The Game Plan

Human beings have been collecting non-utilitarian items for millennia. It just so happens that with the advent of the digital age, we're now able to collect items from around the world and display them digitally for fellow collectors all over the world to admire as well. Add to this Digital Collectibles, like NFTs, and you've got a space ripe for tech innovation.

Into this fray comes DeShone Kizer, standout QB at Notre Dame who played 5 years in the NFL before launching his own startup One of None, which uses blockchain technology to launch limited-edition hybrid assets, letting collectors seamlessly exchange between the physical and digital versions of their items. DeShone explains what 'vaulting' is and why it is an important part of the infrastructure that allows for the transaction of digital goods that are tied to unique and timeless physical assets.

We also discuss the importance of bringing your full self to your business as an entrepreneur and some of the personal challenges that DeShone has shared making the transition from NFL QB to startup founder. I really enjoyed this conversation with Deshone and learned a ton about the world of digital collectibles so I'm thrilled to be able to share the conversation with all of you.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

If you listen to this show regularly, you know that the shifting interest of athletes from endorsement to ownership is something we talk about a lot. Well, it turns out that in the last few years, athletes aren’t the only ones that are thinking about how to get ownership in the brands, companies and financial institutions they help build as early adopters, micro-influencers, or simply as customers.

You may come across terms like Web3, Creator Economy, or even DAOs as in 'Decentralized Autonomous Organization.'

Today’s episode focuses on the latter through the lens of The Player Company, founded by our two guests NFL Defensive Lineman Sheldon Day and former Wide Receiver Amir Carlisle. Teammates and friends since their earliest days at Notre Dame, the two co-founders are leveraging this unique infrastructure to provide both education and investment opportunities to both athletes as well as their communities at large.

Together with Amir and Sheldon, we dug into what DAOs are and how using tokens, they unlock and incentivize behaviors around managing and investing money that simply isn’t possible in the current "Web 2 Ecosystem". We certainly learned a lot from our guests about the power of group economics and though it's early days for both their company and the Web 3 ecosystem at large, I’m optimistic about this new model of participation that the Players Company hopes to unlock.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

In many ways, Bennie Fowler's story is the epitome of resilience and exactly the kind of journey we love sharing onThe Game Plan every week. Bennie had tremendous success in college at Michigan State and like many of his fellow players, expected to hear his name called during the NFL Draft. Unfortunately, that announcement never came.

Instead, Bennie chose to focus on maximizing his opportunity, fighting to make his way on the roster for the Denver Broncos and catching passes from NFL Legend and Future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. In addition to Peyton, Bennie has also played with Future Hall of Famers Eli Manning and Drew Brees. Bennie compares and contrasts leadership lessons from all 3 QBs as well as how he reflects on and applies these lessons in a business context.

Bennie also shares with our listeners the difference between business consulting and business coaching and how Bennie's post-NFL ambitions brought him to the latter and how he works with promising businesses and founders every day. This episode is literally one you can't afford to skip!

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

Podcasting and social audio as a viable business has seen explosive growth in the past decade, the last few years especially. With Spotify having spent over $1Bn to acquire both tech and talent, apps like Clubhouse raising at multi-billion valuations, and even platforms like Twitter launching their own social audio Spaces, we felt this topic deserved a deeper dive.

Given the global range of social audio, it's only fair that our guide on this journey joins us from across the pond in Ireland. Shane Monahan played at the highest level of professional rugby in both Ireland and the UK, falling in love with startups and entrepreneurship along the way.

Shane and Jay dive into the trajectory of Shane's career, the future ahead of podcasting and social audio, the state of the landscape for apps like Spotfy Greenroom, Clubhouse, Twitter Space and more -- and why Limor wants to do for audio, what TikTok did for videos.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

In this week's episode of The Game Plan, we venture into the wild, wild west of the internet: Digital collectibles, NFTs and Web3. What does it mean for athletes, how is it changing how athletes think about their personal brands and ability to monetize their work on and off the field, and who the key stakeholders in this new tokenized world are and will be.

Our guide through this wild and rocky terrain is Luke Bonner, former pro basketball player who has spent his entire career, helping his peers and those that came after he think about brand development and ownership, well before NIL became a buzzword. Luke played both overseas and in the NBA D-League, after which he spent many years advising college and pro athletes on the key labor relations issues of the last decade. Looking ahead to the next decade, Luke is now applying all of his knowledge to building PWRFWD, the definitive athlete-to-consumer marketplace. 

To-date PWRFWD has worked with athletes including Sue Bird, Mo Bamba, Breanna Stewart, Sony Michel, Tacko Fall and more. Special thanks to our friend and PWRFWD investor Jordan Fliegel for the intro to Luke.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

The essence of an entrepreneur is to recognize a problem, realize you're the best person to solve it, then get to work solving it. With the amazing work he has done over the last decade with Classroom Champions, Steve Mesler is a great example of one such entrepreneur. 

