GoBaller: Facebook for Sports
By Madison Hartman
Chris Dell left the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism with a Master’s degree and a choice — continue reporting on sports or take a chance on an idea and turn it in to a full-fledged start up. Guess which one he chose.
In his final semester at the Graduate School of Journalism, Dell took part in the Tow Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism where he developed the basis of his startup — Go Baller.
“I had an idea of creating the next Facebook for sports fans. It would be like a Facebook/ESPN mash-up,” he said. “What we do is curate the best sports on social media — we go out there and hand pick and research the best people posting content.”
So the bones of Go Baller were created. Not only would the app show you what your favorite athletes, teams and beat writers were up to, but Dell wanted to add in more. So the app will also include questions, quizzes and up/down voting.
“We’re focusing a lot on players and fans, what we like to call fan generated content and player generated content. A lot of the athletes themselves are driving the engagement because fans can individually connect and follow one of their guys. But then it’s like you’re a Cavs fan and you’re following LeBron James’ Instagram page then you have like 500 other Instagrams you’re following you can’t really have that just-sports experience.”
There was one huge missing piece: money. So when Dell heard about an open call for Shark Tank in Columbus, Ohio he took a bus trip to pitch his idea. The audition didn’t pan out, but another opportunity arose. Dell met an investor who told him about Bizdom, a venture that funds startups in Cleveland, funded by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. So he looked into it, and got a chance to interview.
“They asked me why I wanted to come to Cleveland and I put up a sign in my pitch that said ‘LeBron is coming back’ before he confirmed it,” Dell said. “Once it happened I felt like it was meant to be with [LeBron] coming back to Cleveland, I’m going, I have to be a part of that scene.”
It worked. Dell was one of a dozen startups to receive $25k in exchange for eight percent of the company. He moved to Cleveland to work in their offices, and attend Cavs games on the house.
Since then Dell has hired a team of developers to build the app, which is nearing the final stages of development. In December, Go Baller 1.0 will be available to download on all smartphones. The initial roll out will be focused on NBA teams and athletes.
The app, which is free for all to download, allows you to sign up through effectively all social media platforms in order to customize your “My Stream,” which shows you content only for the athletes and teams you choose to follow.
Dell sees the app as equal opportunity for all sports fans, not just for the die-hard stats addicts who want to scour box scores.
“We’re building a platform that a hardcore sports fan and a casual sports fan can have the same type of experience,” he said. “That’s what we’re striving to be and adding our own personality and not being one of the big conglomerates like ESPN or Bleacher Report.”
While Dell isn’t sure about the future of Go Baller — if it will remain a sports app forever or turn into something new in the next few years — he’s certainly enthusiastic about what’s to come.
“It’s gonna be fun because either way we’re going to have sports fans play with our app in the beginning, get their feedback and that’s going to be a cool thing to see where the app goes and what users use it for.”
