January 9, 2024

Branding, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Marketing, Tennis, Mobile Apps, Gamification, Community, SportsTech

Stephen Mikolajczak

Tenni: Modernizing the Tennis Experience.

In 2018, a Copenhagen City Heart Study was published via the Mayo Clinic which found that playing tennis added 9.7 years to people’s lives. The contributing factors were not just benefits gained from physical activity, but also from the social relationships formed by being part of a tennis community.

Given all this, I was super intrigued to speak with founder Mark Pesahovich in our latest release of ‘start-up stories’ to hear how he’s looking to re-invent recreational tennis with a community-based platform named Tenni. We hope you enjoy the highlights from our conversation.

Tenni: Modernizing the Tennis Experience.

August 27, 2023

Branding, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Marketing, SportsTech, Founders, Mental Health, Student-Athletes

Stephen Mikolajczak

The Zone: Disrupting the stigma of mental Health

It’s no secret that mental health has become a topic evermore top-of-mind in the cultural conversation. Over the last 10 years we’ve seen a nationwide increase in mental health-related challenges by 250% for a subset of one group in particular, the student-athlete. We sat down recently for a truly inspiring conversation with Erik Poldroo, Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer of The Zone, a personalized mental wellness platform for student-athletes and their athletic programs. We spoke about their origins, purpose, fears, frustrations, and pivots. The Zone is gaining momentum in the market as they bring their solution now to a collection of marquee university athletic programs inside America. Based on our conversation, it’s easy to see the positive impact they have already started to make.

August 9, 2023

Branding, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Marketing, Golf, Betting, SportsTech, Founders

Stephen Mikolajczak

LoopGolf: Disrupting Real Money Betting

An estimated 85% of golfers play for money, it's a natural motion that's always been embedded in the game where even Mary, Queen of Scot's played a money match before her wedding day! Recently we enjoyed a fascinating conversation with co-founder of LoopGolf, Thomas Reinholm. Loop is a peer-to-peer betting app built specifically for golf. Thomas and I spoke about Loop’s origins, where the game of golf is heading, the Loop brand, and what its future could look like.

March 10, 2023

Branding, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Marketing, Tennis, Footwear

Stephen Mikolajczak

Frank Works: Reinventing Tennis Footwear

For our latest edition of ‘start-up stories’ we connected with to Rod Foley, Dave Lambert, and Greg Newman, founders of 5AM Brands, to hear about their story and how they’re looking to disrupt the tennis footwear category with a new challenger brand Frank Works. Here’s a look our conversation:

March 1, 2023

Branding, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups, Marketing, Fan Engagement, SportsTech

Stephen Mikolajczak

SuperQuickQuestion: helping Fans & Athletes ...

For our latest edition of ‘start-up stories’ I had a blast talking to Dave Benson, founder of SuperQuickQuestion about their story, brand, and some major lessons from their journey thus far. Here’s a look our conversation: