sports-tech-founder
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TJ Ross
TJ Ross is the co-founder and co-CEO of Splash Sports, a peer-to-peer sports gaming platform he built with Joel Milton by acquiring and merging established brands like RunYourPool and OfficeFootballPool into a single home for survivor pools, pick'em, one & done and tiers contests. The platform now serves more than two million players and 80,000 commissioners. A Bay Area native who grew up with sports at the center of family life, Ross studied finance and entrepreneurship at USC before working in technology investment banking at Raymond James and Houlihan Lokey, founding the maker marketplace 43Layers, and leading strategic partnerships at STRV. He describes his work as building products that gather people around shared passions, and treats community, authenticity and enjoying the journey as the real measures of success.
Bill Near
Bill Near is the founder and CEO of HELIOS, a Portsmouth, New Hampshire sports-technology company that turns hockey development into something you can actually measure. An MIT engineer who captained the school's hockey team, Near pairs an AI-powered sensor that clips to a player's shoulder pads with automated shift video so any skater - youth to pro - can see real numbers on stride speed, acceleration and effort. He built the company in 2018 alongside Hall of Famer Ron Francis, and in October 2025 raised a $2.2M seed round from a syndicate of active NHL executives and players to scale it.