A New era of Talent Management
Team 100
Team 100’s founding team came to me with a vision of a startup focused on a more holistic type of sport management. They wanted to build a true disruptor that would house the next generation of athletes. The need was first identified by Alvin Williams (former NBA player + coach) addressing the lack of support seen in his own career.
Battling Uphill
Investing in the education of athletes is an unpopular institutional idea. It fundamentally risks the status quo of the major players in the current system. However, there is no work-around without their approval. Most of these institutions already have current programs that are in place for first year players. The problem is the context of the conversation. It’s outdated. It’s one-sided. It’s poorly timed. More than anything else, it isn’t authentic.
We knew in order to build momentum, we would need both buy-in from the institutions and players. Both have heavy red-tape; players will not meet without their agent and institutions won’t admit their players are underserved. Our strategy rotated around shining a spotlight delicately around conversations we knew players were already having.
It was also important to show potential investors that it made economic sense. Most agencies are designed for the top 1% of athletes. We created a 3 year business model that leverages institutional budgets, developed a more a la carte service for the other 99% of athletes, and programmed a partnership with current agents.
Going after underserved communities of women athletes, collegiate sports, and Olympians was also at the helm of our mission. In these areas, the pressure is potentially crippling and dark subject matters tend to fall to the wasteside.
It was the underserved areas such as mental health, transition periods, financial health, and dealing with family dynamics that had more impact on an athlete’s career than the traditional demands. The former wasn’t a popular subject among the governing bodies and the latter had exhausted a whole generation of athletes.
Johnny changed the way we fundamentally saw our business. He brought his much needed startup experience making a hectic process feel very comfortable and streamlined.
His execution style and empathy are second to none. The result, we far exceeded our initial goals.
