Time Out: Quick Q&A With Sports Tech Leaders - WiST Board Chair Alysse Soll
Alysse Soll WiST Board Chair and CEO underdog advisory
About Alysse: My day job - CEO underdog advisory, the investing arm of underdog venture team, a venture studio that invests in and builds brands across the sports innovation landscape. I spent decades at sports properties (NHL) building new teams and marketing and then moved into technology. Today, I put all those experiences together and find great companies to invest in. I am the WiST Board Chair which allows me to drive the mission of women in sports tech-forward with the most amazing people on the planet.
1. What’s your favorite part of your job?
Meeting amazing Founders who are launching extraordinary solutions to pain points across the sports, health, wellness, fitness landscape.
2. What’s your favorite thing about being on the WiST board?
We are driving change - introducing women in STEM to the world of sports through a technology lens. Each and every Board Member, regardless of their race or gender, is focused on this mission. A rising tide lifts all boats!
3. If you could come back as a person, who would it be?
I would come back as my daughter. She is the embodiment of empathy, intellect, and activism. The ability to engage these attributes out of the womb is something I wish I could do.
4. If you could be a professional athlete in any sport, what would it be?
Women’s Ice Hockey. This is the Varsity Sport I played in college, and to think it is an Olympic sport and a professional sport today. I'd be the first one on the ice and the last one to leave.
5. What is your favorite sports tech wearable for your own personal use? OURA, Whoop, Garmin, Apple Watch, etc.
I don't wear anything...yet. I still rely on my internal clock and emotions to guide me.
6. Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to stop time. I would love to appear like I have all the time in the world - to have a conversation, to dive deep into an issue, to show someone that I really hear them.
7. What is your favorite live sports memory?
1994 - NY Rangers win the Stanley Cup. I was in that arena, and it was like a birth, wedding and best party ever all wrapped into one. I was sitting next to the 90+ man who proclaimed, "I can die in peace."
8. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being an understanding mother to my amazing daughter.
9. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
A rising tide lifts all boats. There's a there there. In my experience...
10. What is your most treasured possession?
Other than my family and dog, I have an oil painting that I inherited from my mother. It’s called the Clam Diggers by Zminovir Mihanovic.
11. Where would you like to live?
Dubrovnik
12. Who are your heroes in real life?
Ruth Bader Ginsberg. My daughter.
13. If you could wear only one jersey for the rest of your life, what jersey would you wear?
San Jose Sharks, of course!
14. What are your go-to game/match foods and beverages, in-stadium and at home?
Curly fries and wine
15. What motto are you known for?
You don't ask, you don't get
16. What is your favorite sports tech partnership or sports tech integration?
Netflix original sports programming. It brings sports to the masses.