By: Miranda Underwood, Communications and Public Relations Intern

Mike Murad trained hard for years, excelled at the game he loved, met the people he needed to and was offered a scholarship. His checklist was slowly completing itself and a professional career playing soccer was in sight.

The unfortunate happened and he found himself reshaping his dream but Murad didn’t allow his injury to sideline his future. As a University of Windsor student Murad took advantage of the tools available to him by reaching out to entrepreneurial support agencies WEtech Alliance and EPICentre, where he took part in the Centre for Enterprise and Law Mentorship Program and was introduced to Coach Steve Hart, Director of Soccer Operations for the Windsor Lancers Men’s Soccer program. The two worked together over the course of the 4-month CEL Mentorship program which allowed Murad to turn his dream into reality in the form of Pursue Sports. Pursue Sports also benefited from the following venture acceleration support services:

• $5000 grant to explore the movement into the US Market (via EPICentre)
• Free incubation space at EPIC Innovation for six months (via EPICentre)
• Subsidized office space at the Downtown Windsor Business Accelerator (via WEtech Alliance)
• Business advisory support and mentorship by Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Deborah Livneh (via WEtech Alliance)

Pursue Sports is an athletic recruiting platform that uses a numeric ranking system to better scout soccer players.

With the support of WEtech Alliance and EPICentre, Murad has since grown Pursue Sports to a team of 17 employees located around the world. Together they work to help young players attain their athletic dreams.

Through a process of rigorous testing computed into analytical data, Pursue Sports is able to offer a comprehensive profile of each athlete tested.

As of May 1st 2015, Murad is now bringing Pursue Sports to the European market thanks to a successful CDMN Soft Landing application – an opportunity made possible thanks to WEtech Alliance’s partnership with CDMN as one of 31 Hubs across Canada. This will allow Murad the opportunity to grow his business in a thriving soccer (or should we say, football) community.

Murad is aiming to build a pipeline of talent from North America to Europe and the Soft Landing program has provided him with a three-month opening to accomplish his goals.

Upon arrival in England, he will be spending his time building relationships and gaining valuable feedback necessary to develop a permanent stake within the UK.

Pursue Sports has experienced local success already with the recruitment of two male soccer players. One of the individuals recruited was a Windsor player who sub sequentially received an invite to the Real Madrid feeder academy, also clinching a spot on a semi-professional team.

Athletic recruitment agencies haven’t been as quick to adapt to standardized testing but Murad and his team at Pursue Sports have capitalized on his own experiences as a player and they have built an unparalleled system to more accurately place players.

Pursue Sports is hoping to expand into other sports but are currently focusing their efforts on the excellence of both male and female soccer players worldwide.

We wish Mike Murad and Pursue Sports the best of luck in their endeavors, and are sure we will see large future accomplishments.

The CDMN soft landing program enables qualified entrepreneurs the exposure and opportunity to grow their businesses internationally. Successful candidates receive up to $4,000 CDN in reimbursable expenses that are to offset transportation and accommodation costs. In addition

Checkout Pursue Sports online:
Website: www.pursuesports.com
Twitter: @PursueSports
Facebook: Pursue Sports