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: TeamUp
CEO: Donna L. Kivirauma
Headquarters: Tampere, Finland
1. What is your elevator pitch?
TeamUp is the FanSite for Sports, Music and the Arts. We help sports teams and athletes to recognize and reward their fans.
TeamUp connects people through shared values and passion. Instead of advertising we allow sponsors to share the passion of the fans and give rewards or benefits for their loyalty.
TeamUp is built on a foundation of appreciation where everyone wins, the sports team/athlete, the fan, and the sponsor.
2. Problem & Solution
In other social networks sports teams and athletes can’t reach their fans whenever they want, they don’t know who their top fans are so that they can reward them, and they can’t provide significant and consistent value to their sponsors.
- We solve the problem by not filtering the content as is done in Facebook, and we allow direct messaging to the fans. None of the other social channels allow you to send a group message to 100% of your following. In comparison to Twitter, we provide unfiltered content just as Twitter does, but present the content in the context of a team’s or athlete’s own community. We are able to cut through the clutter that so often plagues Twitter, and give more of a community feel.
- We have a patent on our fan ranking system that allows you to know who your top fans are based upon digital activity, as well as, real life actions such as purchasing merchandise or checking in at a game or event. Fans can see how they compare to other fans and compete for prizes and recognition.
- Finally, due to our patent pending linking mechanism fans are positively introduced to the sponsors. When a team allows a sponsor to link to them in TeamUp the fans can naturally discover the sponsor and receive an invitation to join them to receive sponsor benefits that will be placed in the fan’s “gift basket.” We are seeing that 40-90% of the fans will become a fan of the sponsor after becoming a fan of the athlete or sports team.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Our target market is any sports team, athlete, or sporting event, from youth to professional together with their sponsors. Any company that sponsors can benefit from being in TeamUp by gaining a passionate relevant audience.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
TeamUp is completely free for sports teams, athletes, events and their fans. Sponsors can make a free profile or purchase a paid level profile for a full range of features from ad-free marketing to sponsorship measurement.
5. Management Team – with titles
Donna L. Kivirauma, CEO and Co-Founder
Kimmo Kivirauma, COO and Co-Founder
Pekka Martikainen, CTO and Co-Founder
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
We are open for business and ready to help everyone to get more from their sponsorship. Our core values are, “Give back more than you take” and “ Transparency.” We have taken tremendous care in making sure that everyone has a way of contributing to the others in the community while getting their own needs met. We also do not sell information to third parties and believe that it is not necessary or positive for our users. There are no ads in TeamUp either. Instead we help brands to build relationships with fans through their shared passion for sports. In TeamUp, sponsors are just like fans only the wealthier better connected fans that everyone wants to be a friend of.
Bonus Questions: If you were to invite any CEO to dinner who would it be and why?
I would like to invite Bill Gates. I have a story from 1999 that is incomplete, which is a story for another day. ☺ My main reason is that I would like to talk to him about building the greatest technology company of all time and his passion for making the world a better place.
If you could go to any sporting event, what would it be and why?
It would be the Olympics. I have never been to the Olympics and feel that it stands best for all that sports has to offer in terms of sportsmanship and competition. It unites the world through respect and appreciation of talent. I also love the stories of perseverance and triumph of the athletes.