PLAYBACK at Leadout Innovation x Barclays Eagle Labs

Cambridge University, Formula 1, The Players Fund, and a boy with a dream.

That was Panel 1 on Tuesday night. Elliot Johnston, ex-pro footballer, ex-Nike, Cambridge. Chris Tagnon, tech transfer engineer in Formula 1 and a Royal Academy of Engineering scholar. Andy Marston of The Players Fund, putting athlete-backed capital into Juventus and Como 1907. And me, with a laptop and the PLAYBACK Network.

The question on the table was where venture in sport is going, and why now. My answer hasn't changed: the capital still flows to the top of the pyramid because that's where the audiences are and the returns look legible on a spreadsheet. But the volume is at the bottom. 75,000 players across 10+ countries isn't a charity story. It's a market nobody bothered to build for.

Good company in the room too - familiar faces and people we will build with.

The part I actually want to say properly: this was Leadout Innovation's first event, and the fastest Barclays Eagle Labs event to sell out. Oversubscribed, on a Tuesday night in August, in Shoreditch. That doesn't happen by accident. We're genuinely excited to be in this early, and to back where Leadout goes from here.