Joining us today is arguably the youngest owner of an esports team, Harley Parks, to share her unique perspective about the esports teams’ ecosystem, its challenges, and opportunities. 

Harley is the Founder and CEO of BearClaw Esports. Harley, now 19 years old, started her journey with BearClaw in 2020, establishing its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, and gathering talent from around the world.

In this episode, we delve into Harley’s relationship with gaming and esports, why she decided to pursue a career in the space, and her family’s reaction to that. She shared some of the frustrating, painful, and expensive lessons she learned along the way and what she learned from them. 

We also discuss the challenges esports teams face to make it a profitable business; Harley shared her thoughts on why many esports teams fail and where she sees her team heading in the next couple of years. 

Resources:

Visit BearClaw Esports website: https://bearclawesports.co/news-1.

Connect with Harley on social media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harley-parks-bearclawarmy/?trk=org-employees.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearclawharley/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bearclawharley

Full Episode Breakdown:

2:21 – Harley shares examples of her age playing against her and in her favor when she presented herself as a CEO of an esports team.

6:13 – Harley talks about her first experiences in esports and gaming and how fascinated she was seeing games tearing down language barriers and getting people together despite being separated by thousands of miles. 

8:01 – Harley talks about how her family reacted when she decided to pursue a career in esports.

12:33 – Harley describes her first try at building BearClaw, which had a pretty awful ending. 

18:27 – Harley talks about why she decided to stay away from crypto on her second attempt to establish BearClaw.

22:01 – Back at it again! Harley talks about the second attempt to build up BearClaw, what she did differently, and the lessons she took from her first expensive experience.

23:08 – Harley shares what she believes are the biggest challenges of creating an esports team.

27:01 – Gary and Harley discuss the chances for esports to turn into a profitable business in the forthcoming years.

32:13 – Harley talks about her project of creating a gaming cafe.

36:24 – Harley and Gary talk about esports teams and pro players’ fan base.

42:01 – Harley talks about how they handle diversity and inclusion at BearClaw.

47:01 – Harley shares her singular goal in esports.