This Noida-based startup is connecting the unconnected: India’s Biggest Sports Professionals Network

SportsApp is a network of sports professionals along with sports academies and sponsors. The vision for this is to aid the sports persons of India with all the facilities that are needed for them to perform well for their nation in the future. The mission of this startup is to create the visibility for the sports persons of the nation so that they do not fade away.

The parent company of SportsApp is Hanusha Networks Private Limited which was launched on 23rd March 2018 by Mr. Shashank Mishra (Founder & CEO) (B.tech & MBA) & Himanshu Nain ( Co-Founder & CTO) (B.Tech). We are publishing an interview with Mr. Shashank:

Q.: What is the problem you are trying to solve? Please share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Ans: SportsApp is a Sports Professionals Network including sports academies, sponsor, physiotherapists and parents. The idea behind SportsApp is to create a portal in which all the stake holders of sports industry can connect with each other. We are curbing Information gap, Visibility gap, and funding gap for sports stakeholders in India. We believe there are three things which are coming in a way to make this nation a Sporting Nation:

1. Information gap: Not having enough information of different events like trials, training camps etc, info of sports academies in different areas of your favorite sports, lack of info of good coaches nearby your areas, and also of corporate (sponsors) who are looking to fund athlete.
2. Visibility: Players visibility is a main issue in India even after winning big events most players are not known to many. Sports academies in India are not have proper visibility to connect with players, their parents, coaches etc.
3. Funding: Financial constraint for players is a big hurdle in his way to pursue his career in sports. There is no portal where these players can connect with corporate for funding.

Q.: List all the names of the core Team Members of SportsApp, along with their Designated Roles.
Ans: Sure. The core team members are:

• Shashank Mishra – Founder & CEO (B.tech & MBA)
• Himanshu Nain – Co-Founder & CTO (B.Tech)
• Prashant Chandra – Head of Marketing and Sales (B.Tech & MBA)
• Mohit Prakash Yadav – Head of Operations (B.Sc & MBA)

Q.: Tell us about the Product / Solution.
Ans: SportsApp connects all the stake holders of sports industry in India. Here you can follow each other share relevant thoughts, get update about events, sports job. Apply for sponsorship as a playeretc. After Development i launched SportsApp during event called ‘Avahan’ a sports fest in Delhi technological University, and North India’s biggest sports fest. So in our launch day we got 200+ Sign ups in our first day.

Q.: What is your USP?
Ans: We have created a unique financial logic which provides players with their market value and the we connect players with corporate after verifying them on app. This way corporate also get to see a profile of a player fully verified and with proper analytics.

Q.: What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learning that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have at least one of them signed up?
Ans: Sports culture is coming to India, as we are aware we are a nation of 1300Mn people. Out of which 30-50Mn are actively engaged in sports and want to make career in sports. (Data from sports federations site) . In India the time has come for sports tech and fitness startup after wallets, so we are going to see a more increase in this number as government are working towards awaring people about sports and fitness.

Q.: What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
Ans: This sector is totally unorganized so the challenging part was to change people’s mindset and make them understand that this could help them in better way rather than the traditional approach that you are taking, as they are very much comfortable with the traditional way of doing things.

Q.: How are you pricing the Product? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc. ? Explain your thought process.
Ans: Business Model:

1. Talent Solution: In this we connect players with corporate using our unique valuation logic. We charge commission on athlete side here for this service.
2. Market Solution: Booking for academies, events etc. Promotion of sports academies on SportsApp to get more leads for their academies.
3. Corporate can also promote their sports product on SportsApp.
4. Subscription: Users in future can subscribe to our app to use more features

Q.: Please tell us about the investors (if any)
Ans: Sure. We raised Pre Seed INR 7 Lakh on 28/09/2018 from Mr. Sumeet Kapur and Angel Round fund of $50,000 on 21/08/2019 from Mr. Shubhrendu Khoche.

Pre Seed funding from Mr. Sumeet Kapur (Co-Founder & Ex-CFO of Nearbuy) helped to develop product and to launch it in a market in a better way, it also helped us in getting the market validation initially. Angel round funding from Mr Shubhrendu Khoche (Ex- VP Mastercard) who is a Singapore based angel investor helping us in our growth.

Q.: Since inception, give us a sense of the value of business done by your venture?
Ans: Revenue Rs 18L for 2019, User base of 5000, Clients “Cosco, NFSportech, SteelBird, WellCure, Alcis Sports etc”

Q.: What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product/service leading to something bigger? If so, how?
Ans: Sports culture is coming to India, as we are aware we are a nation of 1300Mn people. Out of which 30-50Mn are actively engaged in sports and want to make career in sports. (Data from sports federations site) . In India the time has come for sports tech and fitness startup after wallets, so we are going to see a more increase in this number as government are working towards awaring people about sports and fitness.

We are networking portal, so we focused on serving first 500 people well in the network so that that could trigger the contagious effect. We have partnered with many sports academies, Coaches in Delhi- NCR region and bought them onboard with us.

Q.: Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: Though the sector is unorganized still there are quite a few players in the market whom roundabout operate in the same target market. There are startups like RunAdam, SportsBrick to name a few. They all might have different unique selling propositions but they cater to the same audience as SportsApp.

We are different by our unique financial logic using which a player can get his market value.

Q.: What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months? Any other information you would like to share?
Ans: We are planning to increase our user base to 1 Lakh user by the end of 2020, and a revenue of Rs 65L.

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Thanks Shashank. All the best!