The Profluence Pod 🌐

Raising over $76M, Stephen Smith has taken Kitman Labs from an Irish sports data company to a global solution.  Kitman Labs was founded, pioneered, and powered by practitioners and data scientists consumed by the question of how to optimize human achievement. Stephen Smith and Kitman Lab’s platform provides a holistic, unified view of the individual and the organization – making progress faster an...

A former college athlete, Matt Wheeler and his teammate started a sports recruiting platform in 2008 and have grown it substantially over the years.  SportsRecruits offers student-athletes a platform to handle their college search and recruiting process from end to end.  Using robust analytics around who is looking at your profile, video and academic information, SportsRecruits helps student-athle...

Before becoming an NBA agent and a trailblazer in shaping the college NIL space, Daniel Poneman spent over a decade as a scout and consultant for more than 300 Division I colleges, NBA teams, and international franchises.  Profiled in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, Daniel rose from teenage scout to Chicago basketball mainstay.  Since then, Daniel Poneman has helped hundreds of young me...

Peter Simon runs the sports investment division for Simon Group Holdings, which was founded by his father Sam Simon.  Sam Simon is a legendary immigrant entrepreneur having launched Atlas Oil Co. in 1985 with a single delivery truck, and has built it into a multi-billion gallon-a-year fuel wholesaler with over 500 employees. Formed in 2022, Simon Sports is a sports investment firm and management g...

Chris Van Dusen is a Senior Partner at Solyco Capital, a vertically Integrated PE/VC, Action Services, Public & Private Wealth Investment Firm that delivers capital solutions for late-stage startup and growth companies.  Solyco Capital has made some of its first sports investments since its inception, showcasing the industry's appeal.  Chris Van Dusen was a former D1 baseball player and su...

Minutely works with the largest media properties in sports as a video optimization platform for digital publishers.  Amit Golan's background boasts a wide spectrum of talents having served as a special forces unit Commander to being a teacher, mentor, entrepreneur, and mentor at Google.  Minutely was founded in 2014 to drive video engagement and revolutionize the online video consumption proce...

After successfully exiting Rivals (Yahoo) and 24/7 (CBS), Shannon Terry began building his third sports media platform in On3.  On3 is a top resource for college sports, recruiting, and NIL.  Shannon Terry and On3 are consistently in the news cycle thanks to their proprietary “NIL Valuation” system.  Chapters: (03:40) Rivals (06:00) 24/7 Sports (10:45) On3 inception  (13:05) NIL valuations  (18:00...

Lance Dietz is an investment partner who focuses on sports, collectibles, well-being, and gaming. KB Partners raised a $100M+ fund to deploy capital into the early stages of sports.  Lance Dietz played college basketball at Army West Point, has an MBA from the University of Chicago, and joined KB Partners in 2018 as a principal before reaching partner status in 2021.  Chapters: (01:15) Top trends...

Mike Nicoll is a former hooper turned award-winning filmmaker focused heavily on basketball's business side in his documentaries.  The Spoils penetrates a shadowy financial system: America’s youth basketball industrial complex. With unprecedented access to the money game that dominates the sport, the film unravels the raw capitalism of the American basketball machine. Mike Nicoll has directed...

After 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, José Bautista has made the jump into entrepreneurship and investing.  He took a majority position in Marucci Sports and helped them to an exit and has also invested in outwear company Canada Goose. José Bautista recently bought the majority position in a USL team, Las Vegas Lights FC.  Chapters: (01:45) Owning a pro sports team (05:45) Transition from ath...

With soon-to-be 16 eatertainment facilities, Chicken N Pickle is expanding across the country with their “TopGolf for Pickleball” concept.  Chicken N Pickle is an entertainment complex that includes a restaurant, sports bar, pickleball courts, and a variety of yard games.  Kelli Alldredge joined part-time at the first location and went full-time as the president in 2023.  Chapters: (01:15) Landing...

Recently closing out their $4M Series A round, Forever Network is adding more sports and new products and expanding to the United States.  Forever Network is a social-first sports media company that started as a basketball social media page in Australia.  in 2023, Nicholas Kelland joined Forever Network coming from the agency and marketing world. Chapters: (01:20) Forever Network origin story (04:...

