A Philadelphia-based startup, backed by a Hollywood actor, launched its app last week with the goal of creating an interactive digital space where sports fans can reminisce and connect.
MyFandom allows fans to share photos, videos, memories and stories from sporting events they previously attended, pulling from a database of some 100,000 games and matches. Just a week after launching on Apple's App Store, it has already amassed thousands of users, co-founder Fred Shernoff said.
In addition to Fred Shernoff, the company was co-founded by his brother Josh Shernoff, as well as actor Freddie Prinze Jr., who is also a co-owner in the venture. Prinze is known for his 1990s and 2000s roles in movies like "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "She's All That," and "Scooby-Doo."
MyFandom works by having users tag the events they've attended and post into a feed where others who also attended those games or matches can chime in. Currently, users can share memories for U.S.-based baseball, basketball, boxing, football and professional wrestling events. Other sports like hockey will be added to the platform in time.
Sports, WWE in particular, is a passion of Prinze's outside of acting. He previously served in roles as a special guest host, as a member of the creative staff and as a producer for the wrestling organization.
About a year ago, Fred Shernoff, a more than 20-year commercial real estate industry veteran who was previously president of Warrington-based Tri-Star Commercial Real Estate, and Josh Shernoff, a sports media personality in the wrestling world, were looking for a new business venture. The brothers, originally from Upper Dublin, had heard rumors that Prinze was pondering a new business venture in the wrestling space. Through some shared contacts, they connected with the actor and began to build a relationship.
The Shernoffs' idea encompassed all sports and they found that Prinze was "very interested in what we were starting to develop as the idea evolved," Fred Shernoff said.
Together, they set out to create a platform where users could "curate the legacy of their fandom" and contribute "to the overall story" of a sporting event, Fred Shernoff said.
"Essentially, the events that they have experienced and the nostalgia, the feelings and the emotions that are tied up in that, that's something that really wasn't being met anywhere," he added.
Sporting events gain a lot of online traction in real time thanks to social media hashtags, but quickly fade from discussion after their conclusion. Because of that, there isn't a medium to reminisce about past games, Fred Shernoff said. MyFandom is trying to change that.
Prinze, in a statement, said MyFandom gives fans "the tools to showcase their passion, connect with like-minded individuals, and create a lasting legacy."
The app gives its users the ability to post about their memories from a sporting event on what emulates a traditional social media feed or comment section. As users tag and post about the events they've attended on their profile, it creates an individual history of sporting events a user has witnessed first-hand.
"There's a connection that people established not just with the teams or who won that night, but about those experiences [and] what you bring to the moment," Fred Shernoff said.
The app, which has been bootstrapped by the founders thus far, was built by Fred Shernoff. He began developing an outline for it about 18 months ago before undertaking the coding, which is a hobby of his.
"When this idea started to come together, I looked at it and thought, well, this might be something I'd actually like to challenge myself with. I think I can do this," he said. Fred Shernoff has since taken on MyFandom full-time.
His experience is with iOS apps, so for now MyFandom is exclusively available to Apple users. Over the next few months, the founders are looking to raise capital so that they can contract software developers to build Android and web versions of MyFandom.
An ad-supported version of the app is currently free to download, though users can pay a monthly subscription fee for an ad-free experience. In time, Fred Shernoff said that he plans to secure sponsor partnerships for advertisements on the platform, similar to how live broadcasts work.
"We have a lot a lot of expectations for where this is going to go over the next few months and we're having fun doing it," he said.
