The First NFL Licensed VR Experience w/ Andrew Hawkins

see me in a certain area, that's an opportunity. Let me go in there and make a space for me, and I can bring other people with me. Now I can build to motor around what I do because nobody here can can can match my skill set. I'm Will Lucas and this is black Tech, green money. I want to answer this to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black and building for simply using tech to secure your back.

This podcast is Feeling Andrew Lawkins, a k A Hawk. It's a former NFL wide receiver, having played six season in the league with teams like the Bengals, the Browns, and the Patriots Today's the media personality and co founder of Status Pro, an athlete lead technology company which makes software for training and consumer entertainment. Status Pro has raised more than five million dollars in boast and enviable list of investors like Lebron James, theome Os, mav Card Drake

and others. Horse Company is set to release NFL pro Era, a VR game from metal Quest and PlayStation, the first officially licensed NFL VR title. I talked with so many games becoming more lifelike. How important is real player data to the experience of gameplay? I think if we're going to drill in on what you know, authenticity looks like in a gaming environment, it is important, you know, for people to really experience the speed of certain things. Now,

obviously we want to slow it down. People have fun. That's that's the chief goal of anything we do from a gaming product standpoint. But the ability to ramp up and really see how fast decisions need to be made. When you're talking about it immersing world like virtual reality,

we think it's super important. Right, So we're gonna give you all the bells and whistles of the feeling you get in the tunnel when you're running out onto the field and all the hoopla and the kind of man, what if moments that people think about when they think of playing professional sports. But we're also going to give you the actual data on the other side of it too, And I think it just helps rope in the entire loop of authenticity that we kind of preach it status pro.

Does that mean more than just the numbers, but also if if a QB is slower, then the player in the game will actually be slower too. Yes, what's something we'll build upon. I think, um, you know, I mean, I think VR in itself is it's a it's a it's an emerging tech, and so we understand that our game maybe the first time a lot of people even experienced VR, right, and so we're trying to make sure

the product mature is alongside the consumer. But to your point, yeah, that I mean, there's really an endless amount of of of data that we can put into our AI, which we've done so in a very pointed way, from you know, what plays a specific team would run, what kind of defense is there's a coach like the call right, And we've had the luxury of building that AI and machine learning in from the very beginning, and so it's gonna mature with the more data sets that are available, you know,

and we use a number of those things, including players speeds and data. And to your point that you know, when you embody UH a player, eventually you will match the attributes that they are as a player. And this first version we've kind of really drove down on you as a quarterback, so you will be the quarterback of your favorite team as opposed to taking on the attributes

of other players. But that's absolutely in the pipeline. So every couch quarterback believes they could have made that pass at the quarterback blue, you know, on Sunday Football or whatever Monday night football. Like, part of your effort, I believe is to help better understand what it takes to compete at the highest levels, you know, as you know, playing a first person UH game from a first person perspective,

does this help solve that? Like, so all those people who believe, man, I could have made that, you know, does this help solve that problem for real athletes? I would say yes or no. I would say yes or no. I think we we used it on the on the training side, right, so we can see me like that decision making for an NFL quarterback and things will move almost one the one at the speed that you would

see in an actual game. But if people had the ability to process information and make those decisions that way, they wouldn't need a v our game to fill what it's like to be NFL quarterback because you would be that right, And even by NFL quarterback standards, there are quarterbacks that are starting quarterbacks that can't make decisions and process as fast as Tom Brady, right, So it's it's

definitely a sliding scale. And so you know, we can simulate that four elite level athletes to be able to get as close to a one to one experience um as we can get. But I think for the gaming side of things, man, I mean, we want to have it fun, Like I said, that is our chief goal with that, And yeah, it'll be intense. You'll definitely get the feel of all the different factors that go win on every single play, and you will probably have a

higher respect for quarterbacks. But if you're not having fun, you're not gonna come back. So we we definitely slow it down a little bit so that we can keep you coming back for more because so I've heard you

say this a couple of times. You know that you that you really want to help people get an understanding for how fast the game moves for people who won't will never have that experience of being on an NFL you know, Gridiron talk about if you can make it relatable to us, you know, how fast the game actually

