#4 The Business of Dating with Michael Katos, CEO of Playing The Field

This Tweet from creator Kazeem Famuyide highlighted to me what a strange year it's been for sports fans: https://twitter.com/Kazeem/status/1304472473178525698

'Today is the first day in history that NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, MLS, NHL, WWE and U.S. Open are all taking place.' Kazeem later noted this may or may not be true, but who cares, all the sports are back!

When I was deciding on the episode to release this week, my conversation with Michael Katos seemed to fit perfectly. I love when things fall in place like this. How Autumn leaves know it's time to float.

Michael is the CEO of sports-based dating app, 'Playing The Field'. He is is a self-taught web developer, family man, HUGE sports fan and a new player in the world of online dating.

As soon as I saw the 'Playing The Field' logo, I got 'it'. I guess 'it' is the concept, tone or brand. Perhaps all three of these things. This doesn't happen too often in business and marketing. It's a great sign if you get a sense for a businesses' future before they've even fully launched. This is something that even some well-established businesses strive for, but never achieve.

I really missed watching and participating in sports during the early stages of the pandemic. I didn't quite realise just how important sports and competition was to my overall well-being and I think a lot of sports fan feel the same way. There's something so primal about competition that I need in my life to feel healthy and satisfied and it was it was great to kick-off a new season of sports by getting back on the verbal playing field with Mike.

In today's episode we discuss:

• Michael's background and how he built 'Playing The Field' alongside working a full-time job
• The process of building a dating app and finding Playing The Field's first fans
• How the pandemic has impacted the sports world and sports fans
• Features that help Playing The field standout in the competitive world of dating apps
• How Michael plans on developing the app and growing it's user base

CONNECT WITH MIKE / PLAYING THE FIELD:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkatos/
• https://playthefielddating.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/playthefieldnow
• https://twitter.com/playthefieldnow
• https://www.instagram.com/playthefieldnow/

Note: ... and since we recorded this episode, Michael's started his own podcast under the Playing The Field umbrella 'The Fan Experience', which you can find here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC71AWBRj6TlXEt2Eu4DKyow/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE ADVERTISING HOUR:

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-advertising-hour/id1517577846
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• Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/podcastdotco/the-advertising-hour
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... or your favourite podcast platform!

FOLLOW ME / THE ADVERTISING HOUR:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theadhour
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theadvertisinghour/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAdvertisingHour/
• Me: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottcolenutt/

The track in this episode is 'This is 4 Us' by Matt Large.

Send all feedback, thoughts and guest recommendations to [email protected]