ASU, GoDaddy launch student-athlete venture studio

Arizona State University is partnering with GoDaddy to launch a venture studio that will support the next generation of student-athlete entrepreneurs.

ASU and the Tempe-based internet domain web hosting company on Wednesday announced the program, which offers resources and mentorship to student-athletes looking to build their brands and launch businesses.

What’s more, the program provides tools to student-athletes as they navigate the changing landscape of name, image and likeness, or NIL, licensing agreements.

Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2021, college athletes can benefit financially from their name, image and likeness through sponsorship deals and product endorsements among other things. However, navigating that process can be complicated and time consuming, according to a university announcement. Arizona State has its own group focused on NIL deals for student athletes called the Sun Angel Collective.

The program, designed by ASU’s J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, GoDaddy and Sun Devil Athletics, soft launched in late January and held two “large format athlete-facing events,” Jeff Kunowski, associate director of innovation programs at ASU’s Edson E+I Institute, told AZ Inno.

To date, the program has interacted with more than 200 athletes and held 40 one-on-one meetings with students to explore entrepreneurial pathways and build GoDaddy Airo-enabled websites, he said.

As part of the program, student-athletes benefit from in-person and online educational content, opportunities to compete for grant funding, and a collaborative working space at Mountain America Stadium, which is near Sun Devil Athletics’ administration facilities.

The program operates on a “rolling basis” and is open to student-athletes throughout the year. The venture studio plans to host demo days each semester for student-athletes to pitch their business ideas for a chance to land seed funding.

Hundreds of student athletes will have access

GoDaddy is supporting the program through its global social impact program, Empower by GoDaddy, which will provide more than 650 student-athletes with free access to digital branding tools — including GoDaddy Airo, the company’s AI-powered solution for developing websites, according to ASU’s announcement.

Those resources — consisting of more than $1 million in combined cash and in-kind support to be distributed to students in 2025 — allow student-athletes to establish a professional online presence, launch ventures quickly and easily scale their ideas.

“According to our research, 50% of Gen Z aspire to become entrepreneurs, and through Empower by GoDaddy, we’re accelerating this journey for these young innovators by providing them with the tools they need to bring their business dreams to life off the field,” Jared Sine, chief strategy and legal officer at GoDaddy, said in a statement.

The inspiration for ASU and GoDaddy’s Student Athlete Venture Studio was born from a collaboration between Kunowski and Kate Fitzgerald, a former ASU women’s beach volleyball player and founder of VBAmerica, a volleyball lifestyle clothing brand. Fitzgerald was an AZ Inno 25 Under 25 honoree in 2023.

“NIL regulations and ASU’s innovative resources allowed me to launch VBAmerica and build opportunities for life after sport,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “As student athletic council president, I saw a need to help other athletes access these same resources: launching businesses, securing grants and building networks. The Student-Athlete Venture Studio embodies this mission, empowering athletes to thrive through NIL and entrepreneurship.”