After covering a plethora of startups from the technology and service sectors, today we have an interesting startup based out of Bangalore, India. GoSports was founded in 2006 by an Olympian and graduates of Harvard and Oxford. GoSports helps athletes by providing them training, advisory, monitoring and representation services, sponsorships and other personal development opportunities.
When asked for their agenda, the team was prompt at saying,
We will settle for no less than multiple Olympic gold medals, and all our efforts are directed toward that ultimate end.
The GoSports team
What follows is a short interview with the GoSports team;
Go Sports is an interesting name. How did you get to this? Any other names you thought of while brainstorming?
We just came up with it after brainstorming a few options. It also suggests the direction in which we want to take sports and of action and pro-activity. Go is also a cheering cry in sports and we wanted a positive and simple banner under which to build an institution. The name is young and enthusiastic.
Tell us about your team. Who are the founders? What prompted you guys to startup Go Sports? What’s your background?
As youngsters, all three of us have played serious sports (in fact, Hakim is a former Olympian swimmer who represented India at the Sydney Olympics). So we know the frustrating challenges that face budding sportspersons who have the passion and talent, but are held back by other factors like lack of funding, infrastructure, etc. So we hoped an initiative like this would be a great success in helping people build viable careers out of sport and in the process, bring India to the forefront of the sporting world. The challenge, but also the potential gains involved were enough to make us pursue our passion and not take on regular jobs.
In some sense, having played a high level of sports helped us cut our teeth in the world of entrepreneurship. Sports prepares you for some of the things that are most challenging about entrepreneurship – the importance of team work, deferred benefits, hard work and having the determination to overcome apparently insurmountable obstacles.
Hakimuddin S. Habibulla is a former Olympic swimmer who represented the country at the Sydney Olympics. Nandan Kamath is a graduate of the National Law School in Bangalore, and went on to get his Masters at Oxford and then Harvard. Joseph Ollapally is again a Harvard Graduate. All the founders went to the same school – St. Joseph’s in Bangalore.
Go Sports looks all about spirit and passion. How do you see India as a market?
India is on the cusp of a sporting revolution. The Olympics at Beijing showed us that there were hungry, determined and talented athletes who are raring to make a mark on the world stage. These athletes are only looking for the right platforms and opportunities to do their country proud. Similarly, the people of India are also keen to discover new sporting heroes – outside the domain of cricket. There is no better time than now to be involved with Indian sport – to tap into the passion and hope that is so palpable in our country today. Even though the revenue potential will take some time to reveal itself, there is a definite and growing demand for the professional management of sport and athletes – so India is really an ideal market to be in now as we can learn and grow with the market.
How did Go Sport bootstrap? Is it self financed?
We have invested our savings into GoSports. Yes, it is self- financed currently, because we felt it was important to be wholly invested at the start to really make it work.
"Our immediate goal is to groom the next generation of world-beating Indian sporting champions and to thereby invigorate the country’s sporting ecosystem." How do you speculate market, competition and profits?
While we look forward to healthy competition, and new entrants into the field of 360 degree sports marketing – we also get some cues from the market that we are on the right track and our business model works. For example, we were recently nominated for the Tata NEN Hottest Start-Ups awards, and out of a pool of almost 660 companies, we made it to the final round of 30! This shortlisted number was arrived at after accounting for public votes as well as a panel of experts’ votes. The final five winners will be announced around December 22nd, and we feel we have a good shot. Regardless of the outcome, however, it is reassuring to see that experts in the corporate world seem to think we’re on the right track.
"Based on our own experiences as athletes, we know how difficult it is to make a career of sport in India." What platforms you provide to these athletes besides taking their potential to a new level?
The GoSports team puts its combined experience and skills to work in support of each of its athletes, making key interventions in their lives by securing access to training, advisory services, sponsorship and PR, legal representation and other personal development opportunities. We see ourselves as enablers or facilitators – handling the entire life-cycle of an athlete so he or she can concentrate entirely on sport. We are always on the lookout for new and innovative ways in which athletes can get better at what they do on the one hand and gain financially from good performances on the other hand.
With a career aspect in India, do these athletes adhere to any placements? What if they don’t become successful, can sports be equivalent to any other career option like marketing, designing etc?
Careers in sports have unique challenges – short career span and skills often do not translate to a post-career opportunity. So far in an underdeveloped sporting system it is difficult to create a wholesome and long-term career from sports. As things develop it gets better as there will be room within the sporting system for retired sportspersons. For example, in cricket former players can becomes coaches, commentators, journalists, etc., put all their prior experiences to good use and be compensated for the value they generate in the system. Our sports structure needs to evolve to allow this to happen across sports – otherwise it will be difficult to attract the best talent to sports.
What’s your revenue model? Suggest an estimable revenue model you’ve come across in the past.
Our revenue model is based on service fees as well as a share of the athlete’s revenues. In this regard, we see ourselves as a hybrid of an asset management model and a venture capital model, and in each case our portfolio of athletes being our assets.
Where do you see Go Sports after two years? How do you propose to do it?
Our vision for 2010 is for our athletes to win at least 10 Commonwealth Games medals and for 2012 to have at least 20 who represent India at the London Olympics and win multiple medals for India. We are slowly expanding our management team and will be working on increasing the number of athletes we manage. Our business is unique because we aim to handle everything related to the athlete right from the get-go. Right from enhancing his potential on the field to everything off it, like taking care of legal, financial, operational and travel issues, as well as his/her marketing and PR efforts.
What about the section of mass who can’t afford to be a part of Go sport? Do you provide any scholarships? If no, are you planning to implement any such privileges?
Only some of our more established athletes pay us a management fee. In other cases, we have invested our own savings and resources into an athlete’s career, and only stand to profit if the athlete succeeds. Having said that, we recently started The GoSports Foundation – an independent non-profit arm to help secure funding and professional expertise for India’s best and most promising sportspersons.
What was your learning experiences with Go Sports?
Patience. The fact that it takes time and dedication to achieve a goal, that there is no greater pleasure than working on something you care about. Also, the fact that there is tremendous sporting talent out there in our country just waiting to be discovered and encouraged makes us realize that there is a very important role for us in India today. Also, being an entrepreneur means you literally do everything from the get-go so every day is a learning experience, where we handle something new or try something out for the first time.
What was the most memorable day for you at Go Sports?
There have been some incredibly momentous days for us at GoSports and it’s hard to narrow down just one. The day Virdhawal Khade – our young swimmer, became the youngest Indian swimmer to qualify for the Olympics was a day of supreme validation because he almost did not make it to Melbourne for the qualifiers (Veer was to appear for his 10th std board exams, which he eventually took later).
What do you have to share with us as a part of your agenda for 2009?
We will settle for no less than multiple Olympic gold medals, and all our efforts are directed toward that ultimate end. 2009 will see our athletes training and directing their efforts toward some of the bigger international competitions, with an eye toward the 2010 Commonwealth Youth Games. At GoSports, we intend to increase our athlete portfolio and bring on more capable future Olympians on board, as well as strengthen our own internal team to handle the increased numbers.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is some real good job you’ve been doing! I have been following this blog for long and I must say, you get some quality content, and some real good startups on board.
I love the way you write and bring things up. Keep the good work on.
Go GoSports Go we doesn’t have any stop!!!!!!!!!!!