Sideline Design
Platform for creating and distributing graphics for sports departments, recruiting, and operations.
Website: https://www.thesidelinedesign.com/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Company Name | Sideline Design |
| Tagline | Platform for creating and distributing graphics for sports departments, recruiting, and operations. |
| Headquarters | 733 N Seven Peaks Blvd, Provo, Utah, 84606, United States |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | Other |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | SMB / Main Street |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://www.thesidelinedesign.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-sideline-design
- Medium: https://medium.com/@sidelinedesign
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidelinedesign_/?hl=en
Executive Summary
PUBLIC
Sideline Design is a SaaS platform for college and elite sports programs to create and distribute branded graphics for recruiting and daily operations. It aims to professionalize a process that often relies on ad-hoc tools or outsourced design [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. The company was founded in 2022, reportedly by a former college athlete, to address the intense visual communication demands of modern recruiting where speed and brand consistency are critical [KISSPR, 2022].
Its core product uses templated workflows to let athletic department staff generate custom graphics in seconds and distribute them across social media, SMS, and email [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. Public leadership is anchored by CEO Kyle Gehring, who holds a degree in Sport Management. Recent appointments in client experience and business development signal a focus on sales and service execution [The Org] [Sideline Design, November 2024].
No institutional funding rounds are documented. The business appears to be operating on an estimated $770k in annual revenue, a figure derived from industry averages rather than verified financials [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. Over the coming year, the key questions for investors will be whether the company can convert its templated approach into named enterprise contracts. They will also need to clarify any potential naming conflict with a long-established UK firm and demonstrate a scalable sales motion beyond its initial Utah base.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Key product and team claims are sourced from the company's own materials and a single press release, but revenue and valuation are estimated, and no customer or funding details are publicly corroborated.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | Other |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | SMB / Main Street |
| Founded | 2022 |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Sideline Design is a Utah-based software company founded in 2022. It operates from Provo, with its headquarters listed at 733 N Seven Peaks Blvd [ZoomInfo].
The company's public narrative positions it as a solution born from the founder's experience as a former college athlete. It aims to help athletic programs stand out in a competitive recruiting landscape [KISSPR, December 2022]. This framing suggests a founder-led, problem-driven origin, though the specific founding team remains unconfirmed in public records.
The company's most recent public milestone is a leadership expansion in late 2024. On November 20, the company announced the appointments of Rachel Allenick as Director of Client Experience and Dan Shea as Director of Business Development [Sideline Design, November 2024]. This move signals an operational focus on customer success and sales growth, typical for a company at its stage.
No other significant milestones, such as product launches, major customer announcements, or partnership deals, are documented in available public sources.
A notable point of clarification for investors is the existence of a separate UK entity named Sideline Design Ltd, which was incorporated in 2000 [Bloomberg]. This is a distinct legal entity with no publicly stated connection to the Utah-based SaaS startup. The potential for brand confusion is a minor administrative risk, but it does not appear to impact the operational company under review.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Company location and founding year corroborated by ZoomInfo; leadership announcements are primary-source. Founder background and other milestones rely on a single press release.
Product and Technology
MIXED
Sideline Design’s core offering is a content creation and distribution platform built for the specific workflow of collegiate and elite sports programs. The product’s primary function is to allow athletic department staff to produce branded graphics quickly, using templated workflows, for use in recruiting communications, signing day announcements, and day-to-day operational content [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. The company’s website frames this as a “full department solution” aimed at eliminating the need for in-house design expertise [Sideline Design].
Distribution is a key component of the platform’s value proposition. Once a graphic is created, users can publish it directly across multiple channels, including social media, SMS, iMessage, and email [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. This integrated workflow is designed to centralize a process that often involves multiple, disconnected tools, from design software to separate social media schedulers.
The technology stack is not publicly detailed. The product’s reliance on templates and multi-channel publishing suggests a web-based SaaS architecture (inferred from product claims).
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims sourced from company materials and a third-party brief; specific technical details and feature lists are not independently verified.
Market Research and Opportunity
PUBLIC The market for sports department graphics software is defined by a single, powerful driver: the intensifying competition for athlete talent. This has turned every social media post and direct message into a high-stakes recruiting tool.
Available public sources do not provide a formal TAM, SAM, or SOM analysis for Sideline Design's specific niche. However, the underlying demand can be contextualized by adjacent markets.
