WIT Employee Spotlight: Ben Tack

This is the next feature in a new series of profiles focusing on WIT employees. Today's post features WIT partnerships senior manager Ben Tack, who was one of the first WIT employees. Currently living in Florida, Ben has been at the forefront of WIT's outreach in bringing on new partners and relationships.

Tell us about your background…

I grew up in a suburb outside of Boston. Growing up in Boston when I grew up, it was hard not to be a huge sports fan. I am spoiled when it comes to sports. I had 11 championships in my childhood, or something like that. My entire life revolved around sports. I considered myself to be a solid athlete until I stopped growing and everyone else didn’t. So that’s when I switched over to golf, where height wasn’t as much of a factor. 

Childhood was normal. Kind of a quintessential TV town where kids are partying and parents are having drama. My family has a house in Cape Cod so I grew up going to the beach every summer. Boating, clamming and doing all the Cape-y things. That’s why I now live 10 minutes from the beach here in Florida. 

After high school, I went to Indiana University for a year. I wanted the whole big college experience with sports and to get out and see the world. I lasted a year…it was fine but just wasn’t a great fit. I transferred to UMass where my Dad, Mom, aunts and uncles all went. Big legacy there. My Dad was there during the Dr. J era. He once had a free throw competition against Dr. J in the rec center one morning. Of course my Dad lost badly.

But honestly, one of the best parts of it all was getting to study abroad in Barcelona. I speak Spanish, so I’m sure that probably contributed to it. I was there for six months, took all my classes in Spanish. I went to Camp Nou and Messi ended up not playing after I spent all that money on tickets. But I got to travel all over Europe and saw all my friends in the various cities. That was really one of the highlights of my life.

What did you want to do after school?

I didn’t really have any specialties or specific skills like a computer engineer or architecture or something set. I was a communications major. But from a young age, I always liked talking to people. So I went into sales with a job at Yelp in San Francisco. I packed up everything from Massachusetts to move across the country without knowing anyone. I shared a bedroom with someone else from the Yelp class. We had a big divider in the middle. It was a classic San Francisco ‘painted ladies’ type of house with a big bay window on the corner. I was so broke. It was so stressful and fun. Just trying to make it as a postgrad in a big city and working at a startup. It was fun and I did well there. After a year, I knew that I was good at sales. I could sell things. Yelp just a bunch of us all on a floor and we were all selling at the same time. Reading from the same script. It was super competitive.

So I did a year in San Francisco. And I applied to every single sports team with an opening in ticket sales in a place I’d like to be around the country. And I got hired by the Los Angeles Clippers in their group sales department. I really embraced LA and the culture. I got into skateboarding and tried surfing a couple of times. I’m always trying to adapt to my surroundings. I sold a bunch of courtside seats and got to hang out at the Courtside Club with a bunch of celebrities. One time, I escorted Kendall Jenner to her seats at a Clippers/Lakers game. She was about a foot taller than me in her shoes, so it was also a little embarrassing. It was two years after the Malcolm Butler Super Bowl play and I got to meet him and take a picture. 

At one point, I got an opportunity to go work for the L.A. Galaxy and moved to Long Beach, California. That place is so different from L.A. It was such a cool experience living in Long Beach. I absolutely loved it. I was there for like 2.5 years and got involved with the community a lot. That was during COVID and a lot of the racial tension in the United States and Long Beach was a place where there was a lot of attention and being involved felt very meaningful for me.

So how did you end up in Florida, where you’re currently living?

I met a girl. We moved in together and got into thrifting and all those types of things when you get a girlfriend. After some time, we decided we wanted a change and her family lives in Englewood, Florida. My grandmother winters just 45 minutes north of that and my Dad’s going to be spending more time in Florida.

So I figured that’s a good spot. So I moved to Florida. I eventually connected with Vaidhy and he was so passionate about WIT and I thought back to my experience at Yelp and how I felt like I was impacting businesses and that my work was being noticed. So I went with my gut and I went with Vaidhy where I felt like I could help a company grow, and it’s been super fulfilling.

‍What was WIT like when you first joined in 2021?

It felt like every single day was so exciting. There were new opportunities and all these new developments that shaped the platform. We were wearing so many different hats. I was in service, product management, and sales. And I think I’ve been able to find success now because of all the time working alongside Vaidhy at the beginning there doing everything. It’s really influenced and helped my ability to talk about WIT and give me that voice in sales conversations. I can still think back to the first activation that I sold went live. I enjoyed those days a lot, and it’s still so surreal to see how far we’ve come.