‘Those are fighting words’: Why Weston Bergmann won’t stop until ‘The Blox’ changes every challenger’s life
December 5, 2023 | Taylor Wilmore
With the largest live-in startup competition now available on Amazon Prime Video, the stakes have never been higher and the potential never greater for “The Blox” — a show where the reality TV format is mined to turn entrepreneur education into entertainment.
“The demand to be on the show has exponentially grown, and with it we’ve edited our casting lens,” said Weston Bergmann, the Kansas City-based creator of The Blox docu-series and founder of BetaBlox, which boasts Overland Park headquarters.
Weston Bergmann, The Blox, Season 8; image courtesy of The Blox
“This means the vibrancy of the chosen entrepreneurs has reached a boiling point,” continued Bergmann. “What we’ve learned is that if we correctly vet a big room of the right kinds of entrepreneurs, an indescribable magic occurs.”
Click here to check out The Blox on Amazon Prime.
The show works like this: The Blox features 20 startup founders competing daily in exercises, pitches, and tests to earn points; with themes like inbound marketing, growth hacking, and fundraising shaping the competition.
Coaches and mentors from Season 8 of The Blox; photo courtesy of The Blox
Bergmann acknowledged the show’s evolution, emphasizing the monumental changes in size and scale. With about 100 contestants this season, the demand has led to a threefold increase in coaches, contractors, and support staff.
In its eighth season, the diverse narratives of the participating entrepreneurs come to life on the screen, offering an educational opportunity for the cast and an engaging viewing experience for fans.
“When this happens it’s making our job of teaching the viewer these valuable entrepreneurial principles easier,” said Bergmann.
Watch The Blox’s season 8 trailer, then keep reading.
The Blox goes Prime Video
Availability of The Blox on Prime Video marks a strategic move to enhance accessibility in order to further expand the reality show’s audience.
Bergmann shed light on the decision, feeling that the alignment with Amazon’s services was a smooth transition for the show.
“We use so many of Amazon’s services to empower our entire business incubator,” explained Bergmann. “It seemed natural to look into Prime Video as an option, and we couldn’t be more happy with it as an on-demand option for our viewers.”
New father, new changes
Bergmann has now entered his most important role yet; as a first-time father, he discussed the addition of his newborn baby, Lucy, to his life and work.
“She’s impacted every single area of my life, including every department of my company. So in a way, it’d be hard to answer this without more hours,” said Bergmann.
“That said, I think it’s fair to say that I have to be smarter with my work time than I ever have been before,” he continued. “I’ve got to say ‘No’ to more things. And the things I say ‘Yes’ to need to be better delegated.”
With a newborn baby, balancing family and career also demands the development of more scalable processes like beefed up playbooks, processes, and training to keep Bergmann on track, he said.
View this post on Instagram
Mental marathon of entrepreneurship
The show is no easy task for the competitors, Bergmann said. Filming week can be potentially daunting, as the filming crew monopolizes the entrepreneurs’ day for about 14 hours for six straight days, combined with a lot of public speaking being filmed for the world to see.
Competitors on The Blox cheer in celebration; photo courtesy of The Blox
Bergmann delved into the “mental marathon of entrepreneurship,” recognizing the challenges that early founders go through, such as working long hours with little-to-no pay.
“Our family and friends seldom truly understand what we’re going through. At the risk of being a little melodramatic, starting a company is traumatic,” he said.
The Blox serves as a safe space for unpacking the emotional toll of starting a company, fostering vulnerability among entrepreneurs.
“This aids in high-quality reps and makes them stronger. But it also forces them to be mentally clocked in for an insane amount of hours in a row. It can be daunting,” said Bergmann.
The entrepreneurs are prepped for months leading up to the experience with an online academy so they’re better equipped to take on their advanced lessons. Then, they put their skills to the test all day, every day, until the experience is over.
“Dealing with these things requires a great deal of vulnerability that is challenging for entrepreneurs,” said Bergmann. “But it’s ultimately rewarding to talk about these topics so we can all learn we’re not alone.”
But, with high stakes, comes high reward.
“We aren’t exaggerating when we say if this week doesn’t change their life we’ve failed. Those are big words. They’re fighting words,” Bergmann said.
Jack McCarthy, CEO of Vortex Events: Virtual Team Adventures, celebrates as his season’s grand prize winner on The Blox; photo courtesy of The Blox
BetaBlox and The Blox evolves
BetaBlox — Bergmann’s flagship business incubator that functions as an extended coaching program — is currently taking applications.
“It’s an aggressive multi-month coaching program followed by more passive years of mentorship and community,” said Bergmann.
Previously limited to in-person services within driving distance of Kansas City and Tulsa, Betablox has now transitioned to an entirely remote program, allowing Bergmann and his team to assist entrepreneurs from anywhere in the country.
Expressing his vision for The Blox’s future, Bergmann sees continual evolution for the show, with a primary goal for 2024 being to achieve “more.” His main focus is the commitment to make entrepreneurship education more accessible for all.
“I want to introduce entrepreneurship education in a more digestible way through the lens of entertainment,” he said. “The Blox is entrepreneurship education, scaled — and I won’t stop until it’s known as the most effective tool of its kind.”
Taylor Wilmore
Taylor Wilmore, hailing from Lee’s Summit, is a dedicated reporter and a recent graduate of the University of Missouri, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Taylor channels her deep-seated passion for writing and storytelling to create compelling narratives that shed light on the diverse residents of Kansas City.
Prior to her role at Startland News, Taylor made valuable contributions as a reporter for the Columbia Missourian newspaper, where she covered a wide range of community news and higher education stories.
2023 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Brazil to KC: Carol Espinosa showcases path to creativity, opportunity
She arrived in the United States with just two suitcases and her own creativity, but today Carol Espinosa fills a 7,000-square-foot Westport storefront with enough modern workplace designs to unpack for weeks, she said. “This company was built from nothing,” said Espinosa, founder of Freedom Interiors. “It started with no customers, no product offerings —…
American buying habits push Swappa to $70M in 2017 hand-me-down tech sales
Grown from a one-person, side-hustle project to a team of more than 30 people, Kansas City-based Swappa is swelling. The user-to-user marketplace for buying and selling used technology enjoyed its best year to date in 2017. The platform sold more than $70 million in hand-me-down electronics in 2017 — up about 17 percent from 2016, said…
BKS Artisan Ales takes measured approach with nano-brewery concept
It takes only about an hour for BKS Artisan Ales to sell out of its packaged bottles and cans each Saturday afternoon, Brian Rooney said. “We thought it would be great if maybe 40 people came in and maybe each of those 40 took a beer home,” said Rooney, a craft brewer who owns and…
KC named a top ‘dark horse’ to land Amazon HQ2
National media is lending credence to Kansas City’s prospects of attracting Amazon’s second headquarters. Inc. Magazine on Wednesday published a list of “5 Dark Horse Cities” to land Amazon HQ2, a prospective project that promises to create upward of 50,000 new jobs in whatever locale that nabs the online retailer’s massive new hub. While speculative,…