With ownership in 3 pro teams, including Premier League club Ipswich Town FC, Brett Johnson has made a name for himself as one of the best investors in sports (particularly soccer).  Ten years ago, Benevolent Capital was formed by Brett Johnson and his twin brother Grant Johnson to invest in sports assets.  Some of Brett Johnson’s other investments include Profluence Capital Fund I, Athletic Brewi...

Acquired by 3STEP Sports, West Coast Elite is the largest basketball event operator on the West Coast with more than 100 events in 11 states.  WCE is the premier grassroots basketball program and is a member of the Under Armour Association, WCE teams play a national schedule.  Ryan Silver is the founder and CEO who previously ran a nightclub before creating West Coast Elite and Silver Waves Media....

ScorePlay now counts over 130 sports clients and has experienced great growth since the $5M seed round last year.  ScorePlay provides a suite of products that help sports organizations automate their media workflows, grow their brand, and unlock new revenue streams. Victorien Tixier previously co-founded a digital suite for 5-side-football centers, Hydra, which was acquired.  Chapters: (01:35) Cre...

PFL is the #1 fastest-growing sports league in the world quickly rising to challenge the UFC and is coming off a $100M investment from Saudi’s SRJ Investments.  Donn Davis first entered sports as the Chief Legal Counsel of the Chicago Cubs in the 1990s. He would go on to hold several prominent roles across media, sports, and entertainment (including a senior executive at AOL) before founding the P...

As a 23-year-old business owner and coming off a $500k fundraise, Huck Sorock is looking to transform the referee space.  The idea of Refr Sports stemmed a few years ago as Huck realized how much technology was growing in every category within sports but saw lots of improvement for the referee vertical.  Huck Sorock is a recent graduate of Colorado Boulder and grew up an athlete playing juniors ho...

StatusPRO recently received $20m in funding including an investment from Google’s venture arm to transform training and gaming in sports.  StatusPRO is a sports technology company that combines data, XR, and real-life experiences to provide a revolutionary suite of training and gaming products. Troy Jones is a former D1 quarterback who spent time at the NFLPA and Goldman Sachs before coming up wit...

With high-end clients like the NBA and MLB, Sweet Chameleon is taking on phygital collectibles led by Michael Dub.  Sweet Chameleon lives at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds, leveraging additive manufacturing and blockchain technology to enable fans to create and customize physical and digital collectibles from individual creators and popular entertainment, sports, and gaming IP...

The "Redzone for Baseball", PLYR is aiming to revolutionize discovery, engagement, and interaction with sports through its players. After spending a handful of years as a wealth advisor, David Wurth made the jump to entrepreneurship by interviewing successful executives, athletes, and business leaders.  CSQ is now an award-winning quarterly business and luxury lifestyle platform. PLYR wa...

The Defense Department, 90% of NFL teams, and many high-level performers including Andrew Huberman use Momentous products.  Momentous offers high-quality nutritional and dietary supplements, researched and developed by leading scientific minds with rigorous quality control and independent third-party testing.  Jeff Byers played college football at USC and then spent several years in the NFL before...

With many years of experience in sportainment, Craig Winning is now taking on BatBox as they expand from Mexico to the United States.  BatBox is an innovative experiential concept that caters to the underserved baseball fan market, offering a playful way for fans to engage with baseball and each other and offer corporate and private simulator sales to clients. Craig was previously at TOCA Social,...

An experienced veteran in sportainment, Ollie’s newest project is at the intersection of racing, socializing, and eating with F1 Arcade.  F1 Arcade is a new simulation racing experience in the US, offering all the excitement, drama, and glamor of Formula 1. Ollie Raison has provided creative input to social entertainment businesses for many years including Bounce Ping Pong, Puttshack Mini Golf, Hi...

Before launching his own agency, Jared was Head of Sports at Twitter/Vine helping establish deep ties within the social media world.   Changing the way credit works for social content with Gondola and making creative content for sports leagues, teams, brands, and media companies with Fresh Tape Media. Jared shares valuable insights into content creation, trends in social media, sports, highlightin...

After the acquisition of The Athletic, Evan Parker joined Alexis Ohanian and Brett Montgomery to build Mantel.  Mantel is a community for collectors (starting in sports).  Before joining Mantel as the CEO, Evan Parker was the General Manager at The Athletic and Head of Content at NASCAR.  Chapters: (01:50) Career in Sports (03:00) Importance of Building Relationships  (05:05) How Leagues vs Media...