Featured Alumni Entrepreneur: Thomas Berman '10

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky.

This is the quote and inspiration that Thomas Berman, founder of DraftingSleepers.com, The Social Network for Fantasy Sports, has lived by. This was the early encouragement to take the risk into entrepreneurship when launching his new venture.

Berman, like many fellow Orange alumni, has a big passion for sports, including fantasy sports–the online virtual games played by more than 57 million people in North America in 2015. For some, it’s a recreational game; for others, it’s a blood-bath competition among friends. For the up and coming, it’s an investment for financial gain.

The inspiration to launch DraftingSleepers came from years of frustration of not being able to find personal custom content about players for Berman’s fantasy teams. Major publishers continued to write articles about the same big players. There was very little to no insight about players deeper on one’s roster, or more importantly, custom analysis about making a trade, waiver wire pickups or who to draft based on custom league settings.

DraftingSleepers was launched in July 2016 with the mission to help fantasy players make informed and better decisions for their own teams through user-generated conversations and opinions among the fantasy community. Like almost all start-ups, Berman faces a number of challenges including user growth acquisition, brand awareness and, of course, funding.

The social platform offers fantasy players the opportunity to discuss any player or topic of their choosing. More importantly, it gives people the opportunity to discuss specific topics custom to their team or league. Members can start a conversation, ask a question, share an idea, or give an opinion on any fantasy sports topic they choose. The power of crowd sourcing to enhance and guide the fantasy sports community has finally arrived.

Since its launch, DraftingSleepers has been fortunate to see consistent growth and engagement with its community. The continued goal to grow its user base and an ongoing effort to offer valuable user experience is forever a mission and challenge social media businesses face.

If you also love fantasy sports or for more information, visit DraftingSleepers.com.

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Thomas Berman

Thomas Berman graduated from Syracuse University in 2010 with a double major in marketing and supply chain management. While at Syracuse, Berman was a member of the Syracuse club roller hockey team, brother of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and a member of both the American Marketing Association and APICS. Berman went on to earn his M.B.A. from St. John’s University, graduating top 10 percent of his class, and spent the following six years working in sports marketing and digital media. His love for sports and digital media came together when he founded DraftingSleepers.com, The Social Network for Fantasy Sports, in 2016. Berman currently resides in New York City with his wife, Margaret.

Featured Alumni Entrepreneur: Thomas Berman ’10