Media Business
Starting a Media Company
Real lessons from building a sports media company from $8 AAU highlight videos to national campaigns with Adidas, Gatorade, and the Big Ten.
Where this company actually started
Mack Media began in 2017 with a thirteen-year-old filming AAU basketball for eight dollars a video. Not a business plan — a kid with a camera at games he was already attending. Everything since has been built on that: the Adidas and Gatorade work exists because the grassroots work came first, not instead of it.
The decision that changed the trajectory
Following Max Clark from high-school phenom to Detroit Tigers draft pick meant turning down Prep Baseball Report in order to own the content outright. Taking the commission would have paid sooner. Owning the series is what turned a production company into a media company, and it set the standard the rest of the athlete work is measured against.
What we would tell someone starting now
- Volume at a consistent standard beats one impressive reel. Reliability is the product.
- Own what you can. Rights you sign away are the ceiling on what the work is worth later.
- Grassroots is not a stepping stone you leave — it is the credential the national work rests on.
- Say no to work that trains you into a corner you do not want to be good at.
Why the local work still matters
We film the Indianapolis 500, the CFP National Championship and Big Ten events, and we still shoot weddings, senior portraits and family sessions. The crew and the cameras are the same. Keeping both sides is deliberate: the national work builds the reputation, the local work keeps the lights on between campaigns.
The full version is on our story page, and the work itself is in the portfolio.