The global sports analytics market, which includes performance and fan engagement software, was valued at approximately $3.2 billion in 2023. It is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 22% through 2030 [Grand View Research, 2023]. While this is an analogous market, it is significantly broader.
More directly, the collegiate athletics recruiting ecosystem is a multi-billion dollar annual spend for universities, encompassing travel, marketing materials, and staff. The portion of that budget allocated to digital content creation and distribution, Sideline Design's wedge, remains unquantified in public reports.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Sports Analytics Market (2023) | 3.2 $B |
| Projected CAGR (to 2030) | 22 % |
Demand tailwinds are clear from industry dynamics. The transfer portal and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies have accelerated athlete mobility. They have also heightened the need for programs to differentiate their brand continuously [KISSPR, December 2022].
Coaches and support staff, who are not professional designers, are under pressure to produce a high volume of polished, compliant graphics for social media, official visits, and signing days. This creates a specific pain point for speed and templated consistency that Sideline Design's platform aims to address.
Key adjacent and substitute markets include general-purpose graphic design platforms like Canva and Adobe Express. These offer flexibility but lack sports-specific workflows and asset libraries.
Social media management suites such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social provide distribution but not the specialized creation tools for recruiting graphics. The primary competitive risk is that these larger, well-capitalized platforms could develop vertical-specific templates or acquire a niche player, though no such moves are currently reported.
No specific regulatory or macro forces beyond the aforementioned NIL rule changes are cited in the research. The broader macroeconomic sensitivity of university athletic department budgets, which are often tied to conference media revenues and donor contributions, represents an unquantified systemic risk.
The available sizing data, while for a much larger adjacent category, indicates a high-growth environment for technology solutions in sports. The absence of a defined market size for Sideline Design's specific product category underscores the early-stage, niche nature of the opportunity.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is drawn from an analogous, broader sector report. Demand drivers are supported by a single press release and general industry knowledge.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED
Sideline Design operates in a niche where the competitive set is defined less by direct, branded software rivals. It is more defined by a patchwork of incumbent processes, general-purpose tools, and specialized point solutions.
The company’s position hinges on offering a dedicated workflow for sports departments. This consolidates tasks currently spread across multiple platforms and manual efforts.
No named direct competitors were identified in the available public sources. This absence makes a structured comparison table unfeasible. Instead, the landscape can be mapped by category.
- General-purpose design tools. Platforms like Canva and Adobe Express are the default for many organizations due to their broad functionality and low cost. Their weakness in this segment is a lack of sports-specific templates, brand management workflows for athletic departments, and integrated distribution channels tailored to recruiting communications.
- Social media management suites. Tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer offer scheduling and publishing across platforms but lack native, templated graphic creation built for sports recruiting announcements and day-to-day team operations.
- Manual processes and freelancers. Many athletic departments, especially at smaller programs, still rely on in-house staff using Adobe Creative Suite or outsourcing to freelance designers. This approach creates bottlenecks, consistency issues, and higher variable costs compared to a standardized SaaS platform.
- Adjacent recruiting platforms. Services like Hudl and FieldLevel focus on athlete film and recruiting profiles. While they are entrenched in the athletic ecosystem, their core competency is video and data management, not rapid-fire graphic creation for social media and direct messaging.
Sideline Design’s current defensible edge appears to be its focused product-market fit for a specific user workflow. The platform’s promise of creating graphics “in seconds” for distribution across SMS, iMessage, and email suggests a deep integration into the daily communication habits of coaches and recruiters [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief].
This edge is perishable, however, as it is built on workflow optimization rather than proprietary data or technology. A generalist tool like Canva could develop a vertical-specific template library and partnership channel. A recruiting platform could add a graphic module, eroding the differentiation.
The company is most exposed on two fronts. First, it lacks the brand recognition and trust of established players in the sports technology space, such as Hudl, which has deep relationships with thousands of high school and college programs.
Second, its model is vulnerable to customer attrition if a department’s graphic needs become more complex, pushing them back toward professional designers. Or simpler needs might push them toward free generalist tools. The absence of publicly disclosed enterprise customers or long-term contracts suggests the renewal motion and stickiness are unproven.
Looking ahead 18 months, the most plausible competitive scenario is one of fragmentation. A winner will emerge if Sideline Design can secure anchor customers at Power Five conference schools and use those case studies to build a network effect within athletic conferences.