moves versus what we see sitting in the seats. Yeah, And like I said, man, I'm gonna keep drilling down on this, the speed of the game is ridiculous, man, Like I mean, it's I would say, in snap second. You have to make decisions, and it's honestly even faster than that. So that's why you practice so much. You practice so much in a professional sports environments that your instincts kick in and that way you can react even faster than it takes for you to cognitively think of

what to do next. But in the gaming for everybody, I think the thing that you'll get most out of the experience that we're creating with NFL Pro Era is that you just really can see all the factors and

it is very gratifying to make a play. It's gratifying to you know, complete a pass or throw a touchdown or get a first down when you consider all the different factors that are into a game, and so it won't be the speeds of an NFL game and you have the ability to ramp it up or ramp it down, but again, all the different factors that go into each and every game, and the experience of the screaming fans.

You get the high points, you get the huge d n coming right at you, and that's scary ended of itself, so you have to think about what do I do now in the face of the most fearful looking human coming at me at car like speeds, right, And so that's the really cool part is that that hasn't been democratized before and us being able to us being former athletes and being able to put other people in those shoes is a really cool thing because you get to

show people the experience that you have had your whole life and may even be a second nature to you just just talking about this leap you've because there's not a lot of athletes who make the leap from professional sports into high tech and so if you can give the bridge for us, like how you got here versus where you were and we're gonna talk about your your sports career, but I want to talk about how you made that leap. Well, I mean that's a great question,

and I think they all kind of tieing together. And I would say, how I got to to tech, you know, high tech where I'm at from from my career was that I feel like in tech tech is you know, I talked about this democratizing and experience, and I think I've always looked at any sector that I've been interested in as how do I get in there and find

my place in this space? Right? I think, especially for a lot of us that come from our communities, you don't see yourself in certain situations, so you think it's not for you, right or you think, oh, man, I don't have a background that matches what I've seen traditionally, So let me go look somewhere else. And where I've kind of always approached it like, well, if I don't see me in a certain area, that's an opportunity. Let me go in there and make a space for me,

and I could bring other people with me. Number one and number two. Now I can build a motor around what I do because nobody here can can can match my skill set, and so you know, when I was playing, it was that same thing. It was like I saw an opportunity that you know, I felt like me being an athlete and wanting to work in sports business. Even prior to me playing professional football, there was no value

add from the fact that I was an athlete. There was nothing to say like, well, what about your experience makes it special here? And so I was like, I'm gonna have to create that. I'm gon have to create a way to value the expertise of somebody who was seeing this from the ground level, um, and build a company that way, you know. And and so that's what originally got me there, And as you would imagine, it was a long road of slowly putting the pieces together

to get to where we are today. And I'm glad you said that, because you know, we've heard these horror stories of athletes who you know, make a bunch of money and then they got boys who want to start businesses and investing a whole bunch of real estate that don't get scoped out and do no due diligence and

you know, rim shops and the whole thing. Um, So can you talk about how in you from your perspective how athletes are getting smarter, or maybe it's the people around them, so that they're making better decisions with their their capital and to deploy that for actual wealth generation when they're off the field. I think the norm has changed, and I think you know that that was always even

my goal with what I was doing. I wanted to, you know, hopefully show other people that may be in a similar situation of mind to be like, well, if he can do that with his resources, or he can do that with his stature of like profile of athletes, imagine what I could do with mine, right, And I think you see in the shift where before it was

we want our athletes just to be athletes. We want them to focus on football, focus on basketball, focus on baseball, track boxing, whatever it is, and that's what we That is the norm, and anybody who does anything outside of that was looked at sideways. Where I think now in this age of more than an athlete and a lot of the work that has been done and shown by athletes from them being activists, then being investors, then going

back to school and all these things. Now you look at an athlete that only does their sport and you kind of look at them sideways, like, yo, what are you waiting on? You better get going. This window is closing. And I think you know that kind of maturation of what the norm is for an athlete has shifted a lot of things. Uh, for the industry. What's making the norm change? Is it just representation to people like you? I think everything develops. I think everything people get smarter

in any scenario. So if you look at me right like, I think people sometimes think, oh man, this is a really smart guy because he was able to do certain things. And I am smart. I do believe that. But at the same time, I come from a family of athletes. I'm a third generation athlete, right. My My grandfather was a was a boxer. My dad played Division one football and sign D one. My older brother played ten years in the National Football and I got cousins. And so

