It’s always a good time to get your Marie Condo on and de-clutter. Letting go of things that no longer spark joy is already a challenge enough but selling your unwanted goodies shouldn’t be. There is a wide variety of marketplaces and platforms to connect sellers and buyers for just about anything you can imagine. 

Facebook Marketplace, eBay, letgo, even Craigslist are all great options to sell or buy goods but since they are so huge–it creates an opportunity for niche marketplaces to better serve specific communities. Naturally, entrepreneurs like Ahmad Elhawli identified opportunities like the fact that currently, there is no dedicated platform for colleges and college students to buy and sell college merchandise and sports equipment.

The recent news of the NCAA announcement to move forward with a proposal allowing college athletes to profit from the use of their name, image, likeness (NIL) makes it a great time to be in this college sports space.  

A marketplace platform for colleges

Sportsfinda is poised to be the go-to social marketplace enabling students to monetize on their personal brands and colleges to sell their equipment and merchandise on one platform. Being that college merchandise, like branded apparel and accessories–and sports equipment, like baseball bats, gloves, and helmets are integral elements of a student’s college journey–a dedicated platform was really needed.  

With a robust web platform and an app for iOS and Android–Sportsfinda is very simple to use. Sellers can simply list their products and buyers can like, comment, make an offer, and purchase sought after sports equipment or college merchandise.

Sportsfinda provides a valuable service to the colleges themselves as well since they are major buyers of sports equipment regularly as they continuously upgrade their inventory. All that old equipment has to go somewhere so once per year, colleges work with Sportsfinda to list and sell their retired sports equipment. In addition, the college stores that sell branded apparel and accessories can list those products on Sportsfinda to reach a wider audience interested in college gear. This allows students to align their products with their colleges and make them easily searchable. 

Humble beginnings

Sportsfinda–the brainchild of digital marketer Ahmad Elhawli–originated in the way many great businesses get created–through necessity. Elhawli experienced the problem firsthand in his pursuit of a sports item. 

“It all began one day as I was searching for a pair of LSU football gloves, I was moving from platform to platform and it was very hard to keep track of what I did find and what I had not,” recounts Elhawli, of his journey to his aha moment.

After some research and good old brainstorming, the dots connected for Elhawli and Sportsfinda was launched. 

The man behind the curtain

The founder of Sportsfinda, Australian-based entrepreneur and digital marketer Ahmad Elhawli, is no stranger to startups. Elhawli owns and operates a digital marketing agency while hosting a business-focused podcast called Business Wilderness where he has hosted guests from Forbes, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Hubspot, and many more. But his entrepreneurial spirit dates back to his early adulthood with a failed business at the age of 19. He then went on to earn a Master’s degree in digital marketing and committed to the continuous learning required to stay sharp in this field.

After a decade of hard work, Elhawli was recognized as an expert in digital marketing for his work directly supported the generation of hundreds of millions of dollars. Elhawli has taken everything he has learned over his career as a digital marketer is applying it along with his passion for sports to build Sportsfinda from the ground up. 

For college students with some retired gear, it’s a great time to get those products listed on Sportsfinda and get paid. College students aren’t the only people using Sportsfinda, but so is the average person at home. With more online shopping happening than ever, everyone is checking out the new marketplace to look for hidden treasures.