Beating the Cold Start: Launching 🏈 Student Athletes' LinkedIn

FanBladz is a technology company that is focused on helping high school student athletes promote their academic and athletic successes to fans and recruiters.

Fanbladz faced a classic cold start problem: student athletes wouldn't join without coaches, and coaches stayed away due to the lack of athletes. This deadlock threatened the platform's mission to connect young athletes with college recruitment opportunities.

To combat the early challenge of attracting users to Fanbladz, we implemented a product-led growth strategy by introducing new game and roster management features.

Our goal was to tap into the inherent networks within high school sports and utilize the viral nature of social media to naturally draw and engage users.

We formed partnerships with coaches, giving them a simple tool to create their team’s roster, which could then be easily shared on the school's social media or printed for fans attending the games.

Here's our approach: