Lessons from a Legend: How Basketball Great Manu Ginobili’s Success Story Can Be Our Story
by Josh Levy, CEO & Co-Founder
Last week I was in Austin, Texas, at the Ironspring Ventures Annual General Meeting (AGM). Ironspring is one of Document Crunch’s main investors, and I want to give Adam Bridgman, Colleen Konetzke, Ty Findley, Peter Holt, Stephanie Volk and the team a special shoutout. During the past several years, this group has been a huge value add to the Document Crunch journey. They have become key members of our team and are never afraid to roll up their sleeves. We are so grateful to call them PARTNERS.
There was a great network of built-world stakeholders at the AGM. I got to spend quality time with investors, customers, other founders, and partners including folks from Haskell, Zachry, Hensel Phelps, DPR, HoltCat and Trimble. It was great to catch up with old friends like Scott Wolfe, Hamzah Shanbari (Haskell), Andrew Zukoski (Join), Ranjeet Gadhoke (Zachry Construction Corporation), Ankoor Amin (OES Equipment), Siavash Mohseni (Hensel Phelps), Kaushal Diwan (DPR), Leah Royalty (Dysruptek), Chris Stern (Trimble) and Meg Paulus (HOLT Ventures). Kudos to the Ironspring team for assembling such a great collection of thought leaders and innovators!
A highlight from this AGM was basketball legend Manu Ginobili’s fireside chat.
I am an avid NBA basketball fan, so I want to share some reflections on how Manu’s story applies to the Document Crunch journey and business in general.
First of all, who is Manu?
Manu is a legendary basketball player. Here are just a few highlights: four-time NBA champion, gold medalist in the 2004 Olympics on the Argentinean National Team, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He played a total of 23 seasons professionally including in Italy and Argentina before joining the NBA. While playing with the San Antonio Spurs for more than16 years (one NBA team his whole career!), the team formed a dynasty, but Manu had an unconventional situation. He came off the bench rather than start, despite being an all-star caliber player. This is almost unheard of in the NBA, but Manu did it, accepted it, and all his career success and his team’s FOUR championships followed. I have always been fascinated by him and his selflessness.
Here were some of the stories that Manu shared, which resonated with me and our journey at Document Crunch:
Putting People in the Right Seats on the Bus.
Manu was in his second season and just starting to get confident that he could be a really good player. All-time great coach Greg Popovich (“Pop”) called Manu and the other two stars into his hotel room one day, and completely shocked Manu by telling him that he would come off the bench while the other two would continue starting. Manu did not like this idea at first, because he had been a star player his entire career, including in prior professional experiences. However, he was able to absorb the moment because he trusted his coach. Pop didn’t offer much of an explanation. He just said, “This is what we are doing.” Manu had faith in that difficult moment that Pop wanted the best for everyone and not any individual. His trust in Pop in that moment sustained what was otherwise a very tough pill to swallow.
Key Insight: Manu made the point that you cannot truly care about a person if you don’t know their story. Pop had taken extra time with the team on road trips to really help them bond and get to know one another. He would call team dinners and ban phones just so everyone was engaged as a family. That bonding experience allowed Manu to trust Pop because he knew Pop cared about him as a person.
Application: We at Document Crunch put a ton of emphasis on team building. In fact, this is the primary driver behind our desire to further organize around our hubs of Austin, Houston and Atlanta. In-person time is invaluable, especially because we are a remote company. Getting to know our team creates such a big foundation of trust, even when we go through uncertain or uncomfortable times.
Sticking with the Vision.
Shortly after Manu started coming off the bench, the team started having success. While Manu made this transition based solely on faith at first, he started to get Pop’s “why” and Pop’s vision became his vision: there was an advantage to him coming off the bench and being able to impact the game in a different way. This wasn’t obvious to everyone, however. Manu’s native media in Argentina was writing about how disrespectful it was to use Manu as a substitute player. This was difficult since he was so high-profile in his home-country. He had to put blinders on to the world and just lean into the vision even if it was not understood by all.
Key Insight: In this situation, Manu was a lot like an early-stage company. He was in the trenches and saw things others in the world didn’t. There were signals that he saw and felt every day. So, he blocked out the noise and kept doing his thing even with the haters around him.
Application: At Document Crunch, we clearly have a point of view that hasn’t always been mainstream, and it isn’t always easy creating a category around contract intelligence for our industry and contract compliance for project teams. However, WE see the VERY BIG SIGNALS. The Crunchers will continue to lean in and keep pressing forward. There are certainly doubters out there, but we need to stay focused on the vision. We BELIEVE.
Sustaining the Success
Manu making that sacrifice set the tone for a16-year run. His example became the standard, and anyone coming into the Spurs saw these types of things were expected. It was hard to be selfish when one of the top players was coming off the bench in furtherance of the team’s overall success. There was a core group of three players, plus the same coach, owner and general manager during this run. The standards they set and that continuity during this run allowed the team to sustain culture through 205 different teammates. Pieces of the puzzle became more seamless once that core and standard had been set, and it became easier to onboard people.
Key Insight: Manu said having the right key people at the core was way more important than having the right player in any particular position. Meaning, this core group with shared values is what set the standard, and then additional pieces could snap on and experience continued success.
Application: PEOPLE drive our success at Document Crunch. Having continuity and a standard operating system now is a stabilizing force. We need to keep ensuring the new Crunchers can snap right in place and help us keep winning!
Playing for a Bigger Cause
These guys played for each other even though many of them had a lot of individual accomplishments. Every year, there was always a new player or two whom the team wanted to have their first championship experience. The team had an edge by wanting everyone to join in the success, and that drove them to keep doing it over and over. Every year, the team bonding activities continued in a way that was extraordinary compared to other NBA teams who gave players more latitude to do their own things on the road.
Key Insight: Being inspired by their teammates caused the players to go the extra mile for one another. The Spurs were highly relational with one another, and that drove them to make the extra effort.
Application: The Crunchers feel this energy on this team. The desire to lift up others is in our DNA. It is imperative that we continue to make this our edge, so we can sustain our success.
Here’s the bottom line: It appears the Spurs were pretty darn warm-hearted, inspired and growth-minded. These are also Document Crunch’s core values, and we can relate to that. Manu noted there are plenty of teams that nobody remembers, but the Spurs get acclaim because of their epic success. I believe we will get to tell our story one day, too, if we keep investing in one another, continue executing, stay true to who we are, and embracing our vision.