Laconia is thrilled to announce the successful acquisition of our portfolio company, SportsRecruits, by IMG Academy.
By 2014, after four years of full-time angel investing together, Jeffrey and I (David) had refined an investment thesis around B2B seed-stage workflow automation that remains central to Laconia today. When launching Laconia, we wanted to provide our prospective LPs with a tangible, thesis-driven portfolio company they could be owners of from day one. That company was SportsRecruits.
We were introduced to SportsRecruits founders Chris Meade and Matt Wheeler through one of our pre-Laconia portfolio companies. Chris and Matt were solving a highly manual workflow problem—helping high school student-athletes create visibility into their club sports success for college programs, and vice versa.
SportsRecruits was a company we never lost sleep over. It was a capital-efficient platform that quickly generated cash flow while sustaining strong year-over-year revenue growth. Chris and Matt understood their customers’ needs and built a sales and marketing engine that continued to execute—even through the challenges of the youth sports market during the pandemic.
This moment is bittersweet—it marks a successful exit, but also brings a wave of nostalgia. It made us take a walk down memory lane. When we first backed Matt and Chris, they were recent Wesleyan grads—hungry, single, and ready to build. We, on the other hand, were proudly sporting full heads of dark hair. Today, as they exit the company they built from the ground up, they’re both married with families. And we… well, we have a little less hair, and what remains has gone gray.
Being Laconia’s first investment that showcased our thesis to our founding LPs gives this exit special meaning. A big congratulations to Chris and Matt—and a heartfelt thank you to our Fund I LPs for believing in Laconia from the very beginning.
When we invest, we strive for two outcomes: great returns and lifelong relationships. In this case, we’re proud to say—mission accomplished.
You can read more about the announcement here.