Sandlot Technology

In this week's SBJ Tech newsletter, I talked with Will Trogdon about the changes made in the Seattle Kraken mobile app for the NHL Winter Classic, and how it provided a blueprint for one-off events going forward. I also connected with Malaika Underwood to learn about her new venture with Sandlot Technology. You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/eUxUj2MJ

Emily McCarthy, B.J. Naedele and I started Sandlot Technology nearly four years ago, in the throes of the pandemic, so that we could focus technology on bringing people together in the real world through social fitness. That was the mission then and it’s the mission now. Today marks a new beginning and a big win for all of us because we’re bringing Malaika Underwood on as our CEO and Michael Easter on as our Chief Strategy Officer. Malaika was most recently interim CEO at OneTeam Partners, which launched in 2019 as a joint venture between the NFL Players Association, MLB Players Association, and RedBird Capital and was valued at $1.8B when she left in 2023. She was also a collegiate volleyball player at UNC and an accomplished member of the USA Baseball Women’s National Team for 17 years. Michael is the New York Times bestselling author of The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain. His ideas have been adopted by NASA, MLB teams, NCAA D1 athletic programs, US Special Forces units, Fortune-500 companies, top tier universities, and millions of people worldwide. At Sandlot, we believe in a world where people meet people in parks, parking lots, driveways, and trailheads for fitness and camaraderie and to lead healthier lives. And it’s fun because you look forward to seeing your friends. Community building starts two people at a time, and social fitness is a positive force for mental, physical, and social health. Technology can’t help solve the biggest health challenges facing us today unless it empowers us to lead healthier, more active and connected lives — in the real world. That is our mission at Sandlot, and we’re thrilled to welcome Malaika and Michael to the team driving this mission forward.