Teresa Resch, president of Toronto Tempo, launched the WNBA franchise in just 16 days by applying Lean Startup methodologies. Her experience offers key insights for entrepreneurs on how to build from scratch without inherited infrastructure.
When Teresa Resch sat down to plan Toronto Tempo, the new WNBA franchise, she didn't even know which players would make up the team or what budget she had. Instead of waiting to have all the answers, she applied the same logic as a tech startup: build on the go. The result was the entire organization being established in 16 days, a record time compared to the usual six months.
“It was chaos, but our team was incredibly resilient,” Resch acknowledges. The launch included everything from player selection to sponsorship sales, without a prior structure to cushion mistakes. For any founder, the lesson is clear: the lack of legacy can be the greatest competitive advantage.
Resch came from working ten years with the Toronto Raptors (NBA), within the solid structure of Maple Leaf Sports. Jumping to Tempo not only meant changing leagues; she was left without inherited processes, without established departments, and without the safety net of a sports giant. “We had no legacy. That freed us from chains and allowed us to shape the organization from scratch,” she explains.
This approach of pure Lean Startup —defining the minimum viable product, testing quickly, and adjusting on the go— is directly applicable to any business. The same philosophy allows an artisanal chocolate shop to test a new product in a pop-up store before signing a ten-year lease.
The biggest enemy of startups is not the lack of budget, but paralysis by inheritance. Resch sums it up: “There are so many things you don’t even realize you depended on. Suddenly you have to recreate them.” The solution was not to copy the Raptors' model, but to build one of their own based on agility.
The franchise lost its second star to injury after twelve games, just when she was at All-Star level. “Otherwise, we would have had two All-Stars on an expansion team, which would have been incredible,” she admits. But the message is not optimism; it’s adaptability. In a nascent project, unforeseen events are not the exception: they are the plan. The team never repeated a starting five in the first twenty matches.
The management lesson for any founder is that hiring people who have lived through that chaos before is more valuable than a perfect business plan. The Tempo coach has several WNBA championships, and that expertise was key to navigating the crises.
Financially, the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) multiplied minimum salaries to $270,000, while stars approach one and a half million annually. The league signed a new audiovisual rights agreement that covers much of the salary increase and introduced a revenue-sharing model between players and franchises. Thus, each team bets its profitability on local ticket sales and sponsorships.
For an entrepreneur, this is the direct translation of unit economics: if your fixed costs rise, you need variable revenues to scale at the same pace. Resch is clear: “Now it depends on us to differentiate ourselves in the local market to generate sponsorship and ticketing that give us a competitive advantage.”
Toronto Tempo debuted in the 2026 WNBA season with a record attendance and a 53-point performance from its star. The real playoff option in the first season demonstrates that the combination of proven talent and a rapid iteration system can surpass traditional planning.
For Spanish entrepreneurs, Resch's story offers a direct parallel: launching a project from scratch with little time or infrastructure is not exclusive to software. The mindset of ‘building on the go’ and the lack of legacy can be the greatest competitive advantages. The challenge lies in applying it with senior talent and short decision cycles.
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