Our Athletes Voice series gives athletes a forum to talk about how technology has impacted their careers and their lives away from sports. This week, Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara discusses Shark Tank, the tech he uses, and his investment in athlete social media management platform Opendorse.
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After one of his best seasons last year—including a pick six against Russell Wilson in Week 2—Prince Amukamara missed out on an invite to the 2019 Pro Bowl. Five Bears teammates made the cut instead. So Amukamara overlaid a uniformed photo of himself with the Pro Bowl logo and large text that read, “I’M IN. NOT,” and posted the image to Twitter. “I got in at #clubdub THO!!” he added, with congratulations for his teammates. (“Club Dub” is the name for the Bears’ locker room after a win. It is transformed into a nightclub atmosphere with strobe lights and loud music.)
Amukamara is an avid Twitter user and also an investor in athlete social management platform Opendorse. The company was founded by two of his former teammates at Nebraska, place kicker Adi Kunalic and linebacker Blake Lawrence.
At Nebraska, Amukamara shifted from running back to defensive back. His senior season, he was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous All-America Team selection. He spent five seasons with the Giants (2011-2015) after being picked up in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, winning Super Bowl XLVI his rookie year. He then played one year for the Jacksonville Jaguars before moving to the Bears.
Amukamara, a first-generation American, studied political science and sociology at college. He’s of royal Igbo Nigerian descent and is technically next in line to be the chief of the town of Awo-Omamma in the West African country. His mother, Christy, was a sprinter on the Nigerian team at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics.
Every year, Amukamara runs a free youth camp in Arizona for kids between the ages of 7 and 17. He and his wife Pilar Davis have one daughter, Princess Paisley, and one son, Princeton.
Out of the Shark Tank…
“I’m an avid Shark Tank watcher. I was watching Shark Tank and I started to get on this entrepreneurial craze. There were a lot of companies I liked and wanted to invest in and I would just direct message them or message them on Twitter or Instagram and they would respond. I thought that was pretty cool. We’d email back and forth and would have a chat about their company. It’s pretty cool to me that I could have direct access to a CEO. I hit Clear up on social media and had a conversation about how I could be an ambassador and, potentially, an investor.”
“When watching Shark Tank and seeing how all the sharks conduct business and hearing the stories from the entrepreneurs and how they came from nothing and it started with an idea … they just put work behind it and persistence. Seeing the people go on there, a single mom who was just like, ‘Man, I have a problem with getting my kid to sleep tonight, then I figured if I do this it works,’ and then creating a company out of it. It inspired me because if they can do it, I can do it too. And to be frank, I have more resources than them, so why aren’t I doing it?”
“At first it went from what are some ideas of mine that I want to invent or see come to life, to who is already doing this and how can I put some money into it? So I started doing that and it’s crazy how many founders find it attractive to have athletes with platforms.”
Personal Technology…
“I use Rise, a sleep tracker. It goes under your bed and you control it with an app. It monitors your sleep, shows when you wake up, and what stage of REM you’re in. Also, NFL partnered with Sleep Number and that’s been great too: you can make the bed warm, cool, can elevate it. As an athlete, it’s important to get the most optimal and deepest sleep as possible because that’s where the most recovery happens. And that’s been helping my performance a lot.”
The Social Power of Technology…
“You can be in your office or meeting room, and you could slide right on Tinder or Bumble, or meet somebody in another state on Instagram, buy that person a flight to where you are, Uber them to your house, and even unlock the door to your house—all while sitting in one place. You haven’t met them yet and boom they’re there. I find that so crazy. I can meet somebody in person that I’ve never seen before in a matter of hours.”
“I don’t like when we’re at the dinner table and all on our phones not being in the present. It can cause some time of anxiety and pressure, like, ‘Oh, I got to post. These people are expecting me to post.’ Or, ‘Who’s hitting me up? I’ve got to check my Snap, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook inbox.’ Or there’s the, ‘Why aren’t you responding to my messages?’ ”
“I’m an avid Shark Tank watcher. I was watching Shark Tank and I started to get on this entrepreneurial craze … It inspired me because if they can do it, I can do it too. And to be frank, I have more resources than them, so why aren’t I doing it?”
Opendorse…
“At first it was about getting local athletes to get paid by tweeting about local companies. I thought that was amazing because, of course, college. You don’t have money yet when you leave college, especially in sports. Opendorse was a way of taking advantage of the celebrity you created while still in college and monetizing it by talking about local brands. Since then, Opendorse has evolved almost into a content company. I got a pick six against Russell Wilson. When I got back to the locker room, boom, I had all this content and video ready to send out to my fans. As athletes, we are the ones who are giving everyone content, but it’s not like we have a person-to-person photographer taking photos and videos of us. We still have to go find that content to post and I feel like Opendorse is continuing to solve that problem.”
“Also, the NFLPA, they’re a client of Opendorse, so anytime the NFLPA wants the player to post something, Opendorse will get in the middle of it and say, ‘Send me the content.’ Then, Opendorse sends you a text and all you have to do is click approve, and they’ll put it out on your behalf. Anytime a company asks me to tweet a promotion for them, like Dollar Shave Club, they reached out on Instagram and want me to tweet out something. Sometimes, it can be too much and can kind of be overwhelming. I’ll send it to Opendorse and say, ‘Hey, can you handle this?’ As amazing as Dollar Shave Club is, I’m not going to remember that exactly at 3:30pm EST I need to post this and write this. Opendorse just does it. And they know your schedule and can make sure you’re not playing at the time to make it more authentic.”
Celebrity Social Capital…
“There’s been so many times where we’ll hashtag a product on Instagram, especially my wife who buys the baby stuff, and they’re so thankful and send you free product. Because it’s free advertising for them and they know ‘Wow, if Prince’s wife is involved with the Bears and other wives see it, they might buy and follow too.’
“There’s this ice cream called Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Ohio and I’d always say, ‘Boom, here at Jeni’s again,’ and the CEO reached out to me. Social media provides that platform where you can reach whoever you want.
“With the Bears, one thing that went viral were our celebrations at Club Dub. And they had that content so they’re getting followers and driving traffic to their platform. They’ll give us the content if we ask, but that’s not something that teams are always readily willing to give. The teams are doing it and making their brand and business famous and driving traffic. As an athlete, if you look at yourself as [a business], I believe you should be doing the same.
“Blake and Adi [the founders of Opendorse] have opened my eyes to saying, ‘Hey Prince, go look at what the Bears posted of you,’ and then go look at when you posted the same video and look at the differences in impressions and reactions. It’s different; it’s more in a sense. The fans want to hear and see what’s coming from their role model and the person they follow. Sometimes, athletes are kind of bigger than brands, social media wise. When you see stuff like that it makes sense for the athlete to continue to grow their branding.”
New Athletes Voice stories appear earlier in our newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.
Read more in our ongoing Athletes Voice series…
- NFL Safety Tony Parrish: Just Keep Moving. Ultimately You Get There
- Formula E Driver Oliver Turvey: Racing Can Improve the Development of Electric Vehicles
- eMLS All-Star Mike LaBelle: We Have the Opportunity to Shape Competitive Gaming
- NBA 3-Point Champ Joe Harris: The Sports App I Wish I’d Had as a Kid
- NHL Great Theo Fleury: ‘I’m Involved in the Biggest Epidemic on the Planet’
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at talkback@sporttechie.com