As pick number 176 in the 2019 NFL Draft, I never received national attention. I understood that huge endorsement deals were out of the picture; however, I never understood why it was so difficult to use my platform on behalf of companies that can’t afford multi-million dollar endorsement deals. I am a tight end for a team representing the biggest city in the country, the New York Giants, and have continuously grown my brand locally. Despite this, I have only had two endorsement deals to show. I quickly realized that the problem did not lie in my personal brand (or lack thereof), nor did it stem from brands being hesitant to advertise with athletes. Simply put, an inefficient market made it so that it was extremely difficult for brands and athletes like myself to connect with each other for small, short-term deals. Thousands of companies would love to grow their product through athletes from every price range but don’t have access, and the large companies that only use elite professional athletes have a small pool to choose from. This leaves the majority of the professional athletes and brands without the opportunity to take advantage of one of the most effective marketing vectors available today.After a lot of brainstorming and market research, we started Progage Connect with the vision of bringing athletes and brands together to enable simpler and cheaper access for professional athlete marketing.