A Marketing and Storytelling Masterclass with Reed Dickens Founder of LA Golf

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Good morning from Coronado.

Before I get started…as winter comes to an end, portfolio company DSTNC has a good sale…click up top.

Onward…

I had one of those long, fun work days yesterday.

I was up early on the holiday to meet my son Max and two of his best buddies at the headquarters of LA Golf in Beverly Hills. The founder Reed Dickens had invited us out to learn about the business. Reed is an incredible entrepreneur and innovator in golf starting in the high performance golf shaft business with all his products ‘made in America’ (Anaheim).

On short hauls now from Phoenix to LA or San Diego I treat myself to JSX which leaves from Scottsdale Airpark and lands at Burbank airport. It is very civilized!

My friend Brent Roland in Phoenix made the introduction to Reed. He thought I would be interested in the company because of the time we are spending in the industry with portfolio company Grass Clippings and he knew my son Max loves the golf disruption/innovation happening right now and brand side of golf. Brent was correct.

My son Max and his best golf pals Jake and Luc had an incredible experience hearing the story from Reed, asking questions, sharing some ideas and testing the products. Here we are in fromt of the ‘We Have Balls’ wall at the office.

I had not heard of LA Golf last week, but I mentioned LA Golf to my son Max and he went on and on about the products and company as a customer - he uses the shaft in his driver.

My son takes distance and dispersion very seriously when it comes to his driver as I guess all good golfers do and that is LA Golf’s thing. The other thing Reed excels at other than great spirit and storytelling is INCREDIBLE MARKETING. Having invested in Manscaped, Lifelock, Liquid Death, I know incredible consumer and brand marketing when I see it. It is something I have been banging the drum on here that is table stakes for startups the last year in this newsletter.

The quick ‘about story’…

Who better as partners/early investors for Reed on the player side than natural ball striker Dustin Johnson and tinkerer engineer Bryson DeShambeau

Here is Reed with more of the long story…

There is a lot of science to golf, but science has taken a back seat to pure marketing as Taylor Made and Calloway feed the beast that is quarterly numbers.

And you know how I feel about the innovation coming to the game itself (form factor and fun).

Have a great day.