St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol says he likely spends his free time a bit differently than his colleagues.
“Some people play golf or tennis, that’s their hobby. My hobby is business,” Marmol said.
That's because besides his role with the Cardinals, Marmol is an entrepreneur and co-founder of sports-focused educational technology startup Versus (VS). It’s a venture he’s launched with his wife, Amber, and two other co-founders with Cardinals ties.
VS, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, announced Tuesday that it plans next month to launch its technology, a mobile app designed to provide instruction and mentorship to athletes. The subscription-based app will include video-based instruction that is geared toward athletes as well as coaches and parents. It has been built with “conversational artificial intelligence technology” that allows users to pose questions to the instructors and receive answers from them immediately, officials said.
In building out its product, VS has worked with New York-based design agency Fantasy to create its app and website and Los Angeles-based technology company StoryFile to include its conversational AI technology.
VS' initial roster of instructors boasts eight athletes, including Major League Baseball stars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Albert Pujols and former Olympic softball players Jennie Finch and Jessica Mendoza. VS' initial programming will focus on baseball and softball instruction, and it plans to begin offering content for soccer and additional sports later this year. It said its courses will cover both on-field skills and the mental aspect of sports.
VS has developed its technology with the backing of venture capital. That includes $1.5 million in a seed funding round and $7 million in Series A financing. As it launches operations, it is opening a $20 million Series B round, Oliver Marmol said. Marmol declined to disclose specific investors in the company, but said VS has received funding from professional athletes across several sports, among other investors.
In addition to Oliver and Amber Marmol, co-founders of VS include former Cardinals manager Mike Shildt and Trey Nielsen. Nielsen previously played in the Cardinals’ minor league system and is customer experience leader at VS. The edtech startup, which has around a dozen full-time employees, is led by CEO Eric Frye and has its headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama.
Taking a swing at business
Oliver Marmol was named manager of Cardinals in October 2021, replacing Shildt, who was fired following the 2021 season. The 35-year-old Marmol is currently the youngest manager in MLB. He’s been part of the Cardinals organization since 2007, playing in the club’s minor league system from 2007 to 2010 before transitioning to a coaching career.
For Oliver and Amber Marmol, their interest in business began in 2011 when they took a trip with their church to Guatemala. They spent time there at an orphanage and feeding center, interacting with impoverished children.
“It kind of just broke our hearts,” Amber Marmol said.
But as they returned to the U.S. and shared their experience with others, feedback they heard from others was “isn’t it amazing to see how much you have and these poor kids, how little they have?" Amber Marmol said.
“We felt like that wasn’t the message we were supposed to take in,” she said. “We wanted to be able to make sure we were able to help provide opportunities for other people.”
As part of that mission, the couple envisioned creating a sustainable business that could make giving back to the underserved a key tenet of its identity. VS has pledged to provide 10% of its top line revenue to charitable organizations that work with underserved youth. The company also plans to use partnerships and athlete sponsorship to provide 50,000 free subscriptions to athletes who wouldn't be able to afford its product. Marmol said the company would match those partnerships and sponsorships to give away an additional 50,000 subscriptions. It hopes to reach that 100,000 figure by the end of 2023.
The mobile app created by VS is built upon the experience of Oliver Marmol, who said he’s been lucky to have access to high-profile mentors who have propelled his career. He wants his edtech startup to give young athletes that same experience.
“For me personally, that mentorship was what led me to have this role today. It was being able to tap into those resources and ask the questions and listen to their stories and ask follow-up questions to that. That expedited my development and trajectory to now being manager of the Cardinals,” Marmol said.
More than baseball
The launch of VS’ app will overlap with Marmol’s debut as Cardinals manager. But it wasn’t scripted that way, Marmol said.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time. The funding we’ve received has now put us in a position to execute and do this well now. The timing of it was definitely a coincidence,” he said.
VS' entrance into the market gives a glimpse to a side of Marmol that most Cardinals fans likely wouldn’t expect. An MLB manager makes for an atypical entrepreneur, but Marmol says his startup highlights how his family’s passions and interests extend beyond his work on the baseball diamond. And he says his careers as manager of the Cardinals and startup co-founder tap into the same mission: impacting others and helping them realize the full potential of their skills.
“When you think about my position being the manager of the Cardinals, at the end of the day, you’re just managing personalities and you’re having influence over a group of men that are trying to win. When I think about VS, it’s no different. It’s having an influence over the overall staff we bring on and then, as a platform, having an influence over the next generation. They are very similar principles that allow you to have success,” he said.
