A hub for sports tech? Houston may be game
Accelerator helps sports tech startups
Mike Brown, like other Houston entrepreneurs, moved his tech startup to Silicon Valley, looking to tap into the money, connections and experience that have made that region the world’s leading center of innovation. But even in this entrepreneurial mecca, Brown, a retired professional football player, felt like an outlier for running a young company focused on sports.
“There’s no go-to place for sports tech,” Brown said.
Now, a local accelerator program wants to make Houston that place. The accelerator, known as The Cannon, is building out a 120,000-square-foot co-working space in west Houston and is working with Brown to move his company, called Win-Win, back to Houston.
The accelerator’s founder and CEO, Lawson Gow, also has launched an affiliated investors network, known as Cannon Ventures, and recently held a “pitch night” at The Cannon that attracted more than 400 investors and members of the local professional sports community to hear entrepreneurs like Brown pitch their businesses and ideas.
“There’s no city where you’ve got a sports tech hub,” Gow said. “Houston can be a leader in that.”
Houston has tried in recent years to build a tech sector, but with limited success. Historically, the city has lacked significant funding for startups in fields outside oil and gas and health care. The amount of venture capital flowing into local companies has fallen for about a decade, declining to $72 million in 2016 from $83 million in 2006, ac-
cording to a report from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Sports technology appears a promising niche, said Gow, whose father is David Gow, chief executive of Gow Media, which owns several local radio sports shows and the website CultureMap. The city already boasts major sporting and entertainment events, and there are talks about an esports arena opening around The Cannon within the next few years.
Esports, which has turned video gaming into spectator sport, is projected to generate $345 million in revenue this year, according to the industry analyst Newzoo. The digital sports analytics market was valued in 2016 at $764.3 million by Wintergreen Research. And consumer-based sports tech like fitness trackers and sports equipment powered by artificial intelligence is expected to reach $6.4 billion in value this year, according to the Consumer Technology Association.
Brown, 31, is a Houston native who starred on Alief Taylor High School football team and went on to play at Duke University and the Indianapolis Colts. His company developed an app that allows professional athletes and other celebrities to get fans to donate to charities by offering incentives that can add up to a player’s signed jersey or sideline seats.
An athlete sets up a tournament for fantasy football, baseball or other sport. Fans pick the teams they think will win and donate to the athlete’s chosen nonprofit. Fans win points for correct predictions and their donations, which can be redeemed for prizes. Win-Win earns revenues by taking a small cut of the donations as well as from advertising within the app.
When Brown decided to launch his company two years ago, he felt he had to relocate his young family from Houston to California’s Silicon Valley. But Brown missed his extended family in Houston and began looking at accelerators and other tech hubs in Houston, ultimately connecting with The Cannon and Cannon Ventures. He said he hoped Cannon Ventures can help him find the investors he needs to return to Houston.
“I’m doing what I love,” Brown said. “I’m just not doing it around the people that I love.”
Investors pay $1,500 to belong to Cannon Ventures, which connects them with local startups. Unveiled in May and fine-tuned over the summer, dozens of startups, such as Win-Win, have joined the network.
Another is the Houston company sEATz. Founded by Aaron Knape and Marshall Law, sEATz is an in-seat mobile order and delivery app for entertainment venues.
The app aims to ensure that game-day fans and concertgoers don’t have to miss anything by waiting in concession lines. They just order food with their phone and have it delivered. The app generates its profits through working with teams, concessionaires and merchandise vendors.
Law said he believes the company’s app is well-timed. Stadiums are investing in speeding up their wireless connectivity during sporting events and shows while more consumers are using similar delivery apps such as Uber Eats and Door Dash.
“We are now an on-demand society,” Law said.
Gow said he wants to take his interest in sports tech further by creating a program catering to this startup category. The details are unclear, but he sees potential in boosting companies such as WinWin and sEATz.
“It’s not all oil and gas and health care anymore,” Knape said. ileana.najarro@chron.com twitter.com/IleanaNajarro