Kyle
Over the past two years there’s been an explosion in startups looking to connect people with other professional services that they may need. Just this year alone we’ve seen Florida startup Coach Crowd along with Boston startup Coach Up offer a connection market place for parents of student athletes to connect with private coaches.
Prior to this new wave of services on the internet, it’s been tough for athletes and their parents to connect to coaches. Often times they would have to go by word of mouth recommendation from their normal team coach, high school coach or fellow athlete. There was also the bulletin board at the local Y and even the supermarket. Now there are a variety of online social networks and marketplaces to connect athletes with coaches.
Coming out of the gate Atlanta startup Trainlete knew that the space was just starting up but heating up quick. Although the team started working on the idea 15 months ago they elected not to open up shop until they were truly ready.
Even as a non athlete I was able to find the features that stand out on Trainlete. First off, Trainlete doesn’t take cut of the transaction between athlete and coach. They’re working off other revenue models such as advertising and sponsorship.
Trainlete also offers the opportunity to talk to correspond with the coach directly on or off their network. While Trainlete is far from a non-profit or charity organization, co-founders Jeremy Clouse, Eric Blumenthal and Blake Sandberg put the safety of their athlete clients as a top priority. It’s also important to them to connect coaches and athletes because of the great life building that can be involved in coaching.
That’s why they open up direct connection avenues and allow payment to be exchanged directly between the two parties. With those two options as key competitive advantages they should have no trouble building their community quickly and with that growth and scaling comes other revenue opportunities.
We got a chance to talk with Blumenthal in the interview below: