We always try to imagine a world where the fans are basically the GM’s
A true publicly owned and operated sports league would be crazy
Long ways away from that reality… but something to ponder
I don’t disagree with that, but also don’t see how that’s remotely relevant at this point. Fans helping pay athlete acquisition fees has little to nothing to do with owning a sports league.
Good question! On top of an unavoidable 3% payment processing fee from our processor, we take a pretty normal agency fee of 7% (for context, Opendorse takes 30%)
Is that 7% going to be enough to cover your overhead plus enough for you guys to build on this? Is this something you can protect and ultimately push to other teams? I’m sure the idea is popping elsewhere but seems like you guys are ahead of the game, at least I haven’t seen anything this thought out and ready anywhere else yet.
We believe so - we are software engineers building this as a tech platform, so we don't have the overhead of a traditional collective
Appreciate the support!
I’ve been trying to think of ways to engage fans with nil and you guys have the skills to make it work! Personally I think this is the right way and better than any idea I came up with. So many possibilities. I know it’s kinda the Wild West with nil but is there any concerns with this being viewed as pay for play not nil since there’s no use of name image likeness?
Ok. Now we’re f’n talking! I also operate a deposit/trust/escrow account and know that holding money can be challenging. I want to start contributing money to my fav recruits asap. Where can we find more info on your company to be confident we know how our deposits are being handled?
Appreciate it! Trust/transparency is extremely important to us. We are backed by [Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/) (early investors in Airbnb, Reddit, etc) and use [Stripe](https://stripe.com/) for compliant and safe payment processing.
We're an open book and want to make this a truly fan-operated platform! Happy to answer questions, and of course open for feedback.
My company also uses Stripe and there’s not getting around their bs! Which is good from the consumers perspective of course! You guys are going to be huge, and this is also a huge help to the state and athletic programs. Good work, damn good work. And you were even ready and waiting for this moment, well planned. God bless 🫡
I’m really glad this is out there and looks so well organized, it is worthy of some investment to see if it works. I can see trouble with it, though, mostly just due to it being another disjointed piece in the puzzle.
If this leads to an additional $50K one-time payment to a 4 star WR, I’m not sure that will be a needle mover in the grand scheme of things. The money is already significantly higher at that level of recruit and is on an annual basis.
This could also become a negative. Recruits may view the fan bases’ relative lack of enthusiasm for them compared to other targets as a disappointment.
To avoid such issues, and others frankly I’m not laying out here because I really don’t want to be negative…..
Could this operation instead be geared toward retaining players already on the roster? I think this would have a higher impact per dollar spent on enticing guys to stay an extra year or stay out of the portal.
We already support current athletes with a tip jar and a paid DM feature, and plan to launch more tangible ways to support them in the future. You can see Jaylen LLoyd and Emmett Johnson's FanCave pages here: [https://www.fancave.me/jaylen-lloyd](https://www.fancave.me/jaylen-lloyd) [https://www.fancave.me/emmettj](https://www.fancave.me/emmettj)
GBR!
Have ya'll talked to any lawyers about this? Pretty sure this will get you considered a "booster" by the NCAA and that classification is permanent last I looked and can cause headaches when you interact with the school.Â
I’d like to love this, but the amounts will just be too small I think. The avg joe isn’t going to be able to donate enough to move the needle. 100K avg fans won’t be enough. Hope I’m wrong though and good luck.
You don’t think $30k that shows you already have a fanbase (which is marketable for other nil deals) won’t help sway a 4* that rhule and co are clearly interested in?
I don’t think 30K is much in today’s world is all. I’m also skeptical we’d get it that high. After the 7% and taxes you are left with a pack of gum.
Edit: I do like a lot of the features they have built in like the raffle, tip jar , and DMs. They put some thought into it. I think they’ll need to take more than 7% to cover marketing.
PSA: I don't see any FanCave startup in Y Combinator directory. Can you prove you are backed by them?
Also, FYI this same exact site is setup for multiple teams.
Not sure this is a scam but something seems fishy here. Be careful.
This is me [https://x.com/siscoe\_/status/1755677876601696385?s=20](https://x.com/siscoe_/status/1755677876601696385?s=20) I am real, this is a real product, we are actually in Y Combinator :)
We are working on getting this set up for multiple teams but wanted to start with Nebraska, as 2021 Raikes School UNL alums
(idk how often YC updates their public directory - we are in the current W24 batch)
I love this idea.
My one question is around a signed LOI vs a player actually showing up on campus. In this day and age we know a player signing a LOI doesn’t necessarily mean he shows up to campus. What happens in that scenario?
Thank you!
