KAEO is a common abbreviation in recruiting. It stands for “Keep An Eye On” and is usually used to identify high school athletes who might have big potential at the next level and who might be joining your favorite college team soon.
Entrepreneurs at any level and in any industry face an uphill battle in making their new venture a success. Eight out of ten entrepreneurs fail within the first five years. Due to the level of enjoyment associated with sports, many entrepreneurs attempt to launch successful enterprises in the sports industry. They seek a medium with high consumer loyalty and an atmosphere that makes it enjoyable to come to work (and perhaps a better paycheck than working for a larger sports company).
As a platform dedicated to young sports business professionals, The Sports Business Exchange has launched “KAEO Startups,” a new series that will take a look at young entrepreneurs and the businesses they are creating. We will be looking both at the company and the young entrepreneur behind the concept. KAEO Startups can be companies in any field including technology, non-profit, recruiting, and consumer products. Of course, they will all be operating within the sports industry.
If you’d like to nominate a company or yourself for the KAEO Startups series, please contact us.
KAEO Startups: Crowd Seats
Justin Cener is hoping to bring the success of group buying sites to sports tickets. Justin Cener is the founder of Crowd Seats, a daily deals website for tickets to sporting events. Customers benefit because of the deep discounts offered through the Crowd Seats website.
KAEO Startups: Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund
The Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund (MSLF) was founded in 2004 with a simple goal: to provide educational assistance grants to the children of Massachusetts Servicemembers who were killed while deployed on Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.
KAEO Startups: OneBasketball
It often feels like you can find an app for anything these days. Whether it’s where the cleanest and nearest public bathroom is located (thank you Charmin), or when the doughnuts are fresh out of the oven (thank you Krispy Kreme), the Apple App Store is thriving with variety. However, when it comes to high intensity basketball drills, the App Store is almost baron of resources. Four friends from Baruch College have set out to fill the gap.
KAEO Startups: numberFire
numberFire is a fantasy sports analytics platform. numberFire uses an algorithm based on similar scenarios to determine the future success of any player at any position.
KAEO Startups: TweetStarGame
TweetStarGame is a social measuring database that calculates athletes’ social influence based on their interactions on social sites such as Facebook & Twitter.
KAEO Startups: Victus Advisors
Victus Advisors, a consultancy providing market research and financial advisory for sports franchises, athletic departments, venues and events, is the brain child of founder Brian Connolly. Launched just two months ago, Brian Connolly has already learned a lot from his new venture and expects to grow Victus Advisors into a well-respected independent advisory firm.
KAEO Startups: TheHockeyNetwork.com
TheHockeyNetwork.com is a social media network for hockey players, parents, and fans of the game. The website offers forums for user to connect, league and rink information, equipment reviews, junior league information, recruiting tools, a points-based deals platform, and general banter around the game of hockey. It is one part Twitter, two parts Facebook, a little bit of Yelp, and a topping of Groupon.
KAEO Startups: Chat Sports
Chat Sports curates up-to-the-minute content from national and local news organizations and thousands of sports blogs into one concise location. The website provides a customizable and comprehensive sports page for each user.
KAEO Startups: StatMilk
StatMilk is a sports analytics platform that enables users to quickly segment sports data, presenting relevant statistics to analyze and compare teams and players in college football and the NFL.
KAEO Startups: LockerDome
LockerDome is unlike any other sports social networking platform. LockerDome is a digital media hub for sports fans. The rapidly-growing platform includes pages for celebrity athletes, media personalities, media companies, brands, pro teams, and youth sports teams.