Despite bringing home a gold medal for the USA in the 2012 Winter Olympics, former Olympic bobsledder Stever Mesler jokes that his job consisted of "running hard for a few seconds then sitting for a minute". He tells us how he went from an injury-filled track career in college to making the US Olympic Bobsled team. So how did he translate that Olympic experience into building an international non-profit, serving thousands of schools and tens of thousands of K-8 students?

The Game Plan co-host Jay Kapoor dives into all aspects of building Classroom Champions with Steve Mesler and uncovers why sports is such an important construct to teach life-long lessons to young students.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

For over 10-years Blaine Scully donned the red, white, and blue for Team USA and led the team to 3 World Cup appearances.

Blaine says his foray into the sport was almost accidental "Rugby found me. When you find what you want to do, everything just clicks" so we discuss what that feeling was like and how the sport took him down the road less traveled playing for teams in the UK including the Cardiff Blues and Leicester Tigers.

We also discussed Blaine's great podcast and video show "Captains Code" where we spoke to leaders across sport about some of the hardest decisions they have had to make and the lessons they impart on building high-performing cultures.

This was a really fun and candid conversation with a leader on the international stage about having the perseverance to make it to the highest level... then having the courage and humility to start over.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

While it's not uncommon to see two brothers make it to the NFL one after each other, this is a first for The Game Plan. We're thrilled to have Brendon Ayanbadejo, the younger brother of Season 2 Game Plan guest Femi Ayanbadejo. Which brother brought more energy and enthusiasm to the show, it's really hard to say so we'll let you make that call! 

Brendon knew the NFL stands for "not for long" and started preparing for life after the game much sooner than a lot of his peers. Despite this, he still had a pretty epic 10-year career in the NFL, going from undrafted FA to making the Pro Bowl 3x as a Special Teams maven and winning Super Bowl XLVII. 

As he transitioned from the NFL and got his MBA, Brendon helped bring Orangetheory Fitness to his home state of California as a franchisee and developer. He invested a few million as a founding partner of West Coast Fitness which now has over 55+ franchises at the time of a successful exit to a private equity backer a few years ago. As he jokes "Sports is just competitive fitness" and Brendon shares his Pea-Pod Theory that helped him find a problem, passion, and purpose to be dedicated to in his post-NFL career.

Beyond that, Brendon's interests are as varied as the roles he played on the football field. He's passionate about health & fitness tech of course but he pairs that with his love of EV & Battery tech, FinTech across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other Crypto assets. A few companies he's directly invested in include Tonal, Pathwater, Impossible Foods, Hyperice, aXiomatic, and Rubric and we discuss how he enjoys investing both as a VC as well as a PE investor

As Brendon likes to say "Through the grief and strife, we have the choice to adapt & innovate, or succumb to the powers that be. The underdog that I am, I choose to adapt & innovate." This was an uplifting and inspirational conversation with a former NFLer thriving in his second act.

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full-length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

Joe Hawley has nothing left to prove to anyone. In fact, he came to this very realization himself standing on the sidelines with his Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates during Week 1 of his last NFL season. Right then he decided that he was finally done proving something in NFL. He was now ready for the challenges waiting for him on the other side of playing professional football.

But like any good epic story, Joe first needed to embark on his own hero's journey. A spiritual journey in purpose, but also a literal one. Joe Hawley sold almost all his things and set off for a cross-country road trip in a camper van with his dog, to visit as much of the United States as he could. He chronicled much of his travels himself via his Man Van Dog Blog and his one-of-a-kind journey was also chronicled in both Men's Health and USA Today

Now the founder of The Hart Collective, Joe Hawley sits down with Jay Kapoor to share some of the realizations he came to on his road trip, how he came to terms with his place in the universe, what it really means to be a professional athlete, how anyone can develop a digital presence, and why the only way to grow as a person is to seek out the things that scare you the most.

This was a fantastic, life-affirming conversation with one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking guests we'd had on The Game Plan and we can't wait for your to hear this episode with former NFL Center and Founder of the Hart Collective, Joe Hawley

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show highlights professional athletes' stories that will help our listeners raise their game both in business and in life

Did you know you can watch, as well as listen to The Game Plan? Check out our YouTube Page for full length episodes and fun video clips

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]

In terms of football, Christian Ponder is probably best known for his three years as the starting quarterback at Florida State under head coach Bobby Bowden. What most people don’t know, however, is that Ponder also won the 2010 Bobby Bowden Award, presented to the top student-athlete among FBS schools, and graduated from Florida State in just two and a half years with a degree in finance and a 3.73 GPA.

Today, Ponder is seeking to develop a community of other like-minded former athletes who have taken their drive from sport and converted it into business pursuits and other passions. Ponder is co-founder of The Post, a professional membership community launching early in 2022 that will help athletes apply their unique skill set to achieve their professional goals.

In our conversation . . .

About The Game Plan

The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show features professional athletes and their business interests beyond sports.

You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.

Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]