Former USC long-snapper Jake Olson experienced NIL chaos; now it's his business
Jake Olson leans forward, resting his elbows on a long wooden table in a Newport Beach, California, office where the five-man leadership group of his budding tech start-up is dialing into a pitch meeting. It's the start of a new round of fundraising, and he tells the wealthy men on the other end of the call that their business, and their industry, is on the precipice of exponential growth.
His two most trusted and loyal companions sit by his side. Daniel Hennes, the company's CEO who was previously Olson's roommate at USC, is rattling off talking points about the huge opportunity in front of them at his typical breakneck pace. Quebec, Olson's 11-year-old guide dog who was previously listed as the company's Chief Barking Officer, is snoring softly as he naps at Olson's feet.
Olson wears a pair of dark sunglasses and his company's name, Engage, across the chest of a gray T-shirt. He is explaining to the potential investors how he and Hennes used their unique experience in college to build an online platform to make it easier for companies to book athletes and other celebrities for speaking events. After weathering the pandemic, Olson and Hennes believe the coming year will be a boon for multiple reasons -- not the least of which is the unprecedented influx of eligible talent expected to invade the marketplace this summer.
"I'm telling you right now," Hennes chimes in on the call, "a year from now there will be five other things we're doing to make us money that we're not even thinking of right now."
Possibilities stretch further than the imagination at the moment for an industry that has grown quickly in anticipation of a tectonic change coming to the college sports world. Starting July 1, NCAA athletes in at least a half dozen states will be allowed to start making money from third-party endorsements. State laws will guarantee that players can profit from selling the rights to their name, image and likeness (NIL) in a wide variety of ways. The NCAA plans to vote at some point in the next week on rule changes that could open similar opportunities for every athlete under its authority.
College athletes in those states will be able to sign endorsement deals with sponsors or make money from speaking engagements, autograph signings, live event appearances, sports camps and lessons, social media shoutouts and any number of creative ways to cash in on their skills, life stories and popularity. Sorting through all those opportunities presents a daunting proposition for athletes.
Engage is one of dozens of companies hoping to take advantage of a potentially massive nascent market by using technology to make the process of building a brand and signing deals as simple and efficient as possible.
"You are going to need representation. And not only just any representation, but representation that actually cares about you," Olson says. "... So what I'm doing now is I've created this company that, in my hopes, is to help give structure to individuals who want to speak, who are speaking, who don't know how to represent themselves, who are kind of lost in this crazy landscape that is the engagement world."
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) I would think the vast majority of players are still going to want to play football first.