The Team
Piyush Sharma, the founder of KreedOn, hails from Jaipur, Rajasthan. Piyush completed his engineering in computer science from MIT Manipal and pursued his MBA from IIT Kanpur.
Piyush has worked for two years as a software engineer before going for a master’s program in marketing and IT.
Prateek Goyal, the co-founder at KreedOn, hails from Dehradun, Uttrakhand. Prateek completed his engineering in electronics from Karunya University and MBA from IIT Kanpur. Prateek is highly skilled in business strategy, financial models, and holds an experience of 8 years in the field of technology finance and sports marketing.
What is KreedOn?
KreedOn is a sports media-tech startup that provides digital sports marketing solutions to the Indian sports ecosystem and brands which invest in sports. The company has provided its services to athletes like Virender Singh, Aditi Chauhan, and in events like Mumbai Games, NGOs like Bridges of sports, and brands like Ballebaazi, UC Browser, Rebound Ace Infra, etc.
KreedOn also manages its own media property, which has grown exponentially in the last three years in the niche category of Indian sports. The media platform was created to provide recognition to sportspersons and organizations through its reach and content.
Check out the website for KreedOn here.
The journey towards KreedOn
While talking to TimesNext, Piyush told us that the initial idea of starting KreedOn was to make people play in India, and majorly focused on the amateur market, connecting the amateur sports players and teams to play together via an APP.
Piyush told us that the App was launched and operated for a couple of months before a significant pivot happened to the professional market.
Piyush realized that if they wanted to solve the real sport’s problems in India, they need to sort out the problems in the professional market first, and the amateur market will follow. They observed issues like infra gaps, corruption, lack of sponsorship, lack of competitive events, etc.
Piyush zeroed in two key problems affecting professional sports, which were – recognition, and financial sustainability of every sports person and sports entity, be it a team, event, academy, sports venue, etc.
Piyush and Prateek started their first platform as a digital media exclusively to solve the recognition problems of the Indian sports ecosystem. It was only a basic Facebook page where they began publishing video stories of athletes talking about their struggles and achievements. The company got good momentum, and built a website and worked over it.
Challenges in the outset
Piyush told us that he faced a lot of challenges when he shifted to Delhi, he did not know where to start, Piyush started reading a lot of books about startups, made a few trips to Bangalore to build a team, even started working with few people, but in the end, was left alone.
Piyush lost the initial six crucial months due to a delay in creating the MVP. Financially, there was constant support from his family. Also, there was a lot of emotional support from family and close friends.
Piyush closed KreedOn and decided to take up a job in a marketing startup so that he could learn the nitty-gritty and be well equipped to dive into the professional sports market.
After a couple of interviews as a marketing manager, Piyush couldn’t appear for the 3rd one because he wanted to go back and build KreedOn again as a media as soon as possible.
Piyush called up his IIT Kanpur friend, Prateek Goyal, who was working for Syntel at that time and had an entrepreneurial bend.
Piyush and Prateek decided to be partners and hit the ground running with their first few media stories. In no time there was
another partner, Ankit, who started with them but had quit after six months due to a lack of financial security.
It was a significant challenge for the company, in terms of losing confidence in the thing which they started. Within a few days, the company closed its first two digital marketing projects with an NGO and a startup which gave them the cushion, and the business cycle started.
Recent Collaborations
The company recently did Content production and social media marketing for season 2 of Mumbai Games in collaboration with SportzVillage XP.
Earlier, KreedOn had collaborated with a non-profit startup – Bridges of sports and worked in a fundraising campaign.
The company joined hands with almost all sports organizations and professionals in Pune, and started a community to discuss collaborations and even hosted meetups.
The company has partnered up with almost 100+ sports professionals and organizations in the domain of events, sports facilities, sports nutrition, sports infra, sports physios, psychos, coaches, etc.
First Milestone for KreedOn
Piyush told us that in terms of social media, the first milestone was to reach 100000 organic views on one video and that too within the first month along with 10K page followers. The company got an opportunity to create a video on Yuvraj Singh’s life, and Yuvraj himself shared it.
In terms of business, the first milestone was getting the first customer and creating a promotional video for a football academy in Bangalore.
In terms of media, the first milestone was raising the media traffic to 1000 daily active users than to 5000, and now it ranges between 7000 to 12000.
KreedOn – Growth, and Vision
The company has flourished so well in no time. The company claims to hold over 300,000 Monthly active users with 30+ Customers for digital marketing, content and media services, and 100+ Partners in the Indian sports ecosystem.
The company visions to connect the world’s sports fans in one place, starting with India and become a trustworthy world brand for creative sports marketing and media-tech solutions.
