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Thursday, January 15, 2026

Creating the Future of Sports Tech

This interview is presented to you by the University of Nebraska — Lincoln Master of Arts in Business with a Specialization in Intercollegiate Athletics Administration

By: Stefan Kollenberg, @stef_kberg

Troy Ruediger of Starters 

As we all know, a career path never goes in a straight line. You have goals and a plan to reach these goals, but it rarely happens the way you expect. This is what happened with Troy Ruediger. He started as an athlete, got a degree in sports & entertainment management and then ended up exploring the world of sports startups. Along this journey he discovered his love for sports technology and so Starters was born.

Ruediger had been looking for a sports tech community, but couldn’t find one to join. So instead of giving up, he decided to create one. It started out as a slack channel but gradually grew into, “a collaborative community of sports tech innovators and influences who are shaping the future of sports.” This community was a breeding ground for all sorts of amazing ideas. One project was the creation of their global sports tech map, which shows the location of various startups around the globe.

The map of sports tech startups is constantly growing.

The best part of all this growth is that it’s fueled by more than just Ruediger. It is a community wide effort, driven by people who are passionate about sports tech and want to contribute to something larger than themselves. In order to continue this growth, the community is working together and will be launching a new platform on July 18th.


There is going to be an entire week dedicated to this launch, full of AMA’s, Snapchat takeovers and surprise guests. This is a week you don’t want to miss, so be sure to RSVP and keep up with all the great content that they are going to be providing!

Starters is here to provide sports with what they have been missing, a community focused on breeding innovation in an industry long overdue.

Check out Starters on Twitter and connect with Troy on LinkedIn and Twitter.


This interview was presented to you by the University of Nebraska — Lincoln Master of Arts in Business with a Specialization in Intercollegiate Athletics Administration

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