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Find a co-founder for your sports startup

Sports startups serve amateur athletes, clubs and associations, gyms, event organisers, local authorities or brands, with training apps, club management tools, connected devices, booking services or content.

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In short

To find a co-founder for a sports startup, publish your project for free on EasyCofounder stating your target (amateur athletes, clubs, gyms, local authorities or brands) and the profile you lack, often a developer for a founder from the field or a sports insider for a technical founder, then test your offer with a club or a community of athletes.

The founding team benefits from combining someone who knows the reality on the ground, a coach, instructor, former athlete or club manager, a technical profile able to build the product, and a sales profile at ease with contacts as different as volunteer club officials and municipal sports departments.

On EasyCofounder, describe the sport you are targeting, your first conversations with clubs or athletes and the role on offer, then meet developers, marketers and sports enthusiasts who want to join a new project.

In the UK and Ireland, grassroots sport depends heavily on volunteers, clubs and national governing bodies, while public bodies such as Sport England, sportscotland, Sport Wales and Sport Ireland fund participation programmes, which shapes who adopts new tools and how decisions are made.

A strong team often combines a product engineer comfortable with mobile apps and wearables data, a co-founder from coaching, club management or sports science who knows how athletes really train, and a partnerships lead able to work with governing bodies, leisure operators and brands.

Building a Sports startup: what matters

  • The field as your first lab

    Clubs, gyms and associations are ideal places to test a product with real users, as long as you understand their constraints: tight budgets, overstretched volunteers and seasons driven by competitions.

  • Health data and connected devices

    An app that collects health or performance data must comply with data protection law, such as GDPR in Europe, and depending on the claims made, with rules on medical devices. Clarify this with a specialist before launch.

  • Varied customers

    Selling directly to athletes, to clubs, to local authorities or to companies for workplace sport calls for different channels and a different sales co-founder, so choose a priority target early.

  • Safeguarding and young athletes

    Products used by children or in youth sport must take safeguarding seriously, from messaging features to data collected, and the ICO’s Children’s Code may apply to online services likely to be used by children, so take advice before launch.

  • Business models in sport

    Subscriptions for athletes, software fees for clubs and gyms, booking commissions, sponsorship and brand partnerships, or contracts with leisure operators and councils, many startups combine a free tier for athletes with paid tools for organisations.

  • Where to meet sports people

    Universities with strong sport science departments such as Loughborough, county and national sports partnerships, coaching networks and sports industry events are good places to meet founders who combine field credibility and ambition.

Find your co-founder in 4 steps

  1. 1

    Create your free profile

    Describe your skills, your availability and what you bring to a founding team.

  2. 2

    Publish your project

    Say which role you are looking for (CTO, CEO, CMO…), the commitment expected and the equity on offer, in Sports.

  3. 3

    Let the matching work

    Filter talent by skill and location, or get suggestions of compatible profiles from the AI matching.

  4. 4

    Talk, then meet

    Chat through the built-in messaging, test your collaboration on a first project and put your agreement in writing in a shareholders’ agreement.

Frequently asked questions

Can a former athlete become a co-founder?

Yes. A former athlete or coach brings a detailed understanding of athletes’ needs and a valuable network in clubs, as long as their role in the company is clearly defined, for example product, partnerships or sales.

What co-founder should I look for to build a sports app?

If you come from sport, look for a mobile developer or technical profile able to build a simple first version. If you are technical, look for someone who knows athletes and clubs and can convince them to test the product.

How can I test a sports startup idea?

Start with interviews with athletes, coaches or club managers, then offer a limited trial to one club or community. Our guide to validating your idea details the questions to ask before building anything.

Where can I find a co-founder for a sports project?

Publish your project for free on EasyCofounder stating the sport and target you have in mind, then extend your search to clubs, sports management courses and sport and innovation events.

Should a sports startup target clubs or individual athletes first?

Clubs bring groups of users at once but buy slowly and on tight budgets, while individuals can be reached directly but cost more to acquire, so test both quickly and focus on the channel where engagement is strongest.

Can a sports app make health claims?

Be careful, because claims about diagnosing, treating or preventing conditions can bring software under medical device rules overseen by the MHRA in the UK, so word your claims precisely and take regulatory advice.

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