Phoenix Capital Ventures

Phoenix Capital Ventures (PCV) is an Atlanta-based early-stage venture capital firm that has been investing in sports, gaming, fitness, and entertainment technology since 2016. Founded by Andrew Steinberg and managed by General Partner Adam Lewites—a former college basketball coach who transitioned through Endeavor Atlanta and the startup world—PCV has built one of the more focused portfolios in the sports tech space, with roughly 20+ companies spanning daily fantasy sports, athlete safety, connected fitness, and immersive media.

Unlike generalist seed funds that spread capital across sectors, PCV narrows its focus to a single thesis: technologies that change how people play, move, compete, and connect. That specificity matters for founders. If you are building in sports, gaming, fitness, or human performance, PCV understands your market, your customer, and your distribution channels in a way a generalist investor simply cannot match.

This guide covers PCV's actual investment thesis, real portfolio companies, typical check sizes, what the firm looks for in founders, and practical advice for getting a meeting. Everything here is based on publicly available information about the firm, their stated focus, and their documented portfolio activity.

PCV's investment thesis is straightforward: back bold founders at the earliest stages who are building transformative companies in sports, gaming, fitness, and entertainment. The firm explicitly targets companies reshaping how people engage with play, movement, and competition. This is not a broad consumer thesis—it is a sector-specific bet on the convergence of culture, technology, and human performance.

The firm invests $500,000 to $5 million per deal at the pre-seed and seed stages, with occasional participation in Series B rounds averaging around $5 million. PCV prefers to lead or co-lead rounds, which means they are actively involved in portfolio companies rather than taking a passive LP role. That operational orientation shapes everything from deal sourcing to post-investment support.

Key investment criteria include strong founding teams with direct domain expertise—whether that is being a former athlete, a fitness operator, a gaming veteran, or a sports media executive. PCV also looks for companies with clear product differentiation, early traction indicators, and pathways to scale within the sports and gaming ecosystem. The firm has publicly cited founder story and personal motivation as factors that differentiate deals, not just financial metrics.

PCV's focus areas span sports technology, gaming platforms, fitness technology and connected fitness, human performance and wearables, immersive media and VR/AR, and sports media and content distribution. The common thread is that each investment sits at the intersection of technology and passionate consumer engagement—categories where users do not need to be acquired because they already care deeply about the activity.

PCV has maintained consistent deal activity through 2024 and into 2025, adding companies across VR fitness, sports memorabilia, golf technology, creator monetization, and AI-powered marketing. The firm participated in Pinpoint's $2.5 million round in October 2025 alongside Antler VC, Flybridge, and True Global. Earlier in 2025, PCV invested in JOA, a platform turning live sports into interactive social play experiences, signaling continued interest in fan engagement and gaming-adjacent sports technology.

The firm's investment pace reflects a deliberate focus on quality over quantity at each stage. PCV does not try to be the most active fund in the ecosystem—it tries to be the most knowledgeable and connected in its specific verticals. That approach means deal flow is often sourced through founder networks, referrals from sports industry executives, and relationships built through Adam Lewites' background in both coaching and the Atlanta startup scene.

PCV has also continued supporting existing portfolio companies through follow-on rounds. This continued commitment is notable because many early-stage funds become more selective as vintage portfolios mature. PCV's willingness to follow on signals that the firm views its portfolio relationships as long-term partnerships rather than transactional investments.

The firm has also adapted its investment process as market conditions shifted, becoming more selective on valuations while remaining committed to lead positions. Founders should expect thorough diligence and should come prepared to defend their assumptions about market size, unit economics, and competitive positioning.

PCV's portfolio is one of the more compelling arguments for its thesis. Here are the most notable companies in the portfolio, based on public records:

PrizePicks is the largest independently owned daily fantasy sports platform in the United States. Founded in 2016, the company has grown to tens of millions of users and become a major player in the DFS market—making it PCV's highest-profile holding and a proof point for the firm's ability to identify category leaders early.

Thuuz builds mobile and connected TV services that help sports fans discover programming across leagues and streaming platforms. The company focuses on personalized sports discovery, a pain point that has grown significantly as sports rights have fragmented across multiple broadcast and streaming services.

Attend provides event ticketing solutions including subscription passes and last-minute inventory for live sports and entertainment events. The company's approach to flexible ticketing addresses a growing consumer demand for spontaneity in live event attendance.

Flexia is a connected fitness company offering the world's first smart Pilates reformer, combining hardware, software, and community to bring boutique fitness experiences into the home. This investment reflects PCV's thesis around the convergence of fitness and technology.

Prevent Biometrics developed a smart mouthguard that monitors head impacts for athlete safety, targeting youth sports, collegiate athletics, and professional leagues. The company's technology addresses the growing concern around sub-concussive hits and traumatic brain injury in contact sports.

Nextiles is a materials science company that merges flexible electronics with soft goods—think smart fabrics that capture performance data during athletic activity. PCV's investment reflects interest in next-generation wearables that go beyond the wrist.

Tallysight helps creators and brands monetize sports gaming audiences, sitting at the intersection of influencer culture, gaming, and sports media. The platform enables creators to build revenue streams around sports gaming content.

YUR built a VR fitness and health platform that gamifies exercise, targeting the intersection of immersive technology and personal health. The investment aligns with PCV's interest in fitness technology that increases engagement through game mechanics.

BookSeats.com bundles sports tickets with flights and hotels for customized travel experiences, targeting die-hard fans who travel for games. The platform reflects the growing consumer appetite for bundled, experience-based travel.

