There are 60,000 small college teams below the Division I level across 4,000 schools that are not competitive. The winner of the Center for Creative Economy’s Velocity Demo Day wants to change that — using analytics.
Co-founder and CEO Adonis Abdullah said these teams have limited resources, spend too much time trying to find data, and then struggle to understand the analytic tools currently available.
“Ultimately, this means less revenue for the teams, fewer transfer opportunities for players and weakened job security for the coaches,” Abdullah said.
That’s where his Charlotte-based startup, Hot Route Analytics, comes in.
Hot Route Analytics has created an online platform called Home Team. It provides pre-populated data and summarizes the week’s activity to reduce research hours and improve player performance.
Abdullah said that Hot Route Analytics completed a successful beta round in the spring, where its 400 users saw a 15% increase in wins on average.
It was for this reason that Hot Route Analytics came in first place at the CCE’s Velocity Demo Day on Nov. 10, winning a $25,000 seed-stage, non-equity and non-interest loan.
CCE awarded a total of $50,000 to three startups that graduated from its Velocity Accelerator last week. Second place and $15,000 went to Guipil Publishing House and Academy, a Winston-Salem publishing startup that helps Latina women become authors. Guild Glass, a Winston-Salem glasshouse that makes building materials out of recycled glass, took home $10,000 for its third-place finish.
CCE said that 72 startups from 10 states applied for this year’s accelerator, with 12 accepted. Ten of those startups were from North Carolina, one was from Georgia and one from Sweden. Of the 12 startups, 67% are women-led and 42% were founded by people of color.
The startups that graduated from CCE’s 10-week Velocity Accelerator represented a range of industries, from home furnishings to home property analytics.
Aside from the three winners, the other nine startups were:
- Black Creative Universe (Wilmington) — a virtual community for Black creatives
- Blessed Inspiration Beauty Bar (High Point) — a natural beauty store and educational space for massage therapists
- Cipher-Lytics (Atlanta) — an analytics platform for tax lien property information
- Fifth (Malmo, Sweden) — an app that gamifies fashion through design challenges
- House of Gertrud (Winston-Salem) — a vintage store and artist workshop
- LBI Backstage Pass (Asheville) — a digital platform that brings women together online in a safe manner
- Matte Box Studio (Winston-Salem) — an all-purpose sound stage
- Red House Concerts (Rural Hall) — a startup focusing on producing Americana concerts
- The Black Aesthetic (High Point) — a Black-owned luxury home furnishings store
This was the seventh Velocity Demo Day that CCE has hosted in the entrepreneurial support organization’s 10-year history. The creative accelerator has launched 70 companies, with 80% still in business today. Those companies have earned $14 million in revenue, raised $21 million and created almost 300 jobs.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines attended Demo Day and spoke not only about the success of CCE since its creation, but also about economic development goals for the city and the impact of startups.
“We have set a goal for ourselves here in the city of Winston-Salem of creating, recruiting or otherwise getting 50 scalable companies a year,” Joines said. “We’re delighted that … you (startups and founders) chose Velocity and you chose Winston-Salem to come and hone your skills, perhaps find some money, get mentoring and move your business to the next level.”
In addition to CCE’s awards, Winston Starts awarded five of the companies — Black Creative Universe, Fifth, Guipil Publishing House and Academy, Guild Glass and Hot Route Analytics — entry into its Explore program, which is its base-level introductory program.
Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton awarded three startups — Black Creative Universe, House of Gertrud and The Black Aesthetic — free legal aid.
