New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to submit your startup’s answers to the below questions or contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
Company name: mycujoo TV
Founder(s): Pedro Presa and João Presa
Headquarters: Technopark, Technoparkstrasse 1, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland
1. What is your elevator pitch?
mycujoo is a football multi channel TV network that enables small and middle-tier federations, leagues and clubs all over the world to produce and distribute live and on-demand content. The platform the right holders the possibility to access a series of advanced tools for the creation of a free customizable thematic TV channel. In doing so, mycujoo acts as a powerful empowering force that acts against the fragmentation and inequality that today afflicts the football-broadcasting universe.
By creating their own channels, small teams can gain the visibility they deserve while engaging more effectively with their fan base and generating new business and monetization opportunities. In fact, viewers can create their own profiles on the website and enjoy matches for free while clubs, leagues and federation can count on in-video pre-roll ads and personalize their channels with the logos of their sponsors.
2. Problem & Solution
Semi-professional, amateur and youth football competitions and leagues represent 81% of the overall football market: 224 million players and 290.000 football clubs, including futsal and women’s football teams, which too often don’t have enough resources to find an agreement with a broadcasting channel. This is a toxic problem for the health of football as a sport and as a community. The soul, heart and bones of the most beloved sport on the planet are made of the passion and talent of those who play for the love of the game. By effectively crushing the majority of the players and clubs under the weight of invisibility, mainstream broadcasting solutions have created a vicious circle of inequality that turns football into a matter of money and power.
Our solution is a broad democratization of football-broadcasting that brings the game back to its roots: talent and passion. We strongly believe every club on the planet has the right to be visible and connect with its own community of fans. We like to say “football is you” because football is community, it is a matter of human interactions, fair competition and fair play. As a platform and a broadcasting channel, mycujoo TV is open to every right holder and offers a safe-heaven to all the clubs and federations who decided to take their destiny into their own hands.
The number of features offered by the platform is constantly growing. The teams have now access to an online studio through which they can embellish their contents adding lines-up, scoreboards, timers and match info. Plus, a unique option allows the channel owners to create highlights during the live events: the viewers can enjoy the highlights right away and become the real directors of their personal football experience. The clubs can also create crowdfunding campaigns, establishing goals and connecting directly with their fans.
mycujoo is present in all platforms and devices: mobile, tablet, desktop and TV. In order to broadcast their contents, all the clubs need is a regular HD camcorder, a tripod and a streaming device with high-speed Internet access connected to the camera via an HDMI cable. Alternatively, the teams can also use our mobile app and record the events directly from their smartphones. Furthermore, the channels can be embedded for free on Facebook pages and websites, offering yet another path to connect directly with fan bases and football lovers.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
mycujoo targets all competitions, federations and clubs around the globe, focusing on futsal, youth, men’s and women’s football while remaining open to all the possible forms the sport can adopt, including beach soccer. We are currently collaborating directly with European, Asian and South/North American federations and we can now count on dozens of TV channels the fans can access for free. From Switzerland to Denmark, Brazil and Canada, Hong Kong and Italy, moving through Germany and Belgium, the United States of America and Portugal, we are constantly expanding.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
The goal of the company is to establish itself as a countercurrent model in an overly unequal market. We are currently investing to strengthen our offer and develop the tools needed for the innovation we envision, and we are therefore in contact with a series of investors who share our passion for the project. Based on a revenue-sharing model, our initial revenue streams derived from sponsorship and video ads. We are also open to the direct negotiation of sponsorship agreements with the federations. This said, our main focus remains the business and monetization opportunities of the teams that join our platforms.
5. Management Team – with titles
Pedro Presa – CEO and Co-founder – pedro@mycujoo.tv
João Presa – COO and Co-Founder – joao@mycujoo.tv
Diego Compaire – Head of Business Development & Marketing – diego@mycujoo.tv
Stefano Bettani – Communication Manager – stefano@mycujoo.tv
Guilherme Medeiros – Head of Development – guilherme@mycujoo.tv
Laura Malucelli – Marketing Strategist – laura@mycujoo.tv
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
The approach of mycujoo is based on a combination of quality and the love for a noble sport. Therefore, the foundation of our service is deeply rooted in the interactions with the users, the players and the teams. This implies also a strong presence on the social media, the interactive place par excellence, where everyday we recreate a sort of “agora” with all the actors in the field, sharing ideas, comments and answers. mycujoo is close to the public, always accessible, a community-building force based on an interactive model in which the users are an active component, a pure expression of the vision of our CEO Pedro Presa that everyday comes to life thanks to both our social media and our innovative platform.