I recently went one-on-one with Suryansh Tibarewala, co-founder of EssentiallySports.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Suryansh: I believe in the life motto of “serendipity, will find you a way!” A testament of that is my journey in life, as an entrepreneur, and that of EssentiallySports. Having built a large-scale American Sports Media house without outside capital was a series of serendipitous life choices going my way. I am a big believer in the power of the internet and that sports fandom is universal. Combining those together is how I got here. And that really sums up my journey, both as an entrepreneur and with EssentiallySports. When we started, it was just a small project writing news, features, and interviews across sports like the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, WNBA, tennis, and golf, trying to cover stories we felt were missing. Over time, that little project grew into one of the Top sports publishers expanding into multiple editorial and brand divisions.
In terms of experiences instrumental to growth, I would like to mention a couple of them:
1. Growth comes when you are not ready for it: multiple times, we had spurts of growth periods when we were least prepared for it. And a series of slow phases when we have had all the best talent and strategy in the team. The job of a leader is to keep the ship steady and pounce without hesitation when a growth opportunity presents itself.
2. Learning the art of pitching. In 2024, we set a goal of meeting at least 100 people. Brands, athletes, founders, partners. And just pitch and make ES real. That phase of doing those meetings, just making our brand present in so many rooms, made the understanding of dollar flow in the industry very real, and the role EssentiallySports can play in it.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Suryansh: Honestly, there was never a “genius moment,” and I believe there never is. We didn’t wake up one day thinking, “Let’s build EssentiallySports.” We were reading sports content online and kept thinking, “This is boring. Where’s the fan perspective?” Fans had rants, excitement, and opinions, but no one was creating a platform that could honor that.
That gap became our idea. It started from fandom to giving that fandom a platform to becoming what we are today, and there is so much more to do. We just started doing. We experimented with formats, covered niche sports, and listened to what fans responded to. Nothing was perfect, but the market taught us faster than any plan could.
EssentiallySports was born: a digital sports media platform producing news, original features, interviews, and cultural storytelling across a wide range of sports, including the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, WNBA, Tennis, Golf, and more. Over time, it has grown from a small, bootstrapped project into one of the Top sports publishers in the US, trusted by millions of readers every month.
I believe that great ideas don’t come fully formed. Start with something small that excites you, put it out there, and learn from the feedback. The act of doing teaches you more than thinking or waiting for inspiration ever will.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Suryansh: The parallel I like to draw is building a sandcastle as a kid. The pure joy of expression in doing that is why you do it. And to me, building on the internet and in sports, with EssentiallySports has been that joy. So it wasn’t about finding a future worth, but something you really enjoy building, and would be great if you have some unfair advantages.
The best way to test is to find signals; revenue is probably the most real signal. If you are making money, it’s a business.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Suryansh: I think a big part of media is consistency, and it was really hard to be consistent with a volunteer organization. Most people were doing it alongside other things; they’d learn skills here and then move on to other endeavors. So the first step for us was to create a more professional organization and hire sports fans who also had journalism backgrounds. That’s how we started building a proper business.
I remember in 2018 we had like 250k pageviews which is not huge, but every weekend, the three of us would sit down with the team and set goals for the next week: what sports to cover, what angles to try.
Then COVID hit in 2020. Everyone else slowed down because live sports had stopped. But we realized fans were bored at home, they wanted to read, to engage, to rant. So we doubled down. We produced more content, explored more sports, and leaned into the fan perspective. In four months, our pageviews went from 1 million to 60 million.
We also started covering niche sports like NASCAR, golf, tennis, WNBA, and Olympic sports. We experimented consistently, tracked engagement, and listened to fans who’d tell us, often subtly through data, that they wanted more of this. And they would consume more. Today, we have over a million subscribers for the above niche sports newsletters, grown just in a year.
The second stage of growth came in our business by going offline. Showing up at events, doing our own events, and building partnerships with athletes and brands.
Looking back, I think we undervalued the benefit of showing up in person in the first couple of years. There have been countless meetings now where I have taken a flight to just show up to meet someone, on something that wasn’t very tangible at the moment. Compounding that over several meetings makes your relationship graph unusually strong. And that leads to countless “serendipitous moments” over time.
This is, of course, only useful once you have done your rounds and reached a stage where you have something valuable to give to others.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Suryansh: Marketing is done in two ways: brand marketing and growth marketing. Everyone has different strengths. Some are good at brand, some are good at growth. Find your mojo and hire the other. Both are extremely important; otherwise, you will hit a ceiling pretty soon. And the mindset is completely different. Growth requires finding the most effective ROI approach, and the moment you find it scale it 10x. It will move your numbers and your revenue if you do it right, but not your brand. A brand requires creating “sizzle” moments, which are rarely measurable at that moment. But if you treat it like a marathon. Suddenly, you create a halo effect around your brand, which growth marketing can never really do for you.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams? In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Suryansh: Good leaders keep the team part of the journey and not just a chapter of it. The more they live and breathe the latitude you are feeling, the more bought in they are on whatever part they have to play. Second, creating a culture of “proof of work”. Nobody shows up at my desk, having gone the extra mile. That creates a system of high performance and high agency, which compounds by itself And most importantly, see a version of the team in the future, not what they are today. And show them those versions, treat them like that. They will rise more than they even expect eventually.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Suryansh: Do more, ask less, and have fun. You will find the “permissionless” growth in this world. You will be surprised how little high agency people possess, and what’s possible the more and more you do it.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Suryansh: My mentor in 2023 gave me this advice when I first visited the States. And it has always stuck with me. In America, everybody, from the top leader to the upstart, gives you the first meeting. Getting the second meeting is based on what you do. But first is purely on you showing the intent that you are ready to play the game. That has stuck with me and guided me in my journey of growing the company henceforth.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Suryansh: Stay positive and curious. Working with people who all love sports taught me that everything is possible. You see it on the field all the time: underdogs win, comebacks happen, and persistence pays off. As a challenger brand, we’ve faced our share of obstacles with external factors, market shifts, and competitors, but we’ve always found our way through by staying adaptable and keeping a clear focus on our mission.
