New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
Company name: PlayCause
Founder(s): Peter Lee & Felix Do
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
1. What is your elevator pitch?
PlayCause is a mobile and web application that allows athletes to give back to causes they care about by providing them with a platform to raise donations simply by playing the sports they love. With PlayCause, Athletes, Nonprofits and Fans can all ‘play for more.
2. Problem & Solution
Most athletes want to contribute to a cause or community, but don’t have the time or resources to do so. With PlayCause, all athletes have to do is create a campaign, share with their fans, and get in the game. PlayCause takes care of the rest.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Our target market consists of professional, collegiate, and amateur athletes. In addition, we help fraternity and sorority members participating in campus sports, as they have a requirement to raise money for philanthropy and are a captive audience.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
We take a small percentage of all donations processed through our platform.
5. Management Team – with titles
Peter J. Lee | Chief Executive Officer
Peter is an International Business and Entrepreneurship student at San Jose State University with 2 years of entrepreneurial experience. He has also led numerous organizations, the most recent of which being a $7,000,000 non-profit; he was chairman of the board and was responsible for initiating a full corporate restructure. As a two-sport athlete at an inner city high school, Peter grew up with the problems PlayCause is trying to solve.
Felix W. Do | Product Lead and Marketing
Felix is an alumnus of San Jose State University and has over 4 years of entrepreneurial experience. He founded his own design consultation firm called Revamp Collaborative (of which he is currently the owner) and works as the lead web designer for VentureBeat. Though he is a designer first, he also has hands-on experience in everything else it takes to build a brand that delivers their message/products to the right users/clientele; including but not limited to user research, marketing strategy, PR, business development, sales, and recruitment.
Thomas Overton | Lead Developer
Tom is currently the Director of of Engineering at Ellation (www.ellation.com); before that he was the Vice President of Engineering with VentureBeat (www.venturebeat.com). The oldest and most veteran entrepreneur of the team, Tom has is an expert product manager and highly competent developer. His experiences building products and managing teams of all types and ages make him a reliable product manager and lead developer.
Alexei Ilinykh | Developer
Alexei is currently a senior software engineer at VentureBeat (www.venturebeat.com), and has previously worked at Condorly and Bayer Health Care. He is a rockstar full stack and comfortable iterating on any aspect of our product.
Taylor Wolfrom | Developer
Taylor is an alumnus of the University of San Francisco and has over 3 years of mobile development experience. He has successfully built and launched his own iOS app and currently works as a software engineer at TigerSpike.
Troy Hudson | NBA Growth Manager
Troy is our NBA-side growth manager; as a former NBA player and angel investor, he has numerous connections within both professional basketball and the world of startups. He has been invaluable in making connections with both NBA and AAU players.
Matt Kopa | NFL Growth Manager
Matt is a former Miami Dolphin and Stanford Cardinal, so he has a surplus of connections within the NFL and Silicon Valley startup community. He currently works at RockYou as a Product Manager, so he brings meaningful discussion to our product development process.
Megan Brooks | Community Manager
Megan is an SJSU alumnus and public relations superstar. She currently works as a Campaign Specialist with Pandora, but has more than 3 years of experience working with teams like the Giants, 49ers, and Warriors. Her experience in community building for sports teams is a crucial piece to our efforts in connecting athletes and fans to the causes they wish to support. 
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
Peter is a former two-sport athlete who attended an inner-city high school in San Francisco. He and his teammates were surrounded by prevalent homelessness, frequent crime, and dilapidated community centers; because they were too busy with practice and schoolwork, none of them felt they had the capability to help when their favorite recreation center was forced to shut down. They felt powerless.
We want to empower athletes to make the world a better place one game at a time. We strongly believe that athletes can make a difference in their communities by leveraging the support they already get from friends, family, and fans. That’s where the idea for PlayCause was born.
With PlayCause, athletes of any level can play for something bigger than themselves. We can all play for more.
