Postseason Launches Highly Anticipated Beta Athlete Empowerment Platform

In the world of “startups”, there are inevitable hurdles. Gaining exposure, funding, attracting users, and pinpointing the message/goal that you want to portray are some of the questions that plague startups. But what happens when that space doesn’t exist? What happens when you are the first? What’s the first step?

In 2021, Postseason did just that by launching a “one-of-a-kind” online athlete empowerment platform. Captained by former NFL Veteran and CEO/Founder, Jelani Jenkins, Postseason embarked on a path never traveled before by empowering and cultivating a community that can be an ever-lasting resource with endless possibilities for collegiate athletes.

Hosting the “first-of-its-kind” Athlete Training Camp, exclusively for former athletes over the course of two days in June, Postseason gave attendees the opportunity to form their professional/social network with an array of guest speakers and a sneak-peek at what the app would look like for the user experience.

Speakers included: Ashley Menzies Babatunde (a former Stanford track & field athlete, attorney, and storyteller), Dave DesRochers (NFL Veteran and Founder/CEO of Amployers Inc., The 1st & Goal Project Inc., and the Vice President of NFLPA Orange County Chapter), Drew Davis (NFL Veteran and Quality Over Quantity Founder), Reginald Grant (NFL veteran, business strategist, and co-founder of eSportsInstruction & NFTs By Athletes, Inc.) to name a few.

Identifying three core issues: isolation, loss of support, and loss of competition, Postseason has championed its message.

“I want athletes to really see Postseason as an opportunity to compete for the real championship,” Jenkins reiterates. “I want to eradicate the belief that life goes downhill from here, when you stop playing sports. I want Postseason to create a paradigm in the sports world where nine-times-out-of-ten life is going to get way better when you stop playing. Based on how you prepare along with the moves you make once you stop playing. I want it to feel triumphant. I want it to really speak and have student-athletes know that we are gladiators on the feld and on the court, but we are also gladiators in the business world and we are still champions.”

Gaining traction throughout 2022, Jenkins and Postseason connected with Mark Stevens, the managing partner and co-founder of EnableHealth. EnableHealth is a global professional services firm that is combining innovative healthcare initiatives all the while enabling entrepreneurs a quicker and more effective way of helping people and lowering costs.

Through their mutual and deep understanding of how to support athletes, Jenkins agreed to be a featured speaker at the HealthSports Tech 2022 Conference held in Pennsylvania in September and again, at another HealthSports Tech 2022 Conference in November held in Las Vegas.

While making strides in “health” with EnableHealth, Postseason finished amongst the top-five finalists out of hundreds of entries to win a $120,000 investment prize at the Startup Showdown “Sports + Tech Edition” Los Angeles at YouTube Theater in SoFi Stadium.

There are roughly 500,000 student athletes across the top 3 NCAA divisions. Sadly there are not a lot of resources available at their disposal which help facilitate the “other” options outside of going pro. Of the half a million student-athletes, 70% are expected to continue playing in college and 30% are expected to go “pro” or become an olympian. 

Postseason aims to identify, address, and support 100% of the issues.

Updated: September 6, 2023

After winning the second edition of Founders Live All-Star Athletes Edition, where former Olympians, NFL vets, as well as former track and collegiate athletes presented a 99-second timed pitch promoting their company or services, Jenkins, Founder/CEO, looked towards the future, poised to move forward with Postseason’s winning product and its “Championship message”. 

“We learned a lot from our last pitch contest, while the outcome was not favorable for us, the value it provided was key,” said Postseason’s Chief Financial Officer & Head of Athlete Relations Frances Garcia. “As athletes, we take these moments good, bad or indifferent, and we shape them into opportunities to get better every single day. We are more efficient with a clear and defined mission compared to a year ago. That’s what makes all the difference in our focus and abilities to win, and launch Postseason.” 

The winners package includes the Professional Boost Membership with over $900,000 in cash savings on over 90 applications and services for startups, as well as the chance to compete in future Founders Live Prime Time global events. 

Over the next couple of months, the Postseason team worked feverishly to put forth a product and website that would impact and empower athletes to embrace their journey and take the next step in their respective journeys.

Finally…

On Friday, September 1st, Postseason launched it’s “beta” website and athlete empowerment platform and joining is as easy as three steps:

1. Create a Profile

2. Become a verified athlete

3. Follow other athletes

Once you’ve completed those three easy steps, you will be able to interact and learn from a wide variety of former athletes and entrepreneurs through multiple forums.

Playbooks offers curated courses crafted by athlete-led course partners who have achieved remarkable success beyond their sport. Our Teammate Portal connects you with a range of athletes that are part of your community. And lastly, The Connect is a one-of-a-kind hub to connect, interact, and share your challenges, questions, and seek advice from former professionals.

“Part of Postseason’s mission is to recreate that locker room feel and team environment that athletes experienced when they were playing,” Garcia said. “The Connect is the incubator for our community members to find other athletes and connect through open conversations in our topic-based groups. Athletes can identify a group and begin posting their thoughts, share links to articles, post GIFS or videos within the group chat. While Postseason allows non-athletes on the platform, we also have created closed groups for ‘Verified Athletes Only’ or members who are participating in our paid programs. Very similar to your favorite social media platforms out there, we want to carefully curate these spaces just for Athletes. This means a Postseason team member must verify your Athlete Status and accept you into the group. We want to be intentional about our community, just like the locker room or game time where there is limited access to the public, we want to recreate those same boundaries for our digital platform as well.”