Millions.co is a social commerce platform that caters to pro and semi-pro athletes that may not be able to command the big endorsement deals of the top sports personalities like Cristiano Ronaldo or LeBron James per a recent Techcrunch article.
This cross section of athletes still have significant fan bases that they want to monetize and Millions helps them do that. The company launched its fan engagement platform in April of this year.
What the company offers:
- Custom merchandise service which includes free design for T-shirts and other swag;
- Ask-me-anything personalized videos similar to Cameo; and
- Pay-per-view livestream of an athlete that fans can buck up to watch.
It’s a clever product offering with a voluminous target market of athletes – definitely a millionaire-next-door style business model.
Financing and founders. The company self-funded their initial efforts and now has raised a Series A financing of $10 million led by Volition Capital.
The founding team:
- CEO Matt Whitteker, a boxing gym owner who co-founded the supply chain data management unicorn Assent Compliance and NoNotes.com;
- CMO Brandon Austin, co-founder of Go-Fish Cam;
- Advisor, Adrian Salamunovic, co-founder of DNA 11 and CanvasPop;
- Advisor, Scott Whitteker (Fight for the Cure)
- Advisor, Bruce Buffer (a veteran sports announcer)
Early traction. Millions has around 300 athlete profiles live on the platform but says it has thousands of athletes who are interested in using the service.
They are offering athletes a “signing bonus” when they join the platform and start selling merch— there is a sliding scale of bonus cash up to $5K.
On the take. Millions’ business model is to take a 20% cut of all sales athletes make via the platform — hedge fund business model meets the sports world.
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