For most athletes, being recruited for a college sports team is just about the most important thing in their athletic career. But until now, athletes haven’t really had a platform to connect with college coaches and promote their talents. FieldLevel is changing all that with its revolutionary coach-to-coach and athlete recruitment network.
We caught up with founders Kai Sato and Brenton Sullivan to get a play-by-play of FieldLevel’s awesomeness. Check it.
What makes FieldLevel so killer?
We work in sports and are revolutionizing the industry. FieldLevel is fundamentally improving an area of sports (recruiting and scouting) that has so much influence over and attention from hundreds of millions of coaches, athletes, fans, and media outlets across the world. We’re helping coaches, scouts, and athletes better connect and empowering them in ways that were previously impossible.
Do you have a great FieldLevel success story?
The best part of our company is that our successes are manifested in our client’s successes and have the capacity to transform their lives.
One of our favorite stories comes from a junior college pitcher in Southern California. Going into his final year, he had zero interest from college coaches but his coach believed in his ability to play at the next level. After his coach invited him to FieldLevel, he was “bombarded with inquiries and offers,” received dozens of full-ride scholarship offers, and even some interest from Major League Baseball teams. He currently plays for the Baltimore Orioles organization.
We’ve had major D1 coaches in Alabama sign athletes from Washington state to play for their program, something they had never been able to do before because of geographical and budgetary limitations.
We’ve had everything from athletes in California getting opportunities to compete for Ivy League schools to junior college coaches in Missouri helping their athletes continue their playing careers at D1 schools in Florida.
How do you keep yourself and your team motivated? How is your office vibe?
Most of us are former athletes. We are incredibly competitive to begin with, and we carry that into our work. Our office vibe is typically loose, but our competitive nature drives us to get better whether its click rates or even office putting competitions.
What have you found to be the most challenging thing about being an entrepreneur, and how have you overcome that?
Being a smaller company, everyone has so much responsibility and has to wear many different hats. We require a lot of everyone, and managing our time and our resources is the biggest challenge. The key is staying focused.
Best thing about being an entrepreneur?
Working with passionate people. It is so much fun to work with people that care so much about what they do, day in and day out. Having a group of people with tremendous talent and energy working together to accomplish our goals is such a rush. When we knock out tasks, break through existing barriers, and achieve major milestones, there’s nothing better.
Have you had to put out any pre-launch fires yet?
We’ve already launched and have attained 80% of our initial market, but as with every startup, there were a host of issues along the way and constant challenges to this day. We’ve endured everything from the system crashing during big demos and performance issues that hampered our network as our user base grew so quickly. Fortunately, our clients understand how we’re helping improve the sports world and support our vision.
If you had $1m and a year off, what would you do (non-tech related)?
I would be a coach. Probably basketball, because that was my true passion in high school, but baseball or football would be great too. I love teaching the game to younger athletes and watching them grow as players.
Best business advice you’ve ever received?
Know your strengths and weaknesses. Know exactly how to utilize that at which you’re already great and to accept the areas at which you need to grow. That sense of self is extremely important, not as a negative or in a limiting aspect, but as a means to improve.
Photo Credits
Courtesy of Startup Founders | FieldLevel
