Website: www.U-SCORE.net and www.U-SCORE.tv

Info: U-Score Demo (We highly suggest you watch it)

Interview With: Johnny Richardson

Is there more than one founder? If so who are they?

No.  Scratched and clawed to get it here.  But had some “friends and family” that came on to help along the way.

What is your background and qualifications?

Well, I had a technology background since before high school.  However, I started a design and engineering firm back in the mid 90″s and sold it and started this company in 2003.  Mainly been under the radar, during that time perfecting our technology and platform.  Basically, we have built something pretty great and scalable.

What does your website do?

In a nutshell, our platform/website provides users, fans, parents, student-athletes, coaches and scouts with real-time play-by-play video of 6 seconds after it happens of each play by a specific player (video, and stats) to our website and to any mobile phone.

How have you marketed your site?

We are planning on marketing in a big way this football season, nationally (grass-roots approach)

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self-funded and angel investment

Are you currently looking for funding?

Yes,  we definitely looking for strategic and equity partners

What type9s) of techonology do you use?

LAMP, linux, PHP, MySql and Flex

What is your favorite feature on your website?

Our real-time capability of finding any specific player and just looking ONLY at that players video through the game or season, seconds after it happens

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Well, my strong belief is people will  shift continually to consuming video content online, the more relevant and personal the better.

ShowcaseU

Website: ShowcaseU

Interview With: Chad Durbin, Major League Pitcher for Philadelphia Phillies

Is their there more then one founder? If so, who are they?

Jake Chapman 
 
What is your background and qualifications?

13 years of professional baseball and an entreprenurial spirit.  

What does your website do? 

In a nutshell, ShowcaseU.com provides student athletes and their families a powerful, do-it-yourself solution for college recruiting.  In the age of the internet, there is no longer a need, if there ever was, to pay thousands of dollars for recruiting services when you can confidently do-it-yourself at ShowcaseU.com.  We encourage families to build their own relationships. We proudly equip them with the tools and the information to accomplish this.
 
Do you think being a Professional Athlete gives you an edge on launching this site?

I’d like to think it does.  It may open more doors for Showcase U, but the reality is that it’s all about drawing from our team’s personal recruiting experiences and delivering solutions that are valuable to people.  We want families and coaches to look to Showcase U as a trusted, reliable source, so whether it’s because I’m a professional athlete, or because we have earned their trust by doing things the right way…I am happy either way.   It is easy to be informed and passionate about something if you already have been through the experience.   We’ve been there, we know. 
 
How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

• Minimal fee for subscriptions – we want to make this great resource affordable for everyone. We may add additional tiered subscription levels in the future.
• Recruiting video combines – (if you want to run, throw and hit…we’ll validate your skills and capture it on video)
• Since we are at the end of our Beta stage, we will be adopting an advertising/sponsorship model that we ultimately expect to be our main source of revenue over time.  The ad networks available all have unique features and there is a merging of some as well going on right now in the marketplace. We’re assessing the market and will make some selections as we go forward. It’s possible that a blended approach may suit our needs.
   

How have your marketed your site?

We are developing strategic partnerships with facilities, private instructors, travel teams and businesses in the private sector that currently service this 14-18 yr-old demographic.  While still in our BETA phase, we have opted to be diligent with our grass roots campaign and invest time in quality conversations and relationship building with people who get asked every day where to go for recruiting solutions.  But it’s more than just conversation – it’s the crucial value exchange.  ShowcaseU.com is an amateur sports relationship hub. Sharing access to a common group with a common purpose is a win-win for everyone. Showcase U is proud to say these conversations have gone very well and we continue to gather some wonderful allies all over the country. We also have built the website with optimal SEO (search engine optimization) in mind so that people will be more likely to find ShowcaseU.com as they are searching for information and resources to help in their recruiting efforts. The site has bloggers that are experts in areas like nutrition, academics, strength training, recruiting, and I write a blog as well. ShowcaseU.com also has forums for people to get answers, share their own experiences, learn about events in their area, share tips on training, etc. All of this content makes the website more search engine friendly.
 
Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self funded
 
Are you currently looking for funding?

Perhaps as we launch our Phase 2 objectives, we’ll seriously consider it.  Right now, no.
 
What type(s) of technology do you use?

The website is built on a .net platform, with a foundation that allows for modules to be added as we grow and identify functionality that will be of value to the student athletes and their families. Our customers will tell us what they want and need, so we have a site that is prepared to adapt and be built upon to give the greatest value. We take advantage of the power of the internet in our internal company communications, using Skype to communicate by voice and Instant Messaging, and Google Apps to share and collaborate on written documents in real time. Since I’m on the road so much during the baseball season these are terrific tools for us. And of course, using my Blackberry smartphone to access email and send quick text messages while away from a computer is extremely valuable.

Similar Sites Featured on SportsTechNow:

Prep Champs

Website: Prep Champs

Interview With: Dean Bundschu

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

Dean Bundschu, Founder & CEO. Co-founder of InTheNumbers; Orion Int’l; US Army Officer; BS ONU

Hal Fisher, Founder & Dir. Marketing. Founder of MilitaryStars, largest US Military Career Fair Company in US; serial entrepreneur & marketing expert

Jay Kerr, Founder & Dir. of Strategy. Consultant for Northrop Grumman, Titan, Deloitte, PepsiCo. Air Force Officer; MBA

Bryan Minihan, CTO. CTO, SpeedGreetings.com; extensive web apps dev at Accenture, GSK, The Nature Company

Gary Hayes - CFO: 30 year veteran software and technology services CFO (DCS, F-   Origin, Ateb, Koz.com, SAGA)

What is your background and qualifications?

Prior to founding PrepChamps, Dean was a co-founder of InTheNumbers, a North Carolina based company providing foreclosure data to the real estate market.  He also worked for Orion International, a recruiting and consulting firm, where he was consistently a top performer, responsible for Fortune 1000 Companies.  Prior to venturing into the business world, Dean served for 6 years as an Officer in the United States Army. This service included a combat tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he commanded a 120+ soldier HQ Company. Dean’s highly effective sales and marketing skills, corporate business experience and leadership ability complement his entrepreneurial interests.  Dean attended Ohio Northern University on a full ROTC scholarship where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.

What does your website do?

PrepChamps (PC) combines sports, video, media, social communications and real-time events to build communities around high school athletes, coaches, fans, parents, their sports, communities and institutions.  The platform enables athletes to create player profiles, upload highlight films and statistics; creating a viewable, searchable and shareable database for college recruiters and fans alike. College recruiters benefit from centralized recruiting workflow/tools - connecting with, tracking, and verifying eligibility for prospective recruits, through platform and via offline events.  PC model is able to generate scalable multi-channel recurring revenue through advertising, events, online subscriptions, mobile and retail within a $2.1 billion high school recruiting market. PC hosts off-line high school athletic combines & tournaments, has structured successful partnerships with Reebok/Driven Athletics, D1 Sports, Five-Star Basketball and Wazoo Sports.  Aggressive marketing strategy has produced solid ROI and very low CPA has allowed PC to grow very rapidly.  Offline partnerships provide barriers to entry, strong branding and additional revenue streams. Currently projecting 125,000 monthly uniques and 30,000 registered users by July to grow content and revenue.

How have your marketed your site?

PrepChamps believes that activity breeds activity, so we are simultaneously initiating numerous Internet marketing campaigns, targeting and leveraging the power of social platforms like Facebook, MyYearbook, eSpin and MySpace to drive a high volume of users to our site.  Our web-based marketing plan is based on Five core strategies: CPA Direct
Advertising, Website Optimization, Affiliate Programs, User-Based Viral Marketing, and Permission-Based Email Marketing.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

PrepChamps was funded with a total investment of $150,000 by the founders.  The company recently raised a total of $1,200,000 in seed funding.

Are You currently looking for funding?

Yes.  Currently in the process of large Series B equity-based capital raise.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

PrepChamps initial Beta test platform was completed in July 2007, and the 2.0 version was launched in early March, 2008.  The full production application leverages Ruby on Rails on a Linux/MySQL platform to deliver fully-tested, scalable components and features designed for high-capacity, load-balanced, fault-tolerant social networking capabilities.  The video delivery system leverages Amazon Simple Storage Solutions to offload high-volume, lengthy video uploads and viewing from the core application.  The core application delivers custom features in small widgets on each page to the four primary user-types (Athletes, Coaches, Fans and Visitors), as well as site-wide capabilities across the platform, including blogs, forums, search, favorites, messaging, etc.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

NCAA Clearing House Checklist

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Websites that rely exclusively on a advertisement based revenue model will have to adapt to a changing environment or fail.  Advertising is moving from a CPM basis to a CPC and eventually to a lead generation model.  Therefore websites will need to effectively mine behavioral based data within their platform in order to effectively provide targeted advertising to their users.  This type of advertising will need to add to the user experience, rather than clutter the experience.

Websites that can aggregate content on a local or better yet a hyper-local level will be able to succeed within this changing environment.  Very few sites can generate sufficient adverting revenue within a short period of time.  The days where you could command a high valuation based on website traffic are numbered.  Internet companies that can find various ways to monetize their communities will be a lot more successful than ad driven models.