I've seen those horror stories you talked about. I've seen them up close and personal. And I always approached sport like a business, right, And I've seen where sport could use somebody up and there's nothing to show for it, you know. And so for me, when I went through my experience, it was like, well, I'm gonna do it. This way, and because I've seen somebody else make mistakes, I can kind of take those answers to the test and read crafted for myself and I think for everybody

else it's much of the same. And now when you look at your peers, um, you can see the benefit of it. Like my goal after five years of playing, I'm coming up on five years of after retirement, I wanted to I wanted people to know me and not know that I played professional football. That was a goal that I had when I retired, you know. And it's really cool now for people to say that and see like, oh man, I didn't know he played in the NFL.

That's crazy, right. That's because I'm hitting that goal. And I think for other players, they see that and they build upon it, right, And it's like what I want to be known for, something more than what people are defining or is my skill set or what people may have known before the start. The institutions around athletes when they come in the league young, um, and we've heard, you know, horror stories around like you know, player associations, and they weren't always set up to help people thrive

outside of the field, outside of the court. Are they are player associations in your experience across all major sports, are they what's happening for them to do better to protect and help educate those young athletes who come in with little financial experience often and little, you know, familiar resources to protect them. Man, that's a great question. I think.

I think more can always be done, right, I think, you know, like I said, as an athletes get smarter as the game changes, and right now it's the wild, wild West, man. I mean, you've got college athletes making tens of millions of dollars in I l right, and signing for deals that you know, quite frankly, I barely made as a professional athlete, you know, And so it's

happened earlier and earlier in the process. And so players associations or um anything set up to aid in an athletes development, they they have a lot of work to do to kind of catch up. And in that process, you know, I think for for young athletes, I always tell them they men, take your time. It took a very long time for you to make your money. I know, it seems like a nineteen or twenty two or whatever it is, the money came fast, but this is a

lifelong process. You started playing basketball or football when you were eight years old. That's that's a that's a decade, you know, And so it would be silly to not try to put that same kind of work in how you should deploy that capital, how you should protect that capital, um, how you should spend that capital, or where you should develop your skills outside of it, to make sure you're making the most out of that capital or that opportunity.

And unfortunately, in sports, athletes are opportunities because they have the least amount of experience, um, but they have the most amount of money. And if you've ever tried to convince anybody to give you money, it's a hard process. And the easiest people to convince to give you money are people that don't know much as much about the value or haven't had the experience um of understanding how

hard it really was for them to get that. And so to your point, there should be more up protection coming from people that are in this space, especially for a lot of the kids, like I said, that come from our communities, are black and brown faces that don't come from a lot of finances, you know. I think more things should be in place not only to protect but also teaching mature and and not make them choices. And it's tough to make people with a lot of

money do certain things. But at the same time, it's so important in the overall and and longevity of their development and their protection of this incredible opportunity that is playing professional sports. Yeah. I mean I love that answer, UM,

because I was I was gonna ask this question. I'm gonna ask it, but you just gave me a little slight twist to the question I'm gonna ask, um, because you've got this diamond list of investors who who put money in your own business, people like lebron Naomi Osaka Drake and Jimmy Ame av Carter, many many more. Um. But it's an all star list of investors. UM. And I would imagine because we have this conversation, the these people are more than just deep pockets, but there's some

other use that they provide to the business. Because you can probably get money in a lot of places, but you want specific help. UM. So can you talk about how they may or may not be involved and helpful

to the company into your mission? Yeah, I mean I think they're they've been paramount to to the success is not only my company, I would even say me professionally a lot of those names because you know, like you said, these are people that are respected, um, business wise, and the moves they make and the things that they put their money and support behind, and so that standard approval that that carries weight when you're going into certain rooms,

you know. I mean, we had venture capital firms or investors or companies that we've tried to partner with early on that laughs out of the room, that are now sending us emails once a week trying to talk to us merely off the fact of who's involved now, and I want to chase what they're getting into because those people are successful, you know. And I think we were very tactical and strategic and in that way, um of just how we kind of approached them and understood how