A loser scenario would materialize if a major recruiting or team communication platform, recognizing the adjacency, launches a competing feature set as part of a bundled offering. This would make a standalone graphic tool redundant for budget-conscious athletic departments.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitive analysis is inferred from product description and general market knowledge due to a lack of named competitor data in sources.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
The prize for Sideline Design is a central, sticky software layer for the daily visual communications of thousands of sports programs. This role is currently filled by a patchwork of generic design tools and manual labor.
The headline opportunity is to become the default operating system for sports department graphics. This would be a category-defining platform that moves from a point solution for recruiting to an essential workflow tool for all external communications.
The cited evidence that this outcome is reachable, rather than purely aspirational, lies in the specific, high-frequency pain point the company addresses. Athletic departments, particularly at the college and elite levels, produce a constant stream of graphics for recruiting, game days, community engagement, and operational announcements [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief].
The need is not for occasional, artistic design but for rapid, branded, compliant content. Sideline Design’s proposition of templated workflows that integrate distribution across social media, SMS, and email directly targets this operational bottleneck [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. By embedding into these daily routines, the platform has a path to becoming as indispensable as a team's email or scheduling software.
Growth scenarios outline concrete paths to scale beyond initial adoption. The company's current focus on college and elite sports provides a clear beachhead. Expansion could follow several plausible trajectories.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical Expansion into High School Athletics | The product is adopted by top-tier high school athletic programs seeking to emulate college recruiting tactics. | A partnership with a major high school athletic association or a simplified, lower-cost tier launch. | The recruiting graphics workflow is similar at the high school level; the company's templated approach lowers the skill barrier [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. |
| Horizontal Expansion into Sports Media & Brands | The platform is licensed by sports media outlets, professional team community arms, or athletic brands for fan engagement content. | A white-label or API product launch enabling external organizations to use the templating engine. | The core technology of rapid, on-brand graphic creation is not unique to internal athletic departments [ZoomInfo]. |
What compounding looks like for Sideline Design is a classic workflow and data flywheel. Each new department that adopts the platform contributes to a shared library of sport-specific templates and best practices. This in turn makes the product more valuable for the next similar program.
Success in one conference could lead to peer referrals, a powerful sales channel in the tightly networked world of collegiate athletics. As usage deepens, the platform accumulates data on what types of graphics perform best for engagement or recruiting. This could allow it to offer predictive insights or automated optimization, a data moat built on proprietary engagement metrics.
The recent appointments of a Director of Client Experience and a Director of Business Development in late 2024 suggest an early focus on nurturing this growth loop [Sideline Design, November 2024].
The size of the win can be framed by looking at comparable SaaS businesses serving niche professional verticals. Companies like Hudl (sports video analysis) and Front Rush (collegiate sports recruiting management) have reached significant scale by deeply embedding into athletic department workflows.
While Sideline Design is earlier stage, a successful execution of the headline opportunity, becoming the default graphics OS for its target market, could support a valuation in the low hundreds of millions of dollars. This is a scenario-based estimate, not a forecast. It is grounded in the observable value of vertical SaaS platforms that achieve high market penetration and customer retention within their specialized domains.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Key opportunity claims are inferred from the company's stated product focus and market positioning; growth scenarios are plausible extrapolations but lack direct public evidence of pursuit. The team expansion is a confirmed, recent signal.
Sources
PUBLIC
[Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] Sideline Design Research Brief | https://www.perplexity.ai/
[KISSPR, December 2022] Former college athlete launches Sideline Design to help schools stand out in competitive recruiting landscape | https://news.kisspr.com/2022/12/31/former-college-athlete-launches-sideline-design-to-help-schools-stand-out-in-competitive-recruiting-landscape_480510.html
[The Org] Kyle Gehring Profile | https://theorg.com/
[Sideline Design, November 2024] Welcome to the Team | https://www.thesidelinedesign.com/
[ZoomInfo] The Sideline Design - Overview | https://www.zoominfo.com/c/the-sideline-design/473439014
[Bloomberg] Sideline Design Ltd - Company Profile | https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0243096D:LN
[Sideline Design] Sideline Design | Create. Manage. Share. | https://www.thesidelinedesign.com/
[Grand View Research, 2023] Sports Analytics Market Size Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/
Articles about Sideline Design
- Sideline Design Is Selling the Graphics Template to the College Recruiting Arms Race — The Utah startup aims to standardize a high-stakes, high-volume workflow for athletic departments with an estimated $770k in revenue.