The Profluence Pod 🌐

Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech finds, funds, and fast-tracks innovative startups from around the world to invest in and develop the next generation of technology to change the way we experience sports.  Jenna Kurath spent time in the PR and communications space before joining Comcast and helping to launch the sports accelerator.  Comcast SportsTech features partnerships with NBC Sports, Sky Sports, Comcast Spectacor, and Golf – alongside NASCAR and three US Olympic sports organizations. Chapters: (01:30) Comcast SportsTech overview (05:00) Evolution of the accelerator  (08:25) Success stories  (10:35) Accelerator model (13:00) Criteria they look for  (19:40) Challenges they commonly see (24:00) Cohort #4 (27:45) Emerging areas . Jenna Kurath: Website: https://www.comcastsportstech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennakurath/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.

CrewLAB recently completed a pre-seed round for their sports team management system for high school and collegiate endurance sports.  We dive deep into the rowing industry and talk about CrewLab’s journey and how they’re trying to expand into other niches within sports.  Dominic Pardini is a former UCLA rower, innovation consultant at Accenture, and now sports technology entrepreneur.  Chapters: (02:20) Background (04:00) CrewLab overview (06:50) Fundraising process learnings  (10:40) The rowing industry  (15:40) Advice to jump into entrepreneurship (19:00) Interesting areas in sports (22:20) Expanding LTV in athletics  . Dominic Pardini: Website: https://www.crewlab.io/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicpardini/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.

SeventySix Capital is a VC firm that invests in innovative sports, media, and entertainment companies.  Wayne Kimmel is the managing partner of SeventySix Capital who has also authored the book Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel.  This episode dives deep into the evolution of sports as an asset class, advice for entrepreneurs, and interesting areas to watch in the future.  Chapters: (01:40) Entrance to sports tech (04:20) Defining sports (07:00) Sports betting evolution (11:25) Downstream movement (13:10) What the best founders do  (20:10) Using networks  (25:20) Equity in early stages (28:00) Emerging areas to watch (33:35) Sports as an asset . Wayne Kimmel: Website: https://www.seventysixcapital.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynekimmel/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.

The United Basketball League (UBL) is a fan-owned league attempting to create a system similar to baseball (but in basketball) co-founded by former NBA player Ricky Davis and Chris Allison.  Chris Allison, experienced in the minor sports league space, provides insight into the planned structure of the league and its community-centric approach.  With a focus on encouraging continued involvement from retired players and fostering talent development, the UBL aims to fill a gap between the youth, college, and professional levels of basketball with Ricky Davis helping shape that.  Chapters: (01:17) United Basketball League Vision  (01:51) Journey of Building the UBL  (03:46) State of Basketball Today  (06:26) UBL's Role in the Basketball Landscape  (09:53) Impact of Emerging Leagues  (13:51) First Season and Future Plans  (18:40) UBL's Community Engagement Strategy  (22:10) Personal Journey of Founders  (28:02) Closing Remarks and Where to Find More About UBL . United Basketball League: Website: https://www.theubl.com/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.

NBA Champion Giannis Antetokounmpo recently announced the launch of Improbable Media led by CEO Jonathan Stern and also ESPN personality Jay Williams.  Improbable Media will 'incubate and accelerate' content creation for talent and brands on top of producing their own movies, shows, and documentaries.  Jonathan Stern has spent most of his career in the media space after starting as an attorney. He has been involved in helping media arms pivot and has also produced many of your favorite shows and documentaries.  Chapters: (02:05) Trends in sports media (06:10) Improbable Media (12:30) Pillars of the company  (16:40) Role as CEO (19:00) From 0 to 1 in media (24:35) What makes a good story? (26:40) How to break into sports . Jonathan Stern: Website: https://www.improbablemedia.com/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.

Full Venue closed a €2M seed round to expand its AI marketing platform beyond Europe and into categories beyond sports.  Full Venue uses artificial Intelligence to determine the exact likelihood of a customer purchasing a digital platform, helping the marketing teams to target their communication and increasing revenues around the B2C touchpoints. Tiago Costa previously managed digital products for Portugal’s soccer federation and spent time as a business analyst.  Chapters: (01:50) Full Venue overview (04:25) Artificial intelligence macro (06:50) Case studies (12:20) Learnings from fundraising  (17:35) Challenges operating in sports (22:10) Selling in sports vs entertainment (23:25) Expansion plans (25:15) Trends to watch in AI . Tiago Costa: Website: https://www.fullvenue.ai/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiago-costa-rocha/?originalSubdomain=pt . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts. 

The Enhanced Games, backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, is on a mission to reimagine performance and provide an alternative to the Olympics.  Dr. Aron Souza previously led litigation against Gawker Media involving the wrestler Hulk Hogan, which resulted in one of the largest invasion of privacy judgments in history. He also founded Sargon and OPEN.  The first Enhanced Games tentpoles will take place across 2024.  Chapters: (01:20) The Enhanced Games (02:55) Problem with Olympics (05:30) Current athlete payment model (07:10) The pitch to athletes (09:10) No drug testing (13:05) Breaking records (15:30) Why billionaires invested  . Dr. Aron Souza: Website: https://enhanced.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arondsouza/?originalSubdomain=uk . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.

FanClub Sports Capital is a syndication platform and registered investment advisor (RIA) that connects deals to private investors. Before founding FanClub, Dave Mirynech spent several years across hockey analytics, venture capital, and blockchain technologies.  We talk about sports as an asset class, team valuations, crowdfunding, multi-club structures, and trends to keep an eye on.  Chapters: (01:25) Background (05:35) FanClub Sports Capital overview (09:30) Liquidity in sports (12:50) Sports as an asset class (16:40) Crowdfunding  (20:40) Jobs Act (23:15) Trends in sports investing  . Dave Mirynech: Website: https://fanclubsports.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mirynech-b20684120/?originalSubdomain=ca . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts. 

CoachTube is one of the largest marketplaces in the sports industry helping to connect athletes/parents with the top coaching instructional videos.  Wade Floyd was previously one of the top bible salesmen in the world and a youth baseball coach who saw a need for a premier instructional marketplace.  CoachTube houses thousands of videos, powers coaching clinics, and helps those in sports make extra money as they share their knowledge.  Chapters: (01:45) Inspiration behind CoachTube (03:45) Overview of company (06:40) Marketplace learnings  (09:00) Acquiring customers (12:25) B2B vs B2C (16:50) Business model  (19:20) Digital vs in-person training (22:10) Trends to watch . Wade Floyd: Website: https://coachtube.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefloyd/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts. 

CEO Mike Shogren is the father of a young athlete who suffered a devastating concussion leading to years of symptoms that could’ve been easily diagnosed and treated with a better protocol in place.  While researching concussion treatment, Mike Shogren was introduced to Prevent Biometrics. He left his job, joined Prevent as the CEO, and set out to bring this technology to athletes and parents at every level of sports.  Prevent Biometrics has become an industry leader for head injury protocol in sports partnering with over 200 organizations, deploying 20,000+ impact-monitoring mouthguards, and leading the largest head impact study to date.  Chapters: (02:15) Background in athlete safety (04:05) Son’s injury  (06:15) Inception of Prevent Biometrics (11:00) Understanding the product  (16:00) Top of the pyramid down with World Rugby (19:45) Understanding governance in sports (21:50) Balancing product, data, & creating systems (25:20) Concussions in the future . Mike Shogren: Website: https://preventbiometrics.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-shogren-18950/ . Andrew Petcash: 🏠 Website: https://profluence.com 🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/ Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay up to date on new podcasts.