Players change commitments all the time, but when they sign their LOI (aka National Letter of Intent) they must enroll at the signed institution. We consider the school the athlete actually enrolls at for classes the school that "wins" the offer
The Kadyn Proctor situation is exactly what I was alluding to. A player signing there LOI doesn’t necessarily mean they will show up to campus (anymore) and even if they show up to campus it doesn’t mean they’ll actually be on the roster in the following fall.
So how does anyone know when the right time to pay the player?
For your model are you going to refund people if you don’t actually end up paying the player even if they sign their LOI?
We pay out athletes over the course of 12 months, upon singing their LOI. In this situation, Kadyn would’ve been paid for the few months he was at Iowa, but then upon leaving the remaining Iowa-pledged funds would be returned to Iowa fans.
Happy to discuss if there’s a different way you think this should be handled!
Is this just targeting new recruits, or is it also open to transfers?
And the refunds, is that directly back to our individual bank accounts, or is it to held in the associated fancave account as a credit to re-spend on potential recruits?
Great Idea!
Do you have to give them a "Name, Image, or Likeness" task to make it all legal?
Because this is 100 percent pay for play right? Which I mean all NIL is but maybe not technically.
I feel like this would be a good thing to get in on while its on the ground floor, Congrats!
Great idea, I just went through it to see how it worked. During your sign up process,
your state dropdown has white text on a white background so you can't actually see anything.
Your sign up process gives you the TOS but has no button to go anywhere else. Also doesn't ask me to agree to it.
I didn't go much further just took a quick peek. Don't take any of this as criticism, just more things I noticed.
I both weep for the future of the sport and will pledge one ~~million~~ dollars.
Thank you for your service 🤝
One more than you should. Asking fans to pay even more than they already do for a sport the moneymakers have already destroyed is straight grifting.
Here's an idea, you don't like it, then dont pledge money? I'm not really sure what's hard to understand
There’s nothing about that I don’t understand.
We always try to imagine a world where the fans are basically the GM’s A true publicly owned and operated sports league would be crazy Long ways away from that reality… but something to ponder
I don’t disagree with that, but also don’t see how that’s remotely relevant at this point. Fans helping pay athlete acquisition fees has little to nothing to do with owning a sports league.
His point went completely over your head.
I don’t think it did, but feel free to educate me.
Love the idea. Forward thinking. GBR
GBR
ok woah. This is kinda huge
Paid chats, paid AMA, tip jar. It’s like OF for recruits.
Can you sell the points back and take your money back out?
Are you taking a cut? If so what %?
Good question! On top of an unavoidable 3% payment processing fee from our processor, we take a pretty normal agency fee of 7% (for context, Opendorse takes 30%)
Is that 7% going to be enough to cover your overhead plus enough for you guys to build on this? Is this something you can protect and ultimately push to other teams? I’m sure the idea is popping elsewhere but seems like you guys are ahead of the game, at least I haven’t seen anything this thought out and ready anywhere else yet.
We believe so - we are software engineers building this as a tech platform, so we don't have the overhead of a traditional collective Appreciate the support!
I’ve been trying to think of ways to engage fans with nil and you guys have the skills to make it work! Personally I think this is the right way and better than any idea I came up with. So many possibilities. I know it’s kinda the Wild West with nil but is there any concerns with this being viewed as pay for play not nil since there’s no use of name image likeness?
Ok. Now we’re f’n talking! I also operate a deposit/trust/escrow account and know that holding money can be challenging. I want to start contributing money to my fav recruits asap. Where can we find more info on your company to be confident we know how our deposits are being handled?
Appreciate it! Trust/transparency is extremely important to us. We are backed by [Y Combinator](https://www.ycombinator.com/) (early investors in Airbnb, Reddit, etc) and use [Stripe](https://stripe.com/) for compliant and safe payment processing. We're an open book and want to make this a truly fan-operated platform! Happy to answer questions, and of course open for feedback.
My company also uses Stripe and there’s not getting around their bs! Which is good from the consumers perspective of course! You guys are going to be huge, and this is also a huge help to the state and athletic programs. Good work, damn good work. And you were even ready and waiting for this moment, well planned. God bless 🫡
I’m really glad this is out there and looks so well organized, it is worthy of some investment to see if it works. I can see trouble with it, though, mostly just due to it being another disjointed piece in the puzzle. If this leads to an additional $50K one-time payment to a 4 star WR, I’m not sure that will be a needle mover in the grand scheme of things. The money is already significantly higher at that level of recruit and is on an annual basis. This could also become a negative. Recruits may view the fan bases’ relative lack of enthusiasm for them compared to other targets as a disappointment. To avoid such issues, and others frankly I’m not laying out here because I really don’t want to be negative….. Could this operation instead be geared toward retaining players already on the roster? I think this would have a higher impact per dollar spent on enticing guys to stay an extra year or stay out of the portal.
