{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Entrepreneur Perspectives","title":"How a 21-Year-Old Built a 1,000-Player Soccer Company in College | EP197","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3474,"description":"Brando Babini started a company at 16 because the thing he needed didn't exist. Five years later he's running it from a train seat between Brown and Brooklyn — 1,000 players, a Nike partnership, and 30 million views he shot and edited himself. This one's about how he actually does it.Brando is 21, still finishing his degree, and building Youth 4 Youth FC into one of the largest player-led soccer organizations in the country. He spotted the gap from his own playing career — no mentor, no one who'd walked the path ahead of him — and built the thing he wished he'd had. The 2026 World Cup is on U.S. soil right now and the whole country's suddenly paying attention to soccer. Strip the sport out, though, and you've still got the more interesting story: a Gen Z operator running a real company while most people his age are still picking a major.What We Get IntoSpotting a gap from lived experience and building the company you wished existed at 16Running an eight-state operation while taking the Amtrak back to class twice a week — the \"drop-in,\" not the dropoutTurning 30 million organic views into 4,000 player applications — and what to do when that engine slows downLanding a Nike partnership as a young, unproven founderThe mission-vs-profit tension: building real access without building a handoutGoing need-blind by design — so the best kid plays whether his family can pay or notScaling by \"mega sub-regions\" instead of chasing franchise growthTeaching 13-year-olds to represent themselves — agency as the actual productChapters00:00 — The drop-in: running a company between Providence and New York01:30 — Starting at 16, and the gap he was trying to close03:45 — When the pro dream faded and the founder showed up04:30 — The question that runs everything: \"what do I wish existed?\"21:00 — Access without a handout: the mission-vs-profit tension26:00 — Why profit incentives aren't the enemy, and going need-blind33:00 — Teaching agency: parents, players, and an internal locus of...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/TJ-gGtH1LltObKgoNodcM6WYtx5HSCSdzGymSF3QkUI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9iM2Vk/YmI2NDliMDg1Y2Q2/MDlhYjhkMDc2OWEw/YWYxMi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}