UC students found game-changing sports communication company

Sports messaging app Motiv could revolutionize how coaches communicate with athletes

One of the most devastating stories in Olympic history involved a scheduling miscommunication, and two of the fastest men in the world missed their races.

The dramatic case of 1972 United States Olympic team runners Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson underscores the crucial role of effective sports communication.

Today, numerous real-time sports communication apps exist to prevent similar fates. However, their effectiveness hinges on the timely dissemination and receipt of information by all team members and staff.

Motiv-sample dashboard. Photo/Motiv

Recognizing the need to improve communications in youth sports, a couple of innovative University of Cincinnati students currently enrolled in the Venture Lab NEXT pre-accelerator joined forces to create Motiv. The platform streamlines communications for coaches, student-athletes and parents by integrating scheduling, statistics, tracking and management needs into one user-friendly hub.

Noelle Scheper, a marketing major at UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business, and Jaden Walton, an entrepreneurship and marketing major at Lindner who’s also pursuing finance, combined their unique skills and insights to maximize the Venture Lab NEXT experience.

“Motiv's customer discovery, prototyping and traction to date make the team a perfect fit for our Venture Lab NEXT accelerator,” Josie Dalton, associate director of the UC Center for Entrepreneurship and co-director of the Venture Lab NEXT program, said.

As participants in the summer program, Motiv’s co-founders received $10,000 in non-dilutive funding, empowering them to bring their innovations to life.

The students met last year during an innovation challenge hosted by UC's Center for Entrepreneurship and the College of Engineering and Applied Science's student tribunal. The judges recognized the value of Motiv’s technology, and the team took first place in the innovation challenge.

Exploring the team’s passion for sports and technology, Motiv addresses real-world communication challenges in athletic programs and offers practical, user-centric solutions. Riding a wave of success, the team entered Motiv in subsequent competitions, where they also placed well and received additional funding.

We take all of the scheduling, statistics, tracking and overall management the coach has to deal with and put it into one location.

Jaden Walton UC student, entrepreneurship and marketing, Lindner College of Business

Simplifying the coach's toolkit

Youth sports have transformed remarkably over the years, moving beyond the simple joy of playing games with friends. It takes planning, strategy and communication via mass emails and texts, apps with chat and email functionality and one-to-one emails to ensure that everyone involved — parents, players, organizers and coaches — is constantly connected.

“Motiv’s unique value proposition is to combine the apps that coaches use on their phones and put them into one hub, so they only have to go to one place,” Scheper said. “We take all of the scheduling, statistics, tracking and overall management the coach has to deal with and put it into one location.”

Coaches often manage a complex web of sports communications apps. These could include one app to check if an athlete completed forms and is eligible to play, another to track game statistics and confirm referee credentials and several more to communicate with players and their parents. This fragmented approach across multiple platforms consumes valuable time and increases the risk of errors and miscommunication.

Going beyond compliance

Jaden Walton. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand

Walton, a former youth sports player turned coach, understands firsthand the importance of clear communication and safety from both perspectives.

One of Motiv's standout features is its commitment to compliance, specifically with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is the federal law that sets the standards for allowing parents to protect the privacy of student educational information and records, a crucial consideration for high school programs.

“Motiv is FERPA-compliant, and we even go beyond the criteria required for high schools,” Walton said. “For example, when an athlete directly messages a coach, the parent is automatically looped in on the group chat — something that should be automatic but isn’t. While it is not a compliance requirement, Motiv offers this feature as an integral safety mechanism that ensures transparency and keeps all parties informed, reflecting a forward-thinking approach to communication in educational settings.”

Upping the game

Football players on the field. Photo/Alexander Schimmeck via Unsplash

After Motiv won its innovation challenges and about $30,000, the team recognized it had a viable technology to commercialize. They wanted to take the next steps but knew they needed help. Leveraging the resources at UC, they joined the Venture Lab NEXT summer program, a 12-week student pre-accelerator designed to offer tailored resources, mentors and guidance to student teams who’ve already gained traction for their startup endeavors.

Scheper said the program is exactly what the team needed. They used their summer vacation to gain entrepreneurial wisdom to help launch their startup idea.

“During one of our sessions, we talked about fundamental things like customer discovery, what your product is and how good it is,” Scheper said. “Our mentor, Jason Harbor, has been incredible for us and has walked us through the next steps regarding Motiv.”

As Motiv continues to evolve, it stands as an example of how student-driven innovation can address pressing challenges and lead to efficient, effective solutions in fields such as athletics. The next step now is to test their idea in the next couple of weeks in three Cincinnati high schools where they’ll collect customer feedback.

Advice for aspiring student innovators

Motiv's technology would not have become a reality if these UC students had skipped joining an innovation challenge last year purely out of curiosity and for fun.

Walton is grateful for the opportunities and mentorship UC provides students.

“I definitely do not have a tech background, but all I can suggest is finding things that interest you, joining different clubs and participating in innovation challenges,” Walton said. “Just show up and you'll naturally find things you like, and people will invite you to things. You'll join projects and work on exciting things.”

Motiv is on the right track and recently onboarded a chief technology officer, Siddharth Singh Chouhan, a current computer science graduate student at UC. The startup’s impact appears poised to extend far beyond the university, setting new standards as a game changer in athletic program management.

Featured image at top: Standing with Kevin Harrington (center) from "Shark Tank" is Noelle Scheper on far left and Jaden Walton on far right. Photo/Greg Glevicky

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