CEO Fran Tarkenton emphasizes the importance of team chemistry for companies and sports teams.
He interviews every employee and believes having the right people is crucial.
The NFL legend and entrepreneur invests in AI startups and promotes communication.
NFL legend Fran Tarkenton said the same problems that can destroy team chemistry in the locker room can also hinder a business. That’s why he insists on interviewing each of his employees.
“If you don’t have the right people, you can’t make it in your company, in my company, or in the NFL,” NFL quarterback Tarkenton told Business Insider. He is also the founder of the technology company.
In a conversation with then-Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, Tarkenton said that more than a decade ago he advised Carroll to release a superstar player who was causing unrest in the locker room.
“I said if you have 40 players – we had 40 players back then – and you have 39 All-Pro players and you have an asshole, then the asshole is going to take over,” Tarkenton said in an interview in New York on Tuesday.
Tarkenton is still talking to his suitors
Tarkenton is the CEO of his Atlanta-based company. He said he considers himself a lifelong entrepreneur, having been able to deliver a newspaper by the age of seven. He played in the NFL in the 1960s and 1970s and set records as a star quarterback.
Tarkenton’s career began before the sport’s explosion in popularity and the lucrative contracts that came with it. To earn more money, he worked part-time jobs during the off-season. After retiring, he was a commentator on “Monday Night Football” and co-host of ABC’s “That’s Incredible!” There he shot a TV commercial about the then five-year-old Tiger Woods.
All of this work, Tarkenton said, was to reinvest the money in private ventures. These ranged from a partnership with IBM to the recent founding of pipIQ. An AI startup focused on small businesses with a particular emphasis on nurturing LLMs in a secure environment.
Tarkenton, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986, said he makes sure to spend at least 15 minutes with everyone. From senior leaders to beginners. He said he will speak to 500 or more people over the course of a year.
“This practice flows from one of my seven business maxims: People need to talk to people,” he wrote in another email. “No one is successful alone. Communication and collaboration help us learn new ideas, strengthen our thinking and find better ways of doing things.”
No matter what field you work in, says Tarkenton. It just doesn’t work if you don’t get along with the people around you. That’s why, even at 85, he insists on meeting applicants who want to work for his Atlanta-based companies.
“I want to see who they are,” he says. “If they’re a genius and don’t fit in with the right people, it won’t work.”
Read too
