For the second episode of Big Bets on Cheap Chairs, our host Fabian sits down with Marko Pešić, one of the most respected executives in European basketball. Born in Sarajevo and shaped by his father, the legendary coach Svetislav Pešić, Marko built a playing career across Berlin, Greece, and Italy, winning six German League titles with ALBA Berlin and representing Germany on the international stage — including a silver medal at EuroBasket 2005 and a bronze at the 2002 FIBA World Championship. But it's the second act that makes his story resonate with this series. After his playing career, Marko studied sports marketing and management, then spent 14 years at FC Bayern Munich Basketball — first as Sports Director, later as General Manager — building the program into a Bundesliga champion and a fixture in the EuroLeague. Along the way, he closed 200+ player deals — which makes him the perfect guest for our show to draw the parallels to early-stage investing.

For the very first episode of big bets on cheap chairs, our host Mey is sitting down with Javier de la Fuente, one of the sharpest talent scouts in Germany. He spotted award winning rap artist Luciano early on YouTube and worked with him ever since. Since then he has taken that instinct to the Icon League and Angel investing in companies like Loco Chicken — exactly the cross-disciplinary eye this series is all about. One parallel we saw is, in music, artists are protected like long-range creative capital: managers absorb the life admin, the logistics, the label politics, so the artist can focus on the work.