>> Hey, welcome back. You're ready, Jeff? Rick! Here with the Cube were Oracle Park recently, A T and T Park just renamed. It's a beautiful day home in San Francisco Giants. They're on the road. We're here at a pretty interesting event is called Sports Tech. Tokyo World Demo Day brought together a coalition of about 100 startups. 25 of them are given demos today on technology as it relates to sports. But even more importantly, that can then be used in other in others. Beyond sports. We're excited to have an athlete on not just another tech crazy guy. He's Brendan Harris. He's an athlete in residence at 76 Capital. Brendan. Thanks for stopping by. >> Thanks for having me. >> So what is the effort, Principles and entrepreneur in residence? Where is the athlete residents do? It is >> essentially a play on the entrepreneur in residence. I was introduced to 76 Capital finished playing in 15 and I was doing my MBA at Warden and in Philly and got introduced Thio Wayne and the guys at 76. And they are kind of putting together an athlete venture group. Whether they're bringing in a lot of athletes don't wannabe investors and kind of providing them access to deal >> flow and >> um, >> and then also leveraging their social capital. So, uh, he was He was kind of tickled when he came when he coined the term athlete residents and he threw it on my business card. And and that's where we're at, >> right? So I'm just curious your perspective as an athlete as you look around at all the technology that's going into sports, right? Kind of the big categories are, you know that which helps the players play better. There's that which helps the people run, the team's better. And then there's that, which is really kind of part of the fan experience. I mean, you actually to go down and try to put wood on a ball coming at you in 90 plus miles an hour. All this other stuff. Do you see it as is it interesting is distraction. Is it entertaining? I mean, how do you look at it from an athlete's perspective? >> So yeah, so a lot to impact. So first of all, I have this ah, equally the equal view of fascination and frustration where a lot of this wasn't he wasn't around when I when I was playing it, certainly from the field. Now we're taking in things like recovery and rest and sleep. Ah, but I think players and me personally are fascinated with How can we improve on field performance? And I think baseball. It's such a perfect game and you fail so often, being able to turn to turn things that were previously subjective and applied data and in tech to make them objective and give you answers. I think it's fascinating and the ways that we can use data to to kind of promote performance and health and and all those things air Very fascinating. So from players, point of view, we're all about it. But at the same time, I think it certainly says why I've loved to get into sports. Tech is there's a lot of data that's just noise that's coming in and things. And so the tough part is, um, kind of weeding through and what is actionable info on what can actually help improve the on field performance? And then along with that, you know, we want to feel the product on the field, but also what the service is for the consumer and the fans are. And how can we improve that and then engage them? Because certainly sports are part of the culture and part of life now, and it's fascinating. These fans want to know more and more and more, certainly what's going >> on. And it's been It's been a >> great journey, >> right? So on the fan experience specifically, and we've been we've been here a number of years. Bill Styles, a good friend of mine off another word and other work. Brad and and, you know, talking about high density WiFi and you know the app on your phone and delivered, you know, food delivered to your seats. I mean, >> as a as an >> athlete on the field. Do you look at kind of all these things is as a distraction. Do you appreciate? It's kind of a more competitive environment these days in terms of people's attention and kind of that entertainment dollar. But I would imagine from between the lines it looks like Hey, you know, the game's down here people. It's been >> interesting because, um, you know, one of the problems of a major league baseball's been trying to address his pace of games right. And if you really look at the data, they're not that much longer. What's different? We're wired differently, right? So our attention spans are short and we're constantly so our technology. So these, you know, guys like Bill, you are trying to leverage that and try to have your food delivered and try to increase the social component. Increased the value in the in venue experience so that you're not only watching the game, but you're socially enjoying at the same time and kind of fill in those gaps. Ah, lot of it is yes on. And I think there's been balls flying into the stands since baseball's been playing, but they need to put the netting up. Has come a lot of times because nobody's watching. Some people aren't not nobody, but a lot of people aren't watching. The games are getting hit with a lot of these foul balls. So there is that component where you know there's there's some unbelievable things are going off on the sides. But um, you know it's baseball is still gonna be kind of very somewhat within within the confines. >> The other piece that I find really interesting on the data side, right? Is there so much data? Right? There's