Chhatri Sityodtong: The Inspiring Journey of One Championship's Founder

Chhatri Sityodtong, founder and CEO of One Championship, has an incredible life story that exemplifies perseverance, passion, and the power of martial arts. In this in-depth interview, Chhatri opens up about his journey from poverty to building Asia's largest sports media property.

Early Life and Martial Arts Beginnings

Chhatri was born into a well-to-do family in Thailand, but his life took a dramatic turn when his father's business collapsed and he abandoned the family. At just 9 years old, Chhatri's father had introduced him to Muay Thai by taking him to the legendary Lumpinee Stadium. This sparked a lifelong obsession with martial arts that would shape Chhatri's future in profound ways.

Despite the family's sudden poverty, Chhatri's mother encouraged him to pursue his education abroad. With just $1000 borrowed from friends and family, Chhatri headed to America to study. He recalls:

"I had one suitcase and my mom had borrowed money from all the people who were remaining to be our friends... scraped around about $1,000 and you know one suitcase all all of my life's belongings and I had to figure it out once I got to America."

Things were so difficult financially that his mother ended up secretly living with him in his tiny dorm room at Harvard:

"I slept on the floor and she slept on the bed and it was just barely enough room and I had one of these key cards where you open the dormatory door from the outside and in between classes, you know, just time it with her and give her her my key card and, you know, living on $4 a day."

Despite the immense challenges, Chhatri was driven by a desire to lift his family out of poverty. He worked multiple jobs, including teaching Muay Thai, to make ends meet while pursuing his studies.

From Startups to Wall Street Success

After graduating from Harvard, Chhatri headed to Silicon Valley and co-founded a startup called Next Door Networks. The company rode the dot-com boom, growing from a handful of people to over 200 employees before being acquired.

This initial success in the startup world led Chhatri to Wall Street, where he found further prosperity as a hedge fund manager. However, despite achieving financial security, Chhatri felt a deep sense of emptiness:

"We had a record year. I made a lot of money and of course you're very happy because you made a lot of money. But then I went down to the sushi bar, sushi restaurant down in the office building and I sat at the sushi bar for lunch and I remember but I was by myself and I remember all adrenaline and happy. But then over the course of that lunch, I don't know what happened. I just started thinking about is this what life is about?"

This moment of introspection led Chhatri to reflect on his mother's words from childhood - that he was meant to help people when he grew up. He realized that simply making wealthy people and institutions wealthier was not aligned with his deeper purpose.

The Birth of One Championship

In 2011, driven by his lifelong passion for martial arts and desire to make a positive impact, Chhatri founded One Championship. The early years were extremely challenging:

"The first three years, Tim, complete disaster. Okay. My buddy from Harvard and I, we made a little bit of money. So, we invested thinking that, you know, within a year we'd get institutional investors to back us given our credentials and our expertise and the the market opportunity. Zero. First three years, we couldn't land. We met with 150 institution investors. Zero. Broadcasters across the continent. Zero. Brands forget about it. Governments forget about it."

Chhatri was on the verge of giving up when a pivotal conversation with his mother reignited his determination:

"I call my mom. Mom, end of year three, lost a crapload of my money, my friends money, and I think we're done. We got no traction. And I thought my mom was going to tell me I should stick with it because you know chachari since you're a kid martial arts blah blah blah you love it. And she said oh great why don't you just quit then before you get double sleeves of tattoos and can't go to the onson with me."

This unexpected response made Chhatri reflect deeply on why he started One Championship in the first place. He realized that his vision of inspiring millions through martial arts was too important to abandon:

"If we can unleash these real life superheroes and tell their stories of overcoming adversity, tragedy, poverty, impossible odds, those stories are going to be incredible. And of course, the values that we exhibit, which you know very well, is the true Bushidto values of, you know, integrity, honor, respect, courage, discipline, compassion, etc. that martial arts teaches us."

With renewed conviction, Chhatri decided to go all-in on social media and video content. This pivot proved to be a turning point:

"Facebook started taking off in Asia at that around that time as smart mobile devices were as well. If you chart Facebook's user growth and just engagement levels, okay, in Asia with the history of one championship, it is like mirror. So what happened was we saw a couple videos start going viral around the world when we posted and we're again we're small platform at the time very small page but we could see that something was happening."

Breakthrough and Rapid Growth

One Championship's social media success opened doors with broadcasters and investors. A chance elevator encounter led to Sequoia Capital Asia investing in the company. This was followed by a pivotal breakfast meeting with legendary Silicon Valley investors Michael Moritz and Douglas Leone of Sequoia Capital:

"At the end of the breakfast, Mike says, 'Hat tree, there are founders who their entire reason for being born on this planet and he named I think it was like I think he named Bill Gates or whatever it is, you know, for Microsoft that were put on this earth for that one reason to go after something gargantuan and you are that guy for this opportunity.'"

This meeting resulted in a $100 million investment from Sequoia at a $1 billion valuation - a major milestone that accelerated One Championship's growth.

Today, One Championship has raised over $600 million in funding and become one of the top 10 largest global sports properties:

"We're broadcast live in 190 countries every single week with the largest broadcasters like it's Amazon and America but it's Sky Sports in Europe in Japan it's Unix and in Thailand it's channel 7 in Middle East it's Bean Sports it boggles my mind what has happened."

Keys to Success

Chhatri attributes One Championship's success to several key factors:

1. Authenticity and values - Staying true to martial arts values and not manufacturing drama or controversy.

2. Storytelling - Focusing on the inspiring stories of fighters overcoming adversity.

3. High-quality fights - Prioritizing exciting finishes and signing fighters with a killer instinct.

4. Social media mastery - Leveraging platforms like Facebook to reach a global audience.

5. Strategic partnerships - Working closely with broadcasters, governments, and other stakeholders.

6. Resilience and passion - Persevering through early challenges due to a deep love of martial arts.

On the quality of One Championship's fights, Chhatri explains:

"One chapter has a 70% finish rate. That means it's absurd. Of all our fights, 70% people get knocked out or tapped out or choked out. It's absurd. It's so high. It's a global duopoly now, right? UFC dominates in the West, we dominate in the East. We're roughly the same size. They have a 38% finish rate."

Looking to the Future

Despite One Championship's tremendous success, Chhatri remains driven by his original mission of inspiring people through martial arts:

"I really do believe that my mom's words about helping others somehow it all it all feels almost like destiny. You know my father named me warrior. He took me to Muay Thai. I was so obsessed with it and I am still obsessed with it that it became my life and I could have had a very comfortable life in the investment world as a hedge fund manager or entrepreneur other business or whatever you know."

He sees enormous potential for continued growth, with recent events breaking viewership records:

"Our last show in Tokyo at Saitama in March. Our last big show, we broke viewership record. We did 2.3 billion organic video views on digital and social. Okay, 2.3 billion on single show."

Ultimately, Chhatri's journey with One Championship exemplifies the transformative power of aligning one's passion, purpose, and profession. His story is a testament to the impact that can be achieved when we pursue our deepest calling, even in the face of tremendous adversity.

As Chhatri puts it:

"Suffering is the path to our greatness. And I say this to all my friends, to my relatives, to and I truly believe this from the bottom of my heart that suffering is a path to greatness. That often times God or the universe puts us on a path where we when we're going through it, we suffer. But in hindsight, when you look back on it, it's probably the most beautiful part of the journey."

Through One Championship, Chhatri has not only realized his own potential, but created a platform to inspire millions around the world to unleash their own greatness through martial arts.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrHOlE7fLrM