College Grad Launches Sports Betting App Amid Global Pandemic
As concerns over COVID-19 sweep the nation, many college students have found their summer internships and even future jobs cancelled or pushed back. For the first time in a long time, we’ve been left with an endless stretch of empty vacation days which sounds nice in theory, but can lead to some excessive layabouts. One recent graduate, however, did not use the occasion to sit still.
“This is literally the best time possible to pursue something that you've always wanted to do and with all this down time in quarantine, there really are no valid excuses as to why you can’t pursue your dreams….,” 22-year old, Texas Christian University alumnus Trent Attyah voices passionately. “Right now is the time to take a risk. To go out there and try to execute something and make a difference.”
Attyah is the CEO and founder of Bookit Sports, an app designed to connect the sports betting community through user-generated content and social media engagement. With the help of the R.E.A.L. Startup Accelerator Program in Reno, Nevada and a $500,000 backing from his investors, Attyah launched his app in back September.
Just a year ago, Bookit was simply an idea –something Attyah had dreamed up during his summer interning for the NFL Network. After hearing the NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell discussing strategies to target the sports betting community and strengthen their social media presence, Attyah linked the two objectives, created a pitch deck, and boldly requested a time to present his idea to the NFL Network team.
“I've come up with several ideas in the past but I have never actually executed on any of them.” Attyah said. “I promised myself that the next time I come up with an idea and it actually is a valid concept, I am not letting myself screw this up.”
While told by NFL execs that he had a good concept, Attyah still had no funding to bring his pitch to life. He turned to LinkedIn where he advertised the idea, began messaging potential investors and seeking advisors.
Some questioned his choice to widely broadcast his business concept, but Attyah found social media to prove efficient in getting the word out.
“I've had a lot of people say why are you posting about Bookit?” Attyah said. “Someone could take your idea. But if you take my social engagement from LinkedIn out of my equation, I'm still just a college kid with a pitch deck.”
Now, instead of sending out fifty cold-emails a day, Attyah has investors vying for his attention.
“I pitched to over 100 investors and was told no by every single one. Finally, after going zero out of 100, I found a diamond in the rough with the R.E.A.L. program and now I have the funding and advisory I need to execute my vision. In just a few weeks, I went from taking any investor pitch I could get to now having investors overflow my inbox for potential partnerships.,” Attyah laughs. “I never thought I'd be in this position, literally two, three weeks ago.”
Persistence is the key word in Attyah’s entrepreneurial spirit. He spent weeks talking to potentially interested parties and applying to accelerator programs before ultimately finding the Startup Accelerator Program in Reno.
“It is so important for young founders and entrepreneurs to find that one key family friend or investor who is going to overlook their return on investment and truly see the potential in you while sharing the same passion for your company,” Attyah encouraged.
Attyah’s advice for other young entrepreneurs during this time in history is simple: just keep going.
“Let me be the living proof to just keep going. Just keep pushing it. I know it sucks,” Attyah said. “You have so much time to do something and be different. Everyone's going through this right now together and there's an opportunity to show how you're different and use your time wisely during these abnormal circumstances.”
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