NLAB (Never Leave Athletes Behind) is a fundraising platform for sports.
We had an insightful and engaging interview with the talented entrepreneur Mr. ‘Gibran Carter‘; Founder and CEO of the United States (California)-based start-up “NLAB Sports”.
“NLAB Sports” is an online crowdfunding and fundraising platform made for sports athletes in mind.
Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. ‘Carter’ regarding his internet start-up company “NLAB Sports”;
1. What is it exactly that you do and what “NLAB Sports” is all about?
NLAB (Never Leave Athletes Behind) is a fundraising platform for sports. NLAB makes it easy for teams, athletes, coaches, parents, sports organizations and sports start-ups to raise funds on our website. 1. Register for our site. 2. Set up your fundraising campaign. 3. Share your campaign with your social networks, twitter, facebook, emails etc.
2. When has “NLAB Sports” been founded? And what stage is “NLAB Sports” currently at?
NLAB was founded in 2012. We just launched NLAB in October of 2013. We are currently in the early stages of NLAB. Throughout this past year, we did a lot of testing, and many design changes. At this stage, we have a solid platform that is very efficient. The website essentially works with little man power and is designed for 1 or 1 million users. We can scale as our user base grows.
3. What is “NLAB Sports”‘s business model and how does it work?
Our business model is very simple. We charge a very small fee off the total amount that was funded. The entire payment process is done through paypal. Once a fundraiser is complete, NLAB will disperse the funds into the users paypal account. There are no other hidden fees, or signup fees. NLAB is free to set up and it’s free to join.
4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?
We have a very small and unique team. There is a total of 3 of us. Our web developer keeps us online and the site running around the clock. Also, we have 2 review specialists who screen all of our submissions as they come in. NLAB only accepts fundraisers that are pertaining to sports. If it’s not sports related then it will not be approved to be live on our site.
5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what’s unique about you and what’s new about what you make?
What makes NLAB unique, is the simplicity of the website. NLAB was designed for the novice computer user. The interface is big, bold and bright with very easy to use navigation tools. Also, we are a niche fundraising platform. Whats makes NLAB unique is that we are soley for sports. Other fundraising websites are for any and all websites, so a customers fundraising campaign can get losts. NLAB is broken down into categories which makes it easy to search and donate to a cause.
6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has “NLAB Sports” achieved so far?
So far our growth has been steady. Mainly because we just launched weeks ago, and have not began marketing at the moment. Currently we have 3 successful campaigns already and we are on track for several more shortly. We are slowly getting more submissions, which means the word is getting out about NLAB Sports. One of our milestones was our first campaign ended a few weeks ago, and the campaign user has been awarded their funds.
7. Who are your competitors? And what is “NLAB Sports”‘s competitive advantage over them?
One of our competitors is sportfunding, which also is a fundraising website for sports. What sets us apart from them is that we have a “keep it all model”. This means that if you dont meet your funding goal you will still receive the funds raised. We chose this model because we feel that getting something is better than nothing. Also, we are making a strong push for new sports start-ups to fundraise through NLAB. With the emerging market in sports technologies, we want to open up our platform to that. We want to ensure that our athletes are playing their sport and not just paying for their sport.
8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
An early obstacle we faced was users didn’t understand the platform and how it worked. We created a short 60 sec video explaining the process and that has helped out tremendously. Also, we added a very detailed FAQ page and tried to answer a lot of questions that we were getting asked. This definitely helps as it has cut back on the support emails that we were receiving on a daily basis.
9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?
The key things about this field is that fundraising is year round and sports organizations/athletes are constantly trying to raise funds for equipment, uniforms, travel, tournaments etc. Sports at any level is expensive to play. Thats why you see all of these different types of fundraising events going on such as, selling candy, raffle tickets, car washes, coupon sales etc.
10. Why are you going to succeed?
We are going to succeed because it’s fun and we like to see people succeed and play sports. Sports is a major outlet for people and we want to make sure they are not limited because of lack of funds. Also, the simplicity of our foundation and the team that is being put together. By myself having a background in sports, I have a solid understanding of the business and how it works and the impact it can have.
11. If “NLAB Sports” succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
If all goes well, we will be connecting with pro athletes to sponsor their fundraising efforts for any sport. We are also looking at potentially sponsoring a few companies and hosting their fundraising efforts as well. There are some other cool things that we have plan ned and we will be announcing that soon.
12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build “NLAB Sports” based on?
I chose this concept because there are many athletes and sports organiziations struggling to raise funds. Going door to door selling coupon books is not cutting it. Also, I love sports. Its fun to start a business around something you truely love and have a passion for. Also this is fresh industry and it has positive outcomes in the near future.
