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Bottom Line Up Front: Team Brady went from green light to race-ready in two months, working through Christmas to build a championship team. Their approach: get the sequence right (leadership, then talent, then technical capability), bring elite motorsport performance culture to a powerboat series, build a partner ecosystem rather than chase title sponsors, and focus on fan experience even when you don't fully control it. They're now two-time champions in a startup series, figuring out commercial sustainability in real time.

Ben King and Joe Sturdy were on the phone Christmas morning 2023, going through their to-do list.

They had eight weeks to build a race team from scratch. The green light came in mid-November. Pre-season testing in Jeddah started in early January. Everything in between - hiring drivers, finding mechanics, sorting logistics, finalising livery, building content operations, setting up PR - had to happen during the holiday season.

"Literally on Christmas Day, Joe and I were on the phone in the morning, going through our to-do list," Ben told me. "It was that tight to get everything done."

This is where most startup teams fail. Not because they lack resources or talent or ambition, but because they don't have a clear sequence. They're chasing sponsors while still figuring out who's driving. They're building a social media strategy before they've hired mechanics. Everything feels urgent, so everything becomes a priority, which means nothing actually is.

Ben and Joe had clarity on what came first.

Drivers.

Not branding. Not sponsors. Not even the boat setup. They needed to know who was racing before anything else mattered.

They'd already done the groundwork months earlier, back when they were still trying to find a way into E1. Ben and Joe are motorsport people - Ben spent five years at McLaren, Joe came from Red Bull F1 as a power unit engineer, winning multiple championships with Max Verstappen. They both loved surfing, open water swimming, and being on the water. E1 was this new series combining motorsport with racing on water, and they saw the opportunity to grow with it.

So they'd spent almost 18 months working to get a team together before Team Brady became real.

During that time, they met Sam Coleman at E1 testing in Italy. Multiple powerboat champion. Chief test driver for E1 for two years, involved in developing the raceboat from concept to what you see today. He'd even helped build the boats physically.

Ben and Joe locked him to a consultancy agreement: if we run a team in E1, you drive for us. First right of refusal on his services.

When the green light came from Tom Brady and his business partner, Peter, in November, the first conversation was simple.

"We immediately said we need to hire Sam," Ben explained. "We've already got an agreement with him. They said absolutely, we're all on board with that."

One driver down.

The second driver took more work.

E1 had run a pilot academy to bring in drivers from different disciplines - not just powerboat racers, but people from motor racing, rallying, jet skiing, and sailing. They wanted to open up the appeal of the sport. The ones who got through the academy and were available went onto a list of 30-40 pilots that got sent to all the teams.

Emma Kimiläinen was on that list, marked as already allocated to another team.

Ben and Joe were interested based on her background, but if she was taken, she was taken. They moved on to other options.

Then Mikke called.

They'd just hired Mikke as their mechanic, a multiple world champion mechanic in powerboat racing, exactly the kind of specialist expertise they needed. And Ben and Joe had been explicit with everyone they hired: we don't know everything, especially when it comes to powerboat racing. If you see something we could be doing better, speak up. We want people to feel empowered because that's how we get better as a team.

Mikke took them seriously.

"He called us up and said, Look, you told me if I feel really passionate about something, I need to speak up," Ben said. "And he said if you want to win, you've got to hire Emma."

Mikke knew Emma from car racing. Ben asked about the allocation. The deal had fallen through.

This is the advantage of building a culture where people actually speak up. Most teams say they want input, but when someone pushes back on a hiring decision, they get defensive. Ben and Joe had made it clear they wanted to be challenged. Mikke challenged them. They listened.

Two video calls with Emma later, both Ben and Joe separately described her to E1's documentary crew using the same phrase: "a force of nature."

They had their drivers.

The intentionality here matters. Most teams would've moved faster, made the safe choice, hired whoever was available and seemed competent. Ben and Joe were willing to slow down slightly - two video calls, getting input from their mechanic, really evaluating fit - because they understood something fundamental about building in a startup environment.

