Playing a fantasy sports game online is one thing, but creating one, attracting one million users and then selling it, is another.
And that's what Wharton junior Boris Silver did when he combined his passions for sports and the Internet to create Total Sports Fan, a Facebook application that lets users feature their favorite sports and teams on their profile.
In summer 2007, that initial venture grew into Sport Interactiva, a company that manages and creates Facebook fantasy sports applications.
The company was sold two weeks ago to Citizen Sports, a sports social media company co-founded by Jeff Ma, on whom the book Bringing Down the House and movie 21 are based. Sport Interactiva had attracted more than one million users in 15 months.
Total Sports Fan started out with hockey, football, basketball and baseball and quickly grew to include other sports, such as cricket and rugby. It "has the biggest database of sports teams in the world, even bigger than Wikipedia," Silver said.
Total Sports Fan "got everything started," Silver added. Following its development, Sport Interactiva launched 11 more applications.
In order to devote maximum time to his company, Silver decided to take a leave of absence during his sophomore year. Next, Sport Interactiva started running advertising campaigns for leading brands such as Time Warner, EA Sports and Adidas via the applications.
Wharton junior Avi Sarma, an avid user of Fantasy Football - an international fantasy soccer application launched by Sport Interactiva - said he had always been a fan of soccer, but was unable to pursue his interest because of the sport's lack of popularity in the U.S. Since the application was launched, he has been able to actively play the sport online with other fans worldwide.
Silver's future plans include addressing the "inefficiencies" he spotted the in Internet industry while he building his company by helping other start-ups and small businesses grow.
"I made a lot of mistakes, and it's nice to prevent others from making those mistakes," he said.
Silver credits his success to the Wharton Venture Initiation Program, the Weiss Tech House and his professors at Penn.
"I think Penn is an incredible place to be an entrepreneur," he said. "I had immense support in every aspect."
Sarma added that Silver is "inspiring" because at Wharton, "a place where everyone follows a single track of finance and banking, Boris moved away from that mentality."
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