How it started:
July 2023 LinkedIn post that started it all.
How it’s going:
May 1, 2026 Sunrise STARTUP BALL Tourney for 80+ players
Find photos of yourself in this GDRIVE → credit the photographer zarashotme.com in your posts and be sure to tag us @startupball 💙
Find all of our socials at startupball.com 🏀
😍 🏀 💙
As a startup founder it’s easy to look around and only see all the work that still needs to be done. Maybe it’s the way we’re geared to see a world that can always be improved? Or maybe it’s the desire to maximise our own growth and desire for achievement? Or maybe it’s a third reason*?
But as founders we need to be able to take a deep breath and see and celebrate the success of what we have achieved if we are to have gas in the tank to keep going.
May 1st marked almost three years of STARTUP BALL. From the LinkedIn post above in July 2023 - because I was tired of running while traveling - to our sixth tournament and second largest to date by players, it has been a run!
And we’re only getting stronger thanks to to the love of our community and the support of so many sponsors.
We had so many heartfelt thanks from players and lovely notes from our 20+ spectators that to say my bucket was full on that day is an understatement.
So this newsletter is to celebrate how far we’ve come and to let you know our best is still on it’s way. 🙂 Let’s ball! - Z
HUGE THANKS TO OUR 2 TOURNAMENT SPONSORS + special offers
Assembly Cloud Solutions
Assembly is an advanced cloud infrastructure partner dedicated to helping startups (from ideation to scale-up) accelerate and modernise their applications. We specialise in the technical heavy lifting, allowing founders to focus on business growth. By leveraging AWS programs, credits, and funding, we help startups optimise their architecture and reduce overhead costs while building for the future.
Special Offer for Ballers: We are offering a Strategy Session (a 2-hour deep-dive infrastructure consultancy with our Senior Team, valued at $1,000) to the first 5 startups currently running on AWS that claim this offer.
→ Email [email protected] to claim your offer.
Zed Law is the Steph Curry of Australian Startup/Scale Up Law Firms…slightly overlooked out of high school but now with multiple rings and Olympic Gold. We bring a similar work ethic and success to your business from corporate, commercial work, size doesn’t matter.
Any startup that has balled with this group before and has used another law firm for any paid legal work is invited to compare our work via a free $750 credit.
We’re ready to play for your team.
→ Email [email protected] to claim your offer.
And thanks to all our Category and Media Partners:
Cloudflare - https://www.cloudflare.com/en-au/
Vercel - https://vercel.com
Performance VC - https://performancevc.vc/
Blackmill - https://blackmill.co/
Superstat - https://superstat.com.au/
Legend Sports - https://www.legendsports.ai/
The Founders Union - https://www.thefoundersunion.com/
Startup Daily - https://www.startupdaily.net/
Encour - https://www.encour.co/
As always, below is what you’ll find in this newsletter.
Info on our upcoming Events + Hoop Runs
SportsTech and Ecosystem Updates
Community Wins + Movement
See you on the court 🏀 🌱
❤🔥🔈COMMUNITY SHOUTS 🔈❤🔥
INTRODUCING OUR NEW SYD CITY LEAD 🏀 🌊
While we’ve had SYD runs quite frequently while we’re in town, there’s been demand to set up a regular cadence - and so we shall.
We’ve drafted Chris Calixto as our new SYD City Lead. You may remember Chris’s handles and epic buckets from the May 1st Tournament.
Check out what Chris does with his time and energy below - ball really is life.
PlayLokal - Digital infrastructure for recreational sports in emerging markets.
RISE Youth Basketball Academy - Develop your child's skills and character on the court.
BIG THANKS TO OUR GC CITY LEAD 🏀 🌴
Don Mander has been our Gold Coast city lead for a year now (June 11th will be the anniversary) after moving there from Brisbane. Don just stepped into a new role as COO of REGCOR Group, a veteran-owned and led, South East Queensland-based technology company working across cybersecurity, sovereign AI, telecommunications, digital infrastructure, and compliance. They partner with government, Defence, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, and enterprise organisations to help solve complex security, risk, and technology challenges. The focus is on building secure, resilient, and trusted digital ecosystems while supporting the adoption of emerging technologies. Check them out here: https://www.regcorgroup.com/
Gold Coast Run from 2025
CALLOUT FOR MELBOURNE CITY LEAD ❗ ❗ ❗ ❗
We’ve identified city leads for both Perth and Auckland, and actively looking to draft the best for Melbourne and other cities like Adelaide. Let us know if you’re the one, or know someone who is → [email protected]
TAKING THE FASTLANE FROM SYD TO SF 💸
Jock was lacing up to throw down some windmills at our May 1st Tourney, but was destined to scale usefastlane.ai instead after being offered a place at Founders Inc in SF. They just reached $1M ARR, two months after launch, and have over 20,000 users. Content marketing has officially been solved.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT, A - Z 🦄
It’s about Z! Because, like Sy Sperling, Z’s not just our president, but also a member.
On June 1st, Z left AWS’ Startup VC Team after 6.5 years to re-join the startup world as Head of Startups and VC Partnerships at Morfless.com. If your AWS bill is “too high” please reach out to him at [email protected]. Read more about the move here on LinkedIn.
DID SOMEONE SAY PADEL ?????!!!!!! 💚 🎾
Padel has picked up around the world. And its almost as accessible as basketball.
So we thought why not bring it to our community, and open up to other ball sports.
Limited spots for founders and investors. Expect high octane match play, team rotations + some cheeky swag from Concord 💚 🎾
Padel participants get 10% off all Concord services.
Concord helps VC backed startups sponsor talent and relocate founders into Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK.
Trusted by founders and funds at Blackbird, Airtree, Tracksuit, Paraform, Halter, a16z and Y Combinator.
LEGEND SPORTS TOOK IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Special thanks to Louis from Legend Sports for the incredible game footage, scorekeeping, highlights and cards rollout post event!
This was our first time augmenting the player experience and it wouldn’t have been possible without the spirit of our guys from Auckland.
Louis is driving Legend Sports forward after a successful run with Glory League, a platform that Australia knows very well.
Limited Edition Legend Sports Card from our recent tournament.
POKER SHOUTOUT
Not all sports are played on a court! Startup Poker
Find Z on LinkedIn to join a future poker event…we promise it will be a flop but we’ll make it up on the river???? Or something punny here. Wait, is that a note for my editor or a dad joke? Or both. If you’ve read this far, ask Z for a $1 off coupon for your next run. We love Easter Eggs and you just found one.
MELBOURNE FOLKS - OPPORTUNITY WITH THE WNBL!!!
Check out this fire role - let us know if you’ve applied!
🦄 SPORTSTECH NEWS 🦄
FIRST FINALS APPEARANCE SINCE 1999!!!! 🔥
Not so sportstech but we had to talk about this.
The New York Knicks have ended a 27 year NBA drought.
And more interestingly, this is heavily influenced by a $113 million salary sacrifice play from Jalen Brunson, creating the cap space for Knicks to build out the team that has now made the finals.
Former Knick Theo Pinson says “ Brunson is the best teammate in NBA history.”
Maybe we ought to bring Brunson down here and show him what we’re all building.
NFL'S VENTURE ARM GETS A NEW HEAD 🏉
Sumit Varshney has been appointed the new head of 32 Equity - the league’s corporate venture fund owned collectively by all 32 franchises.
Since a 2013 launch, they’ve raised more than $250M, with a 3% stake in Fanatics among other strategic investments. Some of the more ambitious owners and executives believe the league can be a major player in M&A.
⛹♂️ EVENTS ⛹♀️
‼ Add [email protected] as a contact to receive invites.
And for any enquires reach out to [email protected]
← PAST RUNS ←
Stay in the loop at luma.com/startupball.
@hoopafterwork Had a great time hooping with @STARTUP BALL #startupball #startupbasketball #startups #sunrise26 #startuplife
→ UPCOMING →
*Third Reason: Maybe it’s from that high school guidance counselor Mr. Zimmerman who said “you’ll never be good enough to do that, Mark?” Well, who’s laughing now Mr. Snowberger, huh??? WHO!!!! If you read this far, this is your second and more valuable hidden easter egg - first person to email [email protected] get’s $5 off their next run. 😲 $10 off if you’re billing more than $1k a month on AWS and keen to talk Morfless!
