The Profluence Pod 🌐

Recently raising their Series A round, we discuss the changing dynamic of digital sports activations and how they’ve been able to help organizations get closer to their fans.  Vaidhy Murti has over a decade of experience developing production applications for high-growth, venture-backed startups, and Fortune 1000 companies WIT Sports is a digital activation platform that helps professional sports...

“The Real Moneyball Guy”, the popular movie was partly based on Ari’s analytical and scouting experiences innovating Major League Baseball. Ari Kaplan created and led the Chicago Cubs analytics department, head of evangelism at DataBricks, Caltech Alumni of the Decade, and Intel’s AI Board of Advisors.  DataBricks is one of the largest private companies in the world with over $1.6 billion in 2023...

We dive deep into fan engagement, creating immersive experiences, and MVP Interactive + James Giglio’s new book Beyond the Jumbotron.  MVP Interactive is a creative technology company specializing in designing and producing immersive consumer experiences for the world’s largest brands. Chapters: (02:45) MVP Interactive background (07:15) Defining a “fan”   (11:05) Future of fan engagement/AI (15:0...

Perfect Game is the world’s largest youth baseball/softball platform and scouting service, producing over 8,600+ events, 300,000+ games, and showcases annually across the United States.  Rob Ponger became CEO in 2022, previously serving as a Senior Vice President at IMG.  To date, more than 1,650 players who have played in a Perfect Game event have made it to Major League Baseball.  Chapters: (01:...

Pro Skills Basketball is now in 20 cities across the United States with their innovative basketball training, coaching, and team membership model.  Brendan Winters grew up the son of an NBA coach. He played college basketball at Davidson and then went on to play professionally overseas for 5 years before founding Pro Skills Basketball.  PSB has since grown into a nationwide club team organization...

Futsal is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, and Senda Athletics is at the forefront of it.  Senda Athletics is a head-to-toe soccer product line, including footwear, Fair Trade Certified balls, and custom team uniforms, focused on the rapidly growing 5-a-side and indoor soccer market.  The initial 5-a-side market is an estimated $5B with the opportunity to expand into the $14B broade...

Coming off an $8M funding round, DUPR is going both downstream and horizontal in pickleball.  DUPR is a rating algorithm and app to find other pickleball players at your skill level. The score ranges from 2 to 8.  Tito Machado is the CEO and Scott Mendelssohn is the Head of Analytics.  Chapters: (01:10) Entrance into pickleball (04:45) Company overview (06:30) Understanding the DUPR score  (09:50)...

We dive deep into Drake Star’s latest sports technology report which saw a total deal value of $37B in 2023.  Mohit Pareek is a media and tech investment banker who oversees Drake Star’s sports technology, media, and gaming reports.  We also cover investors to watch, significant strategic buyers, global investment trends, and the growing role of sovereign wealth funds and athlete investors in the...

With over 60+ employees globally, the Aura platform is transforming traditional linear content experiences into an engaging, interactive, and immersive hyper-contextual environment by aggregating content, data, financial engagement, and communities.  Before Aura, Antony Arena served as the Chief Executive at Unbound, a group of digital and communications businesses specializing in cutting-edge tec...

WSC Sports is nearly a billion-dollar Israeli company, that enables sports media rights owners to automatically generate personalized sports videos in real-time Prior to co-founding WSC Sports, Daniel Shichman attended Tel Aviv University and served in the Israeli military.  We discuss the company's journey to success, trends in the sports media industry, the impact of artificial intelligence...

GameChanger is a tech company (acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2016) whose mobile app and website provide scorekeeping, stats, video streaming, and recap stories to teams and connected fans at the local level. Sameer Ahuja is a long-time entrepreneur with 20 years of experience as a Founder, CEO, or, COO of high-growth technology businesses from startup to late-stage in multiple industries. H...

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 Sport...

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: (...

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 s...

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 fro...

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 atto...

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 fo...

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 plac...

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...

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 extr...

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 ev...

Greenfly has been building in sports & media for ten years with 500+ major organizations as clients led by Daniel Kirschner.   Greenfly's short-form media software platform captures, collects, organizes & distributes videos & photos to drive fan engagement. Daniel Kirschner spent most of his career in the legal space before jumping into entrepreneurship at Greenfly with two-time ML...

Reality is being redefined as immersive technology and sports are colliding at record rates.  Tyler Gates leads the charge at Brightline Interactive and is the Chief Futurist for the parent company, Glimpse Group ($VRAR).  In today’s episode, we dive deep into “fan engagement” and how Brightline Interactive is building the future to provide all stakeholders within sports with an amazing experience...

RacquetX looks to build the homebase for the multi-billion-dollar racquet sports industry as we dive deep into the business of events. Robyn Duda is the co-founder and managing director of RacquetX. She has had a successful career across events and technology.  The first-ever RacquetX event will take place March 24-26 in Miami, Florida.  Chapters: (02:00) RacquetX inception (04:40) Inaugural event...

From grassroots to global impact, RugbyDAO is on a mission to reshape rugby for the next 200 years. It's a decentralized way to build community and operate across the ecosystem.  Nick Riggall is the OG and one of the original co-founders at RugbyDAO. As we explore the intersection of sports and Web3, you’ll also pick up on some incredible insights about rugby – which has over 850 million fans...