Nikhil Jacob who realized early in his life that Competitive Sports is not his calling, so he opted for Sports Entrepreneurship instead and right after completion of MBA in Sports Management, he started off his venture – RAWPAC Sports LLP – one of the biggest Sports aggregators for preschools. Apart from this, he is a football coach, he worked with the FIFA Team in Goa and New Delhi for U-17 Football World Cup 2017. Excited to know more about his inspiring journey? Let’s get started via an interview he had with us.

My father always motivated me to play and watch Sports. Though he was never a professional player himself, he always motivated me to make Sports a part of my lifestyle. So, Football was the one that interested me the most and I started playing from an early age and I used to watch a lot of matches.

I have played State level football during my school days.

With a cunning smile, he replied – “Ummmm, No! Actually, I knew that I am not that good and so I only play it for fun these days. Haha!

Good question! To be honest, no one in my family has ever been into business, everyone was associated with jobs – either private or Government. But my elder brother was my inspiration. Immediately post his MBA he started his own Venture. He runs his own event management company and in fact; I have also worked with him as an event coordinator for his company – Bold Entertainment Private Limited. I have seen him managing his business from scratch, bearing a lot of pressure with ease. So, I got the confidence watching him become successful and decided to start off my own venture. I’ve always taken on responsibility from the front and so I thought why not do it full time in a field that I love!

Yes! My experience as a Football Coach at Happy Feet FA helped instill a lot of self-confidence and my head coaches at the time taught me how to deal with parents and children which plays a pivotal role at my organization. Also, my first job post my Graduation at Zocdoc. It’s an American based, online medical care appointment booking Service Company. I was working as a Data Operations Associate. I learnt a lot during this experience, learnt how to handle pressurizing situations and worked with some wonderful people.

I always knew one thing, that I was not going to pressurize my parents to finance my business. So, I looked for investors who can be my partners too. Luckily, I found them and they have been really supportive.

Firstly, I was going through my own mental conflicts. I was in a dilemma as to whether I should opt for entrepreneurship or not as I did have a couple of good job offers post my MBA. But then I thought this is the best time to take a risk as I didn’t have too many responsibilities. So, I decided to opt for entrepreneurship! Then, another challenge that I faced is convincing the schools about how our organization can help benefit them. But, because of the hard work put in by the entire team and God’s grace, it’s gotten better and better over time.

It was an idea that came about when I met my current partners. They were running a pre-school at the time and I was on the verge of completing my MBA. So, I came up with a business plan after doing a lot of research about the pre-school sports space and discussed it with my current partners and now we’re almost two years into the business.

The vision of the company is to become one of the biggest aggregators in the Sports Training Sector for preschools & schools. But we have a purpose over profit. Ensuring the schools and kids benefit and at the same time value the services we provide is our topmost priority.

We cater to kids aged 2.5 to 5.5 for preschools.

Haha! Definitely! They are too young for professional sports. Hence, we introduce basic drills in sports like Football, Basketball, Kho-Kho and activities like Obstacle Races, Track and Field. They are child friendly activities, and kids simply enjoy it because all our equipments are engaging and visually attractive.

No! I am happy that I am associated with great partners. Joint ideas and decisions usually always deliver great results.  We share a healthy professional relationship and usually don’t disagree on things. So, it’s going well for us as partners.

For day-to-day business operations, signing up and managing schools, I take decisions. But when it comes to hiring employees, or deciding about the Finance, Marketing, Expansion and similar strategies, we take decisions jointly.

My partners and I discuss tricky or high-pressure situations. I believe that when a decision is taken after thinking it through and discuss it openly, you don’t have regrets. Similarly, we teach our Coaches/ Staff to never look tensed in front of kids and school authorities, no matter how challenging a situation is, as kids these days can easily sense a coach getting worked up or lacking confidence to take decisions.

Great question! More than their professional knowledge, degrees and expertise, we check how comfortable they are with kids since we are dealing with the youngest age group buzzing with energy. We notice the effort they are putting in to ensure that the kids are enjoying the session to the fullest? So, we take a demo, post which we do interview rounds.

Sports in general is usually always on a high irrespective of how well the economy is doing. I expect in the coming time, we will see more sports leagues starting and priority being given to Fan Engagement which is usually taken for granted in Indian Sports Leagues. The Khelo India initiative is going to have a massive impact on Indian Sports as a whole. Online gaming is only going to get bigger. Sports technology will surely open up huge opportunities for innovation.

That’s a good question! It made me more patient and grounded because in both, you have to remain calm if things are not going your way so that you can work around it and find a solution. Also, in Sports, your fans are your everything and in business, your customers are your everything. So, you need to perform on the field, yet remain professional off the field in both sports and entrepreneurship.

Yes! They have been really supportive. Of course, like most Indian parents there is a side to them that would have liked to see me in a secure job unlike a business which has its own pro’s and con’s. They respect my decision and are always open to give me advice if I ever need it.

Being in the line of business that I am, maintaining your fitness has a lot of pro’s. But due to lack of free time, I have bought some basic gym equipment and I work out at my house, which barely takes about 20 minutes.  Besides this, I play either Football, Badminton or Cricket at least thrice a week.

I remember when I had started off my venture, we had pitched to close to 250 pre-schools out of which only 6 signed with us in the first year. But our hard work and quality of work paid off and today we are one of the biggest in Pune in the pre-school space and have also expanded to Kolkata!

Sure. So, I realized during my college days that the coaching side interested me more than the playing side in sports. So I had started coaching in football when I was 19 while I was pursuing my B.Com Degree as a part time job. After I realized that Coaching is something that I truly enjoy, I completed my ‘D’ License course from the AIFF (All India Football Federation). It was a great learning that is really helping me today while building my Sports business.

Parents must understand that Sports is great for physical fitness and the byproduct of Sports is a sharp mind. They must introduce they’re to multiple sports at a young age, so that the child can identify with the sport that interests them the most. Also, don’t compare your child with other children. Every child is unique in their own special way. Instead, ask them questions like – Are you enjoying your sessions? What did you learn today? and also try accompanying them for at least a few classes.

Haha! There’s a lot of time for that to happen. But definitely I would motivate them to be physically active right from the time they can walk. I can’t see imagine my future being glued to the T.V. or Mobile phone all the time!