Steph Curry’s Brand And CoachUp Make A Powerful Sports Startup Combo


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“He will have limited success at the next level – do NOT rely on him to run your team.”

This is just one of the few NBA Draft Report comments made in 2009 about 2015’s NBA MVP, Steph Curry. Recently, Curry was featured in a commercial for CoachUp, a startup organization Curry acquired substantial equity in back in March, 2015.

As a brief overview, CoachUp is a Boston-based tech firm founded in 2012, headed by former NBA player, Jordan Fliegal. The vision of the organizatoin is to facilitate the partnership between developing athletes and dedicated coaches. With over 100,000 athletes and 13,000 coaches registered, Curry stands proud beside Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots and Nerlens Noel of the Philadelphia 76ers to provide professional coaching advice on and off the court.

In his commercial, “Actions Speak Louder Than Words,” Curry lists several negative criticisms about him six years ago, which today – appear to be preposterous. Blinded by his limitless and self-worthy mentality, Curry undoubtedly sends a message about his relentless character, a representation of CoachUp’s core values. In his NBA MVP speech, Curry lays his entire basketball journey out on the table. In just a few short lines – we can all understand Stephen Curry as a player, a father, a son, a coach, a husband, and as strong willed man bursting with a warm heart of faith:

“Everything happens for a reason, and there is a story to everything. If you take time to realize what your dream is and what you really want in life, no matter what it is, whether it’s sports or in other fields, you have to realize that there is always work to do, and you want to be the hardest working person in whatever you do, and you put yourself in a position to be successful. And you have to have a passion about what you do. Basketball was mine, and that’s what’s carried me to this point.”

Every bit of the role model Stephen Curry is should be directly correlated to the marketing vision of CoachUp. Besides his obvious unyielding character representing these marketing capabilities, Curry’s endorsements with Under Armour and Muscle Milk open a new frontier for the firm to venture into. While CoachUp continues its rise in the athletic mentoring business, it will be interesting to see the expansion of the firm through a partnership perspective and talent acquisition in respect to coaching.