build a winning founder playbook
Guided by 1,000+ proven athlete-to-founder playbooks
the proven way to build a winning playbook
Proven playbooks from 1,000+ athletes turned founders. Not just one coach's advice.
Athletes who want to build
Supported by a sparring partner to make them better, not someone to do it for them.
Active athletes
For active athletes who want to build their playbook before they retire. Prepare with Athlete Founders at your own pace.
FORMER athletes
For former athletes who want to build their playbook at their own pace or fast-track it. Athlete Founders adapts to you.
Build your athlete-to-founder playbook
Athlete Founders is uniquely positioned to help athletes from every sport build any type of project.
keynotes & workshops
Athletes looking to monetize their experience as an athlete through keynotes and workshops
Coaching & performance
Athletes looking to monetize their expertise in their sport to help other athletes
Financial advise
Athletes looking to launch a service helping other athletes manage their finances
Nurtition & health
Athletes looking to launch their own nutrition or broader health products and services
Activewear & sport equipment
Athletes looking to launch their own activewear or sports equipment brand
Many more projects
The Athlete Founder database includes 100+ project ideas launched by athletes
*No business idea? No problem. You'll be guided from scratch.
Save months of costly trial and error
Athlete Founders offers personalized playbooks with one-on-one sparring
a playbook for your first 10 steps as founder
Each athlete has a different starting point and unique ideas. Going from athlete to the first stage of entrepreneurship often involves a lot of guesswork. Without a clear playbook, it's easy to get stuck.
The first goal of any entrepreneur is to achieve product-market fit, where your product is accepted and can make money. A winning playbook helps you achieve this first step while avoiding costly mistakes.
There are very few playbooks specifically for athlete founders, let alone ones tailored to your starting point and ideas. Athlete Founders solved this with the largest database of 1,000+ playbooks.
Personalized playbooks to your situation
It starts with an intake to understand your starting point and project goal. Based on your situation, you'll receive personalized playbooks from athletes who have made a similar transition.
For example, if you're a former tennis player thinking of launching a clothing brand, you'll receive playbooks from athletes with similar journeys
Each playbook includes a reading and audio file with the key learnings. You'll know where to start, which costly mistakes to avoid, and what to focus on first.
Receive instructions and get unstuck
You can also book one-on-one sparring sessions to build your playbook.
Andres has spent hundreds of hours studying 1,000+ athlete founder playbooks and built the database from scratch. He also has 10 years of startup experience, including building his own company.
Each session is focused on getting you one step further. Whether you need instructions, help getting unstuck,, the goal is to keep you in a good flow.
build at your own pace
learn personalized playbooks
Personalized playbooks are offered as a monthly subscription. You'll receive 4 playbooks each month and can decide how long you want to continue according to your own process.
TRY OUT & SPARRINGS MOMENTS
Sparring sessions are offered as a monthly subscription with 4 hours per month. Combine them with personalized playbooks or start after a month of learning and get into action.
BUILD YOUR PLAYBOOK
The goal is to build your winning playbook using evidence from other athlete playbooks. Explore the sample below to see what's included.
Proven playbooks for
every path
Athlete Founders is the first company to build a database of athlete founder playbooks.
It includes athletes from every sport and almost every type of project, making it possible to match playbooks to your unique situation. Each playbook shows exactly how an athlete got started.
BUILD YOU ATHLETE FOUNDER PLAYBOOK
Both personalized playbooks and sparring sessions move at your pace.
It's not about deadlines, it's about getting started.
Questions:
andres@athletefounders.eu
+32471470311
get started playbooks
This is included:
- 6 playbooks of famous sport founders (including Strava, Whoop, ON, etc.)
This is included:
- 1 day access to business game in Wintercircus
- 4 inspirational Athlete Founder speakers (30/11)
- Access to database of 1,000+ Athlete Founders (01/12)
- Top notch catering & bar assortment included
- Iconic location for networking
- Exclusive access to patent ideas (01/12)
Not included:
- Evening dinner 30/11
Personalized playbooks
This is included:
- Intake to understand your situation
- Receive 4 personalized playbooks per month.
This is included:
- 1 day access to business game in Wintercircus
- 4 inspirational Athlete Founder speakers (30/11)
- Access to database of 1,000+ Athlete Founders (01/12)
- Top notch catering & bar assortment included
- Iconic location for networking
- Exclusive access to patent ideas (01/12)
Not included:
- Evening dinner 30/11
playbook sparring partner
This is included:
- Intake to understand your situation
- Receive 4 hours of sparring per month.
This is included:
- 2 day access to business game in Wintercircus
- 4 inspirational Athlete Founder speakers
- Access to database of 1,000+ Athlete Founders
- Top notch catering & bar assortment included
- Iconic location for networking
- Exclusive access to patent ideas
- Accommodation 30/11
Not included:
- Evening dinner 30/11
Receive Get Started Playbooks by Athlete Founders
You'll receive a weekly playbook link for the next 6 weeks, click here to discover the first playbook.
Sign up for Athlete Founders Learn
SPECIALIZED IN ATHLETE FOUNDER PLAYBOOKS
My first mission in life was to become an elite basketball player. I played for 15 years at an amateur level and, while I never made it professionally, I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to work with elite athletes.
The only playbooks available to me were becoming a sports agent or a wealth manager, but neither felt right.
Instead, I spent 10 years in strategy consulting, a scale up, an early stage startup, and eventually launched my own advisory business. I learned entrepreneurship from every angle, but I still wanted to build something for athletes. So I decided to invent my own role.
For the first six months, I tried to figure everything out from scratch. It involved a lot of guesswork, and I quickly realized it wasn't a very effective way to build my own playbook.
Instead, I started studying people with a similar background who had already built businesses in sports. Their playbooks didn't just help me discover the idea I wanted to pursue, they also showed me the first steps to get there.
That experience became my business. Two years ago, I started an Excel file to track and study every business launched by athletes. Today, it has grown into a database of more than 1,000 playbooks.
As a sparring partner for curious athletes who want to build, I use proven playbooks instead of opinions to help you discover ideas and define your own first 10 steps.
Andres Vanryckeghem, andres@athletefounders.eu
Testimonial:
sparring partner
"I had an incredible experience working with Andres. In our conversations, he showed a deep understanding of the challenges I was facing and gave me clear, practical advice. He made complicated things easier to understand and helped me find solutions that actually made a difference.
I can’t recommend Andres enough. He’s professional, insightful, and genuinely committed to helping people succeed."
- Tim Wallace, former NHL Hockey Player
Frequently asked questions
No, Athlete Founders is for every elite athlete, former or still active, with a short-lived or long career, who wants to get started as an entrepreneur. It could be that you have no idea yet; that's fine, this is your starting point. Or maybe you already have a business idea or have built a prototype using an AI tool. Either way, this is your starting point to move forward.
There is no need to have previous business experience or specific knowledge in entrepreneurship. The goal is to build a founder playbook to get your first 10 steps clear on how to go from athlete to founder in a specific project. Part of this is also to clarify what kind of skills or knowledge you need to gain along the way.
It's completely at your own pace. If you take a monthly subscription on personalized playbooks, you will receive 4 playbooks that are highly relevant for you to learn from, at your own pace. If you take a monthly subscription on sparring moments, which includes 4 hours in 1 month, we can decide together how we complete these 4 hours during that month. The hours are not transferable to the next.
S:For both monthly subscriptions, you can cancel any time and the subscription will stop the month after. This happens via a safe and trusted third-party payment solution Stripe.
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