At IBM, Dave Benson got so fed up with long meetings that he pulled out his phone and set a 60‑second timer for each person to speak.
No one thought it would work. Then something weird happened: the meetings got sharper, people prepared more, and the energy in the room changed.
That tiny constraint stuck in his head. If a one‑minute limit could fix bloated meetings, what could it do for something people actually care about, like talking to their favorite athletes or creators?
How a Meeting Timer Became a $3M Startup in Sports Media
Benson had spent more than 20 years in sports media and content production, including time at ESPN and IBM. He understood both sides of the table: how teams and brands think about content, and how fans actually behave.
By October 2021, he decided to stop treating the 60‑second idea as a joke and start treating it as a product. He left corporate and founded SuperQuickQuestion (SQQ), a platform for ultra‑short, one‑on‑one video chats between fans and talent.
The pitch was simple: you get 60 seconds, face‑to‑face, with someone you care about. Not a pre‑recorded Cameo, not a comment that might get liked, but a real, live conversation that ends before it gets awkward.
That constraint did a few things at once. It made the experience feel special but not intimidating, it made scheduling and logistics manageable, and it turned “access” into a repeatable, scalable format for teams, leagues, and brands.
According to company data compiled by Datanyze, SQQ has since grown into a multimillion‑dollar business in the sports media space. Not bad for something that started as a meeting efficiency hack.
The Indianapolis Colts Pilot That Turned a Concept Into Proof
The real test came in 2024, when SQQ joined the Techstars Sports Accelerator and landed a pilot with the Indianapolis Colts. This was the first chance to see if real fans, with real emotions, would actually show up for a 60‑second chat.
The format was straightforward. Fans could book short, live video conversations with players or team personalities. On the back end, SQQ handled the scheduling, the tech, and the guardrails that keep everything safe and on time.
What surprised the Colts was how personal it got. Kids jumped into the frame to talk to players. Parents used their 60 seconds to say thank you, not just ask for predictions. For some fans, it felt closer to a make‑a‑wish moment than a marketing activation.
Colts VP of Data Strategy and Innovation Charlie Shin talked about how powerful it was to see those reactions in real time. The team wasn’t just getting engagement metrics, they were getting emotional proof that this format hit a nerve.
At the same time, the front office was watching the data. They could see who booked calls, what they asked, how often they came back, and how these micro‑interactions lined up with ticketing and merch behavior.
That mix of emotion and data is what turned SQQ from a clever idea into a serious tool for sports fan engagement. It wasn’t just “cool access.” It was structured, measurable, and repeatable.
From One Team Pilot to Sponsored Access at Scale
Once the Colts pilot worked, the model started to shift from “team experiment” to “sponsorship asset.” Brands were already paying for signage, social posts, and hospitality. Now they could pay to underwrite real conversations.
SQQ began working with partners like Verizon to turn these 60‑second chats into virtual sponsorship activations. Instead of another logo on a backdrop, a brand could literally be the reason a fan got to talk to an athlete.
That has a very practical upside. Virtual appearances mean no flights, no hotel blocks, no security details, and no dead time for talent. A player can stack 20 fan conversations in a tight window from wherever they are, and the brand still gets a premium experience to attach its name to.
Because the format is short and controlled, it also travels well outside of sports. Benson and his team have used SQQ to run “Santa chats” for kids on the spectrum, where the time limit and structure help reduce anxiety.
That kind of use case makes it clear this is not just a fan‑club gimmick. The same tech that powers athlete video chats can support education, social impact, and niche communities that need safe, short, focused interactions.
As Sports Business Journal’s profile of Benson and SQQ points out, the core innovation is not the video call itself. It is the format: one minute, one person, one clear moment.
What Changes When You Stop Thinking Like an Employee
For Benson, the turning point was admitting that no one in a big company was going to build this for him. At IBM and ESPN, the 60‑second idea would have died in a deck or a committee.
Leaving his last corporate job meant giving up the safety of a salary for something that, on paper, sounded too small. A “timer for conversations” is not the kind of thing that usually gets a green light in a boardroom.
But that is the point. The idea came from a very specific, personal frustration: meetings that wasted time and drained energy. He didn’t try to solve “communication” in general. He solved one tiny slice of it and then found a place where that slice mattered a lot more.
If you look at Benson’s org profile today on The Org, you see a founder and CEO, not a mid‑level operator. The job title changed because he was willing to take a small, almost silly insight seriously enough to build around it.
The lesson for the rest of us is not “quit your job and build a sports startup.” It is that your most valuable ideas might not look big at first. They might look like a constraint, a hack, or a workaround that only you care about.
If that constraint solves a problem you feel every day, there is a good chance someone else feels it too. The work is figuring out where that tiny fix becomes emotionally meaningful and economically valuable.
Benson found his answer in sports fan engagement and sponsorship. Your version might live in operations, healthcare, education, or some unsexy back office process.
The pattern is the same: start with the frustration you know better than anyone, give it a clear boundary, and then see how far that boundary can scale.
