This week’s edition of The Post Game Newsletter features former soccer player at Northeastern and founder of ShowNxt, Lucas Espada.
ShowNxt is an AI-powered recruiting platform reshaping how student-athletes connect with college programs across the US.
Here are a few of the top takeaways from the conversation:
1) Visualization
Lucas talks about how the first step for him in creating ShowNxt wasn’t finding a technical co-founder, it was visualizing what he wanted to create so he could communicate the idea.
He talks about how he was constantly seeking advice on how to take it from “0 to 1”, but what helped him most was visualizing what he wanted to create so that he could explain it to someone who would help him code it and bring it to life.
I'd say the very first step in starting a business and starting anything is being able to visualize it because it allows people to understand what you're saying. Once I learned how to visualize it, I said, okay, let me draw these squares and circles on a piece of paper to show what an app would look like for what the vision of show next is. Great. Let me learn then how to build that into a software.
2) Giving Away Value for Free First
Lucas talks about how his thought process so far has been to bet on himself. He’s booked one-way tickets overseas for pro soccer tryouts, was the team manager before walking onto the varsity team in college and has offered ShowNxt for free to early users.
His thought is that the more value he adds up front without asking for anything in return, the more it will come back around and people will find enough value to pay him down the road.
3) Start in Your Backyard
He discusses how he went about finding the first users and partners for the platform in his “backyard” and how he started with pre-existing relationships vs. going after the bigger fish right away.
I think people wanna aim for the biggest and best that you could possibly do, but if there's someone who is in your corner already, go to them first and get them to help you out early days because it'll go so much further than a big name.
Someone who genuinely believes in you will always do that. So within my immediate network, I had three coaches who had formerly coached me that were now at division one programs. And a few of my former teammates who were now coaching at division three and division two programs. First thing I did was, “Hey guys, this is something I'm really passionate about. Do you mind coming out and trying it out? That was great. That's how we got our first few schools.”
He also talks about being an entrepreneur and what the word means to him:
To me, “entrepreneur” is about creating a world or creating a way of living that encourages them to chase their dreams and at the same time allows you to do that with yourself. And so that's the way I've always viewed entrepreneurship.
It's building your wildest imaginations into a world that allows other people to experience those. And that's the first thing I ever wanted to be. That's, as I think about entrepreneurship now, everything that I want to achieve, it's how do we create a world in which my dreams allow the people to achieve their dreams.
Check Out the Full Episode Below:
Mookie Betts on Being Nervous
Mookie Betts, one of the best athletes in the world, talking about he was more nervous than he’s ever been in the 9th inning of Game 7.
“I was talking to myself like Be Nasty, Be Nasty Mook. I guess those little positive reinforcements I gave myself, maybe the baseball Gods were saying good job, here’s the ball, go make a play.”
Miguel Rojas
I still can’t really comprehend what Miguel Rojas did in the 9th inning of Game 7 of The World Series. It was Herculean.
He doesn’t hit a home run the entire season of a right-handed pitcher and with the season on the line, hits a game tying homer off one of the best righty bullpen arms in the game.
I actually think the defensive play to save the game in the bottom half of the inning was even more impressive than the homer. The definition of not being afraid of failure and letting decades of preparation play in the biggest moments of his career.
@mlbonfox Miguel Rojas’ wife told him he would hit a home run in the World Series today 🤯 #Dodgers #WorldSeries #LA #Game7 #MiguelRojas
Markus Schreyer and Vanderbilt
Vandy Football is having one of the best seasons in program history. Unfortunately for them, they still have to play Alabama, Texas (who they nearly beat last week), and the rest of the established SEC powerhouses, but I just came across the name Markus Schreyer.
I bet he’s played a large part as to why the program is ranked 15th in the nation and is making noise in the SEC.
He is a hospitality executive specializing in brand development and innovation and his official title at Vandy is CEO of Vanderbilt Enterprises.
This snippet below (from this press clip) is a perfect example of where the college sports landscape is headed / where it already is. If basketball programs (especially in the Big East that can capitalize off the $20.5 revenue sharing going primarily to basketball) don’t emulate this (CEO) model, I think they miss the boat in one of the most pivotal times in the history of college athletics.
Seton Hall just built a $55M basketball facility. I was reading $25M of that came from fundraising efforts through donors while the rest was subsidized by government bond.
The GM position in athletic departments isn’t a new phenomena, but I guess my question is what comes after the revamped facilities? A new gym and hyperbaric chambers are the first step, but where do schools like Seton Hall, Marquette, or bottom of the barrel programs like Depaul go from there if $ isn’t consistently injected into the system?
St. John’s will be fine because they have deeper pockets and a billionaire donor, but I think you need a highly touted business person to run the department as what it is: a business.
Tony Vitello on NIL
The flip side of the story is coaches like Tony Vitello speaking out about what NIL has become, in essence making his decision to leave to go to the MLB that much easier (obviously he is an anomaly and not everyone can just pick up and sign a contract to become an MLB manager).
But even guys like him who don’t like to color in the lines are saying it’s hard to play a game you don’t know the rules to.
Bet on Yourself
Was talking to an old boss recently. Thought this was powerful.
The Follow Up
Sweet clip from Shaan Puri about his business partner Ben Levy following up nine times before landing a huge podcast guest.
It took him nine emails before he finally got a response and landed the podcast.
Upcoming PGP Guests:
11/12 - Dean Snell: One of the co-designers of the Titleist ProV1 and the founder of Snell Golf
11/19 - Kianna Smith: Former Louisville hoops start who played in the Final Four, Former WNBA player, currently working at Nike
11/26 - Bela Carrasco: Former soccer player at Marquette, Assistant VP at Origin Investments, and podcast host
12/3 - George Boyd - Former BMX rider and founder of “Cut The Pod,” transforming raw podcast recordings into premium video podcasts
12/10 - Vasu Kulkarni - Penn Graduate, entrepreneur and founder of Krossover, investing in startups with Courtside Ventures, the leading early-stage fund focused on Sports, Lifestyle, and Gaming
Thanks for checking out the Newsletter and tuning into the Pod.
See you next week,
Joe