2025 on da Bench

it's warm up time, quite literally

After hosting more than 25 basketball runs in 2024 - including the March Madness Tourney for more than 80 people, launching Gold Coast, and the Sydney EOY 4v4 playoff in November - we’re set for an even bigger and brighter things in 2025!

In 2025, we’re looking to host a startup basketball session in conjunction with SouthStart, Sunrise, SXSW, and SomethingFest in Adelaide, Sydney, and Brisbane respectively. And we’ll be doing the March Madness event again in Sydney on March 21 or 28 and looking to ramp that up…sponsors/partners please message us!

Finally, we hear NZ is prime to pop for Startup Bball…where is a NZ point of contact who can help us expand across the ditch? Forward this to your kiwi friends!

As always, below is what you’ll find in this newsletter.

  • Info on our upcoming Events + Hoop Runs (3x in Jan in 3 cities!)

  • Community Wins + Movement

  • SportsTech and Ecosystem Updates

See you all on the court 🏀 soon!

Community Wins 🏆️ 

Starting off strong with some quick call outs and shout outs within our community.
Let’s have a great 2025 🦾 

Partnerships + Sponsors 🌊 

Last year’s March Madness 4×4 tourney popped off.

All because of you beautiful people and the passion in our veins.

This year we’re looking to up the ante.
REACH OUT if your looking to sponsor and/or partner with us for this years Startup March Madness.

Right before we snapped our group photo in last years March Madness tourney

Raising Capital in 2025?

There are MANY founders and investors in our community and one of the free programs that brings founders together and helps them on their funding journey is the Founder Fellowship program that Mark Zmarzly runs…and yes he likes to type in the third person.

The next cohort launches Feb 26 in Sydney and the simple application form is here and includes more details: https://bit.ly/FounderFellowship3

Why fundraise alone when you can connect with other founders to expedite the journey? That’s a slam dunk! 🙂 

A Marketing Genius among us ⚛️ 💻️ 

Anf and his business - Authentic Marketer - have been making waves in the startup world.

On top of his enduring spirit on the court, Anf has done some great work for the likes of Birchal and OurKinds to name a few.

Feel free to reach out to Anf if you need to level up your marketing perspective, or want him to speak at your next event!

That’s a Baller Move!

These startup players are on the move in 2025!

Behrad Javidirad is taking his double double career average to Wollemi Capital Group!

Franko Ali is taking his no look passes and windmill jams to AirTree!

Anyone keen to grow the NBL?

What an opportunity - how cool would it be if one of us snagged it in the bag.
Or bucket.

This is a growth role with a heavy focus on revenue generating partnerships.
If that’s your superpower, you heard it here first from da Bench 😉 

Job Opportunity: Chief Growth Officer @ NBL 🏀 🤑 📈 


Moving jobs, looking for a job, hiring? Let us know and we’ll feature you.

SportsTech 💨 🦾 

And a little article explosion to keep those neurons firing while you read this sedentary behind a screen 😂 

100 top Sports Tech companies and startups 💯 

Here’s a fun list of 100 Sports Tech entities that F6S has put together this month for a cheeky view on whats going on around the world with sports technology.
Quick shout out on number 22 on the list: Level Up, known as the “strava for basketball”!

Global Community rallying behind sports technology

One Giant Leap - a “digital Davos” as stated by The Wired, comes together for its fourth year hailing from Malham in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, between the 9th and 12th of February 2025.

It’s newly introduced “SportsTech” track brings an impressive lineup of the very best in the sports world to discuss all things technology, growth and more.

Register if you’re in the area, link to tickets here! And a quick snapshot below of ticket options.

ATN [Athletech News] has compiled together a brief analysis on trends carrying over into 2025 - longevity, wearables and strength training are up there. And a not so subtle observation from us - running. There’s a run club around every corner in Australia and we are here for it!
Calisthenics - up next 🦾 

🏀 EVENTS 🏀 


We got a standard January lineup, spots filling up quick!

And if you miss out this time - more in the next few months that you’ll find in your inbox and through this newsletter 😉 

BRIS 22/01/25 @ QUT Kelvin Grove: 1530 - 1645 🏀 

SYD 29/01/25 @ Hoops Capital East: 0730- 0845 🏀 

GC 30/01/25 @ Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium: 1630 - 1730 🏀 


Coming Soon:

ADL 4/03/23 - Location TBD

Gold Coast Chapter Kickoff in Nov 🥳 

November EOY Tournament in SYD 🏀 

November EOY Tourney Champions 😍 

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