Hi everyone, it’s been a minute. Work & school don’t give me much free time but the good news is that the newsletter hiatus is ending! I’m taking a different route, shorter form & one-take where I can just ramble about something I learned in the past few days.
The premise remains the same: document my journey as a junior product manager and operator in the tech industry while following some of my favorite markets, people, technology, and companies.
Rules
Without a commute in the mornings, I’m really behind on my podcasts. On a rare car ride this weekend, I managed to listen to a few episodes of Patrick’s new show: Founders Field Guide. I found myself very interested in the episode with Justin Singer, specifically his views on how policy & regulation changes lead to new markets and innovations. I summarized it somewhat poorly so I suggest you listen to the episode itself, it all takes place within the first 30 minutes but the rest of it is also great, informative content on the cannabis industry. :)
Justin touches on the evolving cannabis regulation that is enabling new, budding businesses. To me, the whole system is a headache. Federal and state regulations vary, the presence of certain chemicals or quantities of them impact which regulations apply to you, the lack of a central governing body, and reliance on self-regulation leading to suboptimal experiences for consumers. Add the fact that there are some dusty old-heads who are still adamantly anti-cannabis and you have yourself an industry ripe for disruption. Like I mentioned before, go listen to the episode if you want the full story & not my butchered summary.
Section 230 was also discussed early in the episode and triggered a 20-min interest in law school. The internet of today wouldn’t exist without it: Section 230 says that “online intermediaries that host or republish speech are protected against a range of laws that might otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do.” Imagine Facebook but with morals!
So cannabis, consumer social companies, and everything in between--it all boils down to how regulators control the industry and how builders & operators work within those confines. Of course, regulations are bound to change (as they should), but we know there is always a lag time between innovation and regulation. In turn, regulations can either create or destroy an industry. We saw it with Uber & Lyft recently, they were literally 1 vote away from ceasing all operations in California.
With that said, there was a semi-recent change in policy in a very boomer-run organization called the NCAA.
Stir for Athletes
Stir announced their $4m seed round a few days back (congrats!) and it sparked this idea for a Stir for X. The NCAA announced in April that all athletes are able to receive “compensation for other student-athlete opportunities, such as social media, businesses they have started and personal appearances.” Therefore, Stir for Athletes was born.
Implementation of this new rule will be gradual and the full details of the policy change aren’t even available yet, but this is a great opportunity for student athletes. I’m still early in ideation but the foundation remains the same: supporting student athletes in their attempts to create & grow their brands in order to monetize.
Certain schools move quicker than others, here is a recent post by my school (UCF):
While I trust UCF to get it right, I don’t trust other schools and the NCAA to regulate these types of school-specific programs. It's a fact that kids are being paid to attend these programs already, giving a vehicle to semi-legitimize this practice will only make things worse. It specifically mentions that schools cannot pay kids directly but things “happen.”
Stir for Athletes, which is not the official name I just can’t come up with one, is meant to be a 3rd party solution to protect the athletes and enable the schools. Here’s how:
Benefits for The Athlete:
No agent required (Important as policy requires maintaining the distinction between college athletes and professional athletes)
Help with recruiting (NCAA Policy compliant, have GPA checks to be allowed on the platform, build reputation, know how the recruits carry themselves)
Serve as insurance to the risk and volatility that come with collegiate sports.
Kids are growing up with social media & the creator economy. They post on tik tok, stream, and have various other talents. Stir for A would bring it to the next level
User Persona: Isaiah Washington, PG @ Iona (basketball)
Jelly Fam Youtube phenomena, Nearly 600k followers on IG, verified, Millions of Youtube views, transferred to Iona after 2 mediocre years in Minnesota. Hype clearly died off. With Stir for Athletes, Isaiah would be able to capitalise on his following earlier, more effectively, and retain the momentum.
User Persona: McKenzie Milton, QB @ UCF (football)
UCF Football program darling, had a near career-ending injury & sidelined for 2 years now. From 6th in Heisman voting to questionable shot at an NFL career. With the help of Brand, athletes like Milton would 1) Be able to profit off his name during injury and 2) Act as an extra layer of insurance in-case injury happens to derail a promising career.
Benefits for Schools:
Another place recruiters can look at who they’re recruiting(Public-facing analytics or profiles specifically for college coaches. “Hey coach, here are my Stir & Hudl links”
They don’t have to become an agency and an athletic program, outsource the creator work to us.
Hold off on trying to rush to build something in this space when still recovering from effects of COVID
Lesser known schools w/smaller demographics & less resources can operate on an even playing field with the Alabamas and Ohio States of the NCAA.
At a high level, I’m thinking of maintaining the current functionality of Stir(empowering creators) and adding some features to cater towards athletes and NCAA compliance. Many live their sport and might not be interested in becoming creators, so I’d expect a little more “hand-holding” for the non-diva athletes who are focused on their game. Some of these features can include:
NCAA eligibility status & maintainer.
Recruiting tools (Test scores, GPA, conduct, everything besides the game film)
Demographic specific resources (Recruit going to LSU will get Baton Rouge-specific opportunities presented to them. Could do a car commercial for the booster right off campus.)
Basic creator fundamentals. (How to: Adsense, monetization, streaming, tiktok, social media, etc.)
Might be a bit of a moonshot, but help hosting their own events & camps during the offseason. We’ll have to wait and see how much freedom the NCAA is willing to give them.
Merchandise.
I’m learning to build™ projects using both no-code tools like Bubble & full stack JS, so watch out for my prototypes soon.
College athletes are a big deal. From small-town local heroes to Bronny Jr. streaming on Twitch, the new generation is growing up with creation at the forefront. There’s a lot of value to be captured here and I think the NCAA is finally waking up to this fact.
As always, thanks for reading & please reach out to discuss anything or share some feedback on my ideas. This isn’t something where the features were all fleshed out or I backed it up with some crazy data, just thinking out-loud :)