If you look at Angelina Lawton’s bio, it’s clear she has lessons to share, the kind you get through hard won experience.
The CEO of the Minneapolis based company Sportsdigita has both worked her way up through the ranks (she was previously an executive at the Tampa Bay Lighting) and founded a successful startup, one that bridges the nexus between three hyper competitive and traditionally male dominated fields: sports, tech and sales.
Sportsdigita makes a cloud based sales enabling product for sports franchises or companies (she described it as “Powerpoint on steroids”). The company works with 350 teams across the world, with a client list that includes the New York Yankees and, closer to home, the University of Minnesota. Her success hasn’t gone unnoticed: last year, Forbes Magazine named Lawton as one of the 30 most powerful women in sports. Other honorees included household names like Serena Williams and Condoleezza Rice.
Lawton recently sat down with Roshini Rajkumar for the first episode of the Real Leaders with Roshini podcast at the The Capital Grille. She shared some important advice for women, or anyone trying to work their way into the sports industry.
“Don’t be afraid of sales or the technology side of the business. I think that most women will go into the marketing side, not the revenue generating positions,” she said. “So I would say to anyone, male or female, really try to embrace those revenue generating positions at a team or a company because that’s really where you will flourish financially and most likely, professionally as well.”
Lawton also shared who her mentors are and what she sees as the key to the success of Sportsdigita.
