Watch: This entrepreneur runs the Oakland Ballers like a startup

The coolest startup in the Bay Area isn’t making AI robots or self-driving taxis. It’s actually a baseball team.

As his beloved Oakland A’s plan to leave the Bay, serial entrepreneur Paul Freedman sought out a different type of venture. What if he could take what he learned from leading edtech startups to build the baseball team that Oakland deserves? That’s how Freedman founded the Oakland Ballers — or, the Oakland B’s for short. 

With the mindset of a startup founder, Freedman and his co-founder, Bryan Carmel, are taking on a mammoth task. The B’s can’t fully replace the loss of an MLB team — not to mention, Oakland has also lost its NBA and NFL teams over the last five years. But the B’s can build something that prioritizes the fans and gives back to the community.