HOMECOMING
Silicon Valley-founded sports tech startup comes to Houston
Apr 9, 2019, 3:21 pm
HOMECOMING
This article originally appeared on InnovationMap and was written by Natalie Harms.
It's a homecoming of sorts for Mike T. Brown, a professional athlete turned entrepreneur, who is moving his Silicon Valley-founded startup to his hometown of Houston. Win-Win is a tech-enabled platform where fans can donate to their favorite athletes' causes through a gamified donation platform.
The company launched in 2016 and since raised $1.2 million in funding. Win-Win is ready to scale, according to a press release, and launch full-scale during the 2019 NFL season. Currently, the company is accepting investors on a crowdfunding site.
Brown will move his team into The Cannon this summer and enter The Cannon's Venture Studio.
"I couldn't be more excited about returning to Houston to become a part of the city's tech revolution," says Brown in the release. "After visiting The Cannon, I immediately felt the energy and have witnessed their commitment to pushing Houston's tech startup movement. I can't wait to get fully plugged into the city's ecosystem, to start hiring local talent and raising money from local investors."
Brown spent four years in the NFL, and was at one point a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts. He hung up his helmet in 2013, taught himself to code, and moved to Silicon Valley. He worked as a mid-market growth lead for a $32 million venture-backed startup called Kiip. Growing up in Houston, Brown attended Alief Taylor High School before playing football at Duke University, getting a degree in public policy.
Continue reading on InnovationMap to learn about sports startups thriving in Houston.
YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul had to wait an extra four months for his high-profile match with 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The delay from the original plan for July was caused by Tyson having a medical episode on a plane and needing time to recover from a stomach ulcer.
The rescheduled bout is set for Friday night at the $1.2 billion retractable roof home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. The state has sanctioned it as a pro fight with some modifications.
Here's a guide for watching the fight:
It's hard to give an exact time for the main event Friday night, but it could approach midnight Eastern time. The telecast starts at 8 p.m. Eastern.
While this isn't the more common, and more expensive, pay-per-view format followed by most major boxing events, it does require a Netflix subscription. Netflix reported more than 280 million subscribers worldwide at the end of the third quarter in 2024.
Paul is a minus-210 betting favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. That means the payout for a Paul victory would be slightly less than half the amount of any bet. The most bet prop is for Tyson to win by KO/TKO or DQ (+275), followed by Tyson to win on points (+1000) and Tyson to win in the first round (+1400).
It's 31 years. Paul is 27.
Tyson retired in 2005 with a record of 50-6, with 44 knockouts, after losing to Kevin McBride. He fought Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition five years ago. Paul is 10-1 with seven knockouts against mostly undistinguished opponents. His loss was to Tommy Fury, the less-accomplished half-brother of former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
The fight is scheduled for eight two-minute rounds, as opposed to the normal three minutes and 10 or 12 rounds for most pro fights. Tyson and Paul also will use heavier gloves with the idea of decreasing the power of punches. The gloves will be 14 ounces instead of 10. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has said Tyson's physical condition met the criteria for the fight to proceed.