GamePlanU Sports Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Founder Application · 2026

Sports Innovation Startup Application

Apply to GamePlanU.

GamePlanU partners with the most ambitious founders building in sports — across college athletics, professional teams, grassroots programs, and sports media. Tell us about your venture and we'll evaluate it through our proprietary framework.

Time to complete15–25 minutes

Required materialsPitch deck + 2-min founder video

Response time10 business days

01Founder

02Company

03Pitch

04Traction

05Materials

06Review

Founder Information

Tell us who's behind the venture. We invest in people first.

Primary contact

Full name *

Role / title *

Email *

Cell *

LinkedIn

City / location

Background

Sports background * Athlete, coach, front office, media, fan — and at what level?

Professional background * What have you done before this? Education, prior roles, prior ventures.

Co-founders (names + roles)

Team size Select Solo founder 2–3 people 4–10 people 11–25 people 25+ people

School affiliation

School affiliate If applying through a university partner program

Status Select Current student Alumni Faculty / staff Not affiliated

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Company Information

The basics about your venture.

Identity

Company name *

Website

One-line description * In one sentence: what does the company do and for whom?

0 / 160

Stage & structure

Stage * Select stage Pre-revenue / concept Beta / pilot Early revenue ($0–$100K ARR) Growth ($100K–$1M ARR) Scale ($1M+ ARR)

Founded

Primary vertical * Select College athletics Professional sports Grassroots / youth Media & entertainment Sports technology Multi-vertical

Business model Select B2B SaaS B2B services B2C subscription B2C product Marketplace Media / content Hardware Other

Legal entity

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The Pitch

Walk us through the problem, solution, and market.

Problem

What pain point or unmet need are you solving? Who is hurting from it today, and how do they currently cope?

0 / 1200

Solution

What does your product or service do? Why is your approach different or better than existing alternatives?

0 / 1200

Why now?

What's changed in the world, the sports industry, or technology that makes this the right time for this company?

0 / 800

Market

Who is your target customer? How big is the market? Provide TAM/SAM/SOM if you have it.

0 / 1200

Moat

What makes this defensible — proprietary IP, exclusive partnerships, network effects, data advantage, or other?

0 / 800

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Traction & Financials

Where you are today and what you need to get to the next milestone.

Customers & revenue

Current revenue (ARR)

Paying customers

MoM growth

Burn rate

Notable customers, partners, or LOIs Names recognizable in the sports industry carry weight

Key traction milestones to date Beta launches, contracts signed, press coverage, awards, pilot results

Fundraising

Capital raised to date

Currently raising? Select Not raising Pre-seed Seed Series A Bridge / SAFE round

Round size

Lead investor (if any)

Use of funds * Briefly: how will the money be deployed and what milestone does it reach?

What you want from GamePlanU

Why GamePlanU? * What specifically do you hope to get from this partnership — capital, advisory, network, exposure, curriculum, something else?

0 / 800

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Pitch Materials

Upload your pitch deck and a short founder video.

Pitch deck required

PDF format, max 20MB. 10–15 slides recommended.

+

Drop your pitch deck here or click to browse

PDF, PPT, PPTX · Max 20MB

✓

Remove

Founder video required

Record a 90-second to 2-minute intro: who you are, what you're building, and why you're the one to build it. MP4/MOV format, max 100MB.

+

Drop your founder video here or click to browse

MP4, MOV, WEBM · Max 100MB

✓

Remove

Optional links

Hosted deck URL (if not uploading) Google Drive, Dropbox, DocSend, Pitch.com

Hosted video URL (if not uploading) YouTube, Vimeo, Loom

Demo URL

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Review & Submit

Double-check everything below before submitting.

Confidentiality. I confirm the information submitted is accurate to the best of my knowledge. GamePlanU treats application materials as confidential and will only share with relevant advisors, evaluators, and partners on a need-to-know basis. Evaluation consent. I consent to GamePlanU evaluating this submission using their proprietary Sports Startup Evaluation Framework and understand the evaluation does not constitute a commitment to invest, advise, or otherwise engage commercially.

← Back Submit application

✓

Application submitted

Thanks for applying to GamePlanU. Your application has been received and will be evaluated by our team within 10 business days. We'll reach out to the email you provided with next steps.

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