Takes: A Place For Sports Fans To Unite And Watch Games Live

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 28, 2023

Takes is the first online sports creator app where fans can unite online to watch games live and socialize through short user-created content. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Takes CEO Michael Iams to learn more about the company.

Michael Iams’ Background

Michael Iams

After asking Iams about his background, he said:

“Everyone always asks about my last name: Iams. Yes, I’m related to the pet food people, but no, I’m not a scion. My side of the family was poor, homesteading in North Dakota and Montana, where I was born. I’ve been clawing my way up the ladder my whole career, going from Oracle to MaqQuest to Amazon Kindle to Major League Baseball.”

Formation Of Takes

How did the idea for the company come together? Iams shared:

“The idea came from my time as VP of Product at MLB. My portfolio included a couple of products at the nexus of sports media (MLB.TV) and sports data (Statcast). We were building fun new features that married the two to improve the fan experience. Because of this unique perch, my team was tapped to fulfill the execution end of content deals. The big social platforms were experimenting with live game interactivity.”

“We visited one in Silicon Valley and pitched a handful of concepts that really landed. Our ideas went up the chain and disappeared. Poof. Not interested. That was my lightbulb moment. I realized that these broad social platforms were never going to go deep enough on sports. Even though sports fans are an enormous market, social platforms were more focused on general engagement.”

Favorite Memory

What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Iams reflected:

“My favorite moment was our Alpha launch in August 2022. We launched to Friends & Family during the NFL Hall of Fame (HoF) game. The experience was bare bones, but it was fun. I knew then that if we could scale up the fun that this small group was having, we’d have a hit on our hands.”

Core Products

What are the company’s core products and features? Iams explained:

“Our core product is ‘togetherness.’ People like to feel like they belong, and sports brings people together. The features of our app are focused on helping fans create and engage with meaningful communities. Here are the two key themes and features that support bringing fans together around live sports.”

1.) Jump into live games with real-time content and sports media creator tools

  • capture videos, photos, text or memes 
  • add a live score to your video
  • tele-strate clips to highlight elements of a play
  • add yourself as a commentator over highlights
  • change your appearance with sports-themed AR filters

2.) Geek out with other fans about all things sports

  • Use Instapick to make your call on daily games
  • access a universe of sports history 
  • invite your friends and share your best Takes via text or socials
  • join a private chat with like-minded fans 

Challenges Faced

Have you faced any specific bottlenecks in your sector of work recently? Iams acknowledged:

“The biggest bottleneck has been the macro funding environment. While we have wanted to move much faster, we’ve had to invest a lot of our time into getting deals done. We’re builders, so we’d prefer for that time to go to execution. But we’ve been fortunate to receive funding amid the worst capital-raise environment in decades. We wear that as a badge of honor and proof that the vision is compelling.”

Evolution Of Takes’ Technology

How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Iams noted:

We really feel lucky timing-wise. Generative AI came of age just as we were building this product and opened up so many new avenues for innovation. I saw what went into developing Statcast: thousands of if/then statements to create the right data outputs (e.g., “Red Sox go up 4-3 vs. Yankees on three-run blast from David Ortiz.”) With LLMs (large language models), all it takes is a prompt. And you can tailor the output to an audience of one. True personalization became a reality while we were building. Right place, right time.”

Significant Milestones

What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Iams cited:

“Getting the first check was significant. My co-founder Liz Ludwig and I are both first-time founders. We’ve made other people rich and run organizations but never really had to sell. I wish I could bottle the feeling of closing that first investment.”

“Another milestone was the Alpha launch when we could see that we’d built a product that at least a small group liked.”

“And then the Super Bowl was significant. By then, we were in the App Store, so this was the first real ‘live bullets’ experience. The app was resilient, the banter was lively, and we passed another test.”

Customer Success Stories

After asking Iams about customer success stories, he highlighted:

“We have interviewed thousands of Gen Z sports fans and hundreds of sports influencers, and we hear the same thing over and over and over: ‘I can’t believe something like this doesn’t already exist!” More specifically, we recently minted a CU fan for life. After an in-game alert, this fan followed the rest of Coach Prime’s inaugural run (vs. TCU) on the App with a community of Buffs fans. The experience turned them into a legit fan!”

Funding/Revenue

After asking Iams about funding/revenue information, he revealed:

“No revenue yet, but we have a great strategy. Gen Z buys products differently. They form parasocial relationships with people they trust online, and they often take their advice on what to buy.”

“To tap into that market, we’ll enable brands to engage with influencers and influencers to choose brands they wish to represent in a self-service marketplace. Affiliate revenue from the DraftKings and FanDuels of the world is tremendously lucrative, and that’s only a sliver of the pie. Apparel (Fanatics), tickets, access to livestreams, etc.”

“Funding: we’ve raised $1.6 million so far. There’s some room left this round, and we’re planning for a proper Seed raise in 2024.”

Total Addressable Market

What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Iams assessed:

“There are about 41+ million Gen Z Sports fans (US). If we address just 1% of the market, then we’d be looking at $1.2 billion.”

Differentiation From The Competition

What differentiates the company from its competition? Iams affirmed:

“The big difference is real-time sports content: Takes is the first social platform explicitly constructed around the ebb and flow of gameplay, augmented by AI to serve up the most relevant updates. The innovative design allows for effortless discovery and engagement with commentaries, updates, videos and statistics as the game progresses. This is a distinct departure from other social platforms, which are primarily driven by feed algorithms. Takes is structured around the pivotal moments that truly resonate with sports fans.”

Future Company Goals

What are some of the company’s future company goals? Iams concluded:

“We’re striving to meet these metrics:

— 10K users by this Super Bowl.

— 1 million users by Super Bowl LIX

— 100 million users by Super Bowl LXII (which will be in Liz’s hometown – Ford Field in Detroit)”