Founders Story - Future in Sports (FIS)

You know that moment when you’re scrolling through LinkedIn, half-inspired, half-

overwhelmed, wondering how on earth people actually break into the sports industry?

Well, answering that question is exactly where the idea for Future in Sports (FIS) took root. It wasn’t some master plan cooked up in a corporate boardroom, but rather a series of epiphanies and informal chats that snowballed into something much bigger, and better.

This is the story of Future in Sports, a community that supports young people in their efforts to break into the UK sports business industry. You’ll learn how it came to be, what we’re building, the benefits the industry has seen already, and how you could play a part.

Who’s Behind Future in Sports?

Malph Minns

Malph founded Strive Sponsorship in 2010, previously having worked brand side at Barclays, agency side at Karen Earl Sponsorship (which became Synergy and latterly Engine Sport, before it closed), and rights holder side at Team Sky. It took him 5 years to get his break in the sports industry after stints at Accenture, the BBC, and freelancing.

Vipul Londhe

Vipul entered the UK sports industry as a post-grad in 2022, following a few years of experience in the Indian sports market. Since then, he’s worn multiple hats – working across an agency, rights-holder and broadcaster, leading partnership sales efforts. He’s currently at Luscid, driving innovation in sports & entertainment sponsorships.

So, Why Did We Start Future in Sports?

Like many good stories, it all started with a problem. Well, a few problems, actually.

Breaking into the sports industry is hard. And we don’t mean “level up your LinkedIn game” hard. We mean "this feels like climbing Everest in trainers you bought on sale" hard. There were (and still are) three major barriers we kept running into ourselves and hearing about from others.

I’d say the problems are/were

- Where do I look for job opportunities?

- Who can/will help me learn more about the industry?

- How do I best market myself and stand out from other applicants?

It turns out this wasn’t a small problem. People wanted support. They wanted guidance. They wanted to meet others who were in the exact same boat (or stuck on the same LinkedIn feed).

Five years ago, Malph realised that opportunity visibility was a huge barrier for people trying to get their first job in sport. So, he made a group chat for 30+ young professionals on LinkedIn – a place to share job opportunities and answer those ad hoc “does anyone know how to…” questions.

Fast forward three years and enter Vipul, who was part of a second group Malph created. Learning from this, Vipul created the exact same thing for his 50+ uni mates.

At the end of 2023, after a few successful first steps into the industry himself, Vipul suggested to Malph that they team up and turn what were essentially informal chat groups into a full-fledged community. A space where early-career sports professionals could access real opportunities, gain actual insights, and meet genuinely supportive people. After months of brainstorming, Future in Sports was officially born in February 2024. Since then, we haven’t looked back.

What Makes Future in Sports Special?

What we offer: For starters, we’re a community. The power of FIS is not what the founders (or our five community volunteers) bring, but what the collective can deliver together.

The core of FIS’s value is built on four things:

● Knowledge - lifting the lid on different areas of the industry and job types, signposting key resources to stay on top of the industry, building capability, arming us with everything we need for applications, and providing unique insights into interview processes and questions

● Network - building peer group and senior leader connections for now and the future

● Opportunity - aggregating all the entry-level jobs, internships, volunteer schemes, and training programmes

● Community - understanding we’re not alone and our experience is not unique - it’s not me, picking each other up, sharing in each others success, benefiting from the wisdom of the crowd

How you join (and stay part of) the community: You complete this application form here. We’ve purposefully added friction to joining FIS as we’re keen to attract people who demonstrate through actions that they want to get into the sports industry, and not just say they want to.

From the outset, we make it clear that we’re all about attracting people who want to help themselves and not just be told what to do. And we want people who are keen to give before they get.

And we don’t stop there, every month we cull members who aren’t engaging. This isn’t as ruthless as it sounds. Sometimes what people expect is misaligned with the reality of the community, or their circumstances change, some people slip through the net, and some end up getting jobs and don’t need us anymore.

We’re constantly evolving: Sports experience is a major barrier for many in getting jobs. So we don’t just signpost opportunities, but give people a chance to build this directly with FIS. We currently have five people from the community volunteering their time to create our social content, manage the community, deliver events, and help us increase the female membership.

