The acronym “FTW” has meant many different things since acronyms went mainstream within the last decade. To some, it means “For the World”, to others it means “For Those Wondering”, but to Roei Shalev, a strategy and business development expert and entrepreneur from Tel Aviv, it means, simply, “For The Win”.
For The Win, based out of Israel, is designed to bring together sports-tech startups and investors in Israel, in order to further the development of the startup and to bring investors into a budding and somewhat uncharted investment field. The company looks to provide a “win-win” for both sides, as the startups get access to more funding, resources and people, and the investors can move their companies and funds into a new market (Tel Aviv) and capitalize on all of the open market share in the sports technology field.
We have recently covered a wide variety of sports tech accelerators and incubators along the spectrum from all over the world, including Stadia Ventures, Wylab, Sport eXperience and the Dodgers’ Accelerator.
Stadia Ventures is a “Sports Innovation Hub, located in the heart of St. Louis” that brings any and all sports startups together to create a network of people that can help each other grow their businesses simultaneously.
Wylab, the first sports-tech incubator to hit the Italian countryside, holds its focus towards relationship building, teamwork and edification.
Major League Baseball teams have also gotten on board with sports accelerators, as the Los Angeles Dodgers announced its own accelerator program a little over a year ago. The Dodgers’ program is designed “to create innovative ways to engage fans, enhance the consumer experience, and develop ways to take the game from the stadium directly to the community.”
Lastly, just over a month ago, the Netherlands got into the sports accelerator trend with the launch of Sport eXperience, a company that focuses on technological and social sports innovations, as well as open innovation with less competition.
For The Win is a bit different than the aforementioned sports tech incubators and accelerators, as Shalev touches on in our interview with him. His company, which doesn’t frame itself as an accelerator, is more focused on the investment side of things instead of helping the entrepreneurs develop their technology and business plan. Additionally, For The Win looks for companies that have already had some success in the market or from a funding round, whereas other companies are working with the startups to get them their first foundational steps in the sports tech marketplace.
Recently, SportTechie corresponded with the founder of For The Win, Roei Shalev, to find out more about his company and its processes, Tel Aviv as a sports-tech hub and what differentiates For The Win from everyone else in this field.
ST: What made you want to start For The Win?
Roei: It all started with a conversation I had with Patrick Nally, Founder of West Nally and president of the IFP (International Federation of Poker). We were talking about Match Poker, this incredible idea that Patrick and the IFP are developing, and then we got to talking about sports tech investments and the way the field is growing so rapidly, and he suggested I should look into it. When I looked into it, what I saw is a billion-dollar industry that is still growing at an amazing 30% annual rate, which is phenomenal.
Now I’ve been working as a business consultant and entrepreneur for the past 15 years, and I’m a die-hard sports fan (often staying up in the middle of the night to watch American sports), so for me, getting to develop a business venture in the field I’m most passionate about in daily life is a dream come true. Waking up every morning to another day of working in this field fills me with joy and excitement.
ST: Why did you choose Tel Aviv as the headquarters for For The Win?
Roei: Simply put, Tel-Aviv is the beating heart of the Start-Up Nation, the name given to Israel’s flourishing high-tech industry. Tel-Aviv is on the shortlist of leading technological centers in the world today, second only to Silicon Valley in terms of innovation and technological development. For me, Bill Gates put it best when he said Israel is a high-tech superpower.
Just in the past two months, we’ve seen Israeli sports-tech companies sign huge deals with major players in the field – UEFA signed a deal with Fanzone to provide online transport technology for the upcoming Euro 2016 in France, the NBA signed with WSC Sports Technologies to provide next-gen video highlights for their fans and Intel acquired Replay Technologies to develop 3D sports broadcasting. These are not outliers, this is a trend that I have seen growing for the past two years. Beyond that, there is a strong positive vibe coming from the people I’ve met within the field; a vibe of fun, excitement and creativity that is more promising to me than any number of individual success stories.
ST: Can you explain the process that For The Win goes through to help these startups get off the ground?
Roei: We look for specific types of companies, start-ups with a secure, short-term revenue stream who are looking for long-term development opportunities – looking to create game changers. Suitable candidates go through a vetting process; we negotiate expectations and perform financial due diligence – inspecting their technological profile, their credentials etc. Companies that pass the vetting process are welcomed to join our portfolio and presented to potential investors. Investors can either use us to manage their investments locally, like in an incubator program or an investment fund, or have us broker a direct investment for them.
ST: What differentiates For The Win from other sports-tech accelerators?
Roei: Actually, we’re not accelerators. For one thing, we look for more mature companies, some of which have already undergone acceleration. Companies that have already raised six to seven figure investments in previous rounds. Companies that already have at least one viable product in the market and are looking for a substantial breakthrough in their activity.
For another thing, we focus on securing funding, not on the technological side of things. We operate more like a venture capital fund than an accelerator program, without actually being a VC fund per se. We are actually looking into forming some sort of a micro VC fund in the future, and it’s one of the subjects we are going to discuss in our upcoming round of talks with our investors next month
ST: Why should a startup partner with For The Win?
Roei: Despite the immense growth in the field, Israeli sports tech startups are having a difficult time securing local investments. Local investment funds seem to favor the tried-and-true industry staples – microchips, cyber security and Biotech.
I’m getting a lot of calls from frustrated entrepreneurs in the field of sports tech who can’t seem to break through and pull an investment round. That’s where we come in. We have created a path for entrepreneurs to access investments and opportunities from the global sports-tech industry. We use our connections to create valuable interactions with potential investors, partners and clients in the field of sports tech, and we help our partners adapt their marketing strategies to international investors. This past month we facilitated talks between one of the companies in our portfolio and a leading European media corporation, and opened a channel to the Chinese market for another client who was looking for such a connection for a while.
