Jim Cavale, INFLCR's founder and CEO, says he will step down

Jim Cavale, INFLCR’s founder and chief executive, announced Tuesday he is stepping down from his six-year role of building the name, image and likeness software platform.

Used by more than 200 Division I institutions and supporting nearly 90,000 athletes in building and managing their NIL businesses, the brand-building technology emerged as one of the most popular service providers in the last 25 months. INFLCR was acquired by Teamworks in October 2019 for an undisclosed amount.

Multiple sources indicated to On3 in recent weeks that Cavale would be stepping down from his role for the Birmingham, Alabama-based business. Associate general manager Sean Kelly will be succeeding Cavale. The 41-year-old has yet to formally announce his next venture, but Teamworks founder Zach Maurides teased it would be in the athlete space.

“Today’s a big day for me, as I’ll be stepping down as the CEO of INFLCR,” Cavale said in a video released by Teamworks. “I’ll also be stepping down as the Chief Innovations Officer at Teamworks. Now I will remain a shareholder and an advisor for Teamworks, as I want to continue to support our growth as the operating system for sports. And of course, I’m going to continue to support INFLCR’s impact on athletes as it comes to brand building and business management.”

Jim Cavale launched INFLCR in 2017

Jim Cavale made clear in his video Tuesday he remains a shareholder and advisor for Teamworks, which works with college and pro teams to help stay connected. In March, Teamworks closed a $65 million Series E round, its largest to date.

Before founding INFLCR in 2017, Cavale was the president of Iron Tribe Fitness in the Birmingham area. Launched four years before the NIL Era began, INFLCR was initially focused on building college athletes’ brands and creating a global exchange, where companies could ultimately create endorsement deals.

The company pivoted recently to building local exchanges for institutions and providing software to NIL collectives. Cavale spoke publicly about the role collectives now play in the NIL landscape. In recently released data, 76% of all payments in INFLCR have come from collectives. And nine out of 10 business vendors in INFLCR Exchange are collectives (more than 200 have been launched nationwide).

“Jim has really worked hard to develop, in Sean Kelly, a successor that is not just going to carry INFLCR forward from where it is today, but I think Sean has really crafted a vision for where INFLCR needs to go over the next 10 years,” Maurides said. “What’s exciting is now he’s got a chance to execute that and really carry forward the legacy of what Jim has established here at Teamworks.

“I’ll leave it to him as to how he wants to unveil what he’s doing next, but suffice it to say that I think it’s going to be incredibly impactful. I think he’s going to bring the same passion and drive he has brought to everything in his life. I think at the end of the day he’s probably going to transform the industry again because that’s just what he does.”