Long before the days of Slack, in the 90’s and early 2000’s, the Internet was still in its infant stages. Humans still connected via AOL (that thing you had in middle school where your screen name most definitely included upper, and lower case X’s), Yahoo, and IRC. Nostalgia, I know. But NOW… Slack 🙌
Slack, if you guys are reading this, you should honestly start paying me. Take a look back at some of my posts. I am the unofficial hype man for Slack at this point. I even got #slocks 😂
If you still have no idea what Slack is, think AOL and IRC combined with Facebook and Twitter, with a side of GIFs. Or you could just say “ team communication for the 21st Century” but thats boring. Seriously though, tons of people are loving this company. I can assure you that my excitement is shared by others. Look at this…
…They are just about to hit their two year mark. This chart is from a year ago and the numbers even then are staggering. Slack is what they like to call a “unicorn” in the tech community. A unicorn is a tech startup that reaches a billion dollar market valuation. That’s billion, with a “B”. A billion dollar valuation and membership into the 3 comma club is a feat that even the most tech elite will never accomplish. Reserved for only the upper echelon of Silicon Vally.
Funniest part about this, Slack wasn’t made for me, or you, or anyone of the 112,175 members in any one of the 410 Slack communities that are listed on Hamster Pad🐹. Thats because Slack was made for “teams” or companies, not communities of people with similar interests. Despite this, Slack is perfect for communities. Its ease of use, accessibility across multiple platforms, and ability to integrate with a number of different 3rd party applications make it exactly what the IRC lovers of the 90’s were looking for.
You can now find Slack communities that cater to people with any certain collective interests imaginable. Want to talk about dogs? Slack community for that. Want to learn how to code? They got that. Want to join a community where you can only communicate using emojis? Yep, I MADE that haha. Sorry Slack 😬, we do still use it for work purposes I promise. The work/community line is just a little blurred since 🐹.
Anyways, after learning of these communities I set out to find a community where I could connect with other like-minded individuals. People who were equally as excited about tech and sports. After a whole lot of nothing here…
… I was left with no other choice. My love for Slack and these new communities, and my passion for sports tech lead me to teaming up with SportTechie and Taylor Bloom to create a sports tech slack community.
In comes SportTechieHQ! 🙌 AKA the “Q”, AKA the “HQ”, or simply “HQ”.
SportTechieHQ is a community for sports tech experts, professionals, and thought leaders in the industry. It’s a place to find a constant flow of motivation, discover new ideas, and learn new ways to improve, all at the intersection of sports and technology.
Turns out there are others out there who love the idea of a having a sports tech community in Slack too.
“SportTechieHQ is a great resource for those interested in the future of sports as it regards to technology. Even with a short time under its belt, I’ve been able to connect with folks outside my niche of sports business and have begun cultivating some valuable relationships. I highly recommend for entrepreneurs and in-house folks alike” — Adam Martin (Creator/Host of Makers of Sport Podcast)
“The Slack Community is awesome, great idea! A lot of really interesting people, I definitely feel much more connected to the sports business community through using it.” — John Potter (Former NFL athlete and Founder/CEO of Sportd)
Soon after we started building this community we had a team of SportTechie writers join. After a few emails, some tweets, and a whole bunch of unread messages we have grown our community to what it is today. Collectively, we have built one of the “97 Best Slack Communities for Entrepreneurs”. It even says it here, so its definitely true.
AMA stands for “Ask Me Anything”. This is where we invite top level execs in the sports tech industry to set aside an hour of time to answer questions from community members in Slack.
Definitely don’t miss this one!👇March 15th, join SportTechieHQ and save the date!
Vasu Kulkarni — Founder & CEO of Krossover, and Managing Partner at Courtside Ventures.
Everyday I am presented with new experiences, new opportunities, and new ideas that make me think and expand my knowledge in the space, all thanks to SportTechieHQ. Opportunities like this…
I stopped by the LiveLike office which is literally blocks from my office in the Empire State Building. This was just a few days after their big win at the NFL 1st and Future competition the day before the Super Bowl. If it weren’t for SportTechieHQ, this would have probably been just another missed opportunity.
I am big believer in community, power in numbers, etc. SportTechieHQ is a place where everyone contributes and everyone benefits. We all have an incentive to help build it because we all benefit from its existence. This community will serve as an endless supply of knowledge and resources for all of us. We all truly believe that, and believe in what we are doing. I recently wrote a piece on my experience with building this community. I expressed my feelings towards our collective group…
This sentiment resonates with most of our community. We are all extremely proud of what we have built so far. Our community consists of lawyers, managers, startup founders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, bloggers, writers, and just about everything in between. We all bring a unique set of skills, expertise, and knowledge about sports and tech, but we are all equally as fascinated in what the future of sports has in store. The things we are doing, the things we are discussing, and the things we are sharing really are shaping the future of sports. Now that is pretty awesome!
However, we can no longer keep it all to ourselves. We must let it go, let it spread its wings, and find its way in this big sports tech world. It’s time that we share it with all of you. The SportTechie community.
Don’t sit on the sideline while we continue to shape the future of sports. Join now.
