You should know what your product is and understand it inside-out. I read this article on focus http://budurl.com/u76q that would really help start-ups. It reminds all of us young entrepreneurs that we need to focus in order to achieve our goal.

I can see how this would help the colleges recruit, if they had all the data in one place. Gabe is a genius.

We were going to be more of an end-all sports portal/organization. Our project looked like dynamite on paper but in reality proved impossible to market due to the fractured/splintered nature of amateur sports and local sports scenes. The amount of unification, participation, goodwill, manpower, visibility, and money required to get things rolling proved prohibitive for us.

We were going to monetize from several sources including: Corporate sponsorships, manufacturer ads, merchant ads, coupons, professional services, and online branded stores. Various methods were approached to effectively market this idea (event sponsorships, apparel, gear, street teams, paid athletes) but it hit one road block after another.

The Corporate Sponsors and Manufacturers loved our ideas but needed to see aggressive grass roots support to justify spending a dime and putting their good names on anything. Until we could prove wide spread participation and deliver consistent demographics, they all preferred to spend their advertising dollars in more traditional ways. Nobody wanted to be the first to show up.

Our particular project died on the vine because we failed to create a local buzz in the sports and fitness communities. We never achieved that critical mass needed to support such endeavors. The benefits will have to trump the athletes natural aversion to “Yet More Governance” and show a distinct benefits path to potential professional careers. Likely…Major League co-branding would allow you to do that.