data data data. Obviously, baseball is built on data and arguments about data and conversations about data, but now it's kind of gone to this next Gen with, you know, wins over replacement and all these other things. But sometimes it's funny to me. It feels like they're forgetting the object of the game is to win the game. And it feels like sometimes the metadata has now become more important than the data. Did you win or lose and is not necessarily being used as a predictor for future performance? But it's almost like a standalone game in and of itself. Like we forget. The object is to win the game and win a championship, not to have the highest war number views since that frustration is that sound? Yeah, I think what you're getting >> into a lot of times is our know how are we making decisions right? And in the game? A lot of times people forget that human beings are out there performing and so I think that's how we've gotten into Moneyball 2.0, looking at development and certainly mental health in focus and game preparation have come into play more and you're seeing some managers. I mean, Mickey Callaway just came out and said 80% my, you know, Susan's go against the data, which which I thought was a little bit interesting, but, ah, so there is that fine line right where you have to filter in what's noise and what's actionable. And at the same time, um, you know, allow you know, your managers and your decision makers some flexibility to go with, You know, they're they're in the heat of the battle and they kind of know their guys. And they know the human element that's involved. So it's it's an interesting, you know, trying to balancing act, >> right? So from your from your new job in your new role, what are some of the things you hope to see today? What are some things that you're excited about? Um, you know, from kind of an investor. And having played the game as well. As you know, I'm looking forward to the evolution of sports. Two >> things specifically how the, uh certainly bias the performs on the field in the human element. And certainly everybody wants workout secrets, and I don't feel like it's whether it's athletes or the kind of weekend warrior or people that are, you know, kind of your senior citizens. And I don't think it's a simple as this has worked, and you should do this. It's a very personalized experience now. And I think some of this personalized digital fitness is fascinating to me on and then how it relates to and how your body relates to, you know, your diet and nutrition, your sleep, your recovery. I think all those air fascinating that, uh, advances that I want to look into more. And the second is a CZ, I kind of mentioned is the fan engagement aspect. How do we drive those those fans that digital, >> um, and >> make it actionable and monetize, right? So that you know, you have your fans that are following you know, your Facebook, twitter and all those things. And so how do you not only gauge them, but collect that data and then kind of personalized that experience? Engage your fan in a way that can kind of grow your brand. Yeah, it's interesting to me, >> really interesting to have to have your perspective, and I'm sure will be a great day and you see all kinds of crazy stuff. So thanks for taking a few minutes. >> Yeah, Any time. >> All right. He's Brendan. I'm Jeff. You're watching The Cube were at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

>> Announcer: Live from Orlando, Florida, it's theCUBE covering Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media. >> Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of the Grace Hopper Conference in Orlando, Florida. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. We're joined by Morgan Berman. She is the founder and CEO of MilkCrate, a platform that measures and grows social and environmental impact. Thanks so much for joining us. >> Thanks for having me. >> So I want to, start off by telling us a little bit about MilkCrate. >> Sure. So we're a tech company. We got our start about four years ago. We've grown and changed a lot in that time, but what we really focus on doing is helping big organizations either for- or non-profit, engage people in social and environmental impact in a game app. And we build custom versions of this app based on the goals of each client. So whether it's a big company that wants to engage employees in volunteering and riding a bike to work, or a nonprofit that has kids that they're trying to get to go to art museums, and encourage them to go more often, we can gamify both of those behaviors in unique apps and then those clients have their own engagement experience for hitting those goals. >> Well, that's a really neat idea. Tell me how you came up with it. >> Well, like I said, it's changed and grown over time. Originally it was my own personal desire to grow my impact in the world. I grew up in this kind of crunchy, kind of wonderful bubble, I guess, where my mom would only buy food from the farmer's market, she was actually a farm-to-table chef, one of the first female chefs in Philly. She wrote books rating and reviewing thrift shopping, so I grew up with like fresh local food, thrift shopping, there was a community garden behind us. >> She was a hipster before her time. >> Exactly, my mom's like the original hipster. And my dad was also an entrepreneur. So when I moved to West Philadelphia, which is like the crunchiest part of the city by far, I was