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VRTLfounder Courtney Jeffries describes herself as a “ recovering sport executive . ”
“ That was my entire career before I discombobulate it off to chase down my startup dreams , ” Jeffries told TechCrunch .
After playing playground ball at the University of Washington , she spent almost 20 years work in marketing and sale for squad like the Oakland Raiders and the New York Rangers . But while Jeffries was leading lover retention initiatives at Madison Square Garden , she remark a fulgent chance .
“ My whole caper was to focus on extracting the lifetime value out of the fans , but quite obviously , there ’s an over indexing of aid on sports fan in the building , ” she said . “ The legal age of fans are outside of an arena [ … ] and there ’s no program , no way to scale in - person experiences that we know will trigger their loyalty . ”
By 2022 , Jeffries launch VRTL , an enterprise chopine for entertainment company — from sports team to record labels — to capitalize on virtual fan experience .
“ It ’s a very versatile platform that combines livestream , video recording chat , and then our proprietary suite of fan engagement experiences to drive those loyalties , ” she enounce .
What get VRTL , which pitched onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield atTechCrunch Disrupt 2024 , different from any other picture chat or livestream overhaul is not only that it gives clients valuable data , but also that it has proprietary fan appointment shaft .
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One democratic feature article allow celebrities to sign autographs virtually for fan — for instance , a soccer star might sign up a .gif of an iconic play , personalizing it for each single fan . On the management end , hold a virtual meet and greet is a hatful less pricy than an in - person one , which require locus rental , security system , and staff , not to mention that it only regard local fans .
“ Why ca n’t we just do this on a Zoom ? ” Jeffries said . “ Sure , you could , but Zoom is optimized for agency oeuvre . It is n’t optimized for fans . ”
She add together that when brass have host pilot event on VRTL , they have a 60 % transition rate to become paying customers .
One such customer is the NFL ’s Atlanta Falcons , who use VRTL to emcee meet and recognise events between season tag holders and former Falcons instrumentalist .
“ They ’ve created this monthly experience that if your natal day is that month , they have an sole case for you with former players that are hosting , yucking it up for about 25 minutes , share the warfare stories , and then they go sign on autographs for these fans , ” Jeffries articulate . “ Sometimes they babble ‘ felicitous Birthday , ’ and it ’s the wanton thing you ’ve ever see . But all of these lover love it because it ’s for them . ”
The Falcons are n’t VRTL ’s only large - name customer . They ’ve also done raft with the Jacksonville Jaguars , the Minnesota Twins , ESPN , Atlanta United FC , and others . For the Jaguars , VRTL helped the football squad naturalize a fanbase in London , where the team has playedfour gamesover the last two years .
When the entertainment and sports industriousness have been abide by the same playbooks for so long , it can be a challenge for Modern idea like remote buff engagement to break up through . But Jeffries is n’t worried . She ’s see these juggernauts change their ways before .
“ When I puzzle out for the Raiders , I was there the Clarence Day that Twitter plunge . Everyone was like , ‘ What the hell on earth , no one ’s go to pass in 140 characters , ” she said . “ It is now unheard of for a team or league to launch without a social media manager … within my career life-time , this has take place . ”
