By Jay Jiang & Sage Yang

Day 2 – Tuesday, March 26: The Relish

After a full day in the Silicon Valley, comprising our visit to Morrison Foerster and SAP, we returned to downtown San Francisco for our last meeting of the day with Ashley Wellington-Fahey, the CEO of The Relish Media Group – a sports app dedicated to giving a voice to underrepresented fans!

The Relish is an app that provides a forum for underrepresented sports fans to showcase their own opinions about sports. The app is a video platform that allows users to broadcast their takes on a game, a team, or anything related to the sports they care about. User content is always in the form of videos and can be accompanied by an excerpt of a game for illustration purposes — in a sense, encouraging everyone to be a broadcaster. Fans can also respond to other users’ content by commenting with a video.

So how did it all begin? Ashley first conceived the idea for the Relish app from her personal pain point. Growing up with a huge love for sports, Ashley saw firsthand how often females and other underrepresented fanbases were treated more as an afterthought. Traditional sports media focuses on the male fanbase, naturally isolating and challenging the commitment of others who want to stay engaged. In order to better understand the audience for her app, Ashley began creating short, easily-digestible videos focusing on news topics in the sports industry on Facebook. This served not only to validate the market, but also to build a brand for the Relish. Ashley continued to develop the community of underrepresented sports fans, exploring ways to connect these fans through content delivery and finally designing the working product of the Relish app. To date, the app has gained much attention and many endorsements from several well-established sports media companies, as well as professional teams and players themselves.

It is apparent the Relish has put in a lot of effort to make a platform truly dedicated to underrepresented fans. User registration requires going through a verification process done by the admin team, who have devised a unique way of filtering out videos containing hate messages and other discriminatory content. With such measures in place, the Relish has the potential to really become a platform where people can talk about sports freely without worrying about being harassed. Ashley is dedicated to providing users the opportunity to become unique influencers and opinion leaders when it comes to commentating on the sport they are passionate about.

In our meeting with Ashley, we were able to participate in an honest conversation about some of the challenges and the successes she faced as a female entrepreneur in the sports-tech industry. She embodies the entrepreneurial spirit we have felt throughout the EnTP trip: vision-driven, resourceful, and unflinching when faced with challenges. Her drive to reinvent standards in her industry parallels her company’s mission – an inspiring reminder that to be a successful entrepreneur, you should create a business you are passionate about.  We are excited to see how her achievements unfold and we wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors.