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Masters of Scale

Always be the challenger, with Savannah Bananas founder Jesse Cole

28 min episode · 2 min read
·
Savannah Bananas Founder Jesse

Episode

28 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Productivity, Remote Work

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Experimentation Model: Run a Saturday Night Live-style idea generation process — full-day Tuesday sessions, table reads, and weekly rehearsals — to produce a brand new show every single week. The Savannah Bananas use this system across six teams and 75 stadiums in 45 states, treating each show as a low-stakes test rather than a high-stakes launch.
  • Fan Observation Over Surveys: Instead of surveying customers, physically track behavior — the Bananas videotaped fans every 30 minutes during games and discovered audiences were leaving due to game length, not entertainment quality. This led to creating Banana Ball, a nine-inning game completed in 99 minutes, which became the core product.
  • Challenger Brand Paranoia: Maintain productive paranoia even after achieving scale. Cole keeps ticket prices fixed at $40, $50, and $60 with zero fees despite a secondary market average exceeding $200 per ticket. Resisting consultant pressure to raise prices protects the fan-first mission and prevents gradual audience erosion that compounds over time.
  • Zero Marketing Spend Strategy: Allocate budget entirely to the experience rather than promotion. The Bananas spend nothing on traditional marketing, instead investing $13,000,000 annually in broadcast production distributed free on YouTube. Remarkable experiences generate organic social content that amplifies reach without paid distribution, following PT Barnum's principle that promotion must follow substance.
  • Founder Role Separation: Divide creative and operational leadership explicitly, modeled on Walt and Roy Disney. Cole focuses exclusively on show creation, original music, and media strategy, while president Jared Gordon owns logistics, operations, and execution. This division allows the company to simultaneously run 16 trucks across 45 states while developing new entertainment concepts.

What It Covers

Jesse Cole, founder of the Savannah Bananas, details how he built a touring baseball entertainment company from $268 in the bank to selling out Fenway Park with 37,000 fans, by prioritizing fan experience over revenue, running continuous experimentation, and maintaining a challenger brand mindset at every growth stage.

Key Questions Answered

  • Experimentation Model: Run a Saturday Night Live-style idea generation process — full-day Tuesday sessions, table reads, and weekly rehearsals — to produce a brand new show every single week. The Savannah Bananas use this system across six teams and 75 stadiums in 45 states, treating each show as a low-stakes test rather than a high-stakes launch.
  • Fan Observation Over Surveys: Instead of surveying customers, physically track behavior — the Bananas videotaped fans every 30 minutes during games and discovered audiences were leaving due to game length, not entertainment quality. This led to creating Banana Ball, a nine-inning game completed in 99 minutes, which became the core product.
  • Challenger Brand Paranoia: Maintain productive paranoia even after achieving scale. Cole keeps ticket prices fixed at $40, $50, and $60 with zero fees despite a secondary market average exceeding $200 per ticket. Resisting consultant pressure to raise prices protects the fan-first mission and prevents gradual audience erosion that compounds over time.
  • Zero Marketing Spend Strategy: Allocate budget entirely to the experience rather than promotion. The Bananas spend nothing on traditional marketing, instead investing $13,000,000 annually in broadcast production distributed free on YouTube. Remarkable experiences generate organic social content that amplifies reach without paid distribution, following PT Barnum's principle that promotion must follow substance.
  • Founder Role Separation: Divide creative and operational leadership explicitly, modeled on Walt and Roy Disney. Cole focuses exclusively on show creation, original music, and media strategy, while president Jared Gordon owns logistics, operations, and execution. This division allows the company to simultaneously run 16 trucks across 45 states while developing new entertainment concepts.

Notable Moment

Cole reveals the Bananas built their own secondary ticketing marketplace and absorb all platform fees themselves — a deliberate financial loss — to prevent fans from paying above face value. He acknowledges this decision costs the company significant revenue but frames it as non-negotiable to the fan-first mission.

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Episode Transcript

The very best founders I know are brilliant at building systems. They connect teams, they remove bottlenecks, and they eliminate single points of failure. And yet, when it comes to their own wealth, most are running a disconnected stack. A tax accountant here and a state attorney there, a wealth manager who doesn't talk to either one of them. Creative planning was built to fix exactly that. One integrated team of tax professionals, estate planners, investment specialists, all coordinated by a dedicated wealth manager who sees your full financial picture and keeps every piece working together. Proactive tax efficiency, estate strategy, investments all under one roof. Creative planning, where wealth works together. Learn more at creativeplanning.com/mastersofscale. Global hiring is such a headache when you're building fast, but companies like Eleven Labs are scaling effortlessly with Deal. They quadrupled their workforce in 2025 without hiring an HR team. Build your global team with Deal. Visit deal.com/mos and start expanding your business today. That's deel.com/mos. Hey, folks. Jeff Berman here. I am thrilled to share some of the new names who will be joining us at this year's Masters of Scale Summit. This may be our biggest stage yet. Reed Hastings, Meredith Whittaker, Van Jones, Amjad Massad, and more will be there with us October twentieth through twenty second in San Francisco. If you're building something great or you want to build something great, we want you there with us too. Join us at mastersofscale.com/apply20six. That's mastersofscale.com/apply20six. In a few hours, we get to see thousands of people that have this game on the bucket list. And they're waiting outside. They're wearing their gear. And as soon as they see us, they start jumping up and down and getting excited to high five us. And that's not just players and cast. That's our staff. They get excited. Oh, you work for the team? And if you can find that and continue to build that and talk about what matters most, it's not about the money, it's not about the sales, it's not about the revenue, it's not even about the growth. It's about the amazing moments that you get to create every day and feel that, it's the most contagious thing in the world. This is Masters of Scale. I'm Jeff Fuhrman, your host. This week on the show, Jesse Cole. The name you may not know off the bat, but Jesse is the founder of the Savannah Bananas and Fans First Entertainment, and if you've turned on ESPN in the last year, you've seen the man in the yellow suit. That's Jesse. He's part PT Barnum, part Walt Disney, and he's scaling a whole new kind of sport with his fast paced circus style version of professional baseball. Jesse's relentless dedication to his fans offers important insights for anyone in the business of delighting customers, which really should be all of us. We are on location today. We are, recording live at Angel Stadium where this fan of bananas and the …

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  • Banana BallBy guest

    by Savannah Bananas

    This led to creating Banana Ball, a nine-inning game completed in 99 minutes, which became the core product.

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  • Jesse Cole, founder of the Savannah Bananas, details how he built a touring baseball entertainment company from $268 in the bank to selling out Fenway Park with 37,000 fans

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