Meet Alex Zusammen, creator of Impulsyn, partner of ESBS.
Impulsyn is an app dedicated to finding opportunities in the sports industry, i.e. employment, events, networking, training, among others.
In this interview, Alex shares with us how the startup started, what the need was and what the company’s growth objectives are. We invite you to find out more by reading the interview:
ESBS: What is your mission at Impulsyn?
Alex: Impulsyn’s mission is to help anyone who is already working or wants to start working in the sports industry to develop their professional career and to find all kinds of opportunities in any area and discipline of sport.
On the other hand, the vision is to professionalise the sports industry by connecting all its members so that many more opportunities can be created to enable sustainable growth and expansion of the sector.
ESBS: How did you come up with the idea to start this project? How has the welcome been like?
Alex: Impulsyn was born out of the need that part of the founding team has experienced first-hand when it comes to finding employment in the sports industry and the lack of knowledge about how to enter the sector.
In the sports industry, there was no network capable of effectively and reliably helping to find, connect and create opportunities in the different sports disciplines. There are job seekers but not a COMMUNITY like the one we are building, that is the real opportunity for Impulsyn.
On the other hand the reception has been very positive as we are trying to help many people. Obviously we haven’t even reached 50% of what we want to develop yet but we have received hundreds (no exaggeration) of messages and emails from people in the sector thanking us and for what we are doing, as many people understand that the need is real. Thousands of people already use the network every month on a recurring basis.
The focus now lies on internships and jobs in any sport discipline that people can find on the platform. Hundreds of people have already found employment through the network and we hope to increase those numbers soon. This focus will evolve from jobs to the creation of communities for the different sports disciplines.
ESBS: What are or have been your biggest challenges in this project?
Alex: Of course technology and making the company sustainable. This is a network effects business, i.e. the more people use Impulsyn, the greater the value of the community. As a professional and at the same time social network, we face the problem of monetisation since, like any marketplace or social network, we need very high volumes to start monetising in conditions, and the investment in technology is also high for the development of the product.
Anyone can create a sports job search engine in wordpress in an afternoon or a week, but we want to go further and create a professional neural network adapted to any sport discipline, to help any professional in the sector, junior or senior. This requires a lot of knowledge, technology, investment and time. In our favour is that we have the knowledge and the right equipment. Being in Spain, most of the funds and accelerators we have talked to in order to boost growth require monetisation, as is normal, but we have something that not everyone can say: our product works and the monthly recurrence of use over the total number of full registrations is of
40% (approx). How many apps or websites do you visit on a daily basis? IG, Whatsapp, and your bank… possibly Cabify, Glovo, or Uber. That is what makes us optimistic that we are on the right track.
ESBS: Looking ahead, what do you think will be the biggest changes or opportunities for employment in the sports sector?
Alex: The sports industry is growing a lot in Spain but it is still light years away from countries like the UK or the USA. The challenge for the sector will be to increase each country’s GDP linked to sport. And this will be achieved by bringing professionals from other sectors to work in different sports disciplines. Besides, the new generations will no longer wait to do a master’s degree when they finish their degree or when they have work experience in another sector and decide that they want to work in sport, which is their passion, as happens now, but from the moment they enter university they will demand university programmes and degrees adapted to different areas of study in the sports industry. The more people who want to work in the sector, the more opportunities will be created.
The biggest employment opportunities will come in 3 main areas:
- The digital transformation, i.e. everything related to software, computer programmes, digital marketing, digital products… that gyms, sports centres, clubs, federations, leagues, agencies or sports product companies are already facing.
- The necessary business development to be led by professionals with commercial skills, languages and a strong knowledge of technology product sales.
- Entrepreneurs who seize the right opportunities, especially in the digital world, to create digital content tailored to different sport disciplines. Those who are creative, know how to edit videos or produce them will have a lot to gain in order to make a living on their own or to create new projects.
ESBS: Finally, what are your next objectives for Impulsyn?
Alex: 2023 is a key year for Impulsyn, marked by two major milestones or launches:
The first in about a month, with the launch of the first version of the website. The website will increase recurrence, daily user visits, increase the volume of news and daily posts, greater interaction during working hours and will help increase the number of jobs published on a weekly basis as it will be a very competitive working tool for organisations such as gyms, sports centres, sports clubs, federations, leagues, sports media or sports product companies to recruit talent in the sports industry in the most efficient way possible. These organisations will be able to post jobs, manage CVs for each job in an intelligent way, and proactively recruit candidates using different filters tailored to sports professionals, as well as being able to search for candidates by keyword or location.
The second big launch is what we call THE COMMUNITY, i.e. the moment we launch the functionalities to create a neural and intelligent network thatallows the creation of micro-communities by location, sport and area of work. All this will mean, for example, that if someone lives in Vigo, we can recommend jobs in Vigo, if someone is interested in football or fitness, we can recommend content, news, or jobs in those areas, or for example, if people who work in the same organisation and already know each other, we can recommend that they connect. We are very close and, at the same time, very far away – what we are sure of is that with the right people we will have the opportunity to create the biggest professional network for people who already work or want to work in the wonderful world of sport.