do you make one plus one equal three? How do you understand what people like that are looking where they're looking to go, and how you can aid in that thing. And again we are definitely the benefactors in that relationship. Um, But these are people that I've worked with for uh for years, and I think the reputation that that I had with them went a long way, and once it was time to do our thing, and we had an

offering I didn't they didn't have. They didn't question, which is a big thing when you're investing, is well, how do you work? How how much time are you gonna put in? How serious are you? Because of what I had done for them and in those moments, in my previous um work responsibilities, that was out the gate. So now we could just look at the opportunity, and the

opportunity in and of itself speaks for itself. Yeah, so let's talk about that because I'm interested, because there are so many people who would love to have and see strategically strategic reasons why a Drake on their cap table makes sense or nay, only so I can make sense for them. How do you position yourself to be successful

when you're trying to approach a celebrity investor? If you're not a good question, If you're not, Um, how do you that's a good question, I would say, and I kind of alluded to it, the one, the one plus one equal in three. Right. Not every celebrity is going to be good for your business. Um, Not every celebrity is gonna be good for your business. Not every celebrity is gonna make sense for your business and and and vice versa. You're not gonna make sense for them, you know.

I mean, as all stars are roster is. We've had celebrities tell us no, not my thing. I'm good right, even though we see the strategic value, UM So, I think it's understanding and being very self aware in that way of how exactly this equation is going to come together and to your point, like making sure the value of whatever you're looking to get matches up well with what you already already have. We didn't approach any of those names first. They weren't the first people we went to,

you know. And I think a lot of times when you're approaching people of of of high name value, there has to be an offering like their their name means something, and I think that's why you approach them in the first place. And so whatever the scenario is, the situation is that the opportunity is it has to make sense for where they are. And we were able to get

some already really good investors. They didn't have to take on a brunt of um the public value and their namesake to just carry the company solely on their backs. And I think that matters you know, um, so it was I think it was getting the offering right first before we approached them was probably the best thing we could do. And in that it was the opportunity for you know, getting an NFL license. We had that opportunity

coming up lined up, chasing it. Um. You know, we had discussions with some of the platforms in the VR companies who can kind of confirm like, hey, this is a big opportunity. We had other VC firms that were that were lined up incredible in the space, and so I think all those things factored in as landing where we ultimately did you know, I love that you said,

you know, there's one plus one equaling three. I remember there's an interview math Car that had done with Magic Johnson, and I don't know if you saw it, but he was talking. Magic was talking about like, you know, when you bring me a deal, it's got to be a big deal because for the amount of work I gotta put in to make something go from a hundred thousand to a million, I might as well go from a million to a billion. It's the same amount of work.

So the deal size has to be big enough. And so I'm equating that with how you pitched you know, pro era and like status, Like, how do you do that when you're pitching a Drake who's got you know, enough money? Or is there such thing as enough money? Who's got a lot of money? Or Lebron he's got a lot of money? And you know a couple of zeroes don't move the needle for them. So how do you pitch the grand opportunity here to people who already have all they you know, could need. Yeah, that's that's

another great question. So I would say it in this way. Um, if you called me and say, hey, I want you to do my podcast for and I'm gonna give you a dollar right now, it's a deal. Now it's I'm gonna spend a certain amount of time doing your podcasts and you're gonna give me a dollar. I'm gonna say no, right because that's that the work doesn't seem to match what the dollar amount is. It's one dollar, right, I

could do other things to get a dollar. If you said, hey, I'm gonna go do this podcast with somebody else, and when I do it, I'm gonna give you a dollar. If you give me, you know, ten cents, that sounds like it's worth it because I don't got to do

much work for that dollar, right, it's on you. And if I think that you're gonna do this podcast, and you've got that podcast lined up, it's scheduled and it's going no matter what, and I don't have to do my uch that that's what it means to be an investor. I think a lot of times people approach the athletes or the celebrities or the big time executives wanting them to put the amount of work into their product that

a founder is doing. Now, there is going to be some over the top value, but there's value already in the namesake, because that's why you're approaching them in the first place, because that dollar is not the same as their dollar because they have a name value that also unlocks a lot of opportunities for you. So that ended up itself is worth the work, and you have to be able to know, um, the process and the plan

