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Tentmakers Logo

Transition from Sports to Software Entrepreneurship

The Tentmakers Fellowship is an educational program supporting professional athletes transitioning from sports to entrepreneurship. We provide hands-on, mentorship-driven training in personal branding, product development, and early-stage venture creation.

Your 8-Week Game Plan

Week 1-2

Ideation & Validation

Scout the market and validate your idea with real users to build a winning strategy.

Week 3-6

MVP Development

Execute with our technical team to build your minimum viable product.

Week 7

Go-to-Market

Design your offensive playbook to capture market share and drive growth.

Week 8

Demo Day

Take the field and showcase your solution to industry leaders and investors.

Athletes Are Built to Be Founders

94%

C-Suite Athletes

of C-suite women executives played sports, with over half at university level - Ernst & Young research

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8x

Higher Success Rate

Former D1 athletes are 8 times more likely to be business leaders and entrepreneurs than non-athletes

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$10B+

Athlete Investments

Active investment portfolio value of athlete-led venture capital firms and direct investments

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Additional insights from McKinsey and NCAA Career Resources show that athletic experience is a strong predictor of business success.

Current Fellow

Ayo Oyelola

Pittsburgh Steelers

Building Koin (koinapp.info), a platform connecting professional athletes with elite trainers, enabling personalized training sessions anytime, anywhere.

Program Benefits

  • An 8-week structured entrepreneurial training curriculum
  • Full technical team access to build your MVP - no coding required
  • 12 months of ongoing venture development support
  • Beta access to educational software tools like Noa, your AI co-founder
  • Exclusive network of pro athlete founders and industry leaders
  • Pro athlete-focused mentorship from successful founders

By the end of the program, Fellows will be in a strong position to decide whether they want to bring their business concept to a minimum viable product.