Former college athlete David Chadwick used his experiences in the locker room and background in entrepreneurship to cultivate a safe space for student athletes.
Chadwick launched the Charlotte-based startup RealResponse in 2016 as a web-based platform that gives student athletes the opportunity to provide feedback and concerns to their college or university's athletic programs.
He said athletes can use the platform to report feedback related to teammates and coaching staff, rules violations, social justice issues and Covid-19 protocol violations. Those reporting a concern have the option to use their name or remain anonymous.
"It's a reporting portal that gives a student the ability to come in and report a concern at any time," he said. "Administrators have the ability and responsibility to then respond back to that student... It allows them to really build out a thorough documentation trail."
Chadwick said the concept began as a college course project in 2012 that unexpectedly grew into a viable startup, originally called RealRecruit, in 2015.
"I had been playing at different schools and having different experiences, and I wanted to give other student athletes a place to better use their voice," he said. "I began to cold call athletic directors and ended up interviewing more than 200, trying to find what their challenges were and how they got their feedback."
More than 100 colleges and universities across the country have begun using the platform over the last four years, including the University of North Carolina, UNC Charlotte, Davidson College and Wake Forest University, Chadwick said.
Just last month, the company rebranded as RealResponse in an effort to better encapsulate its mission.
"The rebrand gives us that ability to focus where our value is and be flexible as we continue to grow across this space," he said. "We've seen great traction recently with a need to provide athletes with a voice... They're using that voice like never before."
Schools can also conduct end-of-year surveys to give student athletes additional opportunities to provide feedback in a variety of ways, he said. The platform collects, summarizes and sends the results to administrators in real time.
Two examples of how the data may be used to show trends are women's soccer and softball. Chadwick said, across the board, those sports tend to score lower in overall satisfaction.
"Those trends across the country show that it's a broader issue. It lets them see how their data compares to peer national averages and gives programs the ability to benchmark," he said. "It's already provided invaluable information for administrators to understand what's going on within their programs."
In 2021, Chadwick said the focus will shift to the mental health aspect of the platform.
"There's been this need for student athletes to voice their concerns related to social injustices, as well as Covid-19," he said. "Mental health overlaps both of those things, so next year we're targeting growth across that space."