trying to figure out how to ride a bike in the city for the first time, and how do you compost with worms when you live in an apartment and you don't have a backyard. Where's my nearest food co-op so I can start feeding myself this way? And my interest grew and grew as I started learning about things like climate change. And I went to a Bill McKibben talk about fossil fuel divestment, and there were these children in Haiti holding a sign that said Connect The Dots Your Actions Affect Me. And it really hit home how my privilege as this western world person with this degree and all of these things that most people don't have that every choice I made about my life was having a direct impact on someone on the other side of the world, or often not even that far from me. And so I wanted to figure out how to live my life in a way that my values weren't conflicting with my actions. So I applied for graduate school in sustainable design to originally, the idea was to help design sustainable buildings but I quickly learned that even though I had this degree, architects weren't going to take me seriously. And so I pivoted and took all my extra-curriculars in Industrial Design and Interactive Media. And I had the head of the department for Interactive Media actually helping me with the first mock-ups of MilkCrate, which was all about designing an app to help people live their values, particularly around sustainability. And then, after a few years of learning and growing, we actually, Forbes picked us to be one of the five companies on the Forbes Under 30 stage and that catapulted us onto this path of suddenly going from a school project to a startup company that needed to raise money and have a business model. And I was like, what's a business model? So after about two years of learning and growing, we realized that there's this opportunity with big corporations to engage employees in sustainability and that there was a pain point on this enterprise level that we could solve, and yeah. >> And what was this pain point? I mean, I think that's the thing is we can all say it's great for companies to get their employees to ride more bikes and to start a recycling program-- >> But why do they care? >> Yeah! >> And that's what investors would always ask, and I'd be like, ugh! And I had to learn the answer! And the answer is 75% of the S&P 500 issues a CSR Sustainability Report every year, and that has grown exponentially over the last few years. And the reason they do that is because employees want to work for a company that's making a difference. 45% of millennials would take a 15% cut or more in their salary to work for a company that makes a difference in the world. The reason that B Corps are growing exponentially around the world, all of these things, of business is a force for good in the world, it's the norm now. Whether you realize it or not, that's what's driving people to work for a company, to stay for a company, for customers to buy a product from a company. That's how people are starting to make their important life choices. And so now companies invest in having a Corporate Social Responsibility, not only a director, but a whole department. And they're, what we learned when we were researching how to figure out this whole business model was that CSR directors, their top three pain points are engaging employees, tracking and analytics, and having a scalable, cost-effective program across the whole company. So we realized our product could do all three of those things, and I was like, oh, I think that's a business model, when you solve the major pain points for an important corporate role in the world. So that's how we started moving in that direction and we started getting validation, and then we realized we also could work with nonprofits when they started reaching out. And so now we're kind of filling both of those needs that are a little bit different. >> So you're gamifying, making it into a game, making it fun for employees, or clients or customers or whoever the target audience is. So what kind of rewards are they getting for this? How do you light up their bulbs? >> I'm actually giving a lecture on this at Warden on Monday, so it's top of mind. You've got intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, right? There are the things that you do because they make you feel like you're being your authentic self, where you're expressing your values and that lights up your brain in a way that nothing else ever will. Then you have your external, extrinsic motivations, things like prizes, but also social acknowledgement. Seeing that you are functioning the way your peers are, that sense of I am not alone, or I am normal, that's a really important validation as a human. So seeing that you're in the top 10 or that you're above average, that feels good. So we have things like your rank and how you're doing on your team and how your team's doing in comparison to other teams in your MilkCrate community. And then there's the actual rewards. So university clients of ours have given tickets to sporting events, or credit to the bookstore. Corporate clients, gift certificates to local, sustainable restaurants and coffee shops near the headquarters. We're actually now partnering with an amazing B Corp company, United By Blue, that has ethically made and environmentally thoughtful products like mugs and candles and things like that. So, it depends on the client what their goals are, what