San Diego Magazine’s Cool Company Feature on Hookit

HOOKIT

Location: Solana Beach
Employees: 25

Co-founders Scott Tilton and R. J. Kraus met in seventh grade and became best friends racing motocross in New York. At 25, they created Sponsor House, a platform for amateur athletes to connect online with sponsors. When they realized a move to SoCal was imperative for their focus on action sports, they bought a motorhome and hightailed it to North County. Fast-forward eight years; they had 1 million registered athletes and rebranded as Hookit to broaden their scope. In 2012 they launched the Hookit Score, which measures the marketability and talent of an athlete. “Basically, it’s a credit score for an athlete,” Tilton says. “We track social media and also integrate with wearable tech devices to show how much an athlete practices, travels, and competes. How committed is this athlete to the sport?” GoPro asked them to track the value of pro athletes, in order to quantify sponsorship investments. For example, how often did pro surfer Kelly Slater mention GoPro, and how much social media interaction did each mention generate? By measuring the cost per engagement, Hookit can determine how much an athlete is worth to a brand. The company recently got a ton of press when they determined that soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo was the first athlete to have 200 million followers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Hookit also tracks teams as well as musicians, bands, and politicians.

HOLIDAY PARTY 2015:

Trampoline dodgeball. Enough said.

Read the full story at:
www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/May-2016/San-Diegos-Coolest-Companies