🚀 Two exciting announcements: A redesigned Upside website and a new chapter in sports tech!
Over the past several years, Upside has evolved significantly. We have built a network of 20,000 sports executives and are now working closely with 60 teams globally across the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, NCAA, Premier League, Ligue 1, Serie A, laliga, tennis academies, national rugby teams, and so on. Today, I’m excited to unveil our redesigned website, which better reflects the four pillars of our business:
Upside Newsletter: Daily and weekly sports-tech briefings reaching 20,000+ subscribers, covering emerging technologies, startup funding, investments, and industry trends.
Upside Tech Scouting & AI Assistant: Helping sports teams discover, evaluate, and recruit the best technologies through our AI-powered platform and database of 500 curated sports-tech companies.
Upside Investment: Connecting promising startups with leading VCs and strategic investors, while supporting investment scouting and due diligence. I’m also serving as a Venture Partner at Ola Capital.
Upside Events: Organizing exclusive VIP dinners and sports-tech summits connecting teams, leagues, investors, and innovative startups worldwide.
Upside Consulting: Providing strategic advisory services to sports organizations, investors, and startups, from market entry and growth strategy to product development and performance innovation.
Our goal is simple: make it easier to connect, collaborate and accelerate innovation.
You can explore our redesigned website by clicking on the button below:
🤖 1. Upside Tech Scouting and AI Assistant
Our AI-powered sports technology scouting platform helps teams discover, evaluate and compare innovative solutions across sports performance, recovery, injury reduction, biomechanics, AI and more.
Behind the scenes, our team at Upside has been working hard on some exciting new AI capabilities for our Upside AI Assistant. We can’t wait to share these new features with you soon!
🤝 2. Upside Consulting
We help sports tech startups gain traction with professional and collegiate teams, refine their go-to-market strategies and connect with potential investors.
On our new website, we’ve also highlighted several case studies showcasing the work we’ve done with past clients, providing concrete examples of how we’ve helped companies navigate the sports industry, build relationships and accelerate their growth.
📰 3. Upside Newsletter & Content
Our newsletter now reaches 20,000 sports executives across professional leagues, collegiate athletics and the sports tech ecosystem and is delivered daily to our audience. We deliver industry analysis, podcasts, interviews with leading practitioners, research studies and updates about our upcoming events.
🌎 4. Upside Events
We bring the sports industry together through exclusive VIP dinners with professional leagues, technology showcases, networking opportunities and our annual Upside Summit.
And there’s more coming! We’re preparing to announce several new VIP dinners with professional sports leagues across the US and Europe in 2026, 2027, and 2028. We also plan to soon announce the location and date of our Annual tech summit set to take place in Paris at a major sports stadium in 4Q27.
📅 NEW: BOOK A MEETING DIRECTLY WITH US!
We’ve also made it easier for teams and startups to connect with Upside.
Through our new website’s integrated booking system, sports teams can now schedule time directly with us by clicking on the “Pro teams: book time” button below or on our website, whether it’s to learn more about our AI Assistant, explore consulting opportunities, discuss new technologies or potential collaborations.
Startups can submit their profile to be included into our database and Upside AI Assistant by clicking on the button below or going to our website. Once they complete their profile we will review their profile and contact them.
Our goal is simple: make it easier to connect, collaborate and accelerate innovation.
Explore our redesigned website by clicking on the button below:
🚀 ANOTHER EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT: JOINING OLA CAPITAL!
I’m excited to announce that I’m joining Ola Capital as a Venture Partner on a part-time basis!
Over the past 10+ years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of sports tech startups, meet incredible founders and help innovative companies connect with some of the world’s leading sports organizations.
This new opportunity is a natural extension of that work.
The Firm was founded by Richey Hansen, who has a strong background in sports performance, healthcare, and venture capital. Richey is a former competitive runner who built a sports injury prevention and wellness clinic serving professional athletes.
Our investment focus spans five key sectors:
AI diagnostics and biological optimization.
Wearables and proactive health.
Recovery and biomechanics.
Technologies that support healthy aging at home.
Financial and social wellness for longer lives.
What makes Ola particularly interesting is our approach to leveraging elite sports as a testing and validation environment. Technologies initially adopted by professional athletes and elite teams can potentially scale into much larger markets, helping millions of consumers improve their health, performance, and quality of life.
Beyond capital, we aim to support portfolio companies through our networks of elite athletes, professional sports organizations, healthcare experts, and industry partners.
You can learn more about Ola here: https://www.olacapital.vc/
At Ola Capital, my focus will be on:
• Evaluating and vetting new investment opportunities, leveraging my experience working with sports tech startups and professional teams.
• Increasing awareness and visibility of Ola Capital within the global sports technology and the professional team communities.
• Leveraging my network of founders, sports organizations, industry executives to identify promising companies and build relationships.
• Providing strategic insights on emerging technologies and market trends across the sports tech ecosystem.
I’m excited about the opportunity to work alongside the Ola Capital team and support the firm's work.
Importantly, I will continue leading Upside as Founder & CEO. My role at Ola Capital will be part-time, allowing me to remain committed to growing Upside while expanding my involvement in venture capital.
I see tremendous opportunities ahead in AI, advanced wearables, biomechanics, recovery, athlete performance and many other areas of sports technology.
Between the new AI capabilities we’re building at Upside, our upcoming VIP events in the US and Europe, and this new opportunity with Ola Capital, there’s a lot to look forward to!
Two different roles, but one common passion: helping innovative companies grow and succeed.
Excited for what’s ahead!
Interested in learning more about Upside? Contact me at julien@upsideglobal.co.
Best,
Julien
