Meet Sean Leary, founder of The Sports Thread App

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1. Name and official title of the CEO.
Sean Leary, Founder and COO

2. Tell us about your business.

Sports Thread’s mission is to enrich college athletics by giving current student athletes a voice and giving prospective student athletes a look inside the college programs recruiting them. This exclusive content helps young aspiring athletes and their families make more informed decisions when choosing a school.

Sports Thread has been in development for two years and has recently finished Beta testing. We couldn’t be happier with the results and the first release of our “feature-rich” platform.

The newest addition to our platform, Sports Thread News aims to give exposure to smaller sports programs and their athletes. A majority of national news organizations generally only cover major sports at larger universities. Now with Sports Thread’s on campus journalists we can provide the smaller sports programs and their athletes the national coverage they deserve.

We have approximately 50 people currently working with Sports Thread, including interns. We use a management model of business, outsourcing the majority of our coding, production, marketing and other needs.

3. What makes your company the leader in this type of industry?

We are the first movers in the industry as a social media platform by athletes for athletes. As a company made up of mostly former college athletes, we know and understand the market we are in business to make an impact on.

4. What contributions have you made and are willing to take towards the world?

Sports Thread is a company that exists to help young athletes. We have established a method to assist disadvantaged high school athletes with reviewing the information on a prospective college through the Rashaan Salaam SPIN Foundation. Rashaan is a former Heisman Trophy winner and the spokesperson for Sports Thread.

Sports Thread also makes an effort to support those who serve our country by working with Signatures For Soldiers, a foundation who contributes to Military Missions in Action.

Additionally, we plan to establish scholarship opportunities for college athletes that need help making their ends meet. Some of us at Sports Thread were lucky enough to receive financial support through college. We realize not every college athlete is as fortunate, and it is tremendously important to us that we pay it forward.

5. Who or what has influenced you?

Sports Thread was inspired by my own personal story and experiences. I was heavily recruited out of high school and signed with my dream school, Pepperdine. Unfortunately, the University committed an NCAA violation that resulted in the loss of my scholarship along with about 30 other fellow athletes. I had no choice but to leave Pepperdine, as I could not afford the cost of tuition without my scholarship. Regardless, I wanted to leave because I felt I had been mislead by the coaching staff.

Due to NCAA transfer rules, I had to go to junior college at Orange Coast College. This turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I met roughly 40 kids who had left D1 schools because of similar situations I had at Pepperdine.

These experiences inspired the creation of the platform. Just like me, all of these young athletes made a bad decision on where to go to school based on a lack of accurate information. I set out to find a way to fix the disconnection while still in college and the idea of Sports Thread was born.

At Sports Thread we strive to surround ourselves with influential people who know the ins and outs of college sports. We are lucky enough to receive weekly guidance from Bill McCartney, University of Colorado Hall of Fame Coach and Founder of Promise Keepers.

6. What key qualities do you look for in your team?

A majority of Sports Thread’s current employees are former college athletes. While this isn’t a prerequisite to working at Sports Thread, we want people who understand the lifestyle and challenges in the young athletes’ lives we are trying to make an impact on.

7. What words of advice do you have for others developing this kind of business?

Surround yourself with knowledgeable people you can learn from. I am very fortunate to work with the distinguished management team we have assembled in the Greater Denver Area.

Be relentless. Building a business from the ground up is a roller coaster, but is extremely rewarding. Finding something you’re passionate about is the key to success.

Do what you are good at doing. I use my competitive nature I got from sports to embrace the challenges of business. I think our whole team does a great job of adopting this mentality to tackle what’s in front them on a daily basis.

8. Website
Main site: thesportsthread.com
Corporate site: thesportsthread.net
RSS feed: sportsthreadnews.com
iOS App – Apple Store search “Sports Thread”

Super-Julie Smaller
Written/Edited by Andi Lanning
Edited by Juan Velez