Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Sapp
Hi Tony, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I originally moved to the Houston area from the Savannah, GA area in 2006 for a job as a systems engineer at NASA. Prior to this I was working as a retail store manager and was on my feet daily. Now that I had a full time desk job I found it difficult to keep the same level of activity and began to put on weight and generally fell into a very unhealthy lifestyle. Throughout my entire childhood, elementary through high school, I was an athlete (football, wrestling, baseball, basketball, and crew) but I had let myself go up to a max weight of 350 lbs by 2009.
In November of 2009, as I was watching TV after work enjoying some drinks and smoking cigarettes on the couch alone in my apartment, I stumbled on a recording of the Ironman World Champions in Kona, Hawaii. I was in awe of the athletes and quickly began reminiscing of my days playing sports which then made me realize how far I had fallen. I decided that night I wanted to do an Ironman. I chose that event because I assumed it was a one-off event and was the only triathlon in the world. The next morning I started researching how to train for a triathlon and that’s when I discovered there were triathlons in Houston! It was a huge wake-up that there were so many events in Houston I had no idea about. I immediately registered for my first triathlon which was scheduled for April 2010. It was a short course event in conjunction with the Half Ironman event in Galveston. Now I had to figure out how to go from a sedentary 350lb 28-year old to triathlon finisher. I had never run more than a mile or two, I’d need to run 3.1 miles at the triathlon. I hadn’t swam since middle school, I’d need to swim 600 yards at the triathlon. I had never ridden a road bike and hadn’t been on a bike at all since middle school, I’d need to ride 14 miles at the triathlon. It all seemed very daunting but I preserved and finished my first triathlon in April 2010. From that point I was hooked, completing several more triathlons, 10k running events, half marathons, marathons, Half Ironman triathlons, and so on all while losing over 150 lbs within the next 2 years.
Fast forward to 2012, I was now in the best shape of my life, I was dating my now-wife of almost 10 years, and I was beginning to get frustrated with the office politics at my job at NASA. I had moved up over the years and was now leading a team of systems engineers supporting the astronauts on the International Space Station. Scrolling on Facebook I stumbled on a post from a local event director looking for a volunteer coordinator. I had rekindled my love for sport and wanted to give it a shot as a weekend gig so I replied, interviewed, and was brought on to coordinate, recruit, and manage on race day all the volunteers for 6 Houston-area events. I instantly fell in love with the production-side of the business and, with my growing frustrations at my full time job, decided to see if it was something I could do for a living like the director I was working for.
In January 2014, I went to the director and asked for help with an idea I had to produce a running event at Johnson Space Center. That conversation led to what would become the Run Houston! Race Series. A series of five 5k/10k running events taking place all over the Houston area. We decided to go into business together. In April 2014, I formed Negative Split Productions and a holding company called Houston Race Series. Negative Split Productions was my own business and Houston Race Series was owned 50/50 between me and the event director who helped get me started. As the planning process took shape, I grew more confident in the business model and decided to go into it full time. I officially left my full time job as NASA in June 2014.
We produced our first event on January 1, 2015 at Sam Houston Race Park with over 1,000 registered participants and now I was hooked even more. The exhilaration of race day and seeing all these athletes complete an event I helped create from scratch was something I wanted more of. We produced our second event in March, 2015 at Minute Maid Park with over 2,000 runners! I now saw a potential for this to grow beyond my expectations. We continued producing several more events in the Run Houston! Race Series developed more events for more experienced runners with half marathons, a total of 3 that would become the Bayou City Half Series. The entire time I was soaking in learning everything I could about the business. I had become very proficient in managing accounting, creating event concepts and courses, finding new ways to bring new runners in each year, and managing technology associated with events. By 2016 we were hosting 25,0000+ athletes a year across 8 running events and the newly formed (and hugely successful) Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon all under the Houston Race Series banner which was 50% owned by my company, Negative Split Productions (NSP).
In mid-2017, my business partner and I decided we needed a change. We decided it was time to create more but our time was at a premium so we made the decision to put our running events on the market as assets for sale. We didn’t feel like we had to sell them so we waited patiently and eventually found buyers at the price we were asking in early 2018. While this was happening, I was working to vertically integrate our events and had purchased and started timing our events through NSP. In June 2018, the sale was finalized and the only race asset I owned was the Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon which was, at the time, the 2nd largest kids triathlon in the world with 1200 participants. NSP was timing a few other events at the time so I had some additional revenue coming in.
My business partner and I retooled our holding company, Houston Race Series, and changed the name to Extreme Endurance Events. We were now going to enter the extreme triathlon market, a very niche but amazing sub-section of events that tested the most elite athletes on the planet. Over the next year or so we created and produced the Alaskaman Extreme Triathlon, Iceland Extreme Triathlon, and Alohaman Extreme Triathlon. Side note, while I never did qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, I was able to go to the event in 2018 as a member of the press, assisting my business partner who was also a professional photographer. We went to scout and attend meetings in the development of the Alohaman Extreme Triathlon.
In December 2019, after producing the inaugural event in Kona, we decided we were going to take 2020 off because the travel to and from these remote locations was taking its toll. Each event required several trips to the locations and we were spending weeks away from our families at a time. My timing business was slowly growing so taking a year off producing wasn’t going to be too much of a hit.
But then, in March 2020, the world was turned upside down due to COVID. I had no idea what I was going to do because events were the first things being canceled. My race timing business was finally starting to grow but everything stopped. After about a month of sulking, I decided to take all the knowledge I had gathered over the years producing events and start helping other events who wanted to transition to virtual races. We had been producing virtual events in conjunction with the Run Houston! Race Series since 2016. Through 2020, I created a subset of services specifically targeting virtual events that included registration setup, results management, item procurement (shirts, finisher medals, etc.), and shipping and fulfillment of the items to the participants. This wasn’t a complete replacement for the lost timing business but it helped get me through what would have been a zero revenue timeframe. Coming out of COVID in 2021, I started seeing local events come back albeit much smaller and looking very different from pre-pandemic events. I started getting calls again for race timing and things started to really take off. In 2019, I timed a total of 16 events. By the end of 2021, I had timed 58 total events. Then by the end of 2022, I had timed 96 total events with nearly 50,000 total finishers.
Today, I work with over 140 events a year and will time over 75,000 finishers in 2024. I produce 3 of my own events each year; Resolution Run Houston, a New Year’s themed running event taking place in downtown Houston; the Houston Texans Kids Triathlon (formerly the Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon), the world’s largest kids triathlon with over 1600 participants annually; and, new this year, the Houston Fourth Fest, a new concept event taking place on July 4 at Vintage Park that includes a road race, Houston’s Beer Mile Championship, and a Hot Dog Eating Contest. I continue to add services supporting the mass participation endurance market and spend most of my time talking shop with other event directors.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Things seemed to be going smooth and business was growing until the pandemic hit in March 2020. With a complete stoppage of all events I was forced to pivot and launch a new sub-set of services I termed “Virtual Race Services” to assist event directors in producing their own virtual events. The unintended side effect of this was that NSP was now getting the attention of event organizers from all over the country and even some very large clients like Amazon. Yes, I actually processed virtual race packet shipping and fulfillment for the largest logistics company in the world.
There have been many other, more minor, struggles like having to teach myself more about technology and having to DIY/bootstrap a business as a solo-prenuer.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Negative Split Productions is an event production company and technology consulting firm for other race organizers. For other organizers, I provide assistance with registration setup and management, marketing guidance, production consulting, and race timing. I have several new service offerings that will launching later this year centered around but expanding out of the mass participation endurance event market including equipment rental and audio/visual experiences. I also produce, own, and operate 3 events.
1. Resolution Run Houston, a New Year’s themed running event in downtown Houston. I’ll be hosting my 3rd annual event on December 29, 2024. The event includes a 5k, 10k, Nearly Half (12.3 miles), and a Family 1-mile. Registration will be opening in September and more information can be found at https://www.houstonresolutionrun.com/.
2. Houston Texans Kids Triathlon (formerly the Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon), a kids-only event that takes place at Typhoon Texas Waterpark in Katy. It is the world’s largest active kids-only triathlon and hosted over 1600 participants in its 9th year in April. Registration will be opening in late-October or early November and more information can be found at https://houstonkidstri.com.
3. Houston Fourth Fest, an inaugural event in 2024 on July 4 at Vintage Park. The event will feature a road race with distance options including a 5k, 9k, 17.76k, and a Family 1.776k race, Houston’s Beer Mile Championship, and a Hot Dog Eating Contest. More information can be found at https://www.houstonfourthfest.com/.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
When the pandemic hit the Houston area in March 2020, the first things canceled were mass gatherings which include all mass participation endurance events. This completely stopped all the momentum I had going in the year and forced me to pivot my business to a more consulting business. Through this I was able to come out as an expert in event management and have been on several industry boards and panels as an expert in all things event production and management.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mynegativesplit.com
- Instagram: @negativesplitproductions
- Facebook: @negativesplitproductions
- Youtube: @negativesplitproductions
