opendorse

In this episode of Startup Hustle, Melissa Vincent and Blake Lawrence, CEO and Cofounder of Opendorse talk about sports tech and how to maximize athlete marketing outcomes.

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This episode is sponsored by Pipeline:

https://www.pipelineentrepreneurs.com/

Learn more about Opendorse:

https://opendorse.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today is the third episode in our December series called “Rewind.” 

Jeremiah Chapman is the founder and CEO of FreshFry.

We first talked with Jeremiah back in July 2018 in episode 12 of this show. FreshFry, located in Louisville, Kentucky, creates plant-based product that helps food service businesses extend the life of frying oil. 

FreshFry’s “pods” strip water, acids, metals, and other impurities out of cooking oil, slowing breakdown by several days and helping businesses save on costs while improving food taste.

Since we chatted, FreshFry has raised $3.3M in July 2020 from Lightship Capital and the USDA.

Learn more about FreshFry: https://www.freshfry.me/ 

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Today is the second episode in our December series called “Rewind.” 

Blake Lawrence is the founder and CEO of Opendorse.

We first talked with Blake back in April 2019, and our episode aired on July 17, 2019.

Since that time, Opendorse has grown a lot. They’ve not only raised a Series A, but just this week they announced a partnership with Team USA. 

Opendorse is the athlete-marketing platform that helps the biggest brands in sports share content on social. Founded by two former major college athletes, Opendorse was built seeking to make it easy for athletes and their partners to work together to engage their fans. Today, more than 7,000 athletes use Opendorse to share content with their 1.4b social media followers.

Top sports properties including the PGA TOUR, LPGA, NFLPA, WTA, and New Jersey Devils, and college properties including Michigan, Clemson, and Nebraska Athletics partner with Opendorse to send content to athletes to share through their social media channels. More than 1,500 brands also use opendorse to engage professional athletes and their audience.

Learn more about Opendorse: https://opendorse.com/ 

Follow Blake on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blake_Lawrence 

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I'm joined once again by Blake Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Opendorse to chat about NIL and the opportunities available for student athletes as social media influencers. We chatted about how brands activated around this year's virtual NFL Draft. How much were student athletes entering the draft really able to earn from social media partnerships? Turns out it was even more than Opendorse expected!

Listen in as Blake and I chat about the NFL Draft, social media monetization for student athletes, the latest developments in NIL legislation and whether any of those coaches with the cool digs at home upped their own earning potential during the draft (we're looking at you, Kliff Kingsbury).

You can follow Opendorse on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com, on Forbes and Entrepreneur. 

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 003, we're specifically covering the topic of Name, Image and Likeness rules and regulation changes for the NCAA. If you're unfamiliar, this is a newly introduced policy allowing players to profit from their "personal brand." It's a highly nuanced topic, so Blake Lawrence joins us on the first half to break down the status and intricacies of the new rules. We're also joined by Appalachian State Head Coach, Dustin Kerns.

Nebraska Athletics recently partnered with Opendorse to create the first-ever program designed to help individual student athletes build their personal brands. The program, being called Ready Now, will afford all 650-plus Nebraska student athletes the opportunity to improve their personal brands on social media so they can maximize their earning potential once NIL legislation is ultimately enacted.

I wrote about this program on Forbes when it was first announced, but in this episode I was able to chat with Opendorse co-founder and CEO Blake Lawrence about what his company currently does with professional athletes and how his platform will benefit student athletes as NIL legislation is enacted. We discussed how Opendorse currently works with its approximately 75 collegiate partners and how the Nebraska partnership takes that to the next level. From providing actionable data to matching athletes with brands, we chatted about everything Opendorse does and how student athletes will be able to maximize their monetization opportunities once NIL legislation is enacted.

You can follow Opendorse on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of my analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com, on Forbes and Entrepreneur. 

You can follow Kristi on Twitter and Instagram to discuss further, ask additional questions or suggest future episodes.

You can find more of her analysis on the business of college sports at BusinessofCollegeSports.com and Forbes.

Need data and real-world experts to help you make decisions in your athletic department? Check out College Sports Solutions and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

Happy Holidays from the upside team!

Last year, we shared an episode called: JE006: eight crazy months of upside. This year, we're back and sharing the 12 episodes of Christmas — 12 exceptionally notable episodes we recommend listening to again.

The episodes mentioned, in order:

1. CC033: Alex Rubalcava of Stage Venture Partners // investing in early-stage enterprise software
2. UP050: opendorse // helping athletes share more content (feat. Braxton Miller of the Philadelphia Eagles)
3. CC007: the rise of platform in venture capital // a Coffee Chat with Stephanie Manning (Lerer Hippeau)
4. CC032: Kate Shillo Beardsley of Upslope Ventures // scaling early stage investments across the country
5. CC024: investing in the picks and shovels of esports and gaming // a Coffee Chat with Josh Chapman (Konvoy Ventures)
6. UP043: inKind // redesigning restaurant financing with House Accounts (feat. Kevin Tien of Himitsu and Hot Lola’s)
7. CC016: a new source of funding and optionality for early stage founders // a Coffee Chat with Tyler Tringas (Earnest Capital) and Kevin McArdle (SureSwift Capital)
8. UP024: Intrinio // powering fintech innovation with access to financial data
9. UP046: MITO Material Solutions // chemical additives for tougher composites
10. UP042: Threatcare // automated third-party threat detection
11. CC017: building a world class venture firm in Chicago // a Coffee Chat with Ezra Galston (Starting Line)
12. UP008: Loop Returns // creating the perfect ecommerce customer returns experience (live from Columbus Podcast Festival)

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Interview begins: 09:02
Insight begins: 58:13
Debrief begins: 1:01:59

Blake Lawrence is the founder and CEO of opendorse.

opendorse is the athlete-marketing platform that helps the biggest brands in sports share content on social. Founded by two former major college athletes, opendorse was built seeking to make it easy for athletes and their partners to work together to engage their fans. Today, more than 7,000 athletes use opendorse to share content with their 1.4b social media followers. 

Top sports properties including the PGA TOUR, LPGA, NFLPA, WTA, and New Jersey Devils, and college properties including Michigan, Clemson, and Nebraska Athletics partner with opendorse to send content to athletes to share through their social media channels. More than 1,500 brands also use opendorse to engage professional athletes and their audience. 

We discuss:

• Ad: What are the most important terms for an entrepreneur to be aware of when raising capital? (7:56)
• Blake's turning point on being in the social media business (11:26)
• A throwback: running a social media agency way back 2010 (14:50)
• How does opendorse maintain the authenticity of the content being shared? (20:35)
• Blake Lawrence advocacy in running opendorse full time (25:08)
• How opendorse helps in advertising (29:11)
• opendorse saves the athletes maintain a balance in the busy schedules (30:56)
• What happens to Opendorse years from now? (55:29)
• Day in the life of Braxton Miller (58:33)

opendorse was founded in 2012 and based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Learn more about opendorse: https://opendorse.com/
Follow Blake on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blake_Lawrence

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This episode is sponsored by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, a full-service law firm known for assisting entrepreneurs across the Heartland.

Learn more about or get in touch with Taft: https://www.taftlaw.com/
Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm