Train Effective

Summary

Train Effective is a digital sports training platform featuring masterclasses by Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand and Premier League experts. With over 380,000 players signed up in 150 countries and 4x turnover growth in 2021 vs 2020, the team is raising investment for expansion globally.

• 75,000+ monthly active players
• 15% monthly user growth in 2021
• Over 1.7 million followers across TikTok, Instagram & YouTube
• Featured in Forbes, FourFourTwo, SPORTBible & international media

Idea

Train Effective delivers a top-class football academy in your pocket.

There are over 270 million football players and 4 billion football fans globally. However, regular elite coaching is reserved for a tiny percentage in professional clubs. Our mission is to use technology to democratise access to elite sports coaching, so every athlete can reach their full potential. With our app, players can train like a pro at home with access to the same technical, tactical and mental content that they'd learn in professional clubs.

Train Effective launched its first freemium online academy in 2019 and has since gained 380,000+ registered users, having grown at a compound monthly rate of over 15% in 2021 with minimal marketing spend. Turnover in 2021 grew by 4x vs 2020 to £502k and financial year '21 revenue was £139,298 with loss of £62,687 (see FAQ). Our platform has received rave reviews with a 4.8* rating on the Apple store and over 3,500 5-star reviews.

Growth into international markets to target a portion of the $25 billion global youth sports market is our next goal as home sports training continues to gain widespread popularity as a result of the pandemic.

We feel that the timing has never been better to democratise access to elite coaching. As content contributor Rio Ferdinand said, "I'm not going to coach just one squad. [With Train Effective], I'm going to coach millions of people".

Team

Nick Humphries, Founder & CEO

Came up with the idea based on his personal experience. With a lack of access to elite coaching, he researched how to coach himself and practised, inspired by the 10,000 hour rule. Training 20+ hours a week, he eventually trained with the Australian national team and received professional offers. On his journey, he realised there are hundreds of millions of players like himself that want to improve but don't have the platform to do so. Nick is ex-UBS, started first internet business at 12 years old and played semi-pro football.

Thomas Achtelstetter, Chief Product and Strategy Officer

Oxford MBA, ex-adidas and former pro youth footballer at 1. FC Nürnberg

Paul Hayes, CTO

ex-Credit Suisse and previous co-founder of startup backed by early investor in PayPal.

Yuchen Xia, Investor & Board Observer

ex-Blackrock fund manager and diehard Arsenal supporter.

Rio Ferdinand, Legend Content Contributor

Manchester United & England legend, 16 filming hours of exclusive content for Train Effective.