The Next Next: Update #20

Still world building in youth sports

For those of you tuning in for the first time, The Next Next is a ‘build in public’ type of journey from founder Jason Jacobs (me!) to explore 1) how I can build my next company differently (prioritizing health and family, not just work, while still building an ambitious and important company) and 2) how AI can help, and more broadly, how it will change how startups are built and funded.

There is this newsletter (subscribe here), which publishes weekly and chronicles the ground I covered that week, insights I’ve gleaned, topics I’m wrestling with, and where I plan to dig in the week following. And there’s also this podcast, which publishes twice a week, and explores these topics in-depth in a series of interview-style discussions with others who are well placed for me (and you!) to learn from. You can subscribe from your favorite pod player, like Spotify, Apple, or YouTube.

The goal of this public learning journey is to have it evolve over time from a journey into a livelihood, to prove to myself and others that it is possible to ‘have your cake and eat it too’, and to help define a new playbook for how to build companies that inspires many other founders to follow suit and gives them a roadmap for how to get started.

If you want to catch up, the historical weekly updates are here:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17, Week 18, Week 19

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Hey all!

Going to keep this fairly short, since as I mentioned in last update, it’s my oldest kid’s Bar Mitzvah this weekend so we have family in town, etc. I did want to make sure to get this update out though, as the weekly accountability of this update is something I take very seriously, even if no one reads it but me, lol.

Update on youth sports market discovery

Things continue to push along with my market discovery. I am having a blast meeting lots of interesting people, climbing the learning curve, and iterating on some early ideas. I am pushing forward with urgency (working founder hours when I can!), but am not in a rush when it comes to important decisions like where to anchor, who to partner with, etc. Keep me honest if I start to drag my feet, but I don’t think I am anywhere near that point.

I am still feeling good about the youth sports market. It is not without it’s challenges, that’s for sure. There is seasonality to worry about. Hyper-fragmentation (kind of like climate tech, each sub-market is really its own market). And natural churn, in the sense that kids and families could absolutely rely on your offerings and love your product and brand, but if when they outgrow playing youth sports, they outgrow being a customer. Those three challenges come directly and anecdotally from a longtime youth sports founder I have been talking to (been talking to many!).

But it’s also a humongous market with super passionate participants, is highly fragmented, and the challenges/opportunities (since they often go together!) are rampant everywhere you look across the spectrum.

I also wrestle with the ethics of the category. I would never want to do anything that would put the economics of the company ahead of the best interests of the kids and families. And sometimes, it seems like it is the dollars that are driving the direction of the category, which isn’t always aligned with what’s in the best interests of the kids.

That being said, I LOVE the category, believe strongly in the power of sports to teach valuable lessons, important skills, and instill good habits, confidence, memories, etc. I just want to check myself carefully, in terms of making sure that if I do anchor here, it is with a mission that truly aligns purpose and profits.

Update on some lanes I am exploring

Last week, I was talking about Duolingo for youth sports skills training. This week I have shifted that slightly, talking about opening up the high-end value prop of IMG Academy or D1 Training to many more people by packaging these high-end offerings in a way that is more accessible and affordable, and while it may not be as good in terms of quality, it would be far better than the people gaining access to it would have before we came along. It is similar to what Uber did for private black cars or what One Medical did for concierge doctors.

I’m also looking at other areas of pain. The fragmentation across sports and across specialists within a sport is rampant. The cost is out of control. The specialization, in many cases, is happening too early, which can be at the detriment of the kids. And the rich kids or the kids that are anointed as gifted early on get access to lots of extra help, while many others who might be late bloomers, play in smaller markets, etc get left behind.

Then there is the whole academic side, and how sports and academics tie together (or don’t). The recruiting process. The knowing what types of schools to target. The packing yourself and your abilities.

And of course, there is all the prep you could do (should do? might want to do? might not be motivated to do, but would be if it were made more fun?) behind the scenes on your own when no one is looking.

I seem to be gravitating towards the types of kids/athletes that probably aren’t serious enough to go to an IMG Academy as they either aren’t good enough, aren’t big enough, can’t afford it, or have too many other interests/pursuits, but are still serious about their sport(s) and hungry to dig in and get serious about their training. That is no surprise, as I think that’s probably where my own kids are.

I am not in a rush to get to building or make any decisions yet, I am really enjoying just kind of steeping in the category and getting to know everyone and see what comes out the other side.

Updates on what I might do

The short answer is I have no idea! But I trust that the answers will present as the process runs its course. If anything, the scope of options I would consider seems to be broadening. I might start something. I might join something. I might work across a few things. I am really enjoying hearing about what everyone is up to and lessons learned, etc, and we’ll see where it goes!

This all might sound less focused to you, but to me, it feels like the process is progressing exactly how it should be.

New episodes this week

Two new ones tbis week, Swupnil Sahai from SwingVision and Yohei Nakajima from Untapped Capital.

Swupnil was interesting, as he’s a fmr computer vision engineer at Tesla applying that and AI to racket sports. You can find that one here: Spotify, Apple, YouTube

Yohei was interesting, as he’s a VC who also built the first autonomous agent (BabyAGI), protypes using no-code tools to help inform his investment thesis, and is a lot more artist and philospher than any VC I have ever met before. You can find that one here: Spotify, Apple, YouTube.

Areas I could use some help

• point me to people to learn from based on what I am thinking about above

• point me to people you’d like to listen to on the pod longform discussing these topics

• get in touch if you have been thinking about the above areas and/or if the above got your gears cranking here

• point me to people doing cool stuff in sports tech, in AI, or in other tangential areas that might be relevant on the sneak like robotics, cameras, building new kinds of schools and/or training facilities, virtual coaching AI-powered or otherwise, etc etc

I think that’s it for now! I’ll include some Bar Mitzvah pics in next week’s update. Have a good week, everyone!

Jason