First, tell me a bit about BLVCKOPS – what it is and what you do for athletes?
The purpose behind the company is to assist athletes with the successful transition to a new career after sports. We work with the NBA and NFL player associations and leagues to help players create businesses they are passionate about. We assist them by giving them the roadmap to explore those ideas and to actually do it.
And you have the SpeedBuild Challenge coming up in March – what is that?
SpeedBuild was developed around getting entry level information to players on how startups and the business world in general work for players. We just did a program for the Miami Dolphins in fact – for 41 of their players.
The one in March is for players we’ll invite to the event – it offers them an opportunity – like a hackathon – to stand up as a team and as individuals to pitch a business idea – like Shark Tank.
How do you get players involved during their careers. So many seem to want to wait until their career is over first to explore new careers and ideas?
Exactly. We are trying to get more upstream. Most don’t have a concept yet on what business they are interested in exploring. We’re trying to offer that exploration to them – at the practice level. We match them with someone on venture capital or someone who has experience launching businesses and show them how to pitch a product and match them up with a coach and designers to help them design their logo and the name of their company.
Many guys love the Shark Tank idea but don’t think they can do that – they don’t think they can get in front of people and pitch a professional business concept – but we show them how to do that.
Any teams outside of Miami adopting the program so far?
Caleb Thornhill is the Director of Player Engagement in Miami, and we’ve done it for three years now with them. So far they are the only team that has done so, though we do it for individual players often. Kudos to he and their owner, Stephen Ross – they are a big proponent of the program and getting players thinking about and preparing for their next career.
There are so many programs designed to help players offered through the NFL that are overlooked. They have to be pushed more though and I don’t think many players have fully adopted those ideas yet.
Do you see that changing – and on programs not just focused on media or coaching?
That’s a good point because many have since it’s what they know – it is easier for them to think about those ideas. We are seeing that changing though – guys adopting ideas earlier in their careers. Justin Forsett is a good example – he started off with his Shower Pill and it’s now a million-dollar business. Now he has a full brand and wants to really blow it out.
Is part of the difficulty that players almost see it as a threat to their football careers to think of any other career while they are still playing? If so, how do you turn that around?
You’re right – guys play forever right?
I think many guys are interested, they just need a spark. The guys that seem most interested are the ones one-to-two seasons away from retirement and realize they don’t have a Plan B. They may or may not be financially secure but know hey need to do something more.
I think it turns around when you see more programs from the league educating players, and from word of mouth. When they see their peers on panels and doing a lot of speaking on it, then they get interested. Marshall Newhouse is on CNBC and Spencer Paysinger tells his story of being a screenwriter now and his journey. It’s a great opportunity to hear their stories and get guys interested.
With the new CBA being discussed. anything there that has you encouraged or concerned?
Tuition reimbursement is the big thing. We have boot camps for players and they are accredited through the Innovation Engineering Institute. They are supported by the NFL’s tuition reimbursement programs. As long as they maintain or increase that reimbursement program we’ll be happy. Unfortunately only three-to-five percent of NFL players have used tuition reimbursement – for anything.
Are there specific areas of interest you see players gravitating too post-NFL? Many seem to end up in real estate or finance.
For most guys, the path of least resistance is real estate, franchising, or finance yes. They see opportunities in those areas and they are easier to get into. Franchising is another good area for players as your basically using someone else’s playbook so it’s easier to get into. They re tried and true and they can inject some of their own capital and if it’s earlier enough maybe own some part of the business at the organizational level.
And you have partners helping you out now.
Our partnership with Techstar gives us access to a ton of people rich in knowledge on how the business world works and bow to make business decisions. TwitterSports helps us connect with the relevant people in our space and is a huge platform to launch and promote these businesses.
We can now, in addition to our boot camps and one on one engagements, can surround players with the right people to develop ideas. Whether it’s through a limited, time0nbased project or whether we become equity partners for those who may need it.