Overview
S5ive Productions (S5IVE) is a Fort Worth-based sports video production startup that creates cinematic content for high school and college athletes navigating the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) landscape. As part of the MGMT 680 Consulting Team Project at Texas A&M Mays Business School, our team was assigned as consultants to a real student entrepreneur — Jacob Shelton, VP of Operations at S5IVE.
Course: MGMT 680 — Consulting Team Project | Client: Jacob Shelton, S5IVE Productions | Semester: Spring 2025
The Client
S5IVE was founded in 2023 by brothers Colt and Kyler Gayle. The company produces premium videography and branded content for athletes, coaches, and youth sports organizations — using Sony FX3 cameras, Adobe Cloud, and Final Cut Pro. Their motto: "We capture and create stories that bring communities together." At the time of engagement, S5IVE was operating at ~$50K/month revenue with 5 LPs and 3 investors, ahead of their original schedule.
Problem Statement
S5IVE had strong demand and a compelling value proposition, but their internal infrastructure wasn't scaling to meet it. Three critical gaps were identified:
- Talent shortage: A shortage of skilled videographers and editors was limiting the company's capacity to take on new clients.
- No centralized workflow: Project management was largely informal and conversation-based, creating risks around missed deadlines, miscommunicated handoffs, and quality inconsistency.
- Undefined mission and vision: The founders carried a strong sense of purpose internally, but it hadn't been formalized — making recruitment, culture-building, and strategic decision-making harder.
My Contributions
- Conducted stakeholder interviews and synthesized findings into the Business Model Canvas framework across all 9 dimensions.
- Led analysis of the competitive landscape using Porter's Five Forces — identifying medium-high buyer bargaining power and intensifying industry rivalry in the NIL content space.
- Co-authored the three strategic recommendations with actionable implementation steps.
- Contributed to the live in-person presentation delivered to the client and faculty.
Recommendations
- Launch a structured training program: A 4-week in-house bootcamp to recruit and train young creators in S5IVE's editing standards — with a 90-day review pathway to full-time conversion. Protects premium pricing by ensuring consistent output quality.
- Implement a unified project management system: Adopt a centralized platform (Asana is already in their tech stack) to formalize handoffs, track deadlines, and shift the team from reactive to proactive planning. Reduces operational chaos as headcount scales.
- Define mission and vision statements: Formalize S5IVE's identity through an intentional internal process. A written mission and vision helps attract aligned contractors, anchors hiring decisions, and guides which growth opportunities to pursue vs. pass on.
Business Model Canvas Highlights
- Customer segments: High school athletes and parents, athletic departments, youth sports organizations (e.g. Keller Youth Association), private sports businesses, and college athletes via NIL.
- Value proposition: Cinematic sports videography at competitive pricing ($150/hr filming, $250/hr editing), fast turnaround, deep local relationships, and strong organic social reach (10K+ views).
- Revenue streams: Athlete packages ($500–$5,999/mo), high school sponsorship packages, collective packages for college teams, and one-time video production.
- Key weakness identified: No CRM, no booking site, no email marketing — all acquisition is organic and relationship-driven, creating a founder-bandwidth bottleneck.
Presentation
Live consulting presentation delivered to the client and Dr. Sanchez, covering the Business Model Canvas, competitive analysis, and all three recommendations.