Caliber provides science-based fitness coaching with personalized training and nutrition guidance, using data to deliver individualized programming at scale. The company represents PCV's thesis that personalization drives better health outcomes.

Noteefy provides technology and innovation for golf operators, modernizing how golf facilities manage operations, customer engagement, and course technology. Golf represents a large, underpenetrated market for software and connected experiences.

cllct is a platform for sports memorabilia, cards, and collectibles, serving a market that has experienced significant growth and regulatory clarity in recent years. Pro Shop connects golf with mainstream culture through media, commerce, and entertainment.

BetHog is a crypto-native gaming platform offering casino games and exclusive originals—a newer portfolio company reflecting PCV's willingness to invest in gaming-adjacent categories with regulatory tailwinds.

JOA, invested in 2026, turns live sports into interactive, social play experiences—reflecting PCV's continued exploration of how fan engagement can be deepened through technology.

PCV evaluates potential investments based on several consistent criteria. The firm places the strongest emphasis on the founding team, specifically looking for entrepreneurs with direct experience in the sport, fitness, or gaming category they are entering. Former athletes, coaches, fitness operators, gaming executives, and sports media veterans tend to get serious consideration because domain credibility correlates with product intuition and customer trust in these markets.

Market opportunity is evaluated for its size and accessibility. PCV is looking for large, growing markets where technology is still underserved—not markets that have already been picked over by multiple generations of startups. Sports technology, connected fitness, and immersive media broadly fit this description.

Product differentiation matters significantly. PCV has seen hundreds of sports tech pitches, and generic claims about being the "Uber for X" do not get meetings. The firm looks for companies with defensible technology, exclusive data, proprietary content partnerships, or community moats that make competition difficult.

Traction indicators vary by stage, but PCV wants to see evidence that real users are engaging with the product and that the engagement is durable. For consumer products, that means retention curves. For B2B products, it means customer concentration, renewal rates, and expansion revenue. Early-stage companies should be able to articulate their core metrics clearly.

Founder coachability and long-term thinking are also evaluated. Adam Lewites has publicly noted that spending time understanding a founder's personal motivations and ambitions is central to PCV's process—the firm is looking for people building for the long haul, not chasing the next fundraise.

Securing a meeting with PCV requires understanding how the firm sources deals. The majority of PCV's investments come through warm introductions from portfolio founders, sports industry executives, or investors who are active in the sports and gaming ecosystem. Cold outreach works infrequently, but it is not impossible—especially if your company is in a clearly PCV-aligned category and you can demonstrate meaningful traction.

The most effective outreach strategy is building a relationship before you need capital. This means engaging with PCV's portfolio on social media, attending sports tech events in Atlanta, and leveraging any shared connections that give you a credible introduction. PCV's team is small and relationship-driven, which means a trusted referral from a portfolio founder or respected investor in the space carries outsized weight.

If you must cold outreach, your pitch deck should lead with what makes your company categorically different from anything else in the market—not just better, but different in a way that matters for distribution, engagement, or unit economics. Your subject line and first slide should communicate exactly what space you occupy and why PCV specifically should care about it. Generalist pitches to a sports-focused fund get filtered immediately.

PCV's diligence process typically takes two to four weeks from initial meeting to term sheet, though deal complexity and firm bandwidth can extend this timeline. Founders should be prepared to meet with the full team, provide detailed financial models and projections, and walk through competitive positioning in depth. PCV takes lead positions seriously, which means they are thorough before committing.

Following up after your initial meeting is important, but balance persistence with patience. PCV's team is actively managing portfolio companies and sourcing new deals, so a brief check-in every few weeks without being pushy is appropriate. Highlight material milestones achieved since your last conversation.

PCV invests in early-stage companies, but that does not mean the firm tolerates fuzzy financials. Founders should have a solid command of their unit economics, burn rate, runway, and path to the next financing event or profitability. Investors at this stage understand that early companies have limited historical data, but they expect founders to understand the mechanics of their business at a granular level.

PCV will scrutinize your assumptions, especially around customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and the spend trajectory of early users. Being able to defend your projections with evidence—not just optimism—is essential. The firm has seen enough pitches to know when founders are presenting hockey stick charts without the supporting data.

Financial preparedness also extends to your data room and investor materials. Being able to produce clean cap tables, detailed financial models, and coherent dashboards before an investor asks signals operational maturity that PCV values in early-stage founders.

Working with a fractional CFO can meaningfully improve your fundraising outcome. Professional financial guidance helps you build investor-ready materials, construct scenarios that account for different market conditions, and present your business with the confidence that comes from actually understanding your numbers. This is especially valuable for technical founders who are deep on product but newer to financial management.

Our team has helped numerous companies prepare for VC fundraising, including businesses in the sports, gaming, and fitness sectors that have gone on to raise from top-tier investors. We can help you build financials that hold up under scrutiny and position your company for a productive dialogue with PCV or any other institutional investor.

Strong financials do not guarantee a term sheet, but weak financials will kill one. PCV is looking for founders who have thought through their business deeply enough to anticipate investor questions and answer them with specificity. The difference between a funded and unfunded company often comes down to whether a founder can defend their model under pressure.

Exploring other venture capital firms? Our comprehensive collection of VC firm reviews covers investors across all stages and sectors, from seed funds to growth equity firms.

Each review provides detailed information about investment criteria, actual portfolio companies, and tips for securing funding. Use our guides to find investors whose thesis aligns with your company's stage, sector, and fundraising goals.

Finding the right investor for your startup is one of the most consequential decisions you will make as a founder. Take the time to research each firm's actual focus, not just their marketing claims, and tailor your outreach accordingly.