Both Visa and the NFL were created when entities traded individual exclusivity for collective scale.

Recently came across this one while listening to the Acquired episode on Visa. Visa and the NFL are similar in heir ownership structure. Both are essentially the opposite of a traditional holding company, more like a “reverse holding company.”

The NFL league office does not own the teams. Instead, the 32 individual team owners collectively own the NFL. Similarly, Visa was created in 1968 by Dee Hock as a non-stock membership corporation. He convinced ~200 banks to own the network in proportion to the transaction volume they contributed. In return, they all agreed to operate under Visa’s singular set of operating and governing procedures.

And “convinced” is the key word here. These banks were competing intensely for the same customers and merchants. For some of the larger banks, not joining could mean owning a bigger piece of a smaller pie, versus a smaller piece of a much larger future pie.

Dee Hock was exceptional at persuasion and debate, appealing not just to logic but also to emotion. That’s a story for another day.