booster is a newly launched groundbreaking social platform that empowers student-athletes to take control of their personal brands. Pulse 2.0 interviewed co-founders Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin to learn more about the company.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Could you tell me more about your background?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): Put simply, we’re huge college sports fans. And understanding the passion involved with being a college sports fan is crucial to speaking the language of NIL and recognizing how the college sports landscape has changed in such a dramatic way since 2021. booster was our opportunity to work on something we loved and to help college athletes achieve financial freedom that was denied to them for decades.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): How did the idea for the company come together?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): booster really comes down to connecting fans directly to student-athletes.
We spent part of 2023 working with the entities in charge of raising money for athletic departments. We saw how they worked their fundraising programs, how they went after donors, and how that money made its way to the players.
These entities are great at connecting the top donors to the top student-athletes, but we felt there wasn’t enough attention paid to smaller schools and non-revenue sports (basically everything except football and basketball). We also noticed that when it came to lower-level, grass-roots donors, there wasn’t a clear way to get them more involved in the process, and that’s when we knew there was a need for donors (boosters) to engage directly with athletes. booster is all about empowering student-athletes and encouraging donor transparency. Now, donors have more control over where their contribution is going.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): At the NIL Summit getting to introduce booster in person to the student-athletes and the way they’ve embraced the need for what we’re doing has been really fun to see. Seeing these athletes and others who work in NIL truly “get it” has been very validating for us. Our mission is to empower student-athletes and for booster to be an equitable and inclusive NIL solution. That’s what this is all about.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What are the company’s core products and features?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): NIL is still the Wild West and NIL startups pop up every day. Most products connect student-athletes to brands because that’s typical of how NIL has worked. booster is a social platform. We provide connectivity between fans and donors and the student-athletes they cheer for. booster gives the one-on-one engagement model that’s been lacking in this space, but best of all, it allows the athletes to get paid for their content and engagement. Unlike other social platforms, on booster, the athletes ‘own’ their audience, instead of renting it while engaging on ad-based platforms that currently dominate the space. Athletes-as-influencers hasn’t ever taken off and we hope that will no longer be the case.
Another aspect we’re really proud of is booster University, or “booster-U”, which is our main resource hub for the athletes. We’re bringing in experts from different fields to help the athletes on their individual journeys. Financial literacy, agent representation, content creation, family resources – these are topics we believe will be really helpful for our student-athletes and assist them in maximizing their time on the booster platform.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): Introducing a new idea is exciting but also extremely challenging because it really is a reinvention of NIL, almost a revolution turning the current system upside down. The first guy through the wall always gets bloody. Always.
It’s really all about educating athletes and donors that direct connectivity is the future of NIL. To see them “get” it, to have it sink in, is rewarding. The athletes who believe in the idea of booster will be the ones to most benefit from it.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): How has the company’s technology evolved since launching?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): The primary goal is to make booster a real community for student-athletes. We built the platform based entirely on our “players-first” attitude. On booster, the athletes can connect with each other, share ideas, and engage with their fans. It’s the perfect alignment of technical needs and prioritizing what keeps this a valuable resource for the athletes.
It needs to be a living, breathing thing that pivots and adapts when it needs to, and we’re excited for what comes next.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): The goal was 250 athletes by launch, and we got to 300. This was big for us because if the athletes aren’t into it, there won’t be any content for the boosters to engage with. The positioning of booster is key for the athletes, because they need to know we built it for them. We are providing the platform to enable and encourage these athletes to build their brand and make the most of their NIL.
We’re now nearing 500 athletes, and word-of-mouth has been great. Seeing athletes onboard from all over the country, on their own, with no prior contact with the company, is surreal. It’s a micro-level milestone, but it’s still significant for us as we try to grow!
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Can you share any specific customer success stories?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): Our job with booster is to get the athletes excited and give them the tools to succeed, and so many of them are already doing the work without having to be told. When we first announced at the NIL Summit back in June – we noticed right away how curious, engaged, and inquisitive they were – how serious they took their NIL opportunities. It was really encouraging to see from this younger generation, and we know there are great things in store for these athletes, whether it happens on booster or not.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): It was important to self-fund through the launch. Staying true to our vision and brand DNA was crucial. We knew the moment we started bringing in outside capital, that’s when things can drift, and it was important to avoid that.
We will be starting a funding round early in Q1 because we know we need to be properly financed to scale. We’ll invest in next-level content creation tools and AI design and begin to automate the process to make it as frictionless as possible for our athletes. Now that we’ve launched, we’re ready to scale and lead the market. It’s not enough to be first, we know for booster to work, we need to be the best.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): There’s no limit to the market size. There are over 250,000 collegiate athletes, and more are coming every year. NIL is also legal in 38/50 states for high-school kids. Olympic sports, action sports, motorsports, and eventually global sports – we will grow in every direction.
We don’t see booster as a 2-3 year relationship with student-athletes. We want them to get on in high school, stay on through college, then stay on even after college. Not everybody is a top pick in the NBA or NFL. Athletes want to go pro in softball, beach volleyball, lacrosse, and dozens of other sports. They want to play basketball in Europe, football in Canada, and minor-league baseball. If they can earn on booster, these careers can be extended.
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What differentiates the company from its competition?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): This is our favorite question because we’re very proud of the answer. There isn’t a content creation/content consumption marketplace that currently exists that caters exclusively to athletes and sports fans. We are one-of-one in that sense. We are totally inclusive, with no barriers to entry and no minimum threshold for deliverables. booster is for every athlete, every sport, every school, every gender.
We see the athletes as true partners in this endeavor. That’s why when we incorporated booster, we carved out 10% and created “The Player’s Fund”. When athletes join booster, they acquire a tiny ownership unit in the company. And as they earn money for the platform, they acquire more and more ownership units, which will be paid out as quarterly bonuses like dividends, and eventually, if the company gets sold, the athletes will share in the profits.
These ownership units will be attached to the athletes in perpetuity. We’re not only partnering with the athletes, we’re allowing them to invest in themselves. We know and respect the time and energy it takes for them to post content and engage with fans, and we think they should be rewarded for that!
Pulse 2.0 (Amit): What are some of the company’s future company goals?
booster (Scott Birnbaum and Ryan Simkin): It’s all about staying true to the booster concept. This is about empowering athletes to become CEO of their own brands, to take control of their financial futures, and to profit from their NIL which was fought for by the millions of athletes that came before them. Prominence and value are secondary goals for us. If the players profit, then everybody wins. That’s the goal – to finish what we started when we hatched the crazy idea of booster back in February. We want booster to be a place where an athlete can truly express themselves and a fan can engage directly like never before. We want booster to be fandom, fully evolved.
