“MEDIAWORKS” #7: Solidpick
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Knoxville Entrepreneur Center is hosting its second annual “MediaWorks Demo Day” on August 11 at the Square Room on Market Square. If you have not registered, the event is sold out, but there is an “after party” starting at 7:30 p.m. at Cocoa Moon. Here is another of the profiles on the nine companies participating in this year’s start-up accelerator.)
Solidpick is one of nine companies participating in this year’s “MediaWorks” start-up accelerator program. We posed a set of questions to each of the entrepreneurs. Here are the responses from Matt Barocas.
- When did you first conceive the idea for your new start-up? 2013.
- Describe the product or service you are offering? It is a mobile application that allows sports fans to pick game winners and track their picks against other sports fans to determine who is the best at predicting games by team, division, conference, sport, etc. This accountability platform is at the center of our social network. Fans can share articles, videos and original content, creating a fan centric approach to the pregame analysis and allowing any sports fan to become a sports personality by consistently getting it right over time or providing the best game coverage.
- Why do you think the market is ready for this opportunity you are offering? Fantasy sports is a $1.5 billion industry and is growing. The derivative market created by fantasy sports is bigger than the sports leagues themselves.
- What do you think are the two or three biggest challenges you face that “MediaWorks” will be able to help you overcome? “MediaWorks” has already helped us tremendously, to identify our customers, value propositions and revenue streams, define our market and encourage us to get out of the building and interview customers. Fantasy sports is too time consuming and doesn’t accurately test sports knowledge. We’re creating a platform for sports fans to compete with their friends and fans worldwide for global recognition and prizes in far less time than traditional fantasy sports. We’re also aggregating hundreds of sources of content into a single platform.
- Finally, tell us a little about yourself such as hometown and education. Zachary Stuart is an incoming sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin studying business analytics. Matthew Barocas is an attorney practicing law in New York and Tennessee. Both are avid sports fans.