for making that work for you. So I think with me and our investors specifically and my partner Troy, who is amazing, you know, I think that we are just two guys that we come from nothing. Um, we do everything ourselves. We don't expect much like the terms of engagement are pretty straightforward. We're going to do the work, and as long as an investor I feel like understands and sees that, then they get to see the opportunity because to to the example you use with magic, there's

not that level of work that goes into it. We're going to do the work, um, and the moment we need you will give you a call, but they'll know that. Man, they're calling me. It's one of its. It's a situation

that's going to only multiply what the opportunity is. Can you describe the timeline you know, between your enterprise product that you license with NFL teams for their actual training and then the consumer product that will come out soon um, and then the timeline alongside when those investors came in. So did the Lebrons and Naomi os Hawkers come in when they saw your enterprise product, Oh, this is fire, we gotta get it in the Cowboys locker room, we

gotta get it in the Lions Lions locker room. Or they saw you had that and then they said there's consumer play here. Can you talk about how that lined up? Yeah, I would say they definitely came in for the opportunity

for the consumer play, but it all ties together. So we we started off on the enterprise level working with NFL teams to preparing for NFL games, and you know that that gave us a base foundation for our technology and we just kind of continue to build that because that was something we knew so and so inherently from our experience of being athletes, of knowing exactly how a receiver could get better with this technology. Troy as a quarterback,

knowing how quarterback can get better. You know, I've spent time as a coach as a scout for the Detroit Lions, like understanding how the technology could help organizations. It helped us build a foundation and then as the opportunities arise, we know which way we can kind of craft and use the foundation to go on other spaces. And on the consumer play, it was essentially players would get in the headset um and they wouldn't take it off, and

they were like, Yo, this is fun. And that's not a statement you hear from a player that's typically watching film. This is fun and you're learning about what you're gonna see on a Sunday. So that was like the indicator for us that we knew we had something there because of a player who sees this scenario every day and has for fifteen years. It's saying that it's like it is on Sunday and it's fun. Imagine what a consumer

will will place. And then you know, after that is when we started to communicate that and started to, uh, to show what the opportunity we felt was on the consumer side. And you know, it's been years in the making.

Troy and I first connected, I want to say, in twenties, sixteen or seventeen, um, and here we are in two you know, so it's been it's been that long of a process, that that long of us thinking about this craft, this letting the market do what it does, and then also relying on a little bit of luck to to put us in the right position. So when you think about gamifying things, uh, let's talk about gaming and training, you know, even at the consumer level, Like, how do

you think gamifying exercise and training? You know, when I'm if you're bringing up a kid to be, you know, an all star athlete, Um, how do you imagine gamifying that experience in working out and training might evolve for time?

I think it becomes second nature a little bit and and there's a reason why we continue to drilling on the fun aspect of it because you know, I view our consumers early on in our consumer product which will be coming out and fall um, they're much like I have a ten year old son who is obsessed with the game of football, naturally, because again we come from a family of football players. But I am Anyone who knows me knows I am not to push somebody to go play football and do this and do that. It's

not my thing. But what happened was, you know, first, you let him have fun with it. I don't. I'm not out there making them run through drills at seven years old and making them run stadium steps to say, hey, you got a legacy. It's not that you give him a ball and you let him play catch with his dad and he enjoys playing catch with his dad, and he's having fun. And because he has fun in it,

it motivates him to get better. But he's passing the time by having fun, but he's naturally becoming better at what he's doing. So I think when I look when I look at the vr XR technology and specifically what we're doing in gaming and the training opportunity is play football in my whole life, it kept me in shape. As a thirty six year old man now who is not playing football every day, it is a lot harder for me to stay in shape and the focus on actually being in shape, I would love for a way

for me to have fun in doing it. And so when you think about x are and training in that opportunity and getting better if gamifying it embeds the fund right in it, and by embedding the fund that becomes

the chief focus. Anytime you're having fun, that's kind of where your mind goes to and you're not thinking about the calories you're burning, You're not thinking about how you're learning the sport, you're not thinking about how you're staying fit on a day to day because the game of it all is keeping your mind occupied, and then everything

