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People and Pop Culture

What I Like: Nicholas Horbaczewski, DRL

PROFESSIONAL

What I Like …

DRL is lighting up for competitors and fans of drone racing.
Photo by: DRONE RACING LEAGUE

An insight: Drone ownership and use is exploding, especially among young people. We’re raising a generation of pilots of small, fast, highly maneuverable aircraft, and that is going to change the world.

An influential person in my career: Strauss Zelnick, founder of ZMC and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, has been a mentor who has helped me in innumerable ways by encouraging me to look at my life and career holistically, not as two separate projects.

Nicholas Horbaczewski
Founder and CEO, Drone Racing League

Where I’m From: I grew up just outside of Boston.
Where I Went to School: AB from Harvard College and MBA from Harvard Business School.
My First Job: I was a digital artist working on special effects production at Pixel Magic.

A timeless idea: Growing older is about the narrowing of your options set. To paraphrase Arthur Miller, all you can hope for is to end up with the right regrets.

A business deal: I think the BAM Tech spinoff from MLB Advanced Media was a brilliant move. It’s going to drive innovation across the sports space, which we’re already seeing with the NHL.

CrossFit Games
Photo by: AP IMAGES
A sports event: The CrossFit Games is the most electrifying live sporting event I’ve attended.

A hire: Enzo Ferrari hiring Niki Lauda in 1974. More than just his elite driving skill, Lauda’s dedication to engineering improvement brought Ferrari back from a low point to win two world championships.

A brand: Arc’teryx. While you see people wearing it as a fashion statement now, it’s managed to stay true to its roots in pushing the boundaries of design in outdoor performance apparel and equipment.

A fantasy job: U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.


What I Like About …

My job: Making today feel like “the future.” The first DRL event was an incredible experience, with technology and human skill coming together to create something that had previously only existed in video games and sci-fi movies.

Sports technology: Sports tech continues to evolve at such an incredible rate. The experience for viewers at home has become a visceral and meaningful experience, allowing so many more fans to be part of the action.

The direction of sports business: It’s fun to bring a real startup mindset to sports business. Rethinking the traditional content distribution model and utilizing social and digital tools to share content is allowing new sports like eSports, and now DRL, to emerge and grow a global fan base at an unprecedented rate.


What I Would like to …

Change in what I do: DRL is not yet a live event, but it’s something I am eager to share with more people.

See: A broadening of the definition of sports stars.

See more of in sports: Truly co-ed sports. From an early age, we separate children by gender in most forms of competitive play. I think that contributes to some of the issues of gender inequality in the workplace later in life.


What I Don’t Like …

In general: Bureaucracy and traffic.

Pet peeve: Cellphone battery life.

In sports: Bad calls. There are dozens of cameras in modern stadiums. No excuses.

PERSONAL

What I Like …

Winston Churchill
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
People: Organizers and instigators. If you have enough of them in your life, interesting things happen all the time.

That would surprise those who know me: I’m a mediocre drone pilot.

About myself: I always try to live my life as an adventure.

Heroes: George Mallory, Winston Churchill, Elon Musk.

Possessions: As few as possible. I own a bike and some artwork; everything else I rent.

Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

Teams: The Pats and Red Sox.

Memento: My Explorers Club membership pin, a reminder of all the journeys that have brought me to this point in my life.

Time of year: Fall. Football and apple cider are hard to beat.

Music: Modest Mouse, Spirit Family Reunion.


Books: “The Boys in the Boat,” “The River of Doubt,” “A Passage to India.”

Authors: John Irving, Ian McEwan, Ernest Hemingway.

Magazines: Wired and Fast Company.

Gadgets: iPhone and Plantronics Voyager headset.

Apps: Uber, NextDraft and Kayak.

Trip: My most memorable trip was working as a travel writer on a guide to the Australian Outback. Enough encounters with snakes and crocodiles to last a lifetime.

Movies: “Primer,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Fight Club.”

TV: “The Leftovers,” “The Walking Dead,” “Game of Thrones.”

Concert: Muse’s current concert tour is a technical marvel.

Dessert: Cookies.

Artists: Geoffrey Johnson, Maxfield Parrish, James Porto.

Drink: Whiskey. I’m enjoying the whiskey renaissance.

Quote: “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” I’ve seen it attributed to marathoner Juma Ikangaa and Vince Lombardi.

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