Gemini Sports Analytics burst onto the scene in 2022 and has quickly become one of the top data analytics companies in all of sports.
Since launching they’ve signed clients such as the Indianapolis Colts, Texas A&M, and Italian Serie B’s Parma Calcio.
They have also raised more than $3 million from some of the top sports investors.
We spoke with founder Jake Schuster to gain more insight into how he started the company, where the company is today, and advice he has for other founders.
Hello, who are you and why did you start your company?
I’m Jake Schuster and I’m originally from Boston, Massachusetts, but I worked overseas in professional sports for about nine years. I got my Master’s in physiology, and my Doctorate in biomechanics. When I was working with the New Zealand, All Blacks rugby teams for the 2016 Olympics, I had to learn Matlab and Python technologies to process force and power profiling data. It was awful, and I was awful at it.
I realized there was a need for technologies that made it easier for people to use data to drive insights into how teams operate every day, such as raw roster management tactics and player performance. So it took about five years of that idea sitting in my head before I did anything about it.
I founded Gemini Sports Analytics at the end of 2021, starting 2022 with the idea of democratizing data access, and helping teams accelerate the data maturity and their access to machine learning.
What was the process of getting the company off the ground and designing the MVP?
I was very fortunate to have a great network from my time working in sports. I formally interviewed 27 different teams around the world during the product design process and asked them several specific questions. Things such as where their biggest pain points were, and what kind of systems they might typically have versus not have.
For those who don’t necessarily have a network of potential customers, I would say just pound the pavement and try and find a subject matter expert who can guide you in testing your hypothesis for the business. I’d also say much more important than the product is hustle.
I didn’t have the financial ability to bootstrap the business so I sought institutional investors. I had five people that I met at the gym write my first five checks, and then they each doubled and quadrupled their check size in the next six months. I also pitched more than 40 venture capitalists before I got one to say “Yes.”
So I’d say whatever your original ideas are, don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. Don’t keep trying to make it perfect. You’re going to have it carved and iterated over time through all the other learnings you’re gonna have.
What advice do you have for founders looking to find investors?
My advice is to keep going. Don’t take everything an investor says to you literally or seriously. People say things and they don’t often mean them. The reasons for rejecting you often aren’t accurate. It’s just kind of a smooth wave and letting you down easily.
Investors also want to be associated with other powerful investors. So the effort to land one big fish is worth the effort to land 10 small ones. Momentum is everything and spend way more money than you think you should on your pitch deck.
Can you give us an overview of where the company is today?
So we’ve got our first customers in the NFL, the NCAA, and European soccer. Currently working on expanding in NFL, Major League Soccer, NBA, and NHL. We’ve got, as of today, a little under half a million in revenue.
On the product side, I’d say we’re pre-product market fit. I’d say our product is now at the stage where people like it, are interested in it, and will use it, but we don’t yet have a fully repeatable sales process. We don’t yet have a clear signal on what the pieces are that will cause the team to want to buy and retain the product.
Through starting the business, are there any skills or things you’ve learned that have been particularly helpful?
Prioritize sleep and your health, even when you don’t want to because your performance in key interactions is going to drive your outcomes. So how you bring yourself to each meeting is going to get to be worth everything. So prioritizing your health is the biggest message I could drive home.
I’d also say, don’t think that any one thing is going to change your life. It’s possible that any one investor can change everything, but don’t get one hung up on getting certain clients, certain advisors, or certain investors, because there’s always another opportunity.
You’d be surprised how many times you get something that you’ve been wanting and working towards for years possibly and then it kind of comes and goes and you have to do the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing….
What are the predictions that you have for the industry over the next couple of years?
My top prediction is that teams are going to lean into the platform plays around their data systems and how they make data-driven decisions in a way that they haven’t before. Hiring a couple of data-skilled people is just one table stake that teams have taken and now they’re looking at how Fortune 500 businesses operate and how they spend millions each year on big box data companies. They’re realizing that they’ve got a lot of catching up to do. So I think teams leaning into not just flashy toys here and there, but actual systems and processes and platforms.
Along with that, I think we’re now edging towards a post-hype world on AI. Everyone’s played around with chatGPT and it’s spectacular. Now we’re thinking okay, what are the applications? How do we productize these new technologies? People are gonna be gonna kind of sober up about the excitement around it and start to focus on the signal and the noise of how we operationalize new capabilities for business advantage.
What advice do you have for other founders trying to build a team and hire talent?
From a recruiting standpoint, I would say lean on your network. Don’t be afraid to ask people for specific roles and needs. Be specific! Don’t expect people to do the work for you. Go out and tell people what you’re looking for. I would love to give a shout-out to my recruitment partners at Cruit, that’s Ryan Levy and Chris Quintero over in Tampa.
They’ve found more than half of our staff. Recruiters can be a giant waste of time and money, and they can also completely change the game for you and those folks are absolutely out of this world. I’d also think about who you recruit. I’d take amazing energy and personality over skills talent and experience every day of the week.
The worst thing that a founder can waste their time on is someone with a great CV, and flashy for them to have around, but doesn’t work hard and isn’t committed or is difficult to work with. So people first and skills second.
Everybody says this, but then it’s one of those things that you don’t understand until you experience it. Also, don’t be shy about equity. A lot of people won’t even stick around long enough for it to vest. So show people your gratitude for their involvement and commitment by giving out a lot of equity knowing that either a lot of it’s going to come back to you to give out to someone else, or you’re going to be so successful doesn’t matter.
Are there any particular software tools or products that you use to help with productivity daily?
I like Notion. I can’t stand Slack, but I haven’t found a better alternative. I have a strict no internal emails rule that I swear by. People have enough in their inbox. They don’t need to be populated by long threads from their colleagues. Find one communication tool that you all use and stick to that. If you have more than three texts, back and forth, on Slack or whatever, just pick up the phone and call each other.
I strongly believe in personal work and the power of people getting in rooms and figuring things out together. I think that radical candor and honesty are really easy things to say you’ll do and really hard things to do. The more people discuss harsh truths and get into each other’s faces, the faster you get better.
Are you guys currently hiring? And if so, like where can people find out more and apply?
We’re hiring a marketing manager. We’re hiring a principal data scientist. We are long term looking for a chief technology officer. We do occasionally have things on our website about it. The best place to go would be to contact the Cruit Group on LinkedIn.
For more information about Gemini Sports Analytics: www.geminisports.co
