Partnership with Michigan, keeping Bryce Underwood home, more: Q&A with Lucy Guo, CEO of Passes

TheWolverine.com spoke with Lucy Guo, the CEO of Passes, about its partnership with University of Michigan athletics. Passes is a direct-to-fan engagement and monetization platform that will provide fan access to exclusive content and merchandise from U-M athletes across 29 sports.

Guo discussed how Passes is involved with helping Michigan recruit top student-athletes such as Belleville (Mich.) High five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood, the content hub that will launch Friday, how top stars across the country are doing on the platform and more.

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The Wolverine: What should Michigan fans expect to find on Friday when the partnership officially launches?

Guo: We are going to be launching our official Michigan page, where you’ll be able to subscribe to Team 146, to be able to directly donate toward the football team, which is super exciting.

We’re going to be dropping merchandise, limited merch drops. Fans can buy merchandise and actually get something out of it while donating directly to the athletes. And hopefully, we’ll have a few athletes up by then.

We have to set up the page. It’s a content hub, so we’re hand-holding athletes through being able to create the best pages for their audience.”

The Wolverine: I’ve heard you’re a big Michigan fan, despite going to Carnegie Mellon. How did that come about, and how did this go from you being a Michigan fan to signing a partnership with the school?

Guo: In college, I used to go to a lot of hackathons, which are these 48-hour coding op missions, and I went to Michigan’s. And I got to meet a lot of Michigan students, and it was honestly my favorite one, it was the most well-run.

And I’ve just never met a student body that had so much school pride. I can’t really explain it, but I don’t necessarily think my college had that. So I became a huge, huge Michigan fan then. And then I started a venture fund, and my partner was from Michigan, so just really enjoyed being around Michigan people.

That superfandom from the school really felt like a perfect synergy with Passes. We had created NIL deals in the past, and I really thought that, because of that superfandom and school pride that Michigan held, we could really make a difference with Passes.

Decided to partner with Michigan, we started talking to Michigan around April, I believe, and then recently closed a partnership.

The Wolverine: How will the mechanics of the deal work? Have you guys made an up-front contribution to Michigan’s collective, and will part of that go to athletes?

Guo: We are making a contribution. We essentially up-fronted the money, and then it’s being distributed toward the athletes and the athletic department.

The Wolverine: A lot of fans are asking how this could help the courtship of Bryce Underwood. How will you all be involved with recruiting?

Guo: We’ve created a specific tier called ‘Team 146,’ and fans and donors can donate to this tier. The proceeds are directly going towards the football team for recruiting, retention, portal, transfers, etc.

The Wolverine: In addition to fans and donors helping, is Passes considering contributing to a package specifically for Underwood?

Guo: We are 100 percent contributing and working on the package with Michigan.

The Wolverine: Passes has some big-time athletes on board, like Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and superstar LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne. What kind of content are athletes putting out and how have the partnerships gone?

Guo: It’s going really well. We have some of them making six figures a month, which is really cool to see.

I would say content is all over the place, really. There’s live streaming, some people are selling merchandise like signed memorabilia, pre and postgame live streams, interacting with fans, meet and greets, etc.

We’ve even seen golf lessons be sold for thousands of dollars each.

The Wolverine: Wait, how do these golf lessons work?

Guo: Virtual golf lessons! I could not tell you how you learn golf through a one-on-one call, but apparently it can happen.

The Wolverine: I know you guys are going to collaborate with all of the sports on campus, but is it mostly the most notable athletes that are profiting? How can some of the other athletes also profit?

Guo: We are working on driving attention to every single athlete — small or big. We do think every single athlete has the opportunity to profit.

It really is what you put into it, so are you doing those pre and postgame live streams? Are you showing your workout for the day? Are you interacting with your fans? Are you doing more meet and greets, signing memorabilia, etc.? All athletes have the opportunity to make money, which is super exciting.

The Wolverine: How has it been working with the Michigan athletic department?

Guo: It’s going really well. We enjoy collaborating with them. They’ve been really, I guess like, they’re offering a lot. We’re working with them on creating better merchandise, for example, which we think will sell and help support the athletes. We’re working with them on being able to offer really cool on-field experiences, etc. I really enjoy that. They’re probably one of my favorite people I’ve worked with.

The Wolverine: Same thing with the collective, Champions Circle?

Guo: They’re great. I think we’re all just working together to help athletes make the most money possible, and recruit and retain. We talk to them, and we’re excited to be working alongside them.

The Wolverine: Anything else you’d like to add that fans should know? I know they’ll will learn a lot about it when it’s launched.

Guo: I think they should go on and support their favorite athletes. When you subscribe to an individual athletes’ page, they are getting all of the earnings, which is awesome. And then you subscribe to the Michigan page, subscribe to Team 146 if you want to help support keeping Bryce Underwood home!