Philadelphia-based startup LeagueSide is the largest youth sports marketing platform in the country. Their platform enables regional and national companies like Verizon, Uber, Chipotle, Smithfield, Cigna, and CHOP to sponsor youth sports leagues at scale. The company is led by co-founders Evan Brandoff and Zubin Teherani.
We had the pleasure to hear from Evan and Zubin for an exclusive Startup Spotlight interview:
How did the inspiration to start LeagueSide come about?
We initially met through a program called Venture for America. Venture for America starts with 5 weeks of training at Brown University where we played basketball together every day and immediately hit it off.
Each of us went off to our respective cities of Detroit and New Orleans for their VFA fellowship and stayed in touch bouncing business ideas off each other. During one weekend at a basketball tournament, Evan had the a-ha moment when he looked around the audience and noticed how engaged families were. He remembered his town’s local pizzeria sponsoring his youth baseball league and thought to himself – why don’t regional and national companies sponsor youth sports leagues as well? The reason is the youth sports market is extremely fragmented.
That fragmentation was the inspiration for LeagueSide. By standardizing sponsorships across a network of 6,000 community youth sports organizations, LeagueSide makes it easy and effective for companies like Uber, Carrabba’s and CHOP to sponsor youth sports leagues.
What problem is LeagueSide aiming to solve?
Each community has a different volunteer-run soccer, baseball/softball, basketball, and football league, making sponsoring youth sports leagues at scale nearly impossible.
LeagueSide’s tech platform solves this fragmentation by standardizing the sponsorship offering at each league, executing sponsorships seamlessly, and measuring the impact of each campaign on a company’s bottom line.
Additionally, the cost to play youth sports is rising rapidly year over year, causing numerous kids and their families to be priced out. LeagueSide is aiming to solve this problem by unlocking more sponsorship revenue from larger brands to help leagues keep costs down, participation up, and scholarship funds high. In essence, LeagueSide is trying to not only make youth sports more affordable but also make it possible for kids to play more.
How is LeagueSide different from similar competitors?
LeagueSide’s competitors are any other marketing channel including billboards, radio, TV, and professional sports sponsorships.
We are unique in that we reach families at their happiest moment every weekend at the fields, creating real 1-on-1 relationships between brands and consumers. Additionally, our tech platform enables us to segment by different parameters including age range, demographics, zip codes, and sports to ensure that clients reach their exact target audience.
VC, Angel Investors or Bootstrapped?
LeagueSide has received support from strategic investors from the sports world (Elton Brand, Lindy Snider, Ronnie Lott), local Philly entrepreneurs (Jake Stein, Bob Moore, Will Luttrell), and strategic capital partners (645 Capital, Nelnet).
What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned so far?
It takes a village to build a company. Without our outstanding and passionate group of advisors, investors, and employees, LeagueSide would not be where it is today. We’ve learned that building a company is a marathon, not a sprint – by surrounding ourselves with smart and hard-working people, we’ve been able to accomplish so much and know that this is only the beginning.
If you could have anyone in the world to your team, who would you choose?
We have to choose a hometown favorite – Ben Franklin. He was a superb marketer and successfully brought several new products to market including bifocals, the lightning rod, and swimming fins!
What are some unexpected hurdles you’ve faced?
At the beginning of this year, we overly focused on trying to hit home runs with enterprise sponsors instead of singles and doubles with regional sponsors (pun intended). We learned that there are no shortcuts in sales and building a large company means scalable and repeatable client acquisition and retention, not a heightened focus on large contract sizes
Your favorite team building activity is:
Every Friday, the entire team meets for highs and lows. Everyone goes around the room and reflects on their week providing insight to the good, the bad and the upcoming. Two of our main core values as a company are getting better every day and treating one another like family and highs and lows are the perfect outlet. The activity helps bring everyone closer together and provides a great setting to wrap up the week.
Where do you envision LeagueSide in 5 to 10 years?
As mentioned above, LeagueSide’s mission is to make youth sports more accessible. In 5 to 10 years, we envision building a company that is providing opportunities for thousands of kids around the U.S. (and eventually the world) to play, regardless of wealth or status. We want to help as many kids as possible to play more.
The biggest thing you look for when hiring is:
We look for people who embody our core values – scrappiness, sense of ownership, self-awareness, and ego-free attitude. That means they find a way to get things done, take ownership for the good and bad, are self-aware of their strengths/weaknesses, and choose the best idea for the team over their personal ideas.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs just starting out?
Find something that you’re insanely passionate about and want to spend 24 hours a day working on. Startups are a long journey, so you need to find a mission that motivates you every day.
On that journey, make sure you take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Be aware of burnout before it happens so you can make time for self-care.
Learn more and connect with Evan and Zubin:
http://leagueside.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zubinteherani/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-brandoff-b9954836/