else becomes a value beyond that, you know. I kind of asked the question similar to this when we talked about you know, getting a Lebron's attention or Drake's attention. But there are people who believe that their tech is good enough to get licensed by major partners, like you know, sports teams were in any category, Um, what levers do you imagine are the fastest ways to success, to getting the meeting and also being taken seriously, Like what are the in rolls for people who are not getting not

hawk you know? To how do you pick up the phone and call the Detroit Lions? Like how does that have? Like what happens there? Where do I need to be? What conference we need to go to? It's tough. It's tough. I would say a lot of it is learning, um learning the industry, right. So I would love to think that my name rings so many bells I could just pick up the phone and call somebody and make it happen.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Like I said, I started interning with the Detroit Lions and two thousand and eight I was a scouting intern right and then beyond that I went and played in the Canadian Football League. And throughout this whole process, I'm shaking hands, I'm taking meetings, I'm telling people and I get done playing. I want to do X, Y and Z in the off season. I'm building out the marketing materials for my sports agency or from my from my agents sports agency for him.

I'm his marketing lead as well. I am also you know applying to Octagon's internships. I'm doing under arms internships. I'm going to intern with Maverick Carter while I'm the number one receiver for the Cleveland Browns in an off season. And it's not just in nature like I'm I'm getting coffee. I'm it's people that I'm interning with. It takes them a month and a half to know that I play in the NFL because I'm I'm doing all the things

naturally that an intern would do. I'm setting those ground sticks. I'm learning. I want to see how the process works. I want to shake the hands. I want to understand this thing and come up with the plan and strategy because in this business, specifically in the sports business, you really only get one opportunity at it, right, And so it's probably not the best just to pick up the phone and call the Detroit Lions, because now they're always

gonna remember you just called the Detroit Lions. You had no idea what our process was, You don't know what our KPI s are, you don't know the right people to talk to. You didn't call it the scouting office trying to get a licensing deal, right, And so I would say engrossing yourself in the area that you're looking to get into and understand that it is very hard to make those calls and get those deals, and people are gonna want to see that you are a subject

matter expert in the space that you're in. And I think that's what I've spent every minute that I wasn't on the field over the last decade. That's what I've been doing, and that's what my partner has been doing as well. And I think we've benefited greatly that it was time for us to do our thing. We had

a track record, we had connections. We the people we connected with ten years ago are now in a position to make decisions or put us in the right place or confidently say, Yo, you should talk to Troy, you should talk to Hawk, because I've known them in their work for ten years and what they do and what they're about, and it's at least worth hearing them out

so that I'm so I'm excited about this game. I want you to talk about it a little bit, and like what makes this Metal Quest and PlayStation VR game unlike other football arcade games, Like, you know, what's the difference. I mean, besides the fact that it's NFL license, which is the big one, right, Um, I would say the

insights from it. I mean this is this is a direct brainch out of me and my partner, and I think, you know, with the things I do creatively or the things that I'm into creatively, I want that extra level of authenticity to it, you know, Like I want to see the film about Detroit from a Detroit director. I want somebody who is in there giving me that film, right, I want to see all those things. And in gaming and in sports specifically, that's what we were after. This

is our life. This is I'm trying to explain. I remember, like the very first one we're pitching it, I'm telling people about what it feels like to walk out of a tunnel. It's one of the coolest experiences I've ever had as an athlete, is coming out to seventy thousand screaming fans, and in our game, we have the opportunity to bring that to life and show somebody that. And

that's just the tip of the iceberg. So I think the little things like that that we're we're giving you real insights from things we've experienced and putting them in creatively are the things that will make it different. Our company in and of itself. I mean we are I think roughly forty five now, um, and of the forty five, I think twenty one of them are former athletes college are pro And that's from the systems engineer to the creative designer on the game, to the marketing to the

business dad. I mean, it's permeated throughout the company. And the reason for that is we thought, like, yo, if we can typically athletes don't have a voice in sports anything, especially sports gaming anywhere. But imagine if we had that insight as well as the experts of gamers as well as the engineering expertise, as well as the marketing of all these places in one room where everyone has a voice, we can create something that is above the status quo.

