Varsity Hype was officially launched on April 1, 2020 with the objective of delivering a robust and user-friendly video content management solution to the youth and high school sports sector. Varsity Hype, which we launched 18 months ago as a beta product under the name VYPE Replay, was created to solve two major problems: sports video analytics software is currently too expensive to be accessible to many in the entire youth and high school sports world and, more importantly, the systems that are currently available are complicated and not user-friendly. The origin of our idea dates back to December 2016 when our Founder and CEO Jorge Ortiz founded GameDay Films, a video company focused on providing the youth and high school sector with video-capturing solutions. By growing this company, Ortiz was able to gain exposure to this sector and learn firsthand from parents, coaches, athletes, and organizations exactly what their sports video needs are. Ortiz and his team were able to grow GameDay Films to cover the entire state of Texas, capturing more than 13,000 sporting events across different age groups and sports until the company was ultimately acquired by VYPE Media (“the ESPN of high school sports”) in October 2018. During their tenure growing GameDay Films, Ortiz and his team experienced firsthand how the existing video management platforms were getting it right and, more importantly, getting it wrong. Following VYPE Media’s acquisition of GameDay Films, Ortiz started developing VYPE Replay, the beta version of what would ultimately become Varsity Hype. After using VYPE Replay to test the market, Ortiz concluded that the youth and high school sports sector needed a simpler and more economical alternative to the current products. The beta version has enjoyed growing success (amassing more than 6000 users throughout the city of Houston) and has allowed the Varsity Hype team to gather the necessary information in order to release a new product that people will not only be happy with but willingly pay for. The Varsity Hype founding team has spent the last couple of years learning about the intersection of youth sports and technology. The team is comprised of coaches, tech nerds, athletes, youth sports parents, and sport enthusiasts looking to create value in a community that is meaningful to them because they are a part of it. The Varsity Hype team is excited to launch their Software as a Service product and take on the Texas market and beyond.
