Personal Profile: Brett Baker
Who: Brett Baker
What: President and co-founder, FantasyCoverage.com; member of FSTA board of directors
“I’ve concluded that I’m not all that interesting.”
That self assessment came from Brett Baker after reviewing his biographical information in the answers to my questions for this profile. Well, if a guy who has been a chemical engineer, spent eight months of a year working in China, the Philippines and Venezuela, worked in the burgeoning field of wind-energy harvesting and launched a fantasy-sports startup isn’t interesting, I don’t know what that says for most of the rest of us.
The chemical engineering came with a company called APV, which works in industrial manufacturing and engineering, where Baker landed after graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in process engineering. As an engineer and then project manager with APV, Baker helped design and implement beverage plants for drinks that included Sunny Delight and Gatorade. It was this job that took him to China for five months in his final year with the company, as well as the Philippines for two months and Venezuela for one more.
Upon leaving APV in 1997, Baker says he followed his boss to NEG Micon, which manufactures wind turbines — “like the huge ones you see in Palm Springs.” (I have to say that the closest I’ve come to seeing Palm Springs is watching the early scenes of “Rainman,” but at least the turbines are visible there.)
“I quickly found that the wind energy industry is very similar to the fantasy sports industry in that most people in it are very passionate about their work,” Baker says. “If you were traveling and eating dinner with people after already having worked with them for 12 hours, they still only wanted to talk about windmills. After two years and countless failed attempts to change conversations to sports, I figured I was in the wrong line of business.”
So after a couple of years there, Baker joined Apropos Technology as a senior director of professional services. His group designed and built software for customers, and Baker spent his time managing revenue and interfacing with the sales and engineering groups, experience that would help him once he entered the next phase.
In 2005, Baker and an associate launched Receller Inc., which acts as an intermediary for people who want to sell items on eBay. It was also that year that they got FantasyCoverage.com off the ground, while Receller was somewhat idle, waiting on movement by a large customer.
“We originally intended to license software for wagering on fantasy sports performances,” Baker says. “My background was consulting and we saw that there was a need for specialized software development services within the industry, so we shifted our focus to that. It started to take on a life of its own fairly soon afterwards and I began to spend most if not all of my time on that side of the fence.”
Among the companies that Fantasy Coverage has worked with already since its public launch in 2006 are ESPN, Fanball and Ditka Fantasy Sports. Whereas he didn’t find the same passion as those around him in the wind-energy industry, Baker doesn’t find the same problem working in fantasy.
Baker says he has played fantasy football in a league with friends from college since 1993 and also counts fantasy baseball and basketball among his annual pursuits. Forays into NASCAR, golf and “some of the more obscure sports” haven’t taken hold, but the eight or so leagues among the three sports he does keep up with — along with raising three kids — is enough to keep him busy.
Last year, his fantasy involvement included Fantasy Coverage joining the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, when they realized the winter conference in Chicago would be local for the company based in La Grange, Ill.
“We didn’t know what to expect, but it seemed like a no-brainer,” Baker says of joining.
Now, he sits on the board of directors and played an integral role in the planning for the most recent summer conference back in Chicago. Of course, maybe someday he’ll actually do something interesting.
Tags: apropos, apv, brett baker, ebay, fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball, fantasy coverage, fantasy football, fantasy sports, fantasy sports business, fantasy sports industry, fantasy sports trade association, fsta, receller
