Owen Ooms Is Building What Women Athletes Have Been Missing
When the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship reached out to for an interview for the Entrepreneurship Pulse about NXTLevel NIL, he agreed on the one condition that women athletes had to be part of the conversation.
"This isn't my story to tell alone. The whole point of NXTLevel is that these women deserve more visibility. I wasn't going to sit here and talk about a platform built for them without them in the room."
The athletes who joined him have earned that visibility. Last fall, CU women's soccer made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and produced two Hermann Trophy semifinalists: and . It put the program alongside Stanford, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt as one of only four schools with two players on the shortlist.听
Joining Ooms at the interview were , a former top-40 nationally ranked recruit who transferred from Alabama's SEC program and scored the game-winner in CU's win at Utah; , a full-time starter who played all 24 games and logged over 1,800 minutes during the Sweet Sixteen run; and , a former U.S. Youth National Team invitee and top-10 nationally ranked goalkeeper.听
But all three still work side jobs in order to meet their needs.
"Football and basketball get a ton of money, a ton of it. And sometimes we feel that we live the same hard life - we have to wake up, go to practice, go to lifts, go to school,"听said Meyer.听"They get a lot of money on top of that. Whereas for us, we do the same things they do and we don't really get a lot of that income."
Meyer isn't exaggerating. The NIL landscape nationally favors revenue sports. Football and men's basketball capture the majority of the estimated $2 billion plus NIL market. Women's sports overall receive less than 10% of total NIL dollars, according to Opendorse's 2024 annual report, with soccer falling near the bottom of that range. CU, like every major program in the country, reflects that market reality. This structural gap isn't going to close from the top down anytime soon.
A New Revenue Channel
That's where NXTLevel NIL comes in. Founded by CU Leeds School of Business student Owen Ooms, the platform connects local families with verified collegiate women athletes for youth training sessions and mentorship. It's creating an entirely new income stream from a source that doesn't currently flow to these athletes at all - that being the local youth sports market.
"Women athletes have such a powerful local draw. They might not be getting the national acclaim or viewership, but at a local level per capita, they're drawing in so much interest. You go to a CU women's soccer game and there are four-year-olds at Prentup Field who know every player by name. There's clear local demand there that鈥檚 not being capitalized on for these players.
The model is based on parents booking sessions through the platform, and athletes setting their own schedules. NXTLevel handles SafeSport compliance, payment processing, and provides athletes with tools to stay NIL compliant.听
A single mentoring session can earn an athlete what might take an entire shift at a conventional job. Ooms is also working on using the athletes' local visibility to connect them with businesses for sponsorships and partnerships, all designed to convert the immense local demand these athletes already have into meaningful income.
The Real Cost of the Mentor Gap
There's a deeper problem underneath the NIL disparity, and it starts long before college. Girls drop out of youth sports at twice the rate of boys by age 14, with female attrition reaching 51% between eighth and twelfth grade compared to 31% for boys.听
Research from the Women's Sports Foundation and the Aspen Institute's Project Play points to a consistent underlying cause. Girls are leaving sports because they don't have enough women in visible coaching and mentorship roles, and too few role models who look like them.
NXTLevel addresses this directly. When a twelve-year-old girl trains with a Division 1 athlete, it's proof that the path exists. The research is clear that how girls feel about their coaches is a determining factor in whether they continue to play organized sports. NXTLevel puts collegiate women athletes in that mentorship role by design.
"It really bothered me that a lot of these girls growing up now don't have connections to someone who's been there, done that. If you're a girl in a sport, you're lacking great female mentors. It's a lot harder to find success and be encouraged to pursue your goals in that sport."
What It Means on the Ground
For the 14 athletes already on the platform, NXTLevel has the potential to make a real difference in their everyday lives. Whiteaker and Campbell, both on the CU women's soccer team, each work three-hour shifts most days of the week just to supplement their income. It's not optional, it's necessary.
"I can't speak for Jamie, but I have to have a job in order to do everything I want to do,"听said Whiteaker.听"It would just be so much easier if our NIL supported that instead."
The physical toll compounds. Spending hours at work after a full day of practice and class, not to mention homework, can take its toll. It also takes away from the kind of focused preparation that allows athletes to perform at the highest possible level. NXTLevel can begin to alleviate this problem.听
"It would take a huge weight off my shoulders,"听said Whiteaker.听"I could focus more on my school and my soccer."
From the Sidelines to the Deming Center
Ooms has spent the better part of a year training and helping out with the CU women's soccer team and witnessed firsthand what these athletes put into their sport day after day. What struck him was the disconnect between that level of commitment and the income opportunities available to them.
The idea took shape in BUSO 2200, a sports entrepreneurship class at Leeds taught by , where Ooms began building the platform in earnest. One of his TAs, Camden Dempsey, pointed him toward the Deming Center, where Program Manager CJ Riggins became one of his closest mentors. The two have spoken nearly every day since, and Ooms is direct about what that relationship has meant. Without her, he says, none of this would have been possible.听
Ooms took full advantage of the available resources and mentorship, and NXTLevel NIL went on to win the class accelerator competition, received the maximum allowable grant from Get Seed Funding at CU, and has already secured commitments from over a dozen CU athletes across multiple sports.
"I've been a Leeds student for three years and I wasn't really aware that the Deming Center existed. The past four months that I've been there has been the biggest support level, and I am so incredibly thankful.
Why It Matters Beyond CU
NIL has fundamentally changed college athletics, in more good ways than bad. But the benefits have flowed primarily to the sports that generate the most broadcast and sponsorship revenue. That's not something any single athletic department can fix, because it's driven by national media economics.听
What NXTLevel does is sidestep that constraint entirely by tapping a different market. Through the families who show up to every home game, who already know these players, and want to support them, NXTLevel can enhance that invaluable connection even further.
鈥淭here's such a huge community that wants to work with us,"听said Meyer.听"Having someone to help me direct and guide that would take so much time and pressure away from us鈥
NXTLevel NIL launched with the CU women's soccer team, but Ooms has already expanded to athletes across multiple sports on campus and is actively working to bring more on board. The platform is built to scale, and the problem it addresses is not unique to Boulder.听
For any collegiate woman athlete trying to balance practice, school, and the financial reality of being a student, NXTLevel NIL can help them realize the value their hard work and talent deserves. For the young athletes with a dream, who better to learn from than the inspiring athletes who are living it.