To the Mexican entrepreneur Alexei Baez he loved to play baseball as a child, he remembers. Growing up he became a finance graduate and forgot how much he loved to hold a bat. A coincidence suddenly awoke his nostalgia for the sport, and that was his driving force to create B Bathis own batting cage company and ‘baseball for everyone,’ a concept that the sharks of Shark Tank Mexico they just couldn’t hit: they invested 3 million pesos.
A few decades ago, baseball was among the favorite sports of Mexicans. Over time, the baseball tradition was diluted until it almost disappeared in the central zone of the country. Quite the opposite to the north and southeast, where the taste and passion for this sport continue to this day.
“B-Bat is a sports concept that was born when I was working in a logistics company. A client tells me that he played baseball, I I remembered that as a child I also played it and I loved it. So he invited me and, when i came to bat i made a fool of myself“, tells Aleksei, founder and CEO of the company in an exclusive interview for Entrepreneur.com.
“And then I understood: I stopped practicing baseball because in Mexico there are only very niche or specialized places, very professional; there is no middle ground. What if I make a place where people can go to have fun, practice or improve their skills as a professional? And then B-Bat was born,” he recounts.
What is B-Bat and how did they grow so fast?
It is a space that houses multiple batting cages and pitching machines for users to start hitting or hone their skills. People just need to book their space and go, well “even if you don’t know anything about baseball or have ever picked up a bat”They have trained staff who teach you everything you need to get started.
“When you arrive, your assigned pitcher adapts to your batting level. If you don’t know anything, he teaches you from scratch: how to stand up, hold the bat and take your first shots. If you’ve already practiced, you can go have fun and throw balls with your friends. Or if you are already advanced we have professional training to perfect it”, explains Báez.
Aleksei says that the idea only began to take shape in May 2021. “In June we started looking for a location and on July 1 we opened our first branch. It was only 2 months and we were in the middle of a pandemic. It was complicated, but here we are, with 5 operating branches, one about to open, our first franchise sold, and with the sharks of Shark Tank Mexico of partners“.
‘Baseball for all’, the basis of the business
The founder of B-Bat says that when they launched the concept they had a “very professional” idea of the sport and wanted to target active players. However, a unexpected hitter made them rethink the business:
“Soon after, customers of all ages began to arrive. In the first week, our oldest client was a man of about 85 years of age, who arrived with a cane and doubtful of walking. He asks me if he can come in to bat. ‘Yeah, sure, pass it on,’ I told him. So he comes in, hits two or three hits and when he comes out he tells me: ’65 years ago I was a national team and represented Mexico, and since then I have never hit again.’ It just changed our vision.”
It was then that Báez decided to integrate the recreational or amateur part of B-Bat: “That’s why our motto is ‘baseball for all‘, in every sense. We currently have our recreational line and our professional baseball line.“.
From the batting cage to the shark pond: Shark Tank Mexico
Aleksei is a graduate of the Banking and Business School (EBC), where they offer several programs to develop entrepreneurs and promote their projects. In 2021, when they had barely been operating for six months, the university nominated them for Shark Tank Mexico. “There was no response,” says Báez. first strike.
When he learned that they were looking for new ventures for the eighth season, the creator of the baseball company saw a second chance at bat. So he applied again and this time everything went great: they were contacted surprisingly quickly. to the entrepreneur he had to pitch against the sharks Alexander Litchi, Karla Bermann, Alejandra Rios, Marisa Lazo and Amauri Vergara.
“Once they tell me ‘it’s your turn’ and the doors open, I have the image of Alejandra very engraved, who was right in front of me. She has a very characteristic smile, very warm. I remember that the doors opened, I see her from the front, she smiles at me… and that gave me a lot of relief, it gave me courage, and I went ahead with everything!”.
He knew that, from the outset, he had lost a potential investment of Marisa Lazo because, as he emphasized in the program, it is “enemy of franchises”.
On the other hand, remember that the questions of Karla Bermann They were the hardest. “They were more objective questions, more structured, focused on the financial and very precise, because it is their specialty. And asks directly: What is the income? Where do you get the valuation? How come you value the company at more than 30 million pesos? How do you do the math?… She’s rude, she was amazing“.
the sharks of Shark Tank Mexico they couldn’t hit B-Bat
Báez says that his strategy was “shoot high so they would offer me low and stay in the middle”. Explain what His initial proposal was 3 million pesos for 7% of the company.
“We made our valuation slightly higher, taking into account the branches that are confirmed to open, as well as growth projections for the next 5 years,” he explained.
After a batting demonstration, where the sharks Ale Ríos, Alejandro Litchi and Amauri Vergara showed off their ability to hit, B-Bat hit a home run!
Amauri Vergara was the first to raise his hand to make an offer, followed by Alexander Litchi. Marisa confirmed that she was out, as was Ríos. And finally, Karla Bermann joined the project: a final investment of 3 million pesos in exchange for 10% of the company.
“I remember it as a flash, I was stunned. When I did my planning I knew that the intermediate point was where I wanted to go, and I got there”. He revealed that the dynamic was quite a feat, since there was no way to put a batting cage inside the forum, nor to get the sharks to an external cage. So he had to take a big risk.
The investment will be used to develop pitching machines with Mexican technology
The capital raised in Shark Tank Mexico It will be to promote the development of its own ball-launching machines, one of the business branches that B-Bat already has.
“The first week we had a batting cage with a machine that was only throwing 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) per hour. Today we make the machines, we have sensors that measure speed, height, rotation, force and much more. It is a very complete technology that was not available in Mexico and that we want to perfect. We are also developing more precise sensors,” he explained.
The firm already has agreements and collaborations with children’s, youth and professional teams, as well as with some sports brands as suppliers of specialized equipment. “We are breaking stone, seeking to strengthen the brand,” says the enthusiastic entrepreneur.
the capital of Shark Tank Mexico It will also serve to promote inclusion
One of the firm’s pillars is making its concept accessible to anyone, and this capital injection will also help them keep their policies and adaptations focused on inclusion.
“Our motto is ‘baseball for everyone’, that’s why we are the only batting cages in Mexico – and I don’t know if in the world – with balls for blind people, which emit a whistle. We have all our menus in braille and all the employees, absolutely all of them, take sign language classes, to be able to communicate with any visitor equally”.
The young financier highlights that “this part does not represent, in itself, a business for us because clients with these needs are very few. In essence it is not profitable, but we know that we make them feel welcome and capable. The idea is that anyone can hit, right? So we have to make baseball for everyone.“.
Of course, there are also expansion plans:
“Our growth perspective is to go to the areas where this sport is played the most, that is, the south and north of Mexico. Curiously, we were born in the very center of the country, in CDMX where this sport is not so common, but this is also where the nostalgia for baseball is reviving ”, he concludes.
Mairem Del Rio Addicted to watching series and movies, doing (a little) exercise and changing my hair color. I am also a journalist, with more than 16 years of experience and dedicated 100% to digital media since 2011. I have been from a reporter and community manager, to an editor in various media and agencies. My areas of expertise are as diverse as they are contrasting: entertainment, travel, lifestyle, health, business, and finance. Now I am focused on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, metaverses and the promising cannabis industry in Mexico.