New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series will be to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
Company: Sporple
CEO: Mat Cole
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
1. Elevator pitch
Sporple is facilitating a global paradigm shift in the discovery of athletic talent. Sporple connects athletes with global opportunities, regardless of race, age, location, aspirations, or chance. Athletes’ profiles on Sporple are tailored to achieve specific outcomes in sports, allowing athletes to take control of their careers and access untapped opportunities to realize their full potential.
2. Problem and Solution
Talent is disconnected from opportunity. Talent is a dispersed commodity and talent discovery is an expensive, ineffective business that more often than not results in disappointment for all sides of the market. Clubs and agents are facing ever increasing competition for talent. This leads to increased costs but without a solution that facilitates better information flow and market visibility. Sporple allows agents and clubs greater market visibility, direct communication with their chosen target audience, thus increasing their reach and decreasing their costs. Clubs and agents can search an ever expanding database of players by biometrics, personal data, height, weight, visa and passport. This allows small agents to be competitive with large agencies that are less cost sensitive to recruitment costs, just as it does with aspirational clubs, team, universities and schools to compete with the traditional power houses.
3. Market
Total athlete market in choses sports 500m+, Target market in the next 3 – 5 years is 10m total users – 80% athletes, 10% clubs and 10% agents/talent Scouts. In the coming months we will be launching coaching profiles.
4. Business Model
Sporple is and always will be free for athletes! We are breaking down the barriers of recruitment, not creating new digital ones.
5. Management Team
Mat Cole, CEO – After spending over a decade working within the sports industry (as a semi-pro rugby player and sports agent – Mat co-founded The Blaze Agency in 2007 and acquired in 2013), Mat recognized a gap in the market to take the global recruitment model, essentially unchanged over the years, to a digital platform.
Ankit Jain, CTO – Ankit is an avid outdoorsman and has worked as an engineer at Homejoy, Google, and Adobe. Most recently he founded RentEscape as an Unshackled IIR.
6. What do you want the audience to know at this moment about your venture?
Sporple has a high value proposition to all sides of the market. Sporple is breaking down the barriers of talent discovery by empowering athletes to take control of their careers. For agents and clubs, we are giving you the tools to search for players by bio metrics, position, age, visa, passport, allowing your business to achieve greater scale and efficiency while reducing costs.
Bonus Question: If you were stuck on a desert island with any three athletes, who would they be and why?
Michael Jordan – I have so many questions, so much I could learn. Steve Waugh, to talk leadership. Serena Williams, to talk consistency, competition and the challenges she has over come and been an incredible ambassador for women in sport