Startup helps NCAA athletes maximize new money-making rules

21-year-old entrepreneurs Casey Adams and Kieran O'Brien joined Yahoo Finance to explain how their new company, MediaKits, helps NCAA athletes show off their social media reach to brands.

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ADAM SHAPIRO: OK, if you're a fan of "Ted Lasso," and many of us are, then every time they say nil, it means nothing, right? That's the English. But in the United States, NIL is Name, Image, and Likeness. Because NIL is actually-- well, let's say it's good for college athletes, who can finally make some money based on their name, their image, and likeness. But how do you do that? Let's bring into the stream the co-founders of MediaKits, Casey Adams, Kieran O'Brien, and also our sports reporter and producer Josh Schafer to help us get through this discussion.

But let me start with you, Casey. What does MediaKits actually-- the two of you, by the way, I should point out, are 21 years old. I have suits which are older than both of you, so I'm feeling intimidated, and what have I done with my life? But what does MediaKits provide to these college athletes who now can make a legitimate amount of money off of their talent and their names? Casey?

CASEY ADAMS: Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having us. So MediaKits is a platform for influencers and athletes to create a media kit-- a custom media kit online with real-time data and analytics. And with the recent rule of the NIL, where athletes can monetize, athletes are now influencers, and they have followings online that they can monetize. So we want to be a tool that these athletes can utilize and not only get brand deals, but to best position themselves to future brand sponsorships.

JOSH SCHAFER: And, Kieran, I think you guys are about a month into this now. What's business been like? How are you guys kind of getting your name out there? And who's reaching out to you the most, you think? Is it college athletes, or is it different influencers trying to learn more about this?

KIERAN O'BRIEN: Right. Well, it's been awesome so far. There's been a ton of adoption across various different verticals. Athletes are definitely a big portion of the users that we've had signed up so far. But I would say it's pretty evenly split between athletes, musicians, social media creators, bloggers, and so on and so forth.

ADAM SHAPIRO: So, Kieran, if it's evenly split among influencers, if I'm one of those people and I come to you, walk me through what you do. And I would imagine, is it a fee basis, or is it a commission basis? How does it work?

KIERAN O'BRIEN: Right. Well, I think the important thing to understand, too, is that, you know, these athletes, while they are NCAA athletes, they are now, because of this NIL rule recently, they are now influencers as well. They're digital creators just as much as the fashion blogger is, right? But yeah, the process for mediakits.com is very straightforward.

And they go to our website, they sign up, they create their media kit. It takes less than 60 seconds. They connect all of their social media profiles to get real-time data and analytics. And then from there, it's easily shareable. They can send their link out to brands who are inquiring to work with them. They can contact brands directly through the platform. And this provides an easy, smooth way for them to conduct brand partnerships.

JOSH SCHAFER: And, Casey, we were just showing some of your clients on the screen, actually. You guys have BC receiver Zay Flowers, Michigan State player Jayden Reed. They both had big weekends last weekend, right? They had touchdowns that kind of decided the game and kind of had a viral moment, if you will. How do you guys kind of advise players like that to take advantage of that moment? Is that something that they can kind of try and take advantage of on their social platforms almost instantly after the game?

CASEY ADAMS: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, not only do they have big plays, but I think the biggest thing to understand now is these athletes, they have a responsibility and an opportunity to capitalize on those moments where traditionally, right, where if an NFL player was to make a big play and their social media statistics are going crazy that day, they could capitalize. So I think now what we've talked to with the different athletes that we have on board is you need to make sure that you have a media kit that is updating your statistics, like ours does for them.

And I think most importantly, if a player has a great play or makes the game, they are not only going to receive so much inquiries from brands or new followers or a new community, but they now have an ability to easily share that when it comes to data, to the numbers that are growing to the plays that are on their media kit.

And I think it's such a big opportunity now because they have so much coverage outside of just social media, but the different companies that are covering them, ESPN or any sports network, where I think we're very well positioned to not only help educate these athletes, but to truly give them something that they can utilize once these big plays happen like happened last weekend.

JOSH SCHAFER: And with that, it kind of works both ways, in some ways, where we've seen some of these players that have gotten the big deals this year maybe haven't had the seasons that some thought they were. We've had a couple of Heisman hopefuls that, you know, their team-- Clemson now sitting at 2 and 2, falling out of the top 10 for the first time in almost five years, and their quarterback is in a Dr. Pepper commercial. I think that's something that people are kind of trying to get used to. Kieran, how do you kind of-- how should players handle that? If you have a big loss on Saturday, do you go silent on social for a week and maybe try not do an ad? Or are they just separate things that you keep pushing forward with?

KIERAN O'BRIEN: Right. Well, I think that comes down to the personal preference of the player. My kind of viewpoint on it is that, again, coming back to my point earlier, these athletes are now, by default, influencers. And having a bad season or a bad week or a bad weekend doesn't necessarily change the fact that they're one of the most influential people in their local communities. So I think they should-- they should definitely continue on with the monetization side of their career regardless.

And then it's also important to keep in mind that a lot of NCAA athletes don't end up going pro, whether by choice or whatever happens or an injury or what have you. But once they go into the workforce, or even if they go pro and then retire, it's important to remember that they still have that influence on social media, even past their NCAA career. So I do think that it's important for them to take advantage of it as much as possible when they're kind of in the moment and they have the opportunity to make those big plays.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Kieran, clearly, there's a lot of money to be made from the social media side of this. But in the days of old, an influencer needed a press conference and a longer, you know, than a TikTok video or a press conference soundbite. You have the ability to bring those influencers to their own media, perhaps, video conferencing situation. Are you looking at that, or do you provide that? Now you don't need the press.

KIERAN O'BRIEN: I mean, at the moment, that's not a solution that we provide. It's definitely interesting. But I think right now, we really want to just help support these athletes and these influencers by giving them a platform for them to monetize off of, and that's kind of what we've built so far. But that is an interesting take on it, for sure.