Furthermore, we have a network of 50+ experienced sports industry professionals who, in a manner convenient to them, provide on-tap support, advice, mentoring etc to the most active and engaged members of the community.

This provides our community unrivalled access to the very people they couldn’t reach before because it is structured in a way that it is manageable around the supporter’s commitments, and with the full knowledge others can help if they’re not available.

The value we’re delivering back to the industry: Experienced sports professionals want to help young people, but they don’t know how. We make it easy for them to help on their terms.

Additionally, companies are now coming to us to share job and internship opportunities as they recognise we have a diverse and curated community of proactive individuals. This saves them time from having to sift through hundreds of applications and costs them nothing to do. They also get the added value of informed perspectives from the co-founders.

Key Milestones Along the Way

● February 2024: Future in Sports officially launched and we had 155 applications on the first day!

● May 2024: Our first community members landed jobs, at Sky and The Athletic respectively

● June 2024: Our first of 12 virtual events happened! It was the kind of event we wish we’d had when we started, and it was kicked off by two success stories from the group Malph had helped 4 years prior. Someone who is now at McLaren F1 and another who is opening up an LA office for a European agency.

● December 2024: Hit 1000 applications. Not bad for something that started with a group message!

● January 2025:

• 4 volunteers from the community stepped up to support the running of it

• 45 senior sports industry leaders joined our FIS Supporters group, providing bespoke advice to community members

● April 2025: - Started our second season of virtual events after delivering 13 events successfully in 2024.

● May 2025: We’ve helped over 60 people get jobs in the sports, entertainment and media industry.

● June 2025: Crossed 5,000 followers on LinkedIn just exactly one year after the page launch.

● Now? 55% of applications come from ethnic minority groups, 36% from women (we have just started a programme to increase this), and 61% from outside London. Getting recognition from multiple agencies for collaboration opportunities and enhancing the talent/internship programs.

The Challenges (Because It Hasn’t All Been Smooth Sailing!)

Starting FIS while juggling everything else life throws at you? Yeah, it’s been a ride.

Balancing full-time work with community-building, whilst constantly evolving the value we offer (not to mention fitting in family life and long-distance relationships), has thrown up its fair share of head-scratching moments.

The main problems we need to solve now are:

1. How do we increase our female community membership from 36% to 50%?

2. How do we pay for the bare essentials (e.g. venues for events, premium streaming

platform access, community management platform etc) with charging those least able to pay?

3. Which UK sports industry businesses do we speak to who might want to support?

4. How do we attract more diverse talents across industries who want to work in sport?

What We’ve Learned So Far

1. Knowing you’re not alone in the struggle to get a break is of tremendous comfort and support when you’re down

2. Seeing other people succeed is an inspiration, not a trigger for jealousy

3. Those who succeed the fastest are the ones engaging the most, listening intently to direction, putting into practice the advice, and working the hardest

4. PR has a problem - no one wants to work on it

5. Agencies are more sexy than brands - few people want to work for a sponsor

6. Judging by the questions asked at the interview, there is a lot of headroom for improvement of how businesses assess candidates

7. There is a dearth of knowledge about sponsoring visas. It is put in the ‘too hard’ or ‘probably too expensive’ bucket - neither is true. This is preventing businesses hiring some amazing talent

8. Whilst it’s great to see some early careers programmes at different companies, it is evident from the conversations we have had that few have real internal support and so the perception is they are there more for external reputational value

9. Two Circles is winning the emerging talent war. They are the standout sports brand in the minds of people at the start of their careers

10. There are a lot of people who want to help young people but don’t know how. FIS can be the forum for that

Looking Ahead: Our Big, Audacious Goals

Partnerships with sports entities to grow FIS -

1. Get Future in Sports fully funded so there isn’t a requirement to charge those who can afford it least, i.e. the FIS community members. 

2. When the sports industry is looking for entry-level talent, they think Future in Sports first and LinkedIn second

3. A ‘graduate’ of Future in Sport comes to us when they make their first hire for a team

4. The gender balance of the community is 50/50

5. We’ve helped 1000+ young people get their first job in sports by 2030

Final Thoughts

Seeing others who you have helped, succeed, is more rewarding than succeeding yourself

(said by a selfish person)