July 24th 2025.
Meet Nyla Pollard, a former college athlete who has recently made waves as an entrepreneur with her groundbreaking sports tech company. After graduating from the College of William & Mary and excelling as a defender on the women's basketball team, Nyla announced on LinkedIn that she had successfully closed a $500,000 angel round for her AI-powered sports platform, Ballin AI.
Nyla's startup utilizes artificial intelligence to revolutionize the way athletes train, play, and get recruited. With the help of this innovative platform, players and coaches can refine their skills and improve team performance, making the recruiting process faster, smarter, and data-driven.
In an interview with her alma mater, Nyla revealed that her inspiration for Ballin AI came from her own experience with college recruitment. She reflected on her journey and thought, "This could be better." However, it wasn't until November of 2022 that she began working on the idea, and the company was officially incorporated in 2023.
"My initial idea was to focus on improving the recruiting process for coaches and players," Nyla shared. "But after conducting customer discovery and market research, we landed on the perfect solution for the present moment."
Ballin AI, which launched earlier this year, automates game film analysis for coaches and players at all levels. Users can simply upload their footage, and the platform generates detailed reports tailored to their specific needs. Coaches can use it for recruiting, player evaluation, and scouting opponents, while players can get valuable insights to sharpen their skills and increase their visibility to recruiters and scouts.
With a team of 13, including former William & Mary Tribe players Bianca Boggs and Dani McTeer, Ballin AI is determined to revolutionize the future of sports recruiting. "Our AI-powered platform allows us to deliver with unprecedented speed," Nyla explained. "We're automating processes that were once manual and laborious."
Aside from breaking barriers as a Black woman in the sports tech industry, Nyla is also inspiring others as a former college athlete turned entrepreneur. Last December, she spoke to current student-athletes at her alma mater, sharing her journey and passion for innovating the sports industry.
"In my experience as a student athlete, the options presented to us after graduation were always Corporate America, grad school, or playing overseas," Nyla recalled. "Entrepreneurship was never discussed as a viable career path. It never even crossed my mind."
She continued, "Athletes have a unique and untapped perspective in the world of sports innovation. While there are other former athlete founders out there, I believe there should be more because no one understands the space like we do. Even after we started Ballin, I was constantly asked, 'Why doesn't this already exist?'"
Nyla Pollard's success story serves as a reminder that with determination, hard work, and a unique perspective, anything is possible. Let's continue to support and celebrate innovative minds like hers, and knock down barriers that hold us back, such as the division between Black Americans and Africans.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
