Seriously, I would like to talk to folks about entrepreneurial and sponsorship
opportunities in the sport of chess.
About 4-5 weekends a year I take my kids to chess tournaments
around the country. So do other parents with upper middle class demographics.
We are a captive audience for 2-3 days at some hotel where the tournament is
being held. What a great opportunity to pitch investment products, time shares
– but no one has really gone after this market. Some national tournaments
attract thousands of parents.
Few large companies sponsor these events. We have the best
and brightest young kids in these tournaments – what a great way to build brand
loyalty while they are young. More importantly to bask in the support of a
brainy sport when the US President is about to highlight the need for more science and technology
talent. The interest is becoming mainstream - as my daughter carried her trophies from the tournament this weekend it is amazing how many smiles, questions and kudos we heard from average folks at the airports and on the plane.
Finally, technology VCs and entrepreneurs – the sport is known for IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue but is still remarkably paper based
and manual. There are plenty of automation opportunities and a large and
growing global market for creative products.
If you want to discuss any of the opportunities above,
please email me. If you are not personally interested, please forward on to
your marketing or event planning groups or to other potential entrepreneurs. Business opportunities to also feel good about. Thanks.
