Jesse Itzler wrote the Knicks' theme song "Go New York Go" for $4,000, then leveraged that one client to land deals with nearly every major sports team. He sold the business at 27 for $4 million, plus $12 to $16 million in earn-outs, turning a low-paying gig into his ticket off someone else's couch.
I started out doing jingles just for anyone that would pay me anything. One of those jingles gave me an opportunity to write a theme song for the New York Knicks. So I approached the Knicks to do this song called Go New York Go. The Knicks paid me $4,000 to buy the song outright. It cost me $4,800 to actually deliver the song that they were paying me $4,000 for. You know, for most people, they would be like, that's a terrible business model. It was the best business model in the world for me because I would have paid the Knicks $10,000 to say they were my customer. Because once I had the Knicks, those phone calls to get the other sports teams became very easy. I ended up doing theme songs for almost every professional sports team. I sold that company to a public company called SFX. I was 27. We sold it for $4 million, and then there was an earnout for another $12 or $16 or something. And that was my first kind of like, get off the couch moment. I was no longer on Melissa's couch, and I moved into my own space.
