{"id":65039,"title":"Moonshot - Angel Investing in athletes  🏈🎾⚽️🏀🚀","tagline":"Support you favourite athlete early on, share some of their future success","body":"**tl;dr** 🏈🎾⚽️🏀\n\nWith Moonshot you can angel invest in athletes. We enable promising athletes to fund their professional journey with the help of a community of backers, in exchange for a portion of their earnings when they make it.\n\nHey everyone! We’re [Youssef](https://www.linkedin.com/in/youssef-rizk-397b19107/) and [Dimitris](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitris-nikolaou-29753080/), co-founders of Moonshot. We met working at Palantir as software engineers and recently left to build on a mission that is near and dear to our hearts.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=65039\u0026key=user_uploads/1010390/8bc31829-f3dc-4348-8582-2f85da5d3501)\n\n**What’s the problem?**\n\n**Becoming a professional athlete is expensive and risky.** Professional tennis players spend more than $100,000 annually to finance tournament fees, travel, accommodation, coaching, etc, which is prohibitive for most mere mortals. As a result, only those privileged enough to sustain this deficit can really make it in the sport. This is a real problem for those with underprivileged backgrounds, but don’t just take our word for it, take Hollywood’s. [The Blind Side](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/) (true story) and [Hustle](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8009428/) capture this essence in their storylines.\n\n**How do we solve this? We bring supporters to the rescue**\n\nBack your favourite up-and-coming athlete by investing in their career! When they make it big, you’ll have secured the ultimate bragging rights, and you’ll make a nice return on your investment in the form of a cut (think \\~5-10%) on their future earnings.\n\nAthletes get the money they need to continue their professional career. Backers get to meaningfully support their favourites and a significant financial stake in their success. Win win.\n\n**Some concrete use cases we’ve come across**\n\n1. Individual sports (Tennis, Golf and Motorsports) - capital may act as a catalyst, by providing the opportunity to fund competition participation and better coaching.\n2. Team sports (Basketball and Football) - capital may act as an insurance policy. A college athlete can capitalise on the potential of a future large contracts in the NBA or NFL.\n3. In most sports, there are one-off career changing events - think of preparation for the NFL Draft Combine, or making a run for the Olympics. Capital may act as a bridge in order for the athlete to reach peak level at the time of the event.\n\n**Want to contribute**\n\n1. Sign up to our backers [waitlist](https://moonshot.li/). We’re launching in September and spots are limited (250).\n2. Know athletes who could benefit from Moonshot? Refer them to [info@moonshot.li](mailto:info@moonshot.li) and get a talent referral bonus if they sign up!\n3. Know backers who’d passionately love to invest in a sport? Refer them to [info@moonshot.li](mailto:info@moonshot.li) and get a backer referral bonus.\n4. Follow us on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/86677997), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/moonshotli/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/moonshot_li)!\n\n**quick blurb to copy \u0026 paste**: Check out this YC company that is building a platform that allows you to support your favourite up and coming athlete by investing in their career. [This](http://www.moonshot.li/) is their website - contact [founders@moonshot.li](mailto:founders@moonshot.li) for more.","slug":"Gv1-moonshot-angel-investing-in-athletes","created_at":"2022-08-01T14:25:50.808Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T00:59:15.478Z","total_vote_count":107,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Gv1-moonshot-angel-investing-in-athletes","share_image_url":"//bookface-static.ycombinator.com/assets/ycdc/yc-og-image-c440a0ad1dacfb86eeeb343717479cc54d256614449b4ef719977a0a451f8bc8.png","company":{"id":27166,"name":"Wondercraft","slug":"wondercraft","url":"https://wondercraft.ai/","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/42f387b44ccbfe794a96fd7877c9a7818766a06d.png","batch":"Summer 2022","industry":"B2B","tags":["Artificial Intelligence","SaaS","B2B","Podcasts","AI"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/27166"}}