their budget is, what motivates those people. But it really, the beginning part, when you first download the app, the first couple of challenges are things like answer this question about how important is to you to live your values? So you get them thinking in that mindset about why they're using this app. >> Priming them to-- >> Priming them, exactly! Getting them in that headspace. That's the most important thing you can do in the beginning is just to help them understand why they're using this, and then the rewards are almost, they're a distant second. >> Okay, okay. So you've also, you are a B Corp, and are there many other B Corps here at Grace Hopper? I mean, what's your experience there? As you said, it is now the norm that the business is functioning this way. But B Corps are still a minority, relatively speaking. >> Right, there's a lot of room for growth there, yeah. I think having the CSR report is the norm, but doing everything you possibly can, there's still a lot of room in that department. One thing I saw that I loved was that instead of giving out swag, Facebook was actually donating money to nonprofits that help women code. I was like, that's great! So I haven't seen any B Corps here that I've, yeah, I don't think I've seen other than ROAR For Good-- >> Which we had on the show earlier. >> Yes, so Yasmine and I are definitely two Philly B Corps. I would love to see more tech companies go in that direction but yeah, there's a lot more growth that needs to happen. There are about, I think, I actually just got to meet one of the other founders of B Lab that does B Corp certification. He gave a great presentation answering in more detail why do companies do this? It was amazing how many stats he had. It was like yes! But 2,300 for B Corps and I think something like 16,000 benefit corporations. So they're slightly different things, but it's a growing movement for sure. >> So talk a little bit about your experience at this Grace Hopper Conference. It's day one, we're near the end of day one. How would you describe the energy, the atmosphere, what's your feeling about being here in Orlando? >> So I've heard over and over again people saying it's just so good to be in a room full of women who are all doing awesome things. And it keeps reminding me of when I went and saw Wonder Woman with my parents. And I remember sitting in the theater and going like this and being like oh, my cheeks are wet. Oh, I think I'm crying. Oh, I think I'm having feelings. I think it's because I've literally never seen on a screen several dozen, or hundreds of women just being powerful, physical beings with like, aggression and skill, and it having nothing to do with sexuality or being attractive. And it was just the first time I'd seen that in my 32 years of existence. And to just, there's something so powerful about having that icon, that image reflected back at you to see, oh, if you can do that, I can do that. And actually, over the last 13 months, I've been training in Brazilian jujitsu and competing, and to see women being physical, strong warriors, and only women, and it not being sexualized, it was like oh, that's the feeling I get when I compete, and when I'm with my teammates, my female teammates. Anyways, I think that's kind of what's happening here is that sense of like, these are my people, and we are doing amazing things, and to just see each other when historically, you never got to see a room like this. I think it's an unfortunately necessary experience to be reminded that we are out there, we are doing this, and it's growing. >> And there is a sisterhood and the belonging that we talked about earlier, too. >> I mean, you see men who don't seem particularly uncomfortable here. They can kind of, they're like okay with this. And they get to kind of know what it's like to be in the minority. And I kind of want to ask them, how are you feeling? What's this like for you? But like, to see everyone flipping the ratio and we're all good, so that means if we could get somewhere more like parity I think that could be pretty magical. >> So as a female founder, a female technologist, what is your advice for the younger versions of you who maybe are just graduating from college, or maybe even younger than that and sort of wondering, can I even do that? Can I aspire to be that? >> You absolutely can. And I gave some advice at the end of my session earlier. And my two bits of advice were detach yourself from any negative association with the word Failure. Try and come up with a new word for yourself if you need to because learning and growing is what you're going to do your whole life, and so taking risks, that's what you need to be doing every single day. And so pushing against those things that scare you. And the second thing was to find a mentor, because no one piece of advice I can give is ever going to fill the role that having a mentor can give you over the course of a career, or even just for a few years. The amount that I've grown in just the last four years of building my company with some of my mentors, it's incredible. So, find someone who reminds you of who you want to be, and then latch on to them and get them to help kind of carry you along. >> Great. Well, Morgan, it's been so fun talking to you. >> Thank you, this has been great. >> Thanks for joining us. >> I'm Rebecca Knight, we'll have more from the Grace Hopper Conference in Orlando just after this. (rippling music)