That was the whole impetus around the company, and I think in our experience that's what's going to make the difference and what people will feel when they take the headset off and say, dang, I do feel like I know what it's like to be in an NFL game now, right,

And I mean that's that's our ultimate goal. You know, I'm interested, you know, because you've played at the professional level and how much on field tech there is, Like we see and we've heard, you know, they may mike somebody up, and so now we get the experience on hearing what it sounds like, you know, when you're on the field or on the court, but from the stuff that the fan will never see or may never see, how much like actual on your body and on field

technology is happening to you know, measure how fast somebody is running or where they are on the field, or like what's happening that we don't get the chance to be exposed to. Yeah, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of prototyping. There's a lot of testing that that goes on in both a practice and the game environment. Um, the NFL is pretty innovative, I mean professional sports, NBA is, I mean they're extremely innovative as well. So and it's funny like that's kind of how I got my first

foray in the tech. UM. I would consult while I was playing for sports analytics companies that would create this incredible tech, you know, but it was always a gap between the tech and the people who are applying it, meaning the coaches who are you know, it's just a very different world. They use a rabbit's foot more than they would use analytics in a game like this is

my lucky underwear. That's what they use in the game environment, right, And so I would approach it like, okay, I can act as a bridge between understanding the technology and the people applying it. And I mean there is chips that every NFL player wears that measures their x y coordinates of where they are in the field, how fast they move their force from left to right, from right to left. I mean in a practice environment, we wear the same the same thing. There is cameras that also just are

taking that footage and also gathering all that data. There is obviously the ability to do even more from a technology standpoint, but you want to make sure that the rules are still in place and uh fans are able to experience whatever it is they're doing. So all the things that they're testing and doing, even though they're not public, they will be eventually. It's just a slow rollout um

for which acts actually possible. And I think that's the cool thing about what we're doing is because we do call ourselves the future of the field, because we're combining a lot of those things and again giving it to a fan. Um. That and that's a really cool thing. So when you're saying like there's chips on players, I mean, are you saying like glorified like Apple air tags or tiles are on players to measure these things. Yeah, like

r f I D chips. Every player in their shoulder pads has a a dime sized chip that measures where they are at all times on the field. Um, and the speed of it. And you can take that data. And originally how we start as a company is we had access to that day there and just in the data alone, we were able to create three D simulated plays. So we didn't need any video, We didn't need to see what happened because we could just get the data from those chips and tell you exactly what's happening on

the play. Wow, that's pretty cool. Um, how do you because you're doing you know media now, which I think is really interesting. You're a great social media presence. How are you leveraging media for business success? Because I imagine that may be a play because when Lebron moved to l A, people were talking about you know this is you know, he's on the downside of his career. So l A is a smart move because he wants to be a media and TV so it wasn't just an

athletic decision. So I'm interested in the decisions you make and being on making TV shows or or online internet web shows. What's the play for an athlete like yourself and what are you shooting for? If I can just say it, yeah, I love that. So I think two part number one. What I'm doing now has always been my goal since I've been a kid. I wanted to do business. Um. I wanted to do business in an area that I felt like I was an expert at and that I knew more than anybody else. And I

feel like sports is that thing. Um. So when I retired, I actually wasn't going to go in the media. My older brother went in the media. I wasn't really into it. Um At the time. There was a specific formula you had to follow to get an opportunity. You had to speak a certain way, look a certain way, do a certain thing. And not that I'm not a chamellion and I can't do that. I just didn't really have the energy that if I want to be one way one day, I wanted the ability to do that, so I wasn't

going in the media um. When I retired, I walked right in to start working with Maverick Carter after having intern for them while I was playing, and an opportunity came along, and he was the one that was like, YO, you should do it because as someone who was knows a lot of former athletes, and I've gone through this with a lot of people, you might like it and you might be good at it, and ultimately it also helps you keep a face card, which is important when

you're trying to make business move, which I know you inevitably want to do. So while I was playing in the NFL, I would take I would give game jerseys every year after the season and I would sign them and I would write handwritten letters to people that I wanted to connect with or that I was impressed by, and I would send it to him in the mail with an email like, YO, if you ever want to get coffee, let me know. And that was a networking thing for me because I thought I knew people thought

