Rich Thompson’s vision for his new technology platform, Podium X, is for current and recent former student athletes to have a “podium” that gives them the confidence and connections Thompson himself didn’t have coming out of college.
It's like LinkedIn, Thompson says, except Podium X emphasizes the athletic résumé and soft skills honed by high-level athletic participation.
Thompson, who still holds the University of Wisconsin's single-season record for successful field goals and spent two training camps with the Green Bay Packers, brings his own athletic résumé to the startup. Perhaps more importantly, he also brings his experience as chief human resources officer for the Americas, UK and Ireland at The Adecco Group. Adecco, which until recently had its North American headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, is the world’s second largest HR provider and temporary staffing firm.
Joining Adecco, Thompson said, was largely luck — not because he didn’t have the skills, he said, but because he was a student athlete, focused almost entirely on athletics. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a First-Team All-Big Ten placekicker, he tried out for the Packers as a free agent. Those were years that required intense focus, and when they ended in 1994, he had no idea what he wanted to do.
“I just got lucky by landing in the staffing industry, and I’ve been in it since,” he said.
In 2019, Thompson launched his own human resources solutions company, Xtra Point Group in Jacksonville. He rolled out Podium X in mid-February.
So far, the platform has 20 to 30 users, representing at least 10 universities, Thompson said on Friday. Partnering entities include Flagler College in St. Augustine, the Southeastern Conference and Baseball Assistance Team, a nonprofit affiliated with Major League Baseball.
The bulk of Thompson’s investment into the company — which he’s funded himself, with no outside investment — went into the development of the technology behind Podium X. He declined to disclose how much he has invested, though he said it mostly went toward Axon, a software development company based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Outsourcing the software development, he said, reduced the cost of the service. (While the ongoing conflict in Ukraine worries him generally, he said, the service is hosted on Amazon Web Services.)
The majority of the revenue Thompson plans to generate for Podium X, he said, should come from corporations using paid features on the site to find qualified candidates, as well as staffing companies paying to find candidates to place in positions. Companies will also pay to post jobs or sponsor the site.
The reason Thompson thinks companies will pay to recruit student athletes, he said, is because high-level athletics produces many of the traits necessary for high-level performance in many careers — more so than many student athletes themselves recognize, he said.
“The majority of what people are looking to hire for — unless they’re for technical jobs — it's just soft skill,” Thompson said. “Are they resilient? Do they have good grit? Are they going to hang in here longer? Are they coachable? Are they adaptable?”
The revenue Podium X has generated so far, though, belongs in a much smaller bucket, which is the money paid by entities like Flagler in exchange for student athletes there to be able to use the platform.
Matt Green, senior associate director of athletics for internal operations at Flagler College, said Flagler was interested in Podium X because it offered specialized support for student athletes in their career search.
"I think that [Podium X's] vision to use student athletes' experience in their sport as a source of strength really provides value for companies going forward," Green said.
By the end of the year, Thompson said he’s confident Podium X will be working with 25 universities, 10 of which will be well-known.
“Once we get our foot in the door," he said, "I think five becomes 25 really quickly."
