NIL & Mentoring with CoachU

Summary

Adrian Levitt (founder) and Anders Matta (Stanford sophomore, first CoachU coach) discuss CoachU, an NIL company that pairs college student-athletes with junior tennis players as digital mentors and coaches. Rather than connecting athletes to corporate sponsors, CoachU leverages NIL rules to let college athletes earn income by providing weekly virtual check-ins, mental training, technique video review, and holistic development guidance to middle school and high school players. The platform emphasizes parent reporting, metric tracking, and a “North Star” goal-setting framework. Levitt outlines a longer-term vision of alumni networking, brand partnerships (e.g., SwingVision, Tennisist), and post-graduation career placement for the college athletes who coach through the platform.

Guest Background

Adrian Levitt is the founder of CoachU. He comes from a tennis family (his brother was a competitive player, his mother’s side is deeply involved in tennis). He has a business background and built CoachU to address the gap between NIL monetization opportunities and the majority of college athletes who cannot access traditional sponsorship deals.

Anders Matta is a sophomore at Stanford University studying product design (a subcategory of mechanical engineering). He plays on the Stanford tennis team and was CoachU’s first coach. He has an older brother who played competitive high school and college tennis.

Key Findings

1. CoachU Reframes NIL as Mentoring, Not Sponsorship

Most NIL companies connect college athletes to businesses for sponsorship deals, appearances, and commercials. CoachU takes a fundamentally different approach: it positions college athletes as digital mentors to younger athletes, monetizing their experience and relatability rather than their endorsement value. Levitt notes that “a majority of athletes actually are unable to benefit” from traditional NIL deals, making CoachU’s model more broadly accessible to college athletes beyond just the stars.

2. Digital-First Model Fits the College Athlete Schedule

The platform is fully remote and asynchronous-friendly. Matta describes filling “little blocks of time” — two-hour airport layovers, bus rides home from matches — with mentoring check-ins instead of scrolling social media. This design insight makes the model viable for athletes whose travel and training schedules make traditional part-time work or in-person coaching impossible.

3. Structured Mentoring Framework with Parent Accountability

CoachU provides guardrails through a structured system: weekly athlete check-ins (phone/FaceTime), monthly parent calls, automated intake surveys (1-5 mood ratings), monthly written progress reviews from the coach, and a “North Star” goal-setting methodology. Parents receive formal reporting and retain control over what information flows back to the athlete. Levitt describes this parent-facing accountability as a key differentiator from traditional coaching, where parents often get nothing more than “how’d it go?” / “good.”

4. Mental Training and Holistic Development Over Pure Technique

Matta’s primary mentoring focus is mental training — pre-match routines, breathing exercises, managing pressure and anxiety — rather than technical instruction. While technique work happens (athletes send video for review), the core value proposition is the emotional and psychological support that a relatable near-peer can provide. Both guests emphasize that the individuality and loneliness of junior tennis creates acute demand for this kind of mentoring.

5. Age Proximity Drives Relatability and Trust

The 4-8 year age gap between CoachU mentors and their junior athletes is positioned as a strategic advantage. Matta argues that advice from someone who “has just been where you want to be” lands differently than guidance from a parent, a 50-year-old coach, or friends who do not play tennis. The platform deliberately leverages this near-peer dynamic.

6. Revenue Model: Monthly Subscription, 70/30 Split

CoachU charges families a monthly fee roughly equivalent to “the price of a one-hour [in-person] session” for an entire month of digital mentoring. Coaches take home 70% of the fee. Pricing varies by coach and scope of services. The company handles billing, onboarding, training, compliance, and quality assurance.

7. Coach Onboarding Includes NIL Compliance and Safety Training

Each coach goes through interviews, reference checks (often with their tennis academy or college coach), and a formal training covering: school-specific NIL policies, recruiting rules (what coaches can and cannot say about their university), code of conduct for digital interactions with minors, and the distinction between being a great athlete and being a great coach. Levitt emphasizes that “just because you’re a great athlete doesn’t make you a great coach.”

8. Partnership Strategy as a Growth Vector

CoachU pursues channel partnerships with companies like SwingVision (video analysis) and Tennisist (match-finding), offering CoachU members extended free trials or discounts. This positions CoachU as an ecosystem hub rather than a standalone product, and creates additional value for families beyond the mentoring itself.

9. Long-Term Vision: Alumni Network and Post-Graduation Placement

Levitt describes a grand vision where CoachU becomes an alumni network of entrepreneurial college athletes — people who ran a “side hustle while being the busiest people in America” — who then help each other find jobs and professional opportunities after graduation. This positions CoachU as more than a coaching platform; it is a career development pipeline.

Actionable Advice for Families

• Junior players struggling with the mental and emotional demands of tournament tennis should consider engaging a college athlete mentor through platforms like CoachU as a supplement to, not replacement for, their primary coach
• Parents should look for coaching relationships that include structured reporting, goal-setting, and regular parent check-ins — accountability is the biggest gap in traditional coaching
• College-bound athletes should explore CoachU-style mentoring both as mentees (to learn from someone slightly ahead of them) and as future mentors (to build work experience and earn NIL income)

INTENNSE Relevance

• Player development pipeline: CoachU’s mentoring model offers a template for how INTENNSE could structure player development programs that connect professional or semi-professional players with junior athletes, building the league’s grassroots pipeline while giving players additional income streams
• NIL as pathway indicator: The episode confirms that NIL rules are reshaping how college tennis players think about their brand and income before going pro. INTENNSE players coming from the college pathway will arrive with more business awareness and personal brand infrastructure than previous generations
• Digital coaching infrastructure: CoachU’s remote-first, asynchronous model — weekly check-ins, video review, automated surveys, North Star goals — is directly applicable to how INTENNSE could deliver player support, fan engagement, or community coaching programs at scale
• Near-peer mentoring model: The 4-8 year age proximity insight translates to INTENNSE’s context: professional players mentoring college-age prospects or recent graduates would carry more weight than traditional coaching hierarchies
• Athlete-as-entrepreneur: CoachU positions college athletes as entrepreneurs running their own micro-business within a platform. This mindset aligns with INTENNSE’s interest in players who can build personal brands and contribute to league marketing, not just compete on court
• Parent engagement: CoachU’s parent reporting and accountability framework validates that family engagement is essential infrastructure in the junior-to-pro pipeline, not a nice-to-have

Notable Quotes

“An athlete is more than just something to a corporation. They’re an inspiring source to the next generation of athletes — their former self three, four, five years ago.”

“We’re not displacing coaches. We are supplementing coaching and we view it as a more holistic end-to-end way to do it.”

“Just because you’re a great athlete doesn’t make you a great coach. And honestly, sometimes it could be counterintuitive.”

“For the price of a one-hour session, you get a whole month.”