Townee Deals for NCAA Athletes
It was the Fall of 2012, when I approached my compliance advisor at Indiana University about a new online business, Beet Competitor LLC, that I had just started. Our plan with Beet Competitor was to ship beet juice to endurance athletes across the country — a product known to increase nitric oxide throughout the body and in turn help carry oxygen to fatigued muscles.
When speaking with the advisor, I was quickly met with a list of (valid) concerns around eligibility when it came to starting your own business as a college athlete.
The #1 problem? NCAA Athletes can’t use their own name when starting a business. In other words, it was going to be VERY hard to grow and promote my startup.
Because of the rules and regulations, I decided to postpone the business and after graduation my senior year I pivoted the original idea to start inBloom Juicery.
Fast forward 7 years and huge changes are being made within the NCAA in regard to NIL (name, image and likeness). While there is still so much up in the air, one thing for sure is that there is tons of movement happening. July 1st, 2021 for example appears to be the date for athletes from Florida and a couple other states to begin profiting from their NIL. Hopefully, an official plan from the US government or NCAA that includes Indiana and all other states happens soon after.
What does this mean for student athletes? BIG THINGS is the answer.
As we've been building Townee App for the last year, NCAA NIL has been on the top of our minds. With that, we’re excited to announce that a secondary Townee Deals platform — exclusively for NCAA athletes — will be released as soon as it's safe for athletes in Indiana (and beyond) to start collaborating with nearby local businesses.
Our goal with this side of Townee App is to make it easy & fun for student-athletes to begin collaborating with their favorite local brands. Stay tuned for future updates on Townee along with our current and future plans for NCAA athletes!
