Accelerate - Jason Esseboom: Investment Capital in Sports Tech
Jun 08, 2026
Episode 212: In this episode of Accelerate, Nicola Graham is joined by Jason — Founder of Joyned Capital, former semi-professional footballer in the Netherlands, and a leader at the intersection of athlete identity and technology investment.
Jason’s journey spans elite sport, corporate banking, venture building, and two years designing and running the Qatar SportsTech accelerator programme — giving him a rare perspective on both sides of the performance and investment table. After transitioning out of football, he made it his mission to reshape the narrative around athletes in business and redefine how investors engage with sport and technology.
Now through Joyned Capital, Jason is focused on changing the face of investment — building bridges between high-performance sport and high-growth tech, while empowering athletes to become credible, strategic investors.
Across the conversation, Jason breaks down what the high-performance mindset really looks like beyond the pitch — exploring growth, curiosity, relentlessness and grit in the world of startups and venture capital. He shares practical insights into the different types of capital founders can pursue, and why relationships — not just capital — are the true currency in early-stage investment.
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Topics Discussed:
• From semi-pro football to founder and investor
• Designing and leading Qatar SportsTech’s accelerator
• The high-performance mindset in venture
• Understanding different types of investment capital
• The rise of the athlete investor
• Building meaningful investor–founder relationships
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Where you can find Jason:
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Sponsors
Gameplan is a rehab Project Management & Data Analytics Platform that improves operational & communication efficiency during rehab. Gameplan provides a centralised tool for MDT’s to work collaboratively inside a data rich environment
VALD Performance, makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks and HumanTrak. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training
Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport.
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Where to Find Us
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Our Team
