OTAs Explained: How LeagueApps Brings Our Team Together

As an entrepreneur, I’m frequently asked if building and leading a business is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I often reply that yes, it has its challenges, but given my previous career helping to lead Seeds of Peace, a non-profit that focuses on resolving conflict in the Middle East and South Asia, it pales in comparison.

My background in peacemaking has given me experiences that I’ve translated into a focus on leadership and culture at LeagueApps. It also offers up a model to our partners who confront many of the same challenges and opportunities that we do.

Encounters with Greatness

One of the formative experiences of my professional career was a trip to Silicon Valley. Given my unique background bridging cultures, I was one of two Americans invited to participate in a two-day retreat involving select Israeli and Jordanian entrepreneurs and venture capitalists where we engaged luminaries from the valley in private discussions. We heard the founding stories of Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, PayPal, EA Sports, and Zynga.

Over and over again, the explanation of how companies became great, and not just good, came down to a commitment to culture. The common advice that has always stuck with me was to define your culture and values early, hire and develop a team based on the clarity of who you are, and recognize that smart, aligned teams can solve the most difficult challenges. 

Culture at LeagueApps: Organized Team Activities (OTAs)

Inspired by that conversation, Brian Litvack and I were intentional about how we defined our value-centric culture (Sportsdog) from when we were a six-person team (including an intern), authentically surfacing the attributes that were already defining what made us successful and unique.

We recognized the importance of ritualizing those values—and stepping back out of the day to reflect on how we as a company could better live up to them. With founding team members in D.C. and New York City (and one colleague in Thailand!), we decided to formally bring the team together two times a year for a retreat.

Not wanting to simply accept the formula of a typical company offsite, we... READ MORE