We already support current athletes with a tip jar and a paid DM feature, and plan to launch more tangible ways to support them in the future. You can see Jaylen LLoyd and Emmett Johnson's FanCave pages here: [https://www.fancave.me/jaylen-lloyd](https://www.fancave.me/jaylen-lloyd) [https://www.fancave.me/emmettj](https://www.fancave.me/emmettj) GBR!
I like this shit 🫡 where can I invest in this endeavor?
We would prefer you invest in recruits to come to Nebraska ;)
Have ya'll talked to any lawyers about this? Pretty sure this will get you considered a "booster" by the NCAA and that classification is permanent last I looked and can cause headaches when you interact with the school.Â
This will backfire once they transfer after one year of not playing but it's a interesting idea none the less
Could probably tie payout to not transferring? Pay out $X a year, per season and you forfeit if you leave for the draft or another school
I’d like to love this, but the amounts will just be too small I think. The avg joe isn’t going to be able to donate enough to move the needle. 100K avg fans won’t be enough. Hope I’m wrong though and good luck.
You don’t think $30k that shows you already have a fanbase (which is marketable for other nil deals) won’t help sway a 4* that rhule and co are clearly interested in?
I don’t think 30K is much in today’s world is all. I’m also skeptical we’d get it that high. After the 7% and taxes you are left with a pack of gum. Edit: I do like a lot of the features they have built in like the raffle, tip jar , and DMs. They put some thought into it. I think they’ll need to take more than 7% to cover marketing.
PSA: I don't see any FanCave startup in Y Combinator directory. Can you prove you are backed by them? Also, FYI this same exact site is setup for multiple teams. Not sure this is a scam but something seems fishy here. Be careful.
This is me [https://x.com/siscoe\_/status/1755677876601696385?s=20](https://x.com/siscoe_/status/1755677876601696385?s=20) I am real, this is a real product, we are actually in Y Combinator :) We are working on getting this set up for multiple teams but wanted to start with Nebraska, as 2021 Raikes School UNL alums (idk how often YC updates their public directory - we are in the current W24 batch)
Love this idea!
GBR!
This is cool. Is there a way to browse recruits? Or do you have to have a direct link like posted?
We’re building a central hub for all Nebraska recruits - coming soon :) For now recruits just post their links on their own
I love this idea. My one question is around a signed LOI vs a player actually showing up on campus. In this day and age we know a player signing a LOI doesn’t necessarily mean he shows up to campus. What happens in that scenario?
Thank you! Players change commitments all the time, but when they sign their LOI (aka National Letter of Intent) they must enroll at the signed institution. We consider the school the athlete actually enrolls at for classes the school that "wins" the offer
The Kadyn Proctor situation is exactly what I was alluding to. A player signing there LOI doesn’t necessarily mean they will show up to campus (anymore) and even if they show up to campus it doesn’t mean they’ll actually be on the roster in the following fall. So how does anyone know when the right time to pay the player? For your model are you going to refund people if you don’t actually end up paying the player even if they sign their LOI?
We pay out athletes over the course of 12 months, upon singing their LOI. In this situation, Kadyn would’ve been paid for the few months he was at Iowa, but then upon leaving the remaining Iowa-pledged funds would be returned to Iowa fans. Happy to discuss if there’s a different way you think this should be handled!
Is this just targeting new recruits, or is it also open to transfers? And the refunds, is that directly back to our individual bank accounts, or is it to held in the associated fancave account as a credit to re-spend on potential recruits?
Great Idea! Do you have to give them a "Name, Image, or Likeness" task to make it all legal? Because this is 100 percent pay for play right? Which I mean all NIL is but maybe not technically. I feel like this would be a good thing to get in on while its on the ground floor, Congrats!
Great idea, I just went through it to see how it worked. During your sign up process, your state dropdown has white text on a white background so you can't actually see anything. Your sign up process gives you the TOS but has no button to go anywhere else. Also doesn't ask me to agree to it. I didn't go much further just took a quick peek. Don't take any of this as criticism, just more things I noticed.
Thank you for the feedback! What device were you using? I will investigate the dropdown issue and make sure the TOS is linked correctly
Chrome on windows 11. Note the TOS showed up, I just didn't see any button to move forward. Don't rule out PEBCAK on that second one though
How did you get backed by Y Combinator, that is really impressive
Great idea. Congrats. Think you have something big here
The idea comes across as two things. Either brilliant or a scam
Would love advice on making it less scam-looking. This is a legitimate product! https://fancave.me/