Founders Spotlight: Risers

A few years ago, Engir Son and Thang Nguyen met at an MMA fighting academy in New York City. They noticed that their peer athletes and friends were training full-time, working as uber drivers, and getting little sleep while trying to actualize their dreams within the sport. Thus, their idea for their company Risers was born.

The co-founders live very similar lifestyles. Engir is a full-time MBA student at NYU Stern, Thang has a full-time job, and both physically train everyday. They continue to work diligently to solve the challenges their community faces everyday.

Risers are building a blockchain-enabled marketplace to tokenize athletes and convert them into investable assets. They are focused on helping their community of up-and-coming fighters raise money to invest in their careers and focus on training full-time as opposed to external revenue generation.

The team decided to apply to the IBM | Columbia Blockchain accelerator when Engir “saw the opportunity to join one of the top accelerator programs in New York, US, and the World.” The co-founders knew that having the ability to go through the Lean Startup Methodology while receiving mentorship from leading experts at IBM, would help take their company to the next level. 

So far they have taken full advantage of this opportunity by attending a conference that led them to one of the team members who worked on the tokenization of NBA athlete, Spencer Dinwiddie. This was made possible due to one of the accelerator program mentor’s connection to the conference sponsor. 

Moving forward, Risers is looking forward to moving closer to developing a fully functional MVP, clearing regulatory hurdles, and receiving mentorship from experts in the field. As fighters themselves, they are motivated by a burning desire to help their friends back at the fighting academy to make their athletic dreams come true.