Athlete Network Raises $2 Million In Seed Funding To Accelerate Its Growth

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Athlete Network is a platform where current and former athletes could come together, connect with each other, advance their career and engage in exclusive content. The company has recently announced $2 Million in Seed funding. Below is our interview with Chris Smith, Athlete Network Founder & CEO:

Q: Chris, how did you come up with the idea to found Athlete Network?

A: After starting my career in corporate America, I quickly realized that some of the most successful people in business have a common bond. They’re athletes and the traits that they acquired competing at a high level, such as teamwork, dedication, being coachable and hardworking, make them successful in life after sports. Recognizing that an athletes competitive mindset always needs to fueled, I wanted to create a platform where current and former athletes could come together, connect with each other, advance their career and engage in exclusive content.

Q: Could you please give us more insights into Athlete Network’s functionality?

A: Athlete Network is a platform where we feel we are able to positively impact athletes’ quality of life in three key areas: careers, networking, and content:

1. We partner with companies that recognize that athletes possess a unique set of traits that will drive them to be successful in their careers. Members have direct access to these companies who are actively hiring, in fact, we have an 83% response rate with our company partners when athletes reach out to them. This is in comparison to 14% on other career sites.

2. Athletes are at their best when surrounded and inspired by like-minded individuals. Whether looking for your next competition, or advice, members can connect with each other inside the network. Since all our members are current or former athletes, they all share the same passion and drive to compete in life.

3. Finally, our network provides exclusive athlete-to-athlete content and features. Whether from Hall of Famers such as Warren Moon and Jerry Rice, industry leaders like Dave Meltzer, or collegiate athletes, our features give an inside look at the lives of athletes and what keeps them competing.

Our Goal is to keep athletes competing in every aspect of their lives by uniting them in one network built by athletes, for athletes.

Q: What are main benefits of using your platform?

A: One of the biggest benefits of using Athlete Network is that we truly are a network of athletes, like-minded, competitive people. Because of this common bond, our members can use one another to accelerate their goals. One of the problems with the pioneer social networks is that they have grown too expansive. It is impossible to keep up on your connections. We wanted to build a “niche” network to focus on keeping athletes competing in life.

Q: You’ve recently announced a $2 million seed; what’s your next step?

A: We are investing our seed money heavily in marketing and technology to aggressively grow our membership. In the last several months, we have seen over 1,000% growth in key markets. We plan on continuing that growth while also improving the functionality of the network. We are currently working with industry leading UX experts to streamline our members experience as well as completely rebuilding our content section to better feature our exclusive athlete-to-athlete content.

Q: What can we expect from Athlete Network in the future? What are your plans?

A: Our plans for the future are to continue to grow the network as well as expand partnerships with schools and sports organizations that are looking to build similar, private networks for their members and athletes. We recently agreed to a multi-year agreement with the United States Olympic Committee to build a private, child network for their current and former Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

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