Kate Levenstien, Founder of Cannonball Productions
Name: Kate Levenstien
Founder: Cannonball Productions
Who is Kate Levenstien?
After graduating from UW-Madison, I moved to Chicago and worked for The Oprah Winfrey Show before I was recruited by LivingSocial to run their Midwest Live Events division. After 2 years, when I was 26 years old, I started Cannonball Productions based in NYC. In 2021, after successfully and creatively navigating the pandemic as an events agency, I was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine as their 2021 Women of Impact alongside Naomi Osaka and Eva Longoria.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
Cannonball is a national production and promotion event agency. We create our own concepts like the Bacon and Beer Classic and Seltzerland and scale to 25 major cities with sponsors and attendees.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
I take so much pride in being the sole, female founder of Cannonball. My mom is an entrepreneur and has been my role model my entire life. If I can provide inspiration and guidance to other women who are thinking of starting their own company, that's a huge win. The world would be a better place with more female founders and CEOs.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I am always looking to mentor other female entrepreneurs or women who are looking to start their own businesses. I encourage them to do it and hope that they can learn from my wins and losses. It can be overwhelming to start a company, so mentorship and encouragement mean a lot. I'm happy to have an intro call with anyone wherever they are in the process.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
I had just been laid off by LivingSocial as they were downsizing the company and started with the events division. I began interviewing with other companies but couldn't find something that made me as happy as I was there. So, my mom encouraged me to just start Cannonball with the ideas I had. She and my dad came out of retirement to help me get started. There's never a perfect time, but when you're at a crossroads, why not jump in and try?
What lesson or skill did you take with you from a prior job to help you succeed in your role today?
My network and fearlessness were key when I got started and are still important to this day. I had severe imposter syndrome at the beginning and I remember reading "even though you might feel like a cat, look in the mirror and show everyone that you're a lion". That's the best advice I can give, especially to women who statistically tend to experience imposter syndrome more than our male counterparts.
Just own it and go with your gut.
Let’s talk social media—who handles it for your company (you, an internal team member, an outsourced solution?) and what is the secret to making it successful? What is the biggest challenge?
We have always had an incredibly talented marketing manager. I am not very active on social, but finding the right people who are can make a huge difference. We stay relevant, ahead of the trends and provide content with which our community wants to engage.
How did you land your first client?
I had such great relationships with my clients from LivingSocial, so when they were no longer in business, I gave them a way to use my agency and activate. It was a no-brainer!
What is something you do differently from the industry standard?
We are uniquely positioned and skilled in creating and scaling concepts. Most agencies like mine are focused on only one market or region but we cover the entire country. We also care equally about the bottom line and the NPS; we're not in it for a one-and-done event. It shows with our retention of brands, clients and attendees.
Did you raise capital? What was the process and avenue you chose to take?
I didn't. I bootstrapped the agency which I would do again even though there were a lot of sleepless nights. I like being in control of the direction of the company.
Have you sold a business? If so, how did you know when it was time to sell? What were the steps you took to make it happen? What advice would you give to someone looking to sell?
I have. Selling a business in my industry is tricking and timing is everything. You want to sell when you're up because of the cyclical nature of our events. I would say to anyone looking to sell their company to try and sell it yourself first. Put a CIM deck together, get your financials and reports organized and make a list of any and all companies or buyers you can think of. People are happy to have acquisition conversations, so don't just jump to using a broker.
What would you do differently if you were starting your business today?
I would think about different models for the business instead of being headstrong about doing it one specific way. The pandemic was actually a blessing because it forced us to rethink our structure and cut our event expenses down in a huge way. This allowed us to grow quickly and have our best years in 2021 and 2022.
What are three strategies you use to market your business, grow brand awareness and generate bottom line growth?
Having a great PR team - press is the best way to organically grow and gain credibility and awareness.
Produce incredible events - attendees are the best word-of-mouth marketing megaphones. They attend year over year, attend other events we produce because they trust us, they tell their friends about us, and they post at the event to generate free marketing and awareness.
Leverage influencers - micro and macro influencers are THE best way to get your name out there.
Some are paid, but others just would love to attend or receive product in exchange for content promotion.
What was an obstacle you overcame to get your business where it is today? Please share the story behind it.
Where do I begin? There have been so many over 10 years, but I will say that one of our company pillars is to view obstacles as opportunities. And, it's true. One obstacle we faced in 2015 was when we lost money on an event for the first and only time. We had rented out a very expensive MLB stadium and didn't sell enough tickets to cover it. I never wanted to experience that again, so I decided that we weren't going to any cities for the first time with that much risk. We started partnering with new stadiums in new cities which allowed us to expand in a big way while minimizing any risk.
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