You're not just hiring for skills. You're hiring for mentality. Championship mentality specifically.

Sam had the powerboat credentials and the development experience with the E1 boat itself. Emma had the fierce competitiveness and the drive to win. Both had the mentality Ben and Joe were looking for, the same mentality they'd seen at Red Bull and McLaren, where everyone is optimising for performance, not just doing their job.

The mechanic hiring followed the same intentional approach.

Ben and Joe wanted a specific mix: people from elite motorsport backgrounds to bring the performance culture they knew from F1, combined with powerboat racing expertise, because there are nuances to racing on water that don't exist in car racing.

Mikke brought a multiple world championship pedigree in powerboat mechanics. Sam brought powerboat experience. Mette, their reserve pilot, came from powerboating. The approach to everything - the attention to detail, the data analysis sophistication, the no-stone-unturned mentality - that came from the motorsport side.

"We knew we'd have an advantage over other teams," Ben explained, "because having this level of sophistication with data on these boats is new in powerboat racing and sailing, apart from America's Cup. That very much helped us in season one. We could tell we were ahead because we had a better ability to analyse the data, which gave us a better understanding of what was going on with the boat."

This mixed-discipline approach is something I've seen work in other emerging series, but it requires leadership that understands what they don't know. Ben and Joe came from car racing. They could've hired an all-motorsport team and tried to figure out powerboat racing through trial and error. Or they could've hired all powerboat specialists and missed the performance culture advantages.

They did neither. They brought in both disciplines intentionally and told them to work together.

By season two, the other teams had caught up on data analysis. The edge eroded.

So Team Brady found other advantages. That's what the performance culture gives you - when one edge disappears, you're already looking for the next one.

The generalist leadership combined with specialist hires is what makes this sustainable. Ben and Joe are willing to get their hands dirty, wear multiple hats, and learn from their specialists. They're not just managing - they're integrating different forms of expertise into something cohesive.

That's replicable even without Tom Brady's backing. You need leadership that's humble enough to say "we don't know everything" and strategic enough to know which specialists to bring in and how to integrate them.

Ben was direct about the hierarchy.

"If the fans aren't there, the partners will go," he said.

This matches what Ged Tarpe told me in a conversation I'll publish separately. For a property to work commercially, you need three things functioning well: fans at the event need to be happy, the team and staff and drivers need to be happy, and fans at home need a great viewing experience. Get those three things right, and delivering value for sponsors becomes easier. Miss any of them, and your commercial operation is fighting uphill.

Team Brady can control some of this. They're building content. They're running activations. They're positioning themselves as the premium team in E1 - Ben compared their brand aspiration to Ferrari and Mercedes in F1, not Red Bull's edgier approach.

"We want people to look at Team Brady and think this is premium, almost luxury," Ben explained. "Tom, as a global icon, has partnered with prestigious luxury brands over the years. That's his image. We want to replicate that for the team."

They're planning merchandise drops because people keep asking where they can buy Team Brady hats and jackets. Ben sees this as proof that people already feel affinity with the brand beyond just watching races.

I used to think merchandise was mostly a waste of time, just another way for teams to chase revenue with low-quality stuff that doesn't provide real value. My opinion has evolved. If it's high quality and intentional, if there's genuine organic demand rather than you pushing it hoping people buy, merchandise becomes proof that you're building something that resonates beyond race day.

Team Brady is at the right stage for it now - two seasons in, back-to-back champions, people asking for it organically. That's the signal to move on it, not before.

But here's the fundamental tension: Team Brady can't control fan zones at race venues. They can't control the broadcast experience. They can't control whether E1 figures out how to create proper viewing areas when you're racing on water in the middle of Monaco or Miami.