it was cool. But you know, there's only two people that can say to the start receivers for the Cleveland Browns, just thirty thousand people that can say they're former players, right, So I'm like, well, let me do this now so that they'll remember when I was at my height where my mind was that and so when I need them and they're at their height, you know they'll they'll keep that relationship going. So I was doing that, and then the media thing for me, it was like, well, that

gave me that same kind of face card. Right, It's cool to get an email from someone you've seen on television or when we're in a meeting and I might be on the background somewhere. That helps me at least get an email back. So even if I'm asking for something or I'm trying to do a deal, and even if it's a no, a fast no, it's helpful to me. You woul at least get me that courtesy because I have a certain face card to it. And so that's what my my my original goal around media was to

use it to benefit my business career. And what I'm what we're doing now is that is pro um and I still think that's the same thing. And in that I just kind of made the decision that I'm just gonna be me wherever I decide that is from a media standpoint, eventually it will again just be projects that are close to my heart. Um that I think there's a need for that, I think there's a space for and that ultimately I never wanted to get into the media side of things too. Have to hang on it

solely and completely. As a football player, you are hired and fired very very frequently, and you have no say so when your family picks up and moves. And so when I got into the media side, I was just very adamant that I didn't want that career to be that way. I wanted to have the freedom to say and do what I wanted when I wanted um, And so I passed up on a lot of great deals media wise because I don't want to get into the rat race of Hey, we love you today, tomorrow we

don't like you anymore. Now you don't have a job, right So, UM, I want to dig one level deeper before we get out of here. And is you mentioned earlier that you know a dollar from Lebron James is not just a dollar because his name has value and that thing there I want to equate to what you just talked about with media and how you're leveraging that for a business success outside of media. There are so many folks who are building businesses, um, and it's all

really comes down to storytelling. There's so many folks who are building businesses that if they could figure out how to leverage stories and personalities in social in on stage, in front of people, etcetera, um, that could help their business. And so if you could leave us with some wisdom on how people who might be funny, who might be good looking, who might be what charismatic, how they should see that as a value or find that value to

add that to the puzzle of building a successful company. Absolutely, man, I think you you kind of nailed it right. Like you have to use all those things that are at your disposal um to get to where you are. And a lot of time, especially earlier on your company, is you that there there they are various anonymous people are going to follow those things. Or it's like an artist when you when you find an artist nobody has heard about, you like their story and you like where they come from.

You right where they represent. You're telling everybody about the artists. You gotta check you gotta check her out, man, She's amazing, right or whatever that is. And eventually they hit mainstream and you know you, you probably are now looking for the next one. Right. Businesses are the same way. Right, They want to they want to connect with you and your story Number one. UM, but using your talents to

hit those pillars are super important. I say for businesses, there's three things that you gotta hit UM to make yourself a home run. Number one is it do you have an incredible product? Is your product better than everybody else's? Right? Do you have something that is just a home run of a product that s aggress Number one? Number two is do you have an ability to get the deals done? And we've talked about all these things on this podcast so far, is do you understand the industry that you're in?

Can you make those calls? Do you know the right people to talk to to keep continue to push that ball down the court because those things are important in those deals. And number three is your ability to amplify. Do you have an ability that when you say something, get it out in front of people right, because then those people are gonna follow the check marks of is your product great? And some people can be successful with

two of those things. You've seen people with terrible products, but they got the right investors and the right amplication and they got the right deals. You see people with great deals, great product and nobody to amplify it, but eventually it bubbles up. If you have one of three, it's gonna be tough. You need at least two or three. And if you have three or three, you got the

home running. When you use your talents for whether you're good looking, whether you have other talents, whether you're money to push through your product, that helps you in the amplification side of things. And it's a very davery important important pillar and that kind of determines its speed. I wish you scale or becomes ubiquitous. Black Tech Green Money is a production to Blackvity, afro Tech on the Black

Effect podcast Network and I Hired Media. Is produced by Morgan Davon and me Well Lucas, with additional production supported by Love Beach and Rusa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis, Jermaine hall if ne'ss Serrano. Learn more about my guests and other tective shoppers and innovators at afro tech dot com. The video version of this episode will drop the Black Tech Green Money on YouTube next week,

So tap in enjoining black tech, green money. Leave us a five star rating on iTunes, Go get your money. Peace of Love a A A