Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Daniel Luna. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Daniel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

Growing up I had a single mom and living in an urban city in Los Angeles California and I had many opportunities to get involved with the wrong people and wrong activities but my mom worked hard to keep me on the right path. She made sure I was in church and made the right friends, and always pursued my dreams. The biggest thing my mom did for me that has allowed me to believe in myself today and take chances in the business world is; she always said I could do it, she never shot down my ideas and whatever I said I wanted to be she said I could do it. When you have a parent that believes in you whole heartedly that is a huge boost to your ability to try and give 100% effort. I wasnt the best basketball player in high school but my mom said I could be great and paid to put me in camps, I told her I wanted to make the varsity team and she said “If you believe in yourself nothing can stop you, never stop believing in yourself”.. and that year I made the varsity team. Now as an adult I carry that same belief in everything I do.

Daniel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After moving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas I began working with Hilton. After becoming a top sales rep there I transferred to Orlando and after getting settled in for about 2 years I decided to start a semipro men’s basketball team. 2020/2021 was our first year in the FBA (Florida basketball association) and ABA (American Basketball Association) and we ended up winning the Ffba Championship and ended the ABA season 5-10 but all in all a great first year. I’m the majority owner of the team But I talked my brothers in to helping own/ operate the team. My brothers are David and Max Luna, together were three brothers with extensive playing and coaching experience both in the United States and abroad. My brother David, is actually my twin brother, and we’re former professional players in Catalonia, Spain and current top Sales agents with Hilton as I previously mentioned. We handle the sales and marketing side of the team, with my older brother Max, who coached at Life Pacific College in California, handling Head Coach and General Manager duties.

Re-involving myself with the game of basketball has been my passion, I have been researching the FBA/ABA since 2015. We are convinced Clermont will be a great place for a franchise because it’s relatively close to a number of other teams – but not too close.

My brother David Luna is also heavily involved in the fashion industry. He not only has his own clothing line but has also done online promotional work for Kanye West’s Yeezy brand, Forever 21 and Kenneth Cole, among others. Due to these connections, the Crocs’ have teamed with representatives of the Yeezy brand to design their inaugural uniform.

My older brother also owns his own vintage online selling business which we also use to promote/fund team expenses.

Never have had my own business there’s been a big learning curve with finding ways to promote and market our team. Team sponsorships are a huge part of running sports teams and we haven’t had much luck in the area landing sponsorships. We have had really good luck with attracting big names on social media to come play for the team like (Nick Briz, Chris Whyte, Austin mills, etc.) but no luck in using that to find business partners. From a basketball standpoint, things went smoothly, as we won the FBA championship against the Florida Flight. The ABA was good, we traveled to California to play and were competitive even though our record didn’t show that.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

I’ve never bought a business before, so this was a new experience for me. I bought a professional team in the ABA and FBA and this allows us to own the area of Clermont in both leagues. The process has been pretty simple so far for us. We mainly had to reach out to the league owners and discuss our market and our goals for the teams. The main obstacle is getting the finances to purchase the teams and actually pay the costs of running the business. You need to pay players, venues, officials, score keepers and more. I chose this business because I love entertainment and especially basketball and believe I can combine these two loves into a unique team brand.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

For me I used my 9 to 5 sales job to gather finances for the team. It took me becoming the number 1 sales agent at my company for 3 years straight to be able to afford the costs, but I had patience and was slowly putting together a plan for the team. I then brought this plan to my brother who is also the number 1 sales rep for his department and together we both decided to buy two markets essentially monopolizing the area for pro basketball.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.clermontcrocs.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clermontcrocs
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clermoncrocsofficial
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClermontCrocs
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiKDDz1184nrMfb4-UYKCbQ
• Other: https://outofthedarkllc.com/

Image Credits
@ab.fliks @davidvalerioooo @mamba.photography24