2021 Rookies of NFC North Teams

LetzChat was recently selected as one of 10 tech startups for Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech Accelerator.

Tim Casey of Forbes wrote the following:

Indeed, the pandemic has actually hastened the growth of technology in sports as leagues, teams and investors re-assess their businesses and seek innovative ways to do things more efficiently. Comcast’s inaugural SportsTech accelerator began in February 2021 with 10 startups and was done virtually due to the pandemic.

This year’s program is similar in that it features 10 startups and lasts 12 weeks. But while most of the programming and sessions will be conducted virtually, the participants will come together in person for a few days in late March and early April in Texas and get behind-the-scenes looks at the NASCAR race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open in San Antonio and WrestleMania 38 in Dallas.

According to Casey, McKinnie’s LetzChat and the other nine companies were selected from a group of 811 applicants.

Each of the companies receive a $50,000 investment, split evenly between Comcast and Boomtown, in exchange for an equity stake in the business. During the next 12 weeks, the startups will have a program tailored towards them that will help them with business strategy, marketing, finance and other topics.

From last year’s cohort of 10 startups, there have so far been 29 pilot programs where the companies had a chance to test whether their product/innovation works in a real-world setting and five commercial deals where the companies completed revenue-generating deals.