Streamline Athletes
Streamline Athletes have a clear and admirable goal – to increase the chances of athletes succeeding academically, athletically and personally at their school of choice.
Imagine shopping for a used car by going door to door, without any signs to tell you which cars are for sale or how much they cost – this is what athletes currently have to do if they want to compete at the collegiate level. There are over a thousand college teams and no way for aspiring student-athletes to find their best fit. The problem is also the same for the college teams looking to recruit these athletes.
Streamline Athletes’ solution is a platform that delivers a more efficient recruitment experience by centralizing all of the information on post-secondary athletics programs in North America. The platform includes tools to filter programs based on geographic, athletic, academic, and other important factors. For coaches, Streamline Athletes’ platform saves time and money by only initiating contact with student-athletes who meet their team’s athletic and academic criteria and who have expressed genuine interest in joining their team.
Traction
Streamline Athletes have made great progress in developing their platform and establishing the links and relationships within Canada they need to ensure their success. To date, they have
- Established Partnerships with all provincial/territorial track and field governing organizations
- Established Partnerships with 40 collegiate track and field teams
- Expanded their team from two to 13 employees
- Attracted 1600+ followers on Instagram
- Onboarded 350 athlete users, 14 paid, generating ~$1,500 in sales revenue
- Listed 344 collegiate track and field teams (U SPORTS & NCAA DII) which are now deployed on their platform, with 600+ more to be added over the next three months
The hurdle they face now is accomplishing the same growth in the more complex, dense, and diverse American marketplace. Overcoming this hurdle will require guidance from leaders in the space who have achieved previous success, partnerships with key organizations, successful relationships with early adopters, ruthless commitment, and trust in their market research and unique model for solving the problems they have identified.
Team
Alexandre Pare, Founder & Managing Director, Strategy – From 2010-2016, Alex was a middle distance runner competing for the Simon Fraser University varsity track and field and cross-country teams while pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree and a Business Administration minor. His passion for giving back to his community grew post-graduation as he pursued his coaching certifications from Athletics Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada, and was a Project Manager for the Foundation Christian Vachon. In 2019, his business partner and himself were awarded the SFU Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection Alumni Founder of the Year award for the founding of Streamline Athletes.
Brett Montrose, Founder & Managing Director, Operations – From 2009-2014, Brett was a sprinter competing for Simon Fraser University’s track and field team while pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication. He further developed his communication skills through positions as a copywriter, marketing coordinator, and marketing specialist at Teach Away and its sister company Skooli Online Tutoring from 2015-2018. These experiences allowed him to improve his content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, branding, and other business communication skills and competencies while working in a startup environment and reporting directly to the CEO. Brett was awarded the SFU Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection Alumni Founder of the Year award along with Alexandre.
Keir Forster, Co-Founder and Lead Developer – From 2008-2013, Keir was a middle distance runner competing for Simon Fraser University’s track and field and cross country teams (captain in his final year), while pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Sciences. He switched his career trajectory in 2016 by pursuing a Diploma in Computer Systems Technology at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He then worked as a software engineer intern at Black Duck Software and as a lab assistant at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Through his education and professional experience, he has developed computer architecture, algorithm analysis and design, object oriented programming and other software development skills.
Calvin Lai, Software Developer – From 2012-2015, Calvin pursued an Associate of Science Diploma in Chemistry from Langara College and from 2016-2018 pursued a Diploma in Computer Systems Technology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Throughout his studies he developed his web development, computer architecture, programming methods and relational database systems competencies, among other software development skills.
Sophie Dodd, Financial Administrator – From 2014-2019, Sophie was a middle-distance runner for the Simon Fraser University track and field team while pursuing an honors Bachelor of Business Administration Joint Major in Sustainable Business, a Certificate in Sustainable Community Development and the Charles Change Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. From 2018-2019, she was the Chair of Embark Sustainability Society demonstrating her leadership, facilitation and time management skills. In her senior year at Simon Fraser University, she was awarded the Bill DeVries Senior All-Around Athlete of the Year award and was nominated for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Alison Williams, Partnerships Lead – From 2013-2016, Alison pursued a Bachelors of Arts degree in Public Relations/Image Management at the University of Texas at Arlington. During her time there she was a middle distance runner on the varsity track and field and cross country teams, worked as the Director of Operations for the team and volunteered for the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. For two years, after graduation, she was a Brand Building Specialist for Mizuno Canada, where she developed relationship building, communication and professionalism skills. Since 2009, she has also worked intermittently for Peninsula Runners in multiple roles such as Media Editor and Sales Associate.
Funding
Streamine Athletes have, so far, raised $77,500 through a friends & family round, $50,000 through founder investment, and ~$250,000 in grant funding. They are looking to raise a further $375,000.
The additional funds raised will be used to:
-Hire 3-5 more full-time staff in R&D and business development to increase their ability to acquire athlete and program users
-Move into a more productive work environment
-Develop new IP to further differentiate from competitors, provide more value for their customers, and naturally attract more athlete and program users whilst increasing their conversion rate of free athlete users to premium athlete users
-Expand to the next sport. They hope to launch into swimming & diving by April 2021
Revenue Model
The majority of Streamline Athletes’ revenue comes from programs, not athletes. Their competitors charge athletes CAD$1500-5000 for their services. Streamline Athletes want to provide equality in the recruitment process and limit barriers to accessing recruitment resources.
Their business model has three components.
Their first market consists of prospective student-athletes who want to pursue their individual sport at the post-secondary level and require recruiting support. There are over one million individuals in this market. Currently, the revenue model for athletes is a freemium system, whereby athletes can choose to engage with a free service or a premium service.
Their second market consists of collegiate programs who are financially supported by their institution or the athletic association and require recruiting support. There are over 5,000 programs in this market. As their athlete database grows and as they develop value for these programs, Streamline Athletes are beginning to offer services in the range of $200-6,000/year. Once this service is validated, it is anticipated that the range of prices for programs will grow to be $2,500-35,000/year. This market will account for the majority of the company’s revenue in the long term.
Their third revenue stream will come from external partnerships. Most of these partnerships will be marketing in nature, meaning that their partnership revenue will be coming directly from ad revenue.
The expansion strategy is to enter markets with a sport-specific solution, starting with track & field because this is where their team has the most experience and connections. Streamline Athletes intends to be the place for track & field recruiting. Having said that, they have purposefully built the product to adapt to other sports. Instead of servicing multiple sports through the same platform, like most of their competitors, Streamline Athletes will tailor each of their services directly to the needs of each sport. They are actively monitoring 28 individual data-driven sports for potential expansion opportunities and have swimming & diving, golf, tennis, wrestling, and gymnastics in the expansion pipeline.
Details
For more information and updates visit:
Website: streamlineathletes.com
Instagram: @streamlineathletes
Facebook: Streamline Atheletes
Twitter: @StreamlineTF
LinkedIn: Streamline Athletes
