In the midst of COVID-19 disruptions, Adam Wexler had a revelation about his business, PrizePicks.
“Creating a compelling product and scaling a business might be the easy part of success,” he reflects. “Nurturing and managing a vibrant and committed company culture is the real key to sustainable success and leadership.” He believes this approach is part of why PrizePicks not only survived COVID but flourished, and continues to do so today.
Wexler knew he was taking a risk in launching his fantasy sports company in 2017. Entering such a saturated market against established competitors meant creating a really compelling value proposition. The founder and CEO took his time getting it right, spending 15 years since graduating from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business and more than a decade of building digital and mobile startups in the Atlanta tech corridor planting seeds. Wexler launched PrizePicks in 2017, at a time when he felt the industry was shifting its focus and creating space for specialization on individual performances.
With little outside financing, Wexler was able to fund the company from platform revenue from day one. He believes this approach fostered a mindset of constant innovation that’s made the platform the broadest and most diverse in terms of offerings in the industry. Five years later, PrizePicks is the fastest-growing sports company and the largest independent daily fantasy sports operator in North America.
Founded and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, PrizePicks is branded as the most fun, fast and simple version of daily fantasy sports, covering a wide variety of sports leagues from the NFL and NBA to esports titles League of Legends and Counter-Strike. Centered around selecting a fantasy roster of athletes, PrizePicks allows sports fans to pit their skills against the numbers rather than against a pool of thousands of other players.
Wexler is considered a leader in his industry by not always making the obvious play. In 2020, with a desire to avoid COVID-19-related gaps in the platform’s 24/7 customer service, Adam moved his leadership team to the island nation of Barbados for much of Q3/Q4. As a result, the company flourished throughout the pandemic and, from November 2020 to November 2021, achieved close to tenfold increases across both its active member base and gross gaming revenue.
Above the capacity to make a profit, Wexler values the people he has chosen to surround himself with. It took the everyday challenges of the pandemic to understand the profound impact of workplace culture on the bottom line. “Today’s employees,” he says, “especially the youngest of them, can see right through an executive who doesn’t seem genuine in their beliefs or committed to the growth of employees as much as the growth of the company. And with that authenticity comes the empathy of always remembering that you’re managing human beings with lives and challenges outside the company walls.”