13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?
What I’ve learned so far is that the website needs to be fully functional and constantly maintained to be fast, reliable and efficient for our users to have a great experience. Some people think that once you have a site up, it’s up and good. Well, that’s not the case. The worse thing is to have a lot of interest in your product, then it doesn’t work properly.
14. Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?
Six months from now I foresee a spike in our user data base, which is a good problem to have. We will be able to scale with the flip of a switch and still be able to provide a good experience for the user. Also, we know that certain sports only fundraising certain parts of the year, so we will be implementing a strategy to get them involved year round.
15. What’s the benefit for the customer/user?
The benefit our customers will have is that they can fundraise from the safety of their own home. They never have to leave the house. Once their campaign is live on the site, they can use our social sharing tools to share their campaigns to their social networks. The more they share the more they can possibly fundraise.
16. How did customers / users find out about you?
Most of users are hearing about us via our facebook and twitter page. Also, we have received several word of mouth users as well. We’ve noticed that we are coming up more and more in the search engines which is very important for users to locate us. Also, we are attending networking events to connect with other local businesses as well.
17. Who are your current customers / users? Who are your target customers / users?
Our current customers vary. Most are coaches thus far. a few parents have also took notice of our platform. Our target users are teams, athletes and sports organizations. We also want to target new sports start-ups. That’s the beauty about NLAB, any sport at any level, we welcome them. We want to be the go-to platform when people are thinking about fundraising for sports.
18. Where do new customers / users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?
Our users are coming from different outlets, mainly searching online. New users like our platform because its very clean and the interface is welcoming. When you visit our website, you won’t see the hideous “blinking” advertisements or different streams that are constantly being updated. That can be very intimidating and overwhelming for users. Our site is static, simple and it works!
19. What do your customers / users say about your product and/or service?
One email we have received stated “the NLAB process was very easy for me to fundraise”. This is good to hear because a lot of time went into the design and user experience to make it friendly and easy to use. When we hear things like this, we know we are on to something. We wanted to showcase some of our campaigns on the homepage as well give the users a view on how it works.
20. How are you going to scale?
We plan on scaling by connecting with the local colleges and high schools. From herar we will be meeting with athletic directors and sharing with them the NLAB concept. Also, there are tons of sports organizations that could definitely utilize NLAB to fundraise for their efforts.. We are also launching our marketing campaign after the new year which should make us more visible.
21. What’s the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?
One of the main features our customers have been asking for is a mobile app. We are in talks of possibly implementing a mobile app in the future. We plan on offering a mobile friendly version soon. However, our full website will show correctly on any smartphone. We know we have to adapt and accommodate to ensure we are evolving with the newest technologies.
22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up’s operations accordingly?
At the moment, we are focusing on the US only. Mainly because we are US based. We have to focus here first and gain some traction before we go international. Now, as long as you have a paypal account and can access our account, anyone international can utilize our services. I’m sure we will start receiving fundraising campaigns from foreign countries and that is perfectly fine.
23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?
I think we have a good system for NLAB to be be a force in the market, mainly because there is only a handful of sports companies doing this. We have to continue to provide wonderful support and service to reach this goal. Simplicity is extremely vital an we have to be very transparent with NLAB. The future is bright with NLAB.
24. Are you looking to hire a new workforce? And if yes, what job vacancies do you currently offer and where can potential applicants contact you at?
Currently, we are very small and are not looking to hire at the present moment. However, I do have a plan once we start building up NLAB staff to hire local college athletes. There is a certain mindset and work ethic that athletes have, and we want to be able to provide a job and for them and bring them on board. Having an athletic workforce is great, especially in regards to the NLAB culture.
25. Are you looking for partnership opportunities or funding from Venture Capitals (VC) or other funding sources? Or your business is self-sustainable? And if the first option applies where can potential partners / investors contact you at?
We have been approached by some possible partners. We are open to connecting with a certain type of company. If it works for both parties then we are all for it. NLAB is very sustainable right now and if anyone wants to connect with us, investors, partners or sponsors, they can contact me at gibran@nlabsports.com
26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?
The advice I would give young entrepreneurs is to keep a clear focus on your goal. People will tell you that your going to fail and why are you doing something like this. You have to have tough skin and stay focused. Listening to your audience is key. There will be bumps in the road but do not give up.
27. Finally, do you have any other comments that you would like to add?
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.NLAB will be the go-to platform for the sports world to fundraise. We are new, fresh and the concept is very cool.
