#53 Entrepreneur Chat: Kai Bond + Deven Hurt - A Few Things - 43 Min

We discussed a few things including: 1. eSports/sports tech trends 2. How the funding of companies in this sector is changing 3. How fans are investing in their favorite athletes 4. Online betting and fintech integratiion into sports industry. 5. The intersection of crypto/NFTs and sports 6. Deven's startup, Prediction Strike Kai is a partner at Courtside Ventures. He is a: 3x Founder – marketplace, mobile gaming, and streaming platforms Investor at Hatch Labs, SamsungNEXT, and Comcast Ventures Formerly at Microsoft, Gerson Lehrman, IAC, and Oberon Media Graduate of Wesleyan Univerity----- Deven is the co-founder and CEO of PredictionStrike, a fantasy sports stock market that allows users to buy and sell shares of pro-athletes as if they were stocks. Prediction Strike was born from Deven's passion for sports, and aims to serve every type of sports fan. Prior to co-founding his company in 2018, he worked for Nike as a cybersecurity analyst. Deven’s background is impressive. In addition to earning a bachelor’s from Harvard (where he’s now in law school), he’s had stints at Google, Microsoft, the NBA, and Nike. Prediction Strike was born from his passion for sports and aims to serve every type of sports fan. Deven saw a golden opportunity at the intersection of personal finance and fantasy sports, one that has been magnified by the recent trend of stock market gamification. With Prediction Strike, users can buy and sell shares of their favorite pro athletes as if they were stocks. This is investing in its most engaging and exciting form, as it allows users to strategically customize portfolios that reflect their fandom. So far Prediction Strike has processed $4.5M worth of transactions and received $1.9M in funding. Deven is working to bring consumer investing into an exciting new arena, and would love to talk about transforming his passion into a venture-backed startup. As he sits at the forefront of an innovative new business model, he can offer valuable insights into what it’s like to navigate the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship and industry disruption.