite or inversion (walk -> sprint; blowout -> capped inning scoring; long game -> hard 2-hour cap).
- Picture the 'perfect scenario' outcome you want and design the rule backward from that vision (e.g. fan catches winning foul ball and is celebrated).
- Patch emergent problems iteratively (e.g. added 'last inning counts full runs' rule after discovering the first version ended comebacks too early).
benchmarks: {"daily_ideas":"10/day since 2016","game_length_target":"2 hours flat, vs 3h12m average MLB game"}
rationale: You want people to want more, not to leave early — modeled on not wanting to leave a movie midway.
In their words
I believe you gotta work your idea muscle. If you wanna have great ideas, you gotta work your idea muscle.
Marketing is what you do, not what you say
Source
ACQ2 by Acquired — Building the Savannah Bananas (with Jesse Cole, Founder and Owner) (June 16, 2025) · at 12:20 ▸ · at 15:39 ▸ · at 23:45 ▸
When this applies
when launching any new offering into an audience that has heard claims before and is numb to them
The takeaway
Create an experience remarkable enough to be felt, rather than a message persuasive enough to be believed.
Why it works
Claims are cheap and ignorable; a concrete, remarkable, experienced event forces attention and changes belief faster than any message.
One level up
Trust is earned through demonstrated, shareable experience, not through asserted positioning.
Where it stops holding
This stops working when you lack the resources or courage to actually stage something remarkable, in which case all you have left is unconvincing talk.
Detail
rule: Marketing is not what you say, it's what you do — build an experience, not a pitch.
threshold: No amount of talking to community members/press worked until there was an actual in-person event to attend (first game night).
rationale: People hadn't experienced the product; words alone changed nothing, direct sensory experience changed everything.
In their words
And marketing is not what you say. Marketing is what you do. You have to create an experience that is remarkable.
Entertainment pivot when you can't win on the core product
Source
ACQ2 by Acquired — Building the Savannah Bananas (with Jesse Cole, Founder and Owner) (June 16, 2025) · at 2:13 ▸ · at 4:25 ▸
When this applies
when you're competing in a category where you can never win on the traditional metric of quality/talent/scale
The takeaway
When you can't win the game everyone else is playing, change what game is being played.
Why it works
If you cannot win on the dimension incumbents compete on, you can still win by redefining what customers are actually buying (an experience, not the official product).
One level up
Structural disadvantage is a signal to reposition the category, not to try harder at the existing one.
Where it stops holding
This stops working when the underlying product quality is non-negotiable to the customer (e.g. safety, medical efficacy) and no amount of entertainment/experience can substitute for it.
Detail
situation: 23-year-old GM inherited a team with 200 fans, $268 in the bank, losing $150k/year, with no ability to recruit top baseball talent.
decision: Decided the team could never win on baseball talent, so pivoted to studying Barnum, Disney, Cirque du Soleil, WWE, SNL and ran outrageous promotions (dig to China night, grandma beauty pageants) for ten years.
outcome: Climbed to 4th in the country in attendance and became profitable despite being in a tiny market.
lesson: A decade of entertainment experimentation, not baseball improvement, is what turned a dying team around.
In their words
I realized that we couldn't be a baseball team. We had to make it more about entertainment because we were never gonna have the best baseball players.
A provocative name turned critics into free marketing
Source
ACQ2 by Acquired — Building the Savannah Bananas (with Jesse Cole, Founder and Owner) (June 16, 2025) · at 15:39 ▸ · at 18:44 ▸ · at 21:10 ▸ · at 28:08 ▸
When this applies
when choosing a brand identity in a crowded or indifferent market
The takeaway
Deliberately invite controversy to generate free attention, but you must be able to deliver an experience good enough to convert curiosity into loyalty once people show up.
Why it works
A polarizing choice generates public controversy, which generates attention and curiosity, which converts a fraction of critics into paying customers once they decide to see for themselves.
One level up
Attention is a prerequisite for conversion; controversy is one of the cheapest ways for an unknown entity to manufacture attention.
Where it stops holding
This stops working when the controversy alienates the audience permanently (e.g. offends core values) rather than merely confusing or amusing them, or when the underlying experience fails to justify the curiosity once people arrive.
Detail
situation: Local community was furious at the 'Bananas' name, booing the team at a major parade, calling for the owner to be run out of town.
decision: Kept the name, invested disproportionately (negotiated down from $12k) in a professional 'badass' logo despite having only $30/week for groceries, reasoning the name could be criticized but a great logo could not.
outcome: National media picked it up (ESPN SportsCenter 'logo of the year'), criticism created a 'sellout mentality' where locals wanted to see what the fuss was about, and it became a national brand almost overnight even while still locally unloved.
lesson: Controversy got attention; a quality execution (logo) converted mockery into curiosity and eventual loyalty.
In their words
But they had a reason. They had a reason to criticize. We hadn't earned anything. We hadn't done anything. We were just talk
The Harlem Globetrotters cautionary tale — disrupt yourself before someone else does
Source
ACQ2 by Acquired — Building the Savannah Bananas (with Jesse Cole, Founder and Owner) (June 16, 2025) · at 52:31 ▸
When this applies
when a novelty/entertainment-first business dominates early but risks a more competitive, legitimized rival absorbing its innovations
The takeaway
If your current winning format risks exactly this failure mode (a bigger incumbent absorbing your innovations), disrupt your own format into something fully competitive before a rival forces the issue.
Why it works
Once a format's novel entertainment elements become proven/popular, better-resourced, higher-talent competitors (here, the NBA) can adopt the same entertainment ideas while also offering superior core competition, draining relevance from the originator.
One level up
Observing how a structurally similar predecessor declined is actionable foresight — use their mistake as a map of the trap to avoid, not just as a colorful history lesson.
Where it stops holding
This stops working when the self-disruption fails to attract real demand (the new competitive format may lack the novelty and goodwill of the original), erasing an already-working asset for an unproven one.
Detail
situation: Globetrotters dominated 1940s-50s sports with huge attendance and even beat NBA teams, but the owner scripted outcomes across multiple touring squads for predictable shows.
decision: The NBA adopted Globetrotter-style entertainment elements while keeping real competition and better players, which the Globetrotters business model could never match once it was scripted.
outcome: Globetrotters survived a century but lost cultural relevance; Jesse used this as the explicit reason to build Banana Ball as a genuinely competitive multi-team league rather than a single scripted entertainment act.
lesson: 'We have a runway, but why don't we disrupt ourselves before we have to?'
In their words
So I said, we have a runway, but why don't we disrupt ourselves before we have to? Because that's what we did win the Coastal Plain League when we're playing college summer ball.