{"id":77142,"date":"2025-08-12T12:34:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T12:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77142\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T12:34:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T12:34:04","slug":"aaron-rodgers-backed-startup-aims-to-be-the-imdb-for-pro-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/77142\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers-backed startup aims to be the IMDb for pro athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aaron Rodgers, #8 of the Pittsburgh Steelers, in action during Minicamp at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 10, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Justin K. Aller | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers is backing a startup that hopes to make athletes more accessible to companies, charities and sponsors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.athleteagent.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AthleteAgent.com<\/a> launched on Tuesday as a rebrand of the former Online Sports Database. The site was created to improve access to athletes, offering a more streamlined way for organizations to connect with them.<\/p>\n<p>The rebrand isn&#8217;t just about a new name. AthleteAgent.com is also rolling out a subscription-based model, offering users full access to its growing database for $29.99 per month, or $199.99 per year.<\/p>\n<p>AthleteAgent.com co-founders Ryan Rottman and Aaron Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p>AthleteAgent.com<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers, currently quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is an original founder in the platform. He&#8217;s joined by a high-profile group of investors that includes legendary sports agent Scott Boras and the Google for Startups Cloud Program: Scale AI Tier, as well as private equity firms Solyco Capital, Prota Ventures, Bullock Capital and Pressplay Capital.<\/p>\n<p>AthleteAgent.com declined to comment on the exact size of Rodgers&#8217; investment in the company, but said it was in the seven figures.<\/p>\n<p>CEO Sean O&#8217;Brien said AthleteAgent.com is on pace for six-figure revenue and positive cash flow this year.<\/p>\n<p>The concept was first co-founded in 2021 by actor and producer Ryan Rottman, who said he noticed a glaring gap in how athletes are listed compared with how actors are made available on IMDb.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had a producer from a Hallmark Christmas film look at my IMDb Pro profile \u2014 they saw me on &#8220;90210&#8221; \u2014 to see who my agent was and reached out. Since then, I&#8217;ve been in eight Hallmark Christmas films. Had that info not been right, they could have moved on to the next person, and I would have missed out,&#8221; Rottman told CNBC.<\/p>\n<p>He pitched the idea to Rodgers, who immediately got on board.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Aaron likes to say we&#8217;re building this not for the 1% of athletes, but for the other 99% \u2014 to help generate revenue, get their stories out there, find endorsement deals, support their charities. That&#8217;s how it came to fruition,&#8221; Rottman said.<\/p>\n<p>AthleteAgent.com is an online platform that offers direct access to professional athletes and sports agents, providing verified contact information, contract details, endorsement portfolios and philanthropic involvement.<\/p>\n<p>AthleteAgent.com<\/p>\n<p>Today, AthleteAgent.com has more than 4,000 athletes and 2,000 agents in its database. Each profile offers everything from their representation to their endorsements and philanthropy. The company has a small team that works with the leagues and agents to compile and update the data.<\/p>\n<p>It plans to scale the database by adding front office executives, team contacts and retired athletes in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Rottman said agents have been embracing the platform.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It saves them time, helps meet endorsement quotas, and we don&#8217;t take a cut,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The tool also helps avoid misfires in outreach, O&#8217;Brien said, citing NBA legend LeBron James as a hypothetical example.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Before us, someone might email Rich Paul for a brand deal \u2014 but Maverick Carter is the guy you want for LeBron&#8217;s business stuff. We eliminate that confusion,&#8221; said O&#8217;Brien.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss these insights from CNBC PRO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers, #8 of the Pittsburgh Steelers, in action during Minicamp at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in Pittsburgh,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[7144,28,122,349,54595,99,2795],"class_list":{"0":"post-77142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-business-news","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-ryan-rottman","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-start-up"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}