There’s a belief that football fanatics ― like the hundreds of thousands that fill Ohio Stadium every fall ― are born fans of the game. But can true fans fully appreciate a sport as complex as football without first knowing its rules, terminology and strategy?

That question is the driving force behind Michael Gold’s latest step in a long entrepreneurial journey. He’s gone from Fisher’s classrooms to co-founding a pair of consulting firms to co-creating Future Fans, a venture dedicated to educating the next generation of sports fans through fun, interactive activities, stories and games.

The project, while vastly different than Gold’s other endeavors, has provided him the opportunity to better understand and utilize skills that any successful business professional, entrepreneur or teammate possesses ― skills such as discipline, flexibility and teamwork.

“I became an entrepreneur because I enjoy defining the scope of a problem and creating a vision to solve that problem,” says Gold (MBA ’12). “I enjoy building teams and working as a group to achieve the mission and vision of an organization.”

Before creating Future Fans, Gold co-founded Farsite, an advanced analytics consulting firm that was acquired in 2016. Later, he and his friend Mike Schroder created Loring Park, a boutique health care management consulting firm that continues to thrive.

His entrepreneurial playbook is simple. Gold focuses on prioritizing and planning his work week and daily tasks. He surrounds himself with good people who make a founder-led business part of their second nature; and he emphasizes having a flexible mindset and schedule.

“I love the creativity and multi-disciplinary nature of working in a startup,” Gold says. “Understanding the fundamentals of business ― finance, accounting, marketing, human resources ― is so important to being successful, and I feel like I got such great foundational tools at Fisher.”

The idea

The origin of Future Fans can be traced to Schroder, Gold’s business partner, and his love for the Cincinnati Bengals and their 2022 Super Bowl run. It was a special moment for Schroder, a lifelong fan, but one he couldn’t fully share with his 5-year-old daughter because she didn’t understand the game. He and Gold reflected on the importance of sports to the relationships in their lives, and talked about how there were so few ways to engage kids in sports and make football’s rules understandable and fun.

The idea of Future Fans was born.

An activity box for kids ages four to eight, Future Fans appeals to children in kid-friendly and parallel ways. For example, a bean bag toss game helps introduce the concept of downs in football, and everything about the sport is embedded into a storybook-led experience.

“There are games that teach the rules of the sport without the kids even realizing it, and rhymes help explain various concepts like 4th down and team positions,” Gold says. “The interactions are fun and help generations share a connection based on a common interest.”

Following its launch, Future Fans Football was honored with numerous parental awards including the Mom’s Choice Award, National Parenting Product Award, Play Advancing Award and the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval.

“I was particularly excited about the Autism Network’s Social Skills Builder Award, an accomplishment that validated our product as one that can have a positive impact on families and kids across different communities,” Gold says.

The power of teamwork

In developing Future Fans, Gold and Schroder realized the product’s success would be a team effort ― from writers, artists, designers, manufacturers and creative marketers. They also reached out to consumer venture capitals, angel investors, former executives in the consumer-packaged goods industry, and family and friends and raised $1 million in seed money to launch the company.

Today, they continue to collaborate with a children’s book team from New York City on learning materials for other sports, including soccer. Gold and Schroder provide the overarching story and parallel ways to teach the rules of a sport, and the team of writers, illustrators and designers bring the books to life. They also work with Brian Petit, a music teacher at Stevenson Elementary in Grandview and fellow Ohio State alumnus, who writes songs and rhymes to help make sports concepts easier to remember for kids.

During the initial launch of Future Fans Football, they realized that major professional sports leagues, like the NFL, had a vested interest in seeing products such as Future Fans succeed.

“Research has shown that each successive generation is becoming less interested in sports and being die-hard sports fans,” Gold says. “We are working with major sports leagues like the NFL to support building the next generation of fans. By collaborating with them and presenting condensed versions of the Future Fans activities, we are helping them introduce new, young fans to the game in inclusive and kid-friendly ways.”

This past fall, Gold and Schroder built a relationship with the team that initially inspired the product’s creation: the Cincinnati Bengals. The duo joined Bengals players at elementary schools throughout Cincinnati to showcase Future Fans, and the Bengals are growing the program for next season. This summer, Future Fans was part of the NFL’s Flag Football Championships at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And with the launch of Future Fans Soccer, Gold and Schroder have begun working with the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati.

“Beyond the work itself, Future Fans has led me to become intentional around how I create connections with my two daughters, especially as they get older and develop their own interests,” Gold says. “It has helped me better connect with my kids around a shared passion for sports, value the time I have with them and make memories around a mutual activity.”