"There's only so much we can do as the team," Ben acknowledged. "We're so reliant on the success of the series. Logistically, it's very difficult to get the space to put on proper fan zones."

He mentioned floating hospitality units and floating grandstands as potential solutions. If space on land is difficult, put it on the water. That obviously costs money the series is still building toward.

So Team Brady focuses on what they can control: their own brand, their own partner relationships, their own content and activations. You control what's in your locker. Don't wait for the series to be perfect.

Ben was candid about the Tom Brady factor.

"People see that it's Tom's team, Tom's name above the door," he said. "But it doesn't necessarily mean you're partnering with Tom. You're partnering with Tom's team. That is a key difference."

In initial conversations with prospects, this often gets misunderstood. They think a Team Brady partnership means access to Tom Brady personally. Tom has his own personal partnerships, which is a completely different conversation.

What Team Brady actually offers: the ability for technology companies to come in and have a direct impact on performance (like the CMT telemetry example), the Race for Change campaign connecting sustainability partners, the events and activations, the premium brand positioning, the content and visibility.

Sometimes Tom is involved. He was at the Thursday event I attended, speaking on the panel, giving time to the media, and creating coverage opportunities. He comes to races, and social media activity always spikes when he does.

But you're not buying a Tom Brady personal endorsement when you partner with Team Brady. You're partnering with the team, which happens to be owned by and carries the name of one of the greatest athletes of all time.

This is both Team Brady's advantage and their ongoing education challenge. The advantage: Tom's name gets them meetings that other E1 teams can't get. His network opens doors. His status brings attention.

The challenge: managing expectations so partners understand what they're actually getting.

Not every property has this problem because not every property has Tom Brady. That's just reality.

But the principle applies to any emerging team or series trying to build commercially. You need three things working together: a messenger (someone who can get you in the room), a clear message (what value you actually provide), and the right medium (how you deliver that value).

Tom Brady is Team Brady's messenger. He shortcuts the attention and meeting phase. Most properties don't have that level of star power.

But you can still have effective messengers. Look at James Vowles at Williams or Zak Brown at McLaren. They're not Tom Brady, but they're charismatic, public-facing leaders who are articulate, willing to show up on camera, able to speak to media and partners with clarity about what they're building.

If you're running a commercial for an emerging property without celebrity ownership, identify who your messenger is. It might be your founder. It might be an exec who's naturally good with people and comfortable being public-facing. Then get very clear on your message - what specific value you provide, not vague partnership benefits - and build your medium for how you actually deliver through events, content, activations.

That's what you can control.

For teams entering startup or emerging series:

Get your build sequence right before you worry about sponsors. Leadership first, then talent that fits your culture, then technical capability, then everything else. Team Brady had clarity: championship-calibre leadership from Red Bull F1 and McLaren, then drivers with the right mentality, then mechanics with the right mix of motorsport precision and powerboat expertise, then logistics and operations followed.

Most teams do this backwards, chasing sponsors while fundamentals aren't in place. The sponsors will care more about your foundation than your pitch deck. If you have 60 days like Team Brady did, the sequence becomes critical because you can't afford mistakes in priority order. If you have more time, use it to get the foundation even more solid.

Identify your messenger early. If you don't have celebrity ownership, find your charismatic founder or public-facing exec who's articulate and willing to be on camera. Then clarify your message - specific value you provide, not vague partnership benefits. Then build your medium for how you deliver through events, content, and activations. Team Brady has Tom Brady shortcutting the attention phase. You probably don't. So your message needs to be sharper and your medium needs to be better.

For properties building commercial operations in series, you don't fully control:

Control what's in your locker. You can't control whether the series builds proper fan zones or delivers a great broadcast experience, but you can control your content, your PR, your events, and your merchandise quality. Team Brady isn't waiting for E1 to figure everything out. They're building their brand through activations, social media, the Race for Change campaign, and curated partner events.

The partner ecosystem approach works, but only if you curate for quality. Don't just stack sponsors for revenue. Build a network of partners doing interesting things, then actively facilitate connections between them. This is labour-intensive. You need to be good with people. You need to do the hand-holding and introductions. But it creates value beyond logo placement, and partners will pay for access to your network if the network is actually valuable.

Merchandise matters as a brand-building tool and proof of concept, not as an early revenue chase. If people are organically asking where they can buy your gear, that's a signal you're building something beyond race-day interest. But do it with quality and intention. Don't just slap logos on cheap hats trying to make money. That kills the brand value you're trying to build.

For emerging properties, thinking about sustainable growth:

The performance culture transfers without the budget. You can't replicate McLaren's facilities, but you can replicate the no-stone-unturned mentality. Attention to detail. Empowering people to speak up. Constantly finding the next advantage when the current one erodes. That's discipline and standards, not money.

Build for fans first, commercial second. But recognise there's a ceiling if the series doesn't deliver a foundational fan experience. You can build commercial value independently through quality partnerships and brand positioning, but long-term, you need the series to figure out fan zones and access. Work with what you have while pushing the series to improve what you can't control.

The reality: you're betting on the series, figuring it out while you focus on winning and building your own brand within the constraints. Team Brady is making that bet. Two championships in two years suggest they're navigating it well. But the fundamental question remains open.

Team Brady has advantages most teams don't have.

Tom Brady's name gets them meetings. His network opens doors, and his status as a global icon brings attention that shortcuts the entire awareness phase of building a brand.

Joe Sturdy came from Red Bull F1, winning multiple world championships with Max Verstappen. Ben King spent five years at McLaren absorbing their performance culture. They both had the motorsport pedigree to know how to build a team properly from day one.

They had patient ownership willing to invest for 18 months before expecting returns. Most startup teams don't have that financial cushion.

These are real advantages that affect what's replicable.

But sitting with Ben the day after they won their second championship, what struck me was this: the advantages get you in the room, but they don't win championships. The performance culture wins championships. The attention to detail wins championships. The clear build sequence wins championships. The willingness to hire people smarter than you in specific areas and actually listen to them wins championships.

Those things transfer without the celebrity name or the massive budget.

The Tom Brady advantage is attention. The actual work of building a winning team is the same grinding focus on details that any team can do if they have the discipline and standards.

What I couldn't get clear answers on during our conversation: the realistic commercial timeline for teams in the startup series. Ben mentioned 18-month patience, but how much of Team Brady's revenue comes from E1's centralised commercial deals versus their own partnerships? How long until a team becomes commercially self-sustaining? What percentage of teams fail because they don't have that financial runway?

If you're running a commercial for a team in an emerging series and have insights on this timeline - what realistic revenue growth looks like in years one through three, what the survival rate actually is, what the split typically looks like between series-level commercial deals and team-specific partnerships - I'd genuinely like to know. This is something I'm still learning about.

The other tension Ben acknowledged directly: Team Brady is building for fan experience first, but they don't fully control the fan experience because that's on E1 to deliver fan zones, broadcast quality, and venue access.

"There's only so much we can do as the team," he said. "We're so reliant on the success of the series."

That's the reality of being a team in a startup championship. You're betting on the series, figuring out its commercial model and fan experience, while you focus on winning and building your own brand within the constraints you have.

Can you build a commercially sustainable team operation inside a series that's still figuring out its own fundamentals? Team Brady is finding out in real time.

The properties making this work aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest names or the most money. They're the ones with clarity on build sequence, a realistic understanding of what they control versus what they don't, and the discipline to execute on fundamentals while the series grows around them.

Two championships in two years suggest Team Brady has that clarity. The commercial sustainability question is still open, which Ben acknowledged honestly. They're working toward profitability with an incredible network of partners, building the ecosystem rather than chasing one massive title deal.

Whether that approach scales to full commercial sustainability in a startup